30 Hours of Fun...

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the San Diego area to hang out with two of our favorite families. A short but sweet trip that definitely deserves documenting.

Sunday night, we drove to see the Petersons--my cousin and his fam... and my aunt and uncle.
Jan and Christine were moving back to Rexburg, so we wanted to see them before they left.
We crashed their going away party, and met a lot of Eric's family which was nice.

That night we stayed at Eric and Sarah's house where Michael enjoyed a late night sleepover with Kaile, Garrett, and Claire. They talked and watched movies while the adults talked and laughed and discussed education and health care while eating brownies and ice cream. We love spending time with them.


Monday we went to the Wild Animal Park with Christine and the kids. It was really a lot of fun.

Here is Michael with Garrett. When they are together, they are like two peas in a pod. Seriously... they are really so similar in their likes and mannerisms it is cute.


Different from the zoo, the Wild Animal Park focuses on keeping the animals in wider, more natural spaces and allows for more observation of natural behaviors. There is a lot of walking. And fun places to stop here and there...


Paul was amazing at chasing/herding/corralling the kids, and Ella was a trooper. And cute pregnant Christine was an even bigger trooper as she walked and walked and WALKED! We didn't see even 1/2 of the park, but felt fulfilled in what we saw. Some highlights:


Feeding the Lorikeet birds. You can buy a small cup of serum that the colorful lorikeet birds love. (At first, Michael thought it was for him and drank it all! The worker laughed and laughed, and filled his cup again.) They come right up to you, giving you an up-close-and-personal experience with the birds.




Michael's experience was especially fun. He had a lorikeet perch on his head... twice! Was it the shampoo we used?? Who knows. He thought it was pretty cool.




Petting the deer. At first, Bekah and Abby were wary about getting close enough to pet the deer. In fact, Bekah didn't even want to get close at all. But after some encouragement from Paul, Michael, and Garrett... they did get around to petting them.







The biggest hit was probably a little water-park area... great for cooling off. No surprise--Bekah and Abby stripped down first thing. I was lucky to talk them into keeping their little diaper covers on. Michael whipped off his shirt, and begun running imagined Olympic races down a hill and around the park.





Claire and Abby splashing away:





Thanks to Christine for sacrificing a valuable packing day to hang out with us. Thanks again for making us a part of your busy, busy week!



That evening, we drove down to downtown San Diego to meet Jared and Allison (and cute little Aiden) Harwood.


Jared is a friend of ours from the BYU days. He had many pre-med classes with Paul, and we saw him through many dating experiences before he found Allison in DC. He is serving as a navy flight surgeon traveling on aircraft carriers. They were porting in San Diego for a week, so they made a family trip out of it.


We were so happy to meet them for dinner, and afterward Jared took us down to the base and drove us right up to see the carrier. It was bigger than I could have imagined... quite a sight to behold. Michael was enthralled, and we all came away with a bigger respect for the service the military provides for us.

But the fun didn't stop there! The girls made their own fun in the dark by making up songs while we made the late-night drive home:






All in all, a marathon of fun with family and friends!

May catch-up...

Happy June, everyone! I was just looking through some of our pictures from May and realized that we had missed blogging about some of the fun things that happened. I've been a little pre-occupied with my "nesting" tendencies at the end of this pregnancy, and have been a negligent blogger. So here are a few quick pictures for jounaling's sake.

The month started off with a bang--Paul's 30th bday. We had a fun celebration as a family, spending the day together and enjoying the beginning of Paul's vacation time. Here is the cake Michael made with my assistance.


He was the brains behind the operation, formulating the theme, design, and directing my mixtures of colors. It is a beach cake... his favorite place to go with his dad. He did the waves and the sunshine, and directed my placement and methods, squeezing the frosting with me in the other elements of the cake. I had a lot of fun doing it with him.

Then it was off to Utah. As always, I got home from our trip sorely disappointed with myself with the lack of pictures I had to show for all the fun times we had.

The highlight for me was the surprise 30th bday party for Paul. We got to see so many people we haven't seen for far too long. Paul was really surprised and is still talking about how good it was to see so many friends there. It was heartwarming to see so many of you... thanks for the effort many of you made to celebrate with us. We were also able to spend time with my parents, Matt and Angela's family, Farcles, and my grandma Risenmay. They all made a significant effort to be there, and it was so good to be with them all. A special thanks to Paul's parents and mine for all the work that went into the party... it couldn't have been pulled off without the help!

And a special thanks to everyone who sent a birthday message to Paul. He had a really nice night reading through all of them. He just kept saying... "that is so nice," "those were good times," "I hope we get to see them soon..." etc. etc. etc. Our lives have been touched by so many wonderful people creating many wonderful memories. Thanks for being a part of our lives.

But can you believe I didn't take a single picture?? Pathetic. I'll have to grab some from Stephen...???

Other fun times that I actually have pictures of--a trip to Thanksgiving Point with the Frandsen "cousins"--Jill and Steven's kids.


We love, love getting together with them... but always feel outnumbered with all of our youngins. This time we had 7 (1/2) kids four-and-under.


Having fun Uncle Stevie there helped out the adult-to-kiddo ratio...


Michael has a blast with the triplets, and I always come away with new ideas and helpful hints from Jill. This time I racked her brain about potty training and "big bed" switch-over.

Michael and Zach are so fun together...

Here is a cool-daddy-o shot inspired by the NYC Hipster, probably...


And Abby and Bekah loved following Jane and Kate around.


We also had a fun day at the Children's Museum in SLC. We will definitely be getting passes there in the future... so much to enjoy and discover.


This was an exhibit with balls that are suctioned up into tubes. They "fly" up through curves and loops, which fascinated the kids for the longest time.



We had lots of other fun times doing things with the family, and just hanging out. My parents came down from Oregon and we were able to spend some with them, which was a special treat. It was fun to be around Stephen and get to know our nephew, Aaron a little better (oh, and see his parents, too). Mother's Day was, as always, a special treat with a gourmet dinner done completely by the Frandsen men (and Hannah, who made the best rolls ever!). We were also able to do some looking around/thinking about hospitals and spots to live. Exciting to think about... just one year away...

The morning we got home, Bekah entered a new phase I'll call "kitchen discovery." It began with flour from the baking shelf in the pantry. Her mess...


and her sidekick...


The "kitchen discovery" phase has expanded to the refrigerator, inspiring her to even figure out the refrigerator "safety lock" I purchased. Her favorite food: stollen strawberries.

One of our biggest transitions this month was getting the girls into "big girl beds."


They LOVE their toddler beds, and have been having a LOT of FUN at bedtime. The giggling and chattering lasts for at least 30 minutes after the door is shut, but they eventually fall asleep.

Here is their "practice" sleeping before getting in their jammies that first night.



This is going on too long, so I'll wrap up... but another highlight came last weekend when we got to meet up with Joe and Amy Lee. They are both friends of Paul's from high school... a wonderful couple. A big advantage of marrying Paul was inheriting the good people who have been a part of his life.


We loved being with them for a night in LA, and are grateful that we'll be getting together with them again and again throughout our lives.

May ended yesterday with a bit of a scare as I had contractions coming every 10 minutes throughout the day. They were more intense than normal, but never got too bad, and never got within the 4-5 minute range that sets off the "go to the hospital" alarm. With rest and a day off my feet, they have calmed down and I felt great today...

So a little bit of "false labor"... no big deal. We are at week 37 now, and the ultrasound I had last week shows that little Ella is actually pretty big, and the Dr.'s estimate guess is that she'll be pushing 8 pounds this week.

Anyway. We've made plans to induce labor on the 12th of June (less than two weeks!) due to Ella's estimated big-ness and Paul's funny residency schedule. So unless she decides to make more productive contractions before then, June 12th is the day! Just a few more things on my to-do-to-nest list before then...

Disney with the Sills...

We love it when family and friends come into town. On Monday, we got to meet the Sills at Disneyland.

Michael was in his element as he raced down Main Street... pretending the trolley rails are a racetrack--of course.



Their two girls are around the same ages as ours, and they had a lot of fun together.


The Sills are friends from medical school, and they are also doing their residency in emergency medicine--in Albuquerque. Paul and Ben had fun catching up, comparing gross ER stories, and talking about the fast-approaching future of the "real world."

They also went on some "big boy" rides together. Here they are on the Tower of Terror... they got a kick out of the two ladies in front of them in this picture:

Those are Paul's prescription sunglasses, by the way. He was going for the Matrix look.

At the end of the day, I asked Michael about his favorite part of the day. He related the part where he got to play in the grass by the fence with Maya (the parents were taking a break from the 100 degree heat with some ice cream and good conversation...). They entertained themselves for 30 minutes on that little patch of grass. Talking to Ben later, he said that Maya said the same thing. We decided, who needs Disneyland? Next time we'll just find a nice patch of grass.

Thanks again for including us as part of your vacation, Ben and Natalie!

disney, friends and goodness...

the nielsen family came out for a disneyland vacation and i had a 1/2 day off in between urgent care shifts a conference. we went out and were really happy we did...



we met the nielsen's at university village and saysha and amy became great friends immediately.



saysha and nate are out in kirksville for medical school and it was fun to talk with nate about his plans for choosing a specialty. he is at a fun crossroads as he starts his third year and makes the big decision.

i didn't get enough pictures pf our families interactions, but the most enjoyable part for me was watching michael interact with caitlyn.


we looked at pictures of their family before we left for anaheim and talked about how we knew them. almost from the moment we met up with them michael was taken with caitlyn. they would watch each other quite a bit and talked and played like they were best friends. here are a couple super-cute videos of them holding hands.





so anyway. this trip to disney was our most recent and ended our vacation days for a while. it was great seeing the nielsens again and what better place to reconnect than the happiest place on earth...right?

michael's moments of spontaneity, when he uncharacteristically struck out on his own for one daring maneuver...



oh, and a bonus picture. this is abby and bekah in granpatty's dress up clothes. their actions range from adorable to emotional torture right now and this is one of their sweeter, more loving moments.