4 years together

Paul and I have been married for 4 years now! We had a romantic and beautiful day together on our anniversary in Fort Bragg. I am so grateful to have him as my husband and my best friend. We have made so many memories in these 4 years together. I am excited for the rest of my life with you, I love you Paul!


We have already been home for almost a week. I have been looking through our pictures from our trip. It was such a special time together. Maybe I will share a few more posts from our adventures the next couple days!

Easter sunday

A few photos from our Easter Sunday. We started our morning early, as usual, when Owen woke up. Paul read the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus to Owen from the Jesus Storybook Bible. We lead him into his room, after our story time, and he found his Easter basket and a small egg hunt. Paul and I had so much fun the night before getting everything all set up and hiding the eggs. He actually found a few of the eggs on his own. He was very interested in the shredded paper nests. Then we headed off to celebrate with all of our friends at church. When church was over we packed a picnic and drove to a mountain for a lunch in the wild flowers. Grandma did a fun easter egg hunt for him in the grass. To finish the night off we headed to my parents house for a fancy dinner. We had a beautiful day celebrating with family and friends! 

What did you do for Easter?!

9 months

Our boy is 9 months old

-He is so fast! He will take off crawling and all you see is a little bum wiggling back and forth with two speedy legs. 

-He has four teeth! He got both of his top middle front teeth the day before he turned 9 months old. I do not know why he keeps getting two at a time. I guess he would rather get it over with as fast as possible. 

-He is developing his fine motor skills. He will look at tiny things and point at them with one finger. He also picks up tiny things off the ground and tries to eat them. 

-He used to be so happy when we changed his diaper but all of the sudden he hates it. Every once in a while you can distract him but most often he cries really hard. 

-He is our little baby beluga. I am excited for summer to see if he likes going in a pool. He loves taking showers and baths with us. 

-He started drinking water out of a cup. This was probably a bad idea. When I tried to a sippy cup for the first time he pulled it to his mouth and expected it to pour out, he doesn't suck from it. Hummm...I guess I should have thought of that. 

-He sleeps like a big boy. He rolls over and sleeps on his tummy most of the night. He sticks his bottom up in the air and ends up all sideways. Watching him sleep is one of my favorite things, so peaceful. Sometimes I cannot keep myself from kissing his little cheeks, but Paul says, "shhh! you will wake him up!"

-Next month he will be double digits! We are enjoying every month with him! 

A day trip to Mendocino

Mendocino is another quaint little beach town on the California coast. There is a beautiful hike out to a point that looks back at the town and out at the ocean. This time of year there are gray and humpback whales migrating up the coast that you can occasionally see. The last couple of days have been really windy and the water has been too choppy to spot any. When Owen gets bigger we will take him out on a boat to see the whales, one of his mommy's favorite things to do!


Isn't that baby backpack amazing? Owen looked like a prince riding down the path on a camel (not that I'm saying you look like a camel Paul). It even has a shade canopy that can come out to protect him from the sun, which Owen really needs. Thank you so much Uncle Steve and Aunt Cyndi! I'm sure we will make a lot of memories with it over the next many years!


Last year, around this same time, we came to Fort Bragg for our anniversary before Owen arrived. It was our last trip with just Paul and I. It is fun thinking back on when I was pregnant, wondering when our baby boy would arrive, what he would be like and how our life would change. He has only been here 9 months but I can hardly remember what it was like without him. 


Here are a few pictures from our trip to Mendocino last year! I was 28 weeks pregnant with Owen!

From fort bragg: a sunny day

The sun finally decided to come out today. There has been little snippets of sun, some thunder, lightning and even hail during our first couple days here. We have been hunkered down in the cottage, baking, napping and enjoying the rainy days. It was nice today to go out for the day and meander around the local beaches. Owen hitched a ride and we explored the area. 


Fort Bragg is an old California beach town. It has one main road with the ocean on one side and little shops and houses on the other. Growing up we spent a lot of time here camping at Mackerricher state park. If you live anywhere near here you should definitely put it on your bucket list. The top three photos are from Sand Dollar beach, the next two are from Point Cabrillo Light Station and the rest are from Mackerricher State Park. We spent the rest of the day 10 miles down the coast in Mendocino. I'll be posting pictures from Mendocino tomorrow!