Bay Area Discovery Museum

We took the kids to the Bay Area Discovery Museum a few weeks before we moved. I took Ava to the museum way back when and thought that this would be a great place for both kids to run around. The price is a little steep. They actually make you pay for anyone over 6 months old, but I found a super awesome coupon here that made the trip a little more reasonable. Here's the view from the parking lot. I don't think you could be any closer unless your were standing directly on the bridge.


Reid made a little girlie friend. Reid was showing her his water splashing skills. I think she was very impressed.


Ava is showing off her hoarding skills. A few moments later we had to enact a 2 fish only rule. Reid is such a goof. He totally cracks me up in this pic.

Looks like we've got a little monkey boy of our own. He almost made it into the water multiple times. You look away for one second and that is long enough for him to make his move. This past week Reid figured out how to pull out the kitchen chairs, climb onto the chairs, and then get onto the kitchen table. He's only 14 months old.

What is it with kids and chasing birds. Reid followed the bird all over the place. I love the pic of him reaching for the bird as he flies away. Ava couldn't help herself from chasing a few birds. Oh, if you can't tell, in the picture with both kiddos by the fence Ava is sharing her snacks with her brother...through the fence. Ha.

After playing in the toddler section for quite awhile, we headed over to check out the other areas of the museum. One section was all about space and astronauts. This is probably pretty immature, but I couldn't help myself from taking a picture of the sign below.


Notice the sign on the side of the wall. Oh geez. And there are even straps on the ground to make sure you don't float away. Going to space would be quite the experience.

Another area at the museum was one all about transportation. Ava LOVED the trains. She actually had quite the meltdown when we told her it was time to go.

You know you've had a good time when you pass out within minutes of starting the drive home.

We made it to Utah safely

No, we did not fall off the face of the earth. Even though it probably felt like it. Sadly, blogging has taken a back burner while we get all settled in. But I thought I could take a minute to post just a few pictures of the kiddos. (Sorry in advance for some of the pics being a little blurry, they were taken with my phone)

It sure is hot out here in Utah. You pretty much have to get everything done that you want to do outside by 9am. I sure miss having the fog roll in at night during the summer, because it sure cooled everything down. We've had to take lots and lots of otter pop breaks since being in Utah.

The kids have really enjoyed having all of the extra space to run around. We've probably added 3,500 more square feet for these kids to chase each other in. And when we're not running around in the house we're taking advantage of having a yard. Oh how I've missed the smell of freshly cut grass. Here is Reid finding me while playing hide-n-seek.

Just in this past month, Reid and Ava have really started playing with each other. It is so cute watching them go off and quietly play. Well, until you realize that it is a little too quiet and go searching for them to find that Ava has opened the door to your bedroom, hoisted Reid up onto the desk chair and both are now scribbling all over your home loan papers.

We're starting to get the hang of the local grocery stores. This cart makes it so easy to go grocery shopping with both kids. Each steering wheel has it's own horn, that actually works! I tell Ava to look for something on my list and when she spots it to honk her horn. Hillarious. I chuckle every time she does it, because you think she'd get distracted and forget. But oh no, this little girl keeps her eye on the prize and doesn't forget a thing.

We have spent many days rocking back and forth of the rocking chairs. Funny story, has nothing to do with the rocking chairs :) But notice how Ava has her hair in buns. Well she looks in the mirror and asks, "What's this?" And so I tell her that I put her hair in buns. And she replies, "I like my buns. They look like hamburgers!" You know you have a sweet hairdo when it resembles a food you really like to eat.

I'm not used to having to share my bathroom with a certain little munchkin. Thankfully, she did not get any mascara actually in her eye. I've also found her rubbing my conditioner all over her head.

Grandma sent Ava a Woody and Buzz pez dispenser. Lucky. She loved them so much that she slept with them the first night.

One night for FHE we decided to head over to the Bean Museum. Each Monday night they hold a reptile show that's totally free. Love BYU! This place was packed to the brim with little kids eager to touch the reptiles. Ava was a little too timid to touch the animals during the presentation, but afterwards we went up and she touched the blue tongue lizard, corn snake, and the tortoise without an ounce of fear. That's HUGE for Ava because she is not an animal person. We will definitely have to take the kids back more often.

Welp, there's a little snip-bit of our time out in Utah so far. We've really been enjoying our time living at Josh's parent's house. They have been so gracious to let us live with them. Thanks to my parents who helped us pack and move everything out here. I couldn't have done it without them. Which I have more pics to post of their visit, and my sister's surprise visit for my birthday (love living closer to her!), and also of Josh's brother Joe's visit. And I will most definitely have pictures to post once Josh's brother Jeremy comes to visit next week. There are so many perks to living in UT. Everyone at least visits once a year because they have some family member here. So if you ever find yourself in the Beehive state, ring us up!

13 months and 15 days

Got a pretty good smudge on my camera lens today. There's no staying mad at this adorable brown eyed boy. I'll just have to keep a mental note that his arms have gotten a tad longer.


Reidy boy went in for his 13th month check-up this week. Oh, your kid's not cool enough to have a 13th month check-up? He just gets a 1 year and 15th month. Well, I really wasn't a fan of driving 12 hours to take Reid to his 15th month appt., so the doctor kindly let me bring in Reid a few months early. Reid is now 30" tall and a whole 16 lbs 14 ounces. I guess Reid decided to start following in his sister's footsteps and drop down to the 0% for weight. I thought somehow Reid could conquer the lean gene. If you all saw how much this kid eats a day, you would be confused too at the meager weight gain. But this kid is always on the go. So even though he eats more than his 3 year old sister, he just burns everything off.

On another front, seems like Reid is not a fan of 2 naps anymore. Whenever I put him down for his afternoon nap he just screams until I come and rescue him. When did everyone else's kids go down to one nap?

Oakland Zoo. Check.

I think you'll all get a good laugh out of this unfortunate event. Especially since I am physically unable to post less than 10 pictures for each and every outing. Pulled my camera out at the zoo to discover it completely useless. The battery was dead. No picture of Ava watching the monkeys swing from tree to tree. No picture of the humongous tortiose chomping on some grass. No pictures of the alligators or sea otters. No giraffees or elephants. I must admit, it was very freeing not having to worry about taking pictures and just enjoying the kids. It was nice that trip, but don't worry my lovely blog readers, the camera battery is charged and ready for anything that comes our way. And plus, we'll be fitting in a few more zoo trips before our departure from CA. Especially since I bought a zoo membership just prior to us deciding we were going to move. Thank goodness I got a dang good deal on it. I only have to go a few times for it to pay for the membership. Luckily I was able to put one of my friends on one of the two cards, so she can get good use out of it this year.

Ocean Beach. Check.

After visiting the science museum I thought it would be nice to stop by the beach. It was only about 10 blocks west of us and the weather was pretty warm...for SF. Upon walking up to the beach we were met with this sign. Nice.

It was just gorgeous weather outside. The beach was packed. Gorgeous weather at the coast doesn't happen too often.

Here's the fam trying to decide if they are brave enough to touch the freezing water.

It wasn't too bad. There were actually people running into the water in their swimsuits. I would say that they were a little too optimistic. But the kids sure loved getting to splash in the water.

Here is the last picture we will ever have of Reid's adorable hat. A few minutes later a crazy wave came up and overshot the previous waves by at least 20 feet. It even hit people sitting on the dry sand. We were barely touching the previous waves with our feet, so I had to quickly pull Reid out of the water because the water level was now at my knees. In the shuffle Reid's hat fell off and is now one with the sea. Sadness. I liked that hat.

Thankfully Josh was right near Ava when the whole wave fiasco happened and was able to make sure she was safe. I still have thoughts of what could of happened. If we weren't right next to her. If she had ran further out to touch the waves like she had done previously. I'm just so glad she was okay.

So if you happen to find yourself at a beach near SF, pay attention to the warning signs. The waves and rip currents have been known to be pretty harsh. I think we'll stick to the calmer beaches next time!

CA Academy of Sciences. Check.

Since our Saturdays in CA have become very few, we went on a little trip into the city (SF for those non-locals). We decided to spend our afternoon at the CA Academy of Sciences. One of the main reasons we added the museum to our "Must do before we move" list was because it houses a 3 story indoor rainforest. As pictured below (image taken from here).

Waiting in line to go into the dome. Each level was filled with insects and creatures from a different rainforest. But I must admit, it was getting steamy in there by the end and I was pretty glad to leave.

Ava peeking at the birds and butterflies. There was no screen between you and the trees so they could fly anywhere they wanted. Mostly the birds stayed in the trees but the butterflies were everywhere. They even have a mirror by the elevator to make sure you don't take any butterflies with you when you leave.

At first Reid didn't know what to think about the museum.

But that didn't last for long! For the rest of our visit, anything that caught his eye he would take his finger and point at it. It's so much fun watching his start to discover the things around him.

After leaving the rainforest we went down to the aquarium. This walkway was awesome.

The fish in this part were HUGE. Reid could of spent all day pointing away at the sea creatures.

Of course we had to make sure to find Nemo and Dory. Thankfully the fish tank did not disappoint.

One of the exhibits at the museum right now is called Extreme Animals. Below is the largest land mammal to ever be discovered. It's an Indricotherium, or Indy for short :)

I took the above image off of the museum's website because my shot just didn't show how massive the animals truly was. Doesn't Ava look so darling standing on her tippy toes.

Of course, we could not leave before seeing the penguins. Why does everyone love penguins so much? Seems like any museum with animals always has them.

Ava loved watching them whiz by her in the water.

By the end of the trip Reid was getting pretty restless. If you can believe it, Josh offered to miss seeing the penguins and instead walk around with Reid. Now that Reid is walking running, it's hard to keep that little boy still for too long.

On our drive home I asked Ava what her favorite part of the whole museum was. Randomly it was the T Rex at the entrance of the museum. Having no idea that was going to be her favorite part, I didn't take a picture. But this guy did :) Looks like we might just have to invest in getting a membership at Thanksgiving point when we get out to Utah.

Crawling is for babies

This little guy has been cruising on two feet for a few weeks now. I guess he's now technically a toddler, but he's still my baby boy.


Aren't little ones so cute when they're learning to walk? Love how they raise their hands for balance.


Not to be left out, here's my other cutie pie. After seeing the reaction Reid got for walking, Ava made us watch how well she could walk too. I'm a pretty proud Mama to have two super walkers in the family :)

3 more weeks in sunny California

3 weeks from today we will be no longer residents of CA. Hold on a second, I just got a mini panic attack. I just have a lot to do before then! The sad news is we will have to leave all of our friends that we've gotten to know here these past 5 years. You guys are awesome! I have been worrying for weeks about how Ava is going to cope with the move. She's at that age now that she is actually developing friendships and I know she's going to miss her cute buddies. We sure are going to miss them. But the good news is that we are moving closer to family. So I know that will make the transition go much smoother.

Any guesses which parent or sibling are the lucky ones? For some weird reason no one in our family live in the same town, or within 6-8 hours of each other. So you've got 6 options. We could be moving to southern CA, WA, ID, UT, SC or Germany. We've finally decided it was time to try and see how Josh's company does out in (make your guess before you look) this super awesome place! Josh has already got a studio space up there and we're really excited for this new chapter for our family. So here's my question for you all. If you had 3 weeks left in sunny California, what would you make sure to do?