Galveston and Good Friends

We count our blessings, and in Abby's word's lucky stars to have met the Valenzuela's in grad school.  They are some of our best friends and we can't believe we only live a few hours from them here in Texas!  I still remember Abby calling me shortly after we moved to AZ on a day I was feeling lonely and asked if I wanted to go on a hike with her.  On our hike we talked about whether or not we wanted our husbands to do the Thunderbird modules abroad and if we would go with them, future babies, etc.  It's so fun to look back on that conversation barley knowing each other and think of all the things we have done together since!  Our "Cruise Family" memories will never be forgotten, traveling around Prague and Budapest together, both coming home from our travels expecting girls just 6 weeks apart, and spending many weekends laughing, playing games, and eating good food together in Arizona.  Yes, we are indeed lucky and can't believe Gabe and Landon both landed jobs here in the big state of Texas after school.

This weekend Gabe, Abby, and Londyn made the drive down to Spring and we all headed to Galveston together.  Because I don't have a cute chalkboard like Abby, I taped this ^sign onto our front door.  We were able to put our new car to it's full use. Gabe strategically packed up the small SUV so we would all fit with strollers and beach gear around us.  It was so fun looking in the rearview mirror and seeing the six of us, our "Cruise Family" expanded.  I'm kind of sentimental, but I felt so proud of us while looking in the mirror and seeing us all together- we have come so far since we first met a little over two years ago starting grad school and wondering where we would end up.  I could go on about our fun memories forever, but instead I"ll post about the ones we just made this weekend!

 ^ Capri trying to give Londyn a kiss

^I think this is one of my favorite pictures.  Capri ran straight to the water and laid on her back and let the water come up around her face.  The camera didn't come out soon enough, but Landon just jumped right in with her and the had a blast.

^These two played and played until they were tuckered out.

The next day we made breakfast, lounged around, and then headed over Old Town Spring.  It was so hot, so we only made it into five or six shops before deciding Texas BBQ in an air conditioned restaurant was a good idea.  I loved Old Town Spring and will go again with Capri when it cools down a little bit. 

 ^The girls loved bumper highchairs

^ ^How cute are they?  We didn't pose them like this I promise. Well, Landon did set Capri on the stool so the girls could watch the dog through the fence.

What a fun weekend.  We ate yourselves sick and had a great time visiting. Feels good to have family away from home. 

Pitchers come to Cali!

Landon’s family visited over the weekend and it was too short! Sharman, Linda, Adam, Monica, and Cambrie all stayed with us. We were out and about most of the time so it didn't even feel crowded. Adam’s girls are in New Jersey visiting Corie’s family so he came alone, and Court & Kelli let Cambrie come along for her first trip away from home!   Cambrie is so good with Capri, I hope we end up living close so we can have her babysit soon.  It felt like a mini vacation for me since Capri was getting so much attention and love from Grandma, Aunt Moke, and Cambrie.  Friday we headed straight to Carmel to spend some time on the beach and do the 17 mile drive. Don’t mind our wind blown hair.  Saturday was a San Francisco day. Landon and I made Sharman come on our 16 mile run with us while everyone else got a head start in the city.  We ran on the Los Gatos Creek trail and It wasn’t too difficult, but it did seem like it took forever to finish since we had to stop for Capri a few times. Usually Capri does pretty good on our runs, but she was needy this time.  We love running with “Coach,”  it’s a great therapy session and we solve so many problems while running and talking.   We met the rest of the family at Giradelli Square and had an Italian dinner on the wharf.  It was colder than we hoped for (always is!) so I bought Capri the cute owl hat.  I'm sure she was fine, but I liked the excuse to buy it.  After church on Sunday we enjoyed our apartment amenities, relaxed for a bit, and then went to Stockton to visit Chris and Geniel.  Geniel is just like Linda and it's fun to see the sisters together.  We ate delicious breakfast food for dinner and played botchy ball at the park. Busy and great weekend.  We were sad to see Landon's family go so soon, but it won't be long before we see them in Utah for Dave Earnhardt's wedding and before we head back to Arizona for Landon's  last and final Trimester at Thunderbird, yippee!

Monterey Bay and Carmel

We had another wonderful weekend.  We only have five Saturdays left until Landon's internship in California is over so we are trying to take advantage of as much as we can, even when the weather is not sunny beach weather. It never is in northern California, but some days are better than others.  We drove to Monterey Bay Saturday morning and began our 13 mile run at Lover's Point.  We both felt great after our run and it really wasn't too hard!  The physical body amazes me.  It's crazy to think four months ago my body was housing a little baby and now I'm running further than I've ever run before.  I feel so blessed to be healthy and have a healthy family.  The views on our run were beautiful.  Landon says the beaches here are a tease and he's never been a fan of overcast, but I thought it was perfect for our run.  I do like listening to music while we run, we usually leave one headphone out so we can hear Capri if she cries.  Landon told me I listen to wimpy music so I listened to a rap station on Pandora half way through the run and loved it ha ha!  I don't even know what any of the songs were saying, I just liked the beat. After our run we changed our clothes in the car (so no, we didn't shower in these pictures!) and met up with the Hoopers and Samuelson's to eat at a yummy Mexican Restaurant.  Our booth overlooked the water and we watched a sea lion hang out on the rocks. The Hooper's have been awesome about showing us around and wanted to take us to their  favorite beach in Carmel.  It was the prettiest beach we've seen in the area.  We played around, tossed a football, kicked a soccer ball, and too a walk to Pebble Beach to look for golf balls.   I found my dream house along the way, I think I was drooling. Gorgeous Right?   We loved the beach town of Carmel.  It was fun to see the shops and look at the artwork.  I found myself a candy store and I also loved the Sea Side Children's Boutique, but sorry Capri, I don't think we will ever buy you a swimming suit for sixty dollars while you are still in grade school.  We walked around enough to work up an appetite and went to a pizza place for dinner.  On the way, we got pulled over for running a stop sign, darn it.  It was dark and a little rainy and neither of us could see it; no sympathy from the officer though.  Landon already got his first ticket in California for being on his phone in the car  just a few days after we got here.  We innocently (I guess it was more ignorantly) didn't know that there was a law about cell phones here.  Oh well.  Tickets stink, you just have to pay up and try not to think about it.  At least we didn't let it ruin our fun weekend!  

Don't we look fabulous in our running attire?  I decided to document it anyway :)

 Landon and Craig Sporting their favorite college teams.  At least Craig actually has ties to his school.

 My Dream house.  Looks good on us right?

 Landon just had to throw a football on Pebble Beach Golf Coarse.