I HATE Running But....

It works. This summer I was really motivated to get down to at least my pre-pregnancy weight. Prior to the start of this summer I was working out and watching what I was eating, but I was just not seeing any changes. It was getting really frustrating for me (Brian can attest to that). So with Brian not in any classes I took advantage of the "more" time and started running 5-6 days a week. In addition I was making sure I was walking at least 10,000 steps a day, and of course eating well. With the addition of running I finally started seeing the number on the scale drop. YAY! I hate running, my asthma kicks in and I just want to stop, but I have been pushing through it. I have met and exceeded any of my personal records for running the mile that I ever ran in Junior High. The other day I did 2 miles in twenty minutes. Not the fastest by any means, but I was moving and that's what counts. I've lost about 15 pounds this summer, so I reached my goal! I am fitting in my favorite pre-pregnancy jeans, Yippee! Lol. I still have some more progress to get where I want to be, but I am feeling much better and confident about myself. Here's a picture that we took the other day that I love the way we look.

On a side note, we've started the process of trying to determine the cause of all my joint pain again. I'm determined not to give up out of frustration from not finding anything again. With Chloe being such an active toddler I want to be more active with her and not so tired all the time. So far the bloodwork has come back normal, and the same for most of the x-rays. There was one tiny thing wrong with one of my shoulders that I'm going to try some physical therapy for, but it doesn't explain the pain in my hips, knees, back, and shoulders and how it comes and goes in cycles. I'm ready to move past this, I've been just "dealing" with it for 6 years and want to start treating it. 

6 Year Anniversary

It really amazes me how quickly time moves sometimes. I cannot believe that Brian and I have been married for 6 years. In many ways it still feels like we are newlyweds, but I guess that is a good thing because it means that we are keeping the magic alive. I really wanted to do something besides going out to eat and a movie for our anniversary and so in the months prior I was looking on Groupon for different deals to museums nearby, because that is something that we've always enjoyed doing together. I really never saw any deals that made me say "Yay, let's do this!" Then about a month ago I saw a friend post pictures of a visit that she had made to the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. It looked awesome, and when I showed Brian he was excited for it too, especially when he saw that they had a Japanese and Chinese Garden. Up til this point we were thinking of getting a babysitter and setting out on our own, but we saw that they had a Children's Garden. So we decided to focus on viewing the different gardens, rather than trying to keep Chloe entertained in the library and art collections. It was a fantastic day. Hot, but really beautiful. We took way too many pictures of the Japanese and Chinese Gardens but here are some of our favorite shots from the day!

Entrance to the Children's Garden

We should have brought a bathing suit for Chloe, she loved the water exhibits.

Bugs are awesome!

Japanese Garden

Japanese Garden

Lily Pond

Dad stop taking pictures and join us!

Beautiful Desert Flowers

Family photo in the Chinese Garden

She wanted to push her own stroller, seconds later she started pushing away Brian's hand because she didn't want him to help her.

Chinese Garden

Bonsai Tree

Traditional Japanese House

Traditional Japanese House

Rose Garden

Pretty Lily Flowers

18 Months Old!!!

It really amazes me how quickly time flies now that I am an adult. I cannot believe that Chloe is 18 months or 1 1/2 years old now. I still think of her as my little baby, but in so many ways she is becoming independent now. It's a good thing, but I do wish time would slow down just a little. This next Sunday Chloe will be starting Nursery at church. I'm so nervous that she will be one of those kids that cries and cries, but I honestly would be really surprised if she did this. Like I said really independent. It will be a nice change not to have to worry about keeping her entertained for 3 hours without disturbing others. So I'll just do an update about Chloe and then write a little bit about what's been going on with Brian and I.

Things Chloe Likes Right Now:
Tinkerbell
Blueberries & Bananas
Going Outside (constantly)
Bubbles
Coloring
Dancing
Petting/Chasing River
Reading Books
Taking naps on mom after nursing
Giving hugs and kisses
Saying "Hi" to everyone
Finding lizards and bugs/flowers/leaves
Her dolly and stuffed animals
Bathtime

Things Chloe Doesn't Like Right Now:
Vegetables (except tomatoes)
Playing inside for long periods of time
Diaper changes
Getting her face and hands cleaned up after meals
Sitting in the grocery cart

Chloe's Favorite Words:
Hi
Book
Ball
Please (she signs this too)
Elmo
Bubble
Purple
Car
Kitty
Color
Chase
Grandma or Grandpa (they both sound the same)
Dada
Cheese
She signs for "more", "all done", "please", "mama milk", "outside", "down", and "eat"

Kisses on the nose 

I can't get over how photogenic she is sometimes.

This summer has been lots of fun. Brian has had "off" school since the middle of May and won't start again until the beginning of September. Although he is not officially in school he's still been really busy writing papers for publication, doing research, working on his master's thesis, and teaching an online Psych class at BYU-Idaho. While doing all this he still makes the time to play with Chloe. We've made it a habit to go on a walk every night and I hope this continues once he's in school again because it's a nice time to chat and see how the other is doing. I have been mostly busy keeping up with Chloe. She never wants to stay still, and this is a good thing. During this past year I was the secretary for the primary and that keep me busy on Sundays. In the beginning of this month I was released from the calling and asked to be the 1st Counselor in Young Womens. It is different working with a bunch of teenage girls over kids ages 3-12, but so far I have really enjoyed it. I also have had more interaction with adults besides Brian and I must say it's nice to extend my circle of who I interact with on a weekly basis. I just recently submitted all the paperwork to get the Emergency 30 Day Substitute Permit, and so once that goes through I will be applying to school districts in the area and can hopefully start substitute teaching on the days that Brian does not have class.

Brian has only one more year of coursework left at CGU and so once that is complete we will not be tied to living in California anymore while he finishes his dissertation. I have loved living in California, but I feel anxious for a change. It just costs way too much to continue living here, so unless he gets a teaching position in one of the nearby schools after his coursework is done we are planning on moving to Utah at this point. It will be nice to be closer to extended family. I am looking forward to a lot of things in the coming year. Next up our 6 year anniversary date, we will be going to the Huntington Library.

Bolsa Chica Beach

Living in California you would think that we would go to the beach pretty often. However I was so paranoid about Chloe eating sand last summer that we never went to the beach. Plus it's about an hour drive to get there (although that's the same amount of time as Big Bear....so we should go more often really). This year we have been swimming in the pool at our complex a ton, and since Chloe loves water so much I told Brian we need to make the time to go to the beach since his summer break is nearly over. We decided to invite my mom, and I'm so glad we did. We first drove to my parents, picked her up, and then headed to the beach I grew up going to (Bolsa Chica). We arrived to the free parking lot just as a surfer girl was leaving and so luckily didn't have to drive down to the paid parking. After carrying all our junk to a spot that wasn't so crowded Brian ran off with Chloe immediately to introduce her to the water. I was just barely able to grab my camera and capture those first moments. Chloe had no fear of the water whatsoever. She would have ran right in if Brian wasn't holding onto her hand. The day was overcast and so not quite as warm as it could have been so Chloe really didn't spend too much time in the water. At the pool she usually lasts about 30 minutes. Luckily because my mom was there she was able to watch Chloe and play with her in the sand so Brian and I could swim out deeper. It was so much fun. I built a small sandcastle which Chloe loved destroying. We got knocked over by waves. And Chloe chased the seagulls.

No fear.

Of course trying the sand out....

Exhausting day

4th of July

Last year we didn't do much for the 4th of July besides going to a park to play with Chloe. This year we drove up the street to take part of Claremont's festivities at the park. The most exciting part of the day was allowing Chloe to go into her first bounce house. I admit it was a little scary at first. The bounce house was only supposed to have kids ages 1-4 in it, and I could tell that there were some older kids in there. I was afraid she would get trampled. She did pretty good, but pulled her out after five minutes because the kids seemed to be getting more crazy. We then went and listened to the live music, which Chloe loved because then she could start dancing. Chloe loves to dance, anytime she hears music regardless of the genre she will start dancing. She's a natural dancer just like her mom. After playing in the park for a little bit we decided to try the bounce house again because it was getting closer to when the parade would start so we thought there would be less kids. We were right! Chloe had a much better time in the bounce house the second time because there were kids her age and not that many. Unfortunately because it was almost time for the parade they wanted to start taking down the bounce house after she had been in there five minutes or so. Chloe was the second to last kid left in the bounce house after another five minutes because she refused to come out. Brian actually was about to jump in and pull her out when she finally decided she had enough. The parade took awhile to start after we had found some seats in the shade, and so we didn't stay for the whole parade because Chloe was hot and tired. We then went home and had a barbecue with my parents who had driven up for the evening. We started getting Chloe ready for bed after my parents left not planning on seeing any fireworks. However after we got her pajamas on we heard the firework show on campus start. We look outside and realized we had the perfect view of them from our front porch. We watched for a few minutes and then took Chloe up to bed. Luckily Chloe was able to get to sleep with the noise of the fireworks a couple miles away. It was a good day.

Dancing!

I'm going to stay over here so you can't pull me out...

Waiting for the parade to start

Uncle Sam on stilts.

Father's Day at Big Bear Lake

For Father's Day this year I had the idea to drive up to Big Bear Lake. It's about an hour away from where we live and Brian loves being outdoors. I'm too nervous to go camping with Chloe yet, so I figured this would be nice day trip and we'd be able to go home and sleep in our own beds without the fear of Chloe having a rough night. It was a gorgeous day. We started off the day opening Brian's present, the t-shirt he's wearing in the pictures. It says "Daddy Since 2013". Cheesy but cute. Once we arrived in Big Bear we ate lunch. It was nice and quiet because we were the only ones in the picnic area. We then drove around the lake to the Discovery Center, which has a small museum for guests to look at. After that we headed out on a trail. The trail was called the Alpine Pedal Path. I knew since we would be pushing Chloe in her stroller it'd be better to take a trail that was paved. Brian was sad at this decision at first because he said we probably wouldn't be surrounded with enough nature. Luckily he was pleasantly surprised by the trail. We took a path through the trees and then it came out right by the lake. It was beautiful and nicely shaded most of the way. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing man to be my husband, and he makes a terrific dad. Chloe really loves spending time with him whenever he is not busy doing schoolwork. He makes her giggle so much, it's cute to see them playing and running around chasing each other.

LA Zoo & Aquarium of the Pacific

In the beginning of June my sister and her family were able to come down from Utah for a short visit. The trip activities were focused all around our little ones. Although it would have been fun to take the kids to Disneyland the cost was just way too high. In searching for activities that we could do I saw that the Los Angeles Zoo and the Aquarium of the Pacific had a combo ticket price. It saved us a nice chunk of change to do this instead of other activities that can be done in wonderful Southern California.

On Monday, June 2nd we went to the zoo. This was Chloe's second trip to the zoo and I think she enjoyed it even more than the first trip that we had made at Hogle Zoo. When we first arrived we rushed to the elephant exhibit to see a show in which the zookeeper's cleaned the elephants and went did some tricks with them. Chloe thought it was fun for about ten minutes and then she decided it was better to go and explore the plants. After the elephants we went to the bird show and Chloe loved seeing the owls, unfortunately Brian had to take her out of the show because she didn't want to stay seated and they wouldn't allow us to stand with her because it would scare the birds. We happened to walk by the lion exhibit when they were moving to a new shady spot, and so it was really neat to actually see the lions moving instead of sleeping like you normally see in the middle of a hot day. The rhino was splashing in the water taking a bath/staying cool when we saw him, and Chloe was ready to jump over the railing and join him. It was a long day, with a lot of walking. Chloe had so much fun she had fallen asleep in her stroller by the time we made it over to the petting zoo portion for our last activity of the day. Jayden had a blast petting the goats though.

Conked out!

Goats!

On Wednesday, June 4th we made our trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific. It was funny for me to go there again because the last time I was there was for my Senior Prom. Chloe enjoyed the tanks for ten minutes or so, but after watching the sea lions swim around she preferred to run around saying "Hi" to people more than actually looking at the fish. Chloe love's birds and so she really enjoyed chasing the pigeons outside as well. Chloe's favorite portion of the day were the exhibits which she could touch the sea creatures. She was able to touch a shark, rays, sea cucumber, anemones, and starfish. Having her touch the rays was funny because she would get scared and pull her hand back as they came up to her to be touched, but once she did touch them she felt a little more confident. After we were done with the aquarium we headed to La Creperie Cafe for a little treat. It was so good. If you are ever in Long Beach I highly recommend eating there.

Touching the sharks

Jayden didn't want to share the penguin

So much love, even for statues...

Touching an anemone

It was a fun week and it's always great to visit with Leanna, Doug, and Jayden. I miss them when they are in Utah and our kids can't play together.