Charleston, South Carolina Visit

The Angel Oak Tree

Kiawah Island

Kimball and Tessa

Joel, Sean and the kiddos

The Atlantic Ocean

Lucy was on the Pacific Coast then the Atlantic Coast just a week later

Lindsay, Tessa, Lucy and Marissa

Dads and Baby Girls

Downtown Charleston

Clara giving Lucy kisses

Eating at Melvin's Barbeque

Lucy and Tessa were born 4 days apart and are the best of friends!
Thanks, Henriods for showing a wonder time in such a fun city!

LA Visit

The Venice boardwalk

Lucy sporting the new hat I bought from a street vendor for $5!!
Gotta support my fellow needle-crafters.

3 Mamas in 3 different stages: Ashley with the newborn, Kimber with the fetus, and me with the crawler.

Back at the good ole' Nelson pad enjoying some delicious Chicken Tikka Masala made by Kimber

We tried to get in a bunch of our favorite places to grub, Pomodoro being one of them. Yum!

4 States & 4 Time Zones in 8 days...

So, I was pretty sure that once I had a baby, I would never get the chance to travel again. Pre-Lucy, I considered myself an "Expert Traveler" and would fly through security in the black line. I would look at moms and families with small children and think, "ha, suckers!" I always made sure to sit far away from babies to avoid the crying fits and tantrums. Then I got pregnant and tried to fit in as much travel as possible because I was not about to try to fly with a child and all the "stuff" that you have to haul along with said child.

Well, turns out that I am the sucker now! I love to travel, so I decided Lucy has to travel too. She has seriously been the best travel companion (basically because she has no choice!) Over the past 2 weeks we have flown from Nashville to Salt Lake City to Los Angeles to Nashville to Charleston....count them: 4 Time Zones, and 4 different states!! I love my little travel buddy....where shall we go next???

What we did in FL...

While in Florida with the Craguns, we got to...

...watch Tanner play some wicked soccer

...go to the Butterfly & Bat Fest at the U of F Museum

...make really cool masks to wear

...Check out the exhibits

...go to the pumpkin patch

...pick out the pumpkins we'd always dreamed of!

...explore Disney's Animal Kingdom--so cool!!

...pose with the Tree of Life

...watch the parade and meet Pluto & Goofy

Thanks for showing us such a great time in your new neck of the woods Craguns! You are some of the best friends we've ever had and we miss you like crazy!

Flahriduh...

We are spending a few days here in Gainesville, FL with our good buddies the Craguns. We met them 4 years ago at the beginning of dental school at UCLA, but we fee like we've been BFFs.


We have missed them like crazy since leaving L.A. Their kids call Sean "Uncle Sean" since he spent so much time at their old pad. And as you can see, Sean and Jake picked up right where they left off---laughing and having a jolly good time...they truly did deserve "Best Couple" of the 2008 UCLA Dental Class for their bromance!

Jet Settin' LuLu

She did it!  She made the 4 hour flight from Nashville to LA sleeping the whole way!  Now we're in Utah and she did well on that flight too.  2 down, one to go...

Linds & Marissa: Before & After

BEFORE: May 5, 2008

AFTER: September 9, 2008

Most of you know that my lovely sister-in-law, Lindsay, and I had our babies only 2 weeks apart. Cooper Patrick was born June 13th and Lucy came along on the 27th. We were pretty excited when we found out that the cousins would be so close in age. (And now we have one more due in February--little Carter, son of Chris and Trisha!) It was rad to go through pregnancy and now the crazy world of motherhood together. She brought Coop out for a visit 2 weeks ago and we had so much fun hanging out with them...this time around our days were spent just a little bit differently from when we visited them in San Jose in May....

Camping in Sequoia

We packed up the minivan (thanks to David & Hertz Car Rental) and headed up to Sequoia National Park for the weekend with the Pulsiphers, Nelsons, and Cutlers. We spent two nights under the stars--well, everyone except me, who was in a tent on a cot--hey, at least I got my pregnant self out there! We did some hiking, swimming, and observing of nature's beauty. We also observed something that nature never intended....you can ask about that, if you are interested...but I am warning you that it ain't pretty! We even had a bear in our camp the first night! Good times...we sure are going to miss our friends here and our time in So Cal. :)

Gone Cruisin'

This is a snapshot of our cruise with the Lees, Pooles, Craguns, and Martins of the UCLA Dental Posse. We set sail for San Diego, Catalina, and Ensenada. Here are some highlights:

Onboard our ship, the Monarch of the Seas

The Muster Drill before the ship could set sail
Aren't the these life vests hot?

Table #42 with our servers: Georgy, Carey, and Rita.

Taking the ferry to Coronado Island

Chicks on Bikes

Sean is riding low.


The Inn at Coronado


Ultimate frisbee on the beach in San Diego

Jared participated in the "Sexiest Legs" competition.

And he won!!

Formal Night

We were traveling with the Unibomber, or is that Jim Carrey?!

A lazy day in Catalina...playing a little Uno.

Sean loves his Dots!

You can see our ship "The Monarch of the Seas" in the background.


Jared, Sean, and Jared were the brave ones who dared to get in the chilly ocean.

Nice harnesses!!

Sean scaling the mountain.

Soldier Boy and Superman

Hip Hop Hooray....Ho, Hey, Ho!!

The Lees strut their stuff!

Smack that, get on the floor!

mmmmm...tacos de carne asada!

The whole Posse in Ensenada

La Bufadora "The Blow Hole" in Ensenada

Some of you asked for it, so here is the belly in it's full glory!!
(Viva Mexico--see the flag in the background!)

We had such a good time, we didn't want it to end....there's always next time!