Fjeldsted Family Reunion

Get ready for a photo explosion.

Over the summer we took an amaaaaazing vacation with Paul's family.  Truly one for the memory books.  Baby Mark got to come along for the trip (he was the best baby ever!), but none of the other kids were invited.  Grandpa Bob came down for the week and stayed with Parker and Kate.  They had a great time and to this day still talk about going to the children's museum with him.

Ok, here we go.  There are probably a zillion amazing pictures from our week in Washington and Canada, but I'm going to choose my very most favorites and I'll probably go easy on the commentary.

Day 1, Wednesday: We flew in a day early and stayed the night in Seattle.  The next morning we met up with Thomas and Angela and went to Pike's Market and the Space Needle.

Day 2, Thursday:

Waiting for the ferry to take us to San Juan Island.

On the ferry:

View of the cute little island from the ferry:

Our first dinner on the island.  This was the biggest plate of nachos I'd ever seen!

Day 3, Friday:
We took a tour of the island on these cute little mopeds.

Day 4, Saturday:
We went to the farmer's market and went sailing.

Paul's a natural!

Buying fresh fish for Sunday dinner.

Day 5, Sunday:

Went to the local branch for church, shared what we learned about our great-grandparents (Paul and I had Ervin and Christa Atkerson) and ate SO MUCH FOOD! 

Crepes for snackie poo.

Day 6, Monday:

Our trip got international.  We went to Canada!  We visited Victoria, British Columbia (the capitol) and Butchart Gardens.  The landscaping and flowers were SO beautiful.  And the best part was the high tea we went to.  I felt so fancy!

Day 6, Tuesday:

This was the last day of our amazing vacation.  We packed up and headed for the airport.  It was sad to leave, but we were excited to see Parker and Kate again.  Until the next big Fjeldsted Reunion!

SeaWorld Christmas

Our friends gave us two free tickets to SeaWorld and so we went and enjoyed all the Christmas festivities.

No amount of persuasion could convince Kate to take a picture with the abominable snowman.

But when we found Rudolph there was in instant connection.

My Birthday #30, or my second 29th Bday

At the end of September we were in Idaho for Erin's wedding, so we got to celebrate a few days before my birthday with my family.  Grammy made her famous carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  Mmmmmm.  We drove back home via Redwood City and got to spend my actual birthday with John and Trudy.  It was the best!  We opened presents, went out (kid-free!) to a fancy pants Indian restaurant and then the party continued the next day when we had strawberry pie.

This vase is pretty special.  It belonged to John's maternal grandma, Christa Atkerson.  For our Fjeldsted reunion this past summer, each of Paul's siblings and their spouses learned about a set of their great-grandparents and one night we all sat down and everyone shared some of the highlights they learned.  Paul and I had his great-grandparents Ervin and Christa Atkerson.  Christa wrote a wonderful history and there were several other documents I got to read through- probably around 90 typed pages in total.  I felt like I really got to know and connect with her.  She was an amazing woman.  This vase is one of the few things that John has from her and he felt like it should go to me.  I was so touched!  It's absolutely beautiful.

This sequence of photos was pretty funny to see after the fact.  Parker and Kate blew out the candles before I could!

 Then Kate wanted to give me a birthday hug.

And a birthday kiss on my neck.

When we got home to San Diego I got a special present from my dad in the mail- a robot vacuum!  I've named her Rosie after the maid on The Jetsons.  She's my most valuable employee.

And Paul got me a gift card to get a water massage, which I'm saving for when I'm hugely pregnant and super uncomfortable... which feels like is right around the corner, but I still have three months left before baby girl FJ arrives!  Agh!

Halloween 2016

Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Yoda.

Baby #3 On The Way! It's a GIRL!!!

It depends on when you ask, but we're mostly excited about this!  If I start thinking about the first six months of the baby's life, I'll start to doubt our decision making skills.  The thought of those sleepless nights and hazy days makes my palms start sweating.  I literally brought up to Paul the idea of getting a night nurse one night a week. But when I can look past that I really am excited to welcome a new little person into our family.  I had a miscarriage at the beginning of this year, which also helps to keep things in perspective and recognize what a blessing this little babe is. 

However, I maintain my stance that pregnancy is the worst thing ever.  At least the first 14ish weeks.  I'm 21 weeks now and it's smooooooth sailing, but man that first trimester is a beast.  To be on the verge of barfing everyday for months at a time gets old really fast.  And this time around, it's been hard to get really excited because I keep thinking that it will end in a miscarriage.  I had a huge gush of blood at six weeks and thought that was the end.  An ultrasound a week later confirmed that the little blob was still growing and I was in the clear.  Then another gush (much more this time) came at 12 weeks and the roller coaster of emotions continued.  Hopefully from here on out we won't have any more surprises. 

The logical side of me wanted this baby to be a boy.  Parker and Kate get along so well and I didn't want Parker to be ousted by the two younger girls being good friends.  In my mind I thought if it was a boy, Parker and the baby would have a connection by their gender and Kate and the baby would have a connection by their proximity in age.  But my emotional side really wanted a girl.  Girls are just so cute!  The little shoes and dresses.  Ah!  It kills me.  Not to mention, it's much more fun to think about girl names than boy names.  AND!  I get to choose this baby's name!  Paul chose both Parker's and Kate's names, so now it's my turn.  Side story: When I was pregnant with both Parker and Kate I would bring up names that I liked and Paul would shoot nearly all of them down, but wouldn't offer any suggestions of his own.  It became a source of contention and so we just stopped talking about it.  Our solution was that I would bring a list of 10ish names with us to the hospital that I liked and Paul would choose one of those.  With Parker he ended up choosing a name that wasn't even on my list- one we hadn't discussed at all.  The same thing happened with Kate.  So this time it's my turn.  I have a peacemaker type personality and just want people to be happy, which I think is why I was okay with Paul choosing the names, but I really want to choose at least one of our children's names.  I can see myself giving in again, which is why I've started telling Paul so early that it's my turn and so I can convince myself as well.  

Parker and Kate are sweetly excited.  Parker randomly kisses my belly several times a week and told me the other day that when the baby is born she will like him best because he gives her so many kisses.  

London Ladies Reunion

Study Abroad changed my life.  I wish I knew exactly what it was about the experience, but I don't.  All I know is that I came back as a better version of me.  I felt more confident and more comfortable in who I was.  I think the friends I made while there were a big part of it.  Back in July a few of us got together for the weekend to rekindle our London love.  We all met up at Lisa's house, who lives about 40 minutes north of us.  It was one big, wonderful gabfest.