Azalea Festival 2010

Here in Brookings they have the Azalea Festival for Memorial Day weekend. It was crazy! I think every single person who lives here was out and about on Saturday. Brett was marching in the parade doing color guard, so Kennedy, Noah and I headed down to the main street in town to watch daddy march. Noah was just chill, but he didn't like the sun in his eyes.

Kennedy was getting excited for the parade, even though she had no idea what a parade was up until that point. All she knew was that she was outside, a bunch of people had balloons, and we were going to see daddy.

Brett was the first in the parade line after the police cars that headed up the whole thing. I'm sorry I didn't get better pictures, but I couldn't zoom in. See the white flag? Brett is carrying it.

We stayed for a lot of the parade, but holy cow, the first 15 minutes of it were fire trucks and ambulances that kept putting on their sirens. It was annoying and loud and both of my kids were getting scared. Noah was crying and Kennedy kept giving me hugs and burying her head in my shoulder. We met up with Brett afterwards and headed to the farmer's market. There were some good looking things there, and I'm hoping that they'll get even more as the summer goes on. We went to Fely's after that to try one of their hamburgers. Oh my gosh, they were gigantic!

I don't know how I even ate as much of it as I did. It was crazy huge. On a food note, check out my cooking blog! I finally updated it with two new posts. After that we headed to a small fair down the street and bought Kennedy a princess crown and wand, which she wouldn't keep on long enough for me to take a picture of. She did, however, keep Brett's sunglasses on long enough for us to snap a shot.

Upside down of course. We rounded out the evening by eating homemade Veggie Minestrone and watching Muppets from Space as a family.

It was a great day. And today will be another one! Thanks to Katie and Wade Heath we will be able to go out on a real date without the kids tonight for our anniversary! We're thrilled to be able to see a movie and go out to eat on our own. Our anniversary isn't until Wednesday, but with Brett's new schedule starting soon and Wade's schedule being so hectic, tonight was the best night.

I know that I haven't been putting up too many pictures of Noah, but that's because they all look exactly the same. He's been smiling a lot more the past few days, and talking a lot more too, but I haven't been able to capture any of it on camera. So here are some pictures to tide you over.

His little onesie says "Future Coastie" in honor of his daddy. So for Memorial Day, thank you to Brett, my brother Blake, and all those who are serving or who have served in the military!

Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me

Last Saturday we made the 2.5 hour trek to Medford, the closest big city to us. We needed to go to Costco to get some supplies, so we made the most of our trip. First off, here is the bathroom that we stopped at on the way there.

Why they thought a gigantic fly on the top of it would actually entice people to want to go in I will never know. Brett went in, but I was saved because the women's door was locked and there was no way I was going in the men's. I just held it all the way there. We went to Ashland first so that we could go to an interactive science museum for kids. Kennedy had a blast. There were all kinds of things for her to play with, including a bubble room.

She wasn't too sure about standing inside the bubble, but she did it anyway. We had a lot of fun in the bubble room too.

We also found a room with a wall that would hold the image of your body as a shadow when a light flashed. Brett and I had way too much fun with that one. Kennedy was even getting bored and trying to leave while we were playing. Afterward we headed to downtown Ashland (which was absolutely darling) to a florist/chocolatier. I bought some drinking chocolate (the house blend) which was hot,thick, and absolutely delicious.

Kennedy kept stealing drinks at every opportunity and making a huge mess of it.

I also got two truffles. One was Ylang Ylang Citrus, which was just plain nasty, and one was Chivas which was made with goat cheese and was wonderful. Then we headed to Costco and spent way too much money, and then headed to Olive Garden. The drive to and from Medford is absolutely gorgeous, so we really enjoyed our time in the car as well. The next morning we had a family party in our bedroom and Kennedy wanted to hold Noah.

After a while, Noah wasn't too sure about the whole arrangement.

On a good note, Noah slept 8 hours last night! He slept 7 the night before, so it looks like he might be lengthening his sleep out, which is fantastic. Hopefully he'll be getting on a schedule in the next few weeks!

How...Romantic?

For our first anniversary, Brett surprised me with an overnight trip to Park City, Utah. The next morning we went shopping in the outlet mall, had a fabulous lunch, and then headed to Salt Lake to go to the aquarium. Brett had reservations for dinner that night, but we were pretty early for them. We decided to go to the Gateway and see a movie. The movie that we were willing to see that started at the right time was Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Romantic, no? Thus was born our anniversary tradition.

On our second anniversary, we went out to dinner and saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I was thrilled to get out of the house because Kennedy was born only 6 weeks earlier.

For our third anniversary, we went out to dinner and saw Terminator Salvation.

It seems that the first big blockbuster action movie of the summer always comes out in May, just in time for our anniversary at the beginning of June. So, next week, we will be continuing the tradition by going to dinner and then driving the 30 minutes to the movie theatre in Crescent City, CA to see Robin Hood. It may not be totally normal, but we enjoy it.

Exodus Part 3: Santaquin to Brookings

We left Santaquin (somewhat) early on Tuesday morning and drove to Reno where we stayed the night. After driving through Nevada, I've decided that there are only 3 things there: casinos, prisons, and long stretches of nothing. We literally only hit about 3 cities on our way through - one right on the border of Utah, one in the middle, and Reno. It was the most boring day of driving we had had. There was nothing to look at, except Beverly Hills (which consisted of a couple of small hills in the middle of flatness and a rundown house) and a voodoo witch doctor shack that was about 30 feet high and built out of antlers. Right before Reno it started getting hilly, but we were thrilled to be out of the car. The kids reprised their throwing up incidents at dinner that night, except Kennedy added a poop and Noah added two.

The next day was our last day of driving, and it was beautiful. We left from Reno and shortly entered California. It was weird, because that drive in California was nothing like I have ever known as California. This is what our drive looked like through most of it.

Tons and tons of tall snowy trees with interludes of beautiful lakes. In Oregon it was so green, mountainous, and just plain gorgeous. We stopped in Burney, CA for lunch and gas, and Brett ordered this bad boy.

That's a french fry on the top of that tall stick. It's got ham and turkey, bacon, and two types of cheese. It was huge. I don't know how he fit it in his mouth. My chili dog was not as impressive as it was more of a pork and beans dog. We kept driving and made a small stop in Medford, OR to shop at the Harry and David manufacturer's store, since it is headquartered there. Then, with only 2 hours to go, we drove to Brookings. The 199 in California and Oregon is absolutely gorgeous. Waterfalls, trees, rivers - you name it, it's there. Then, as we pulled into Brookings, we could see the ocean.

This beach is about 3 minutes from our apartment. Yes, you should be jealous. The whole place is beach on one side and hills and trees on the other. When I drive back to the 101 (which is the main street where pretty much all of the businesses are) I can see the ocean. When I drive home, I can see hills and trees. It's really beautiful.

It took me a little while to feel at home since I have never lived in such a small town. Between Harbor, Brookings, and the county residents who are outside the city limits there are 14,000 people. Previously I have lived in Orange County, CA, the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, Boston, and Provo (which might not seem that big, but BYU alone has more than double the amount of students than this place has residents). Obviously, it takes some adjusting. The local restaurants are pretty good and there's a great grocery store that has a home goods section too.

Everybody has been very nice, and we're finally feeling like we are at home. So far, so good with the Coast Guard. We hope it keeps up and they keep sending us to beautiful places like this.

Exodus Part 2: A Stay in Santaquin

The second part of our trip was a well deserved 4 day stay with Brett's parents in Santaquin. We were all sick of being in the car after 2.5 days of being stuck in our seats. We had a good sleep that night after a yummy meal. The next morning, Kennedy created a new delicacy by putting all of her grapes into her Cheerios.

She seemed to enjoy it. Kennedy had a great time playing with her cousins while she was there. Most of them are quite a bit older than her, but they love to play with her and Kennedy had a blast. The day after we got there we left the kids with Brett's parents and headed to Salt Lake with Jesse, Kaisa, Jamie and Trevor to watch the Jazz take on the Nuggets. The game was great and they pulled out a win for us. We had a great time, especially knowing that we probably won't be making it to any basketball games for a while.

We were able to shop, go to The Cocoa Bean for some awesome cupcakes, see some of my family, and see the Waddoups. Kennedy and Boston had a good reunion, although I don't think Boston was too fond of Noah. He got a little jealous when Kim picked him up.

We dropped off the trailer and loaded up the big trailer that would bring all of our stuff to Brookings. They packed masterfully! I took a picture with my camera, and not my phone, which I have yet to unload onto the computer. I will do that soon so you can all see their mad skills. We had a HUGE treat on Saturday night because Stefani offered to take Noah for the night. It was amazing. I slept for 8 hours without waking up once. It has been months since I've done that! We had a birthday party for all of us who have birthdays in April too, and Stefani found this cute cake at a garage sale!

We celebrated for me, Kasia (not to be confused with Kaisa above), Brett, Kennedy, and Brett's grandpa. We loved seeing family and, of course, eating a delicious meal and some cake! But all good things must come to an end, and on Tuesday morning we had to head out for the last leg of our trip to our new home!

Exodus Part 1: Plano to Santaquin

On the Monday after Brett returned from New Jersey, for the second time, we picked up the Uhaul trailer and began to prepare for our trip starting the next day. First stop, pick up my piano which had been stored at our piano tuner's house for the past few months. Norbert and his wife Paula helped us put the piano in the trailer. It took up slightly less than half of the trailer, and it took almost 3 hours because they are some serious talkers. Norbert even made Brett come inside the house and play a song for him. After this ordeal, we got back and found out that the Coast Guard did not have a 3 bedroom house available for us and that we would be given a 2 bedroom upstairs apartment. We then realized that there is no way we could take the piano with us and left it with my dad.

Because of all of that wasted time (and a not-so-quick stop at a Blockbuster going-out-of-business sale where we bought 7 movies for $8 each), we didn't finish all of our packing and didn't end up leaving until 1:00 pm the next day. We drove through Texas and Oklahoma, then decided to stop for the night in Wichita, Kansas. Kennedy was thrilled with the hotel room because she got to have her very own big bed.

The next morning we headed out to Salina and essentially turned left to head toward Colorado. Right outside Denver, a cop turned out in front of us and took up both lanes going about 40 mph. We had absolutely no idea what was going on, until about a mile up when we started getting pounded with hail out of nowhere. Traffic was completely stopped as we watched 3/4-inch hail build up about 3 inches on the road. This is how Kennedy felt about the hail.

Then, just as suddenly, the hail stopped and we were moving again. We stopped at Chili's for dinner, where Noah promptly threw up all over me. I went to the bathroom to get cleaned up. When I came back, we had our food. In the middle of the meal, Kennedy puked all over herself and the bench. I took her to the bathroom to get cleaned up, all the while listening to her almost crying saying, "Make a big mess a chocolate milk!" Needless to say, we stayed in Denver that night. We also discovered that like both her parents, Kennedy talks in her sleep. She talked about Utah.

Next morning we headed out of Colorado through the beautiful snowy mountains of Vail. Kennedy really loved going through the tunnels and being "in a mountain." We made it safely into Utah and into Santaquin where we stayed with Brett's parents.

We had a delicious dinner of Carol's potato soup and Kennedy got her own room again. We looked forward to spending a few days not in the car.

Hello, Old Friend

Ahhhh, it's good to be back after almost a month! I'm sorry about the delay in information. We are almost done unpacking here in Brookings and we are getting to know the town. It's not huge, but there's more here than we were expecting. The Fred Meyer grocery store is like a Target or Wal-Mart. There are probably 25-30 restaurants, at least 12 of which are Mexican. It's absolutely gorgeous, with ocean on one side and hills and redwoods on the other. I will be putting up some pictures shortly. Brett has been at his station for a little over a week and is enjoying it so far. He got off really early one day so we could move in, got to take a beautiful drive up to Coos Bay and back on another, and played flag football on another. Tell me that's not an awesome military job. :)

Kennedy had her 2nd birthday last month, and she's letting us know that the terrible twos are here. Granted, they aren't as bad as other kids I've seen, but for her, it's a change. Noah is 7 weeks old today and is starting to be a great sleeper. For the last week he's woken up between 1:30 and 2:30 and then again around 5:00 or 5:30. Twice a night is not bad at all. I will put up details and pictures over the next couple of days!