Belated Update - We're Back to Blogging

After a year and a half break from blogging, we've decided it's time to return, especially since we are writing similar updates for our family anyway. So you'll find our blog has a facelift and we've added a special section on the side to share funny or interesting memories/experiences of ours. We are hoping to share a new one every week so check back often.

I may even try to go back and do some catch-up for the last year and a half. More on that later, but until then here is an update on our summer up to now.

At the Riverton, Utah July 4th parade

Playing at Pikey's

Playing games with Jack and Alex

We went out to Utah at the end of June for an extended family reunion on Matt's side but we also got to spend a couple days (including the fourth of July) with my sister's family in Fruit Heights and then a couple days with Pikey and family in Mapleton. It is so fun watching Mia interact with everyone at each stage of her growing. Last time we were in Utah she was just starting to roll - so she was still so fragile. Now she is running and moving constantly and can hold her own - so it was fun watching her with my nephews (Jack and Alex) and Pikey's kids. Being the only girl out of the group, it was funny to see the differences.

We had a blast with all of Matt's family at various parks throughout Salt Lake County, including one which had a splashpad Mia couldn't get enough of. Mia also loved being at the Riverton Parade and loved being allowed to stand in the street and gather candy. You can her trying to chew through an otter pop in the picture above.

With Pikey we loved playing with all of her millions of toys - Mia was in heaven! Matt took advantage of their theater room whenever possible. We also got to see Mary and Collin when they joined us all - along with Tori and kids and Johana and our nieces - for a day of swimming at Pikey's in laws house. They had an intense water slide into their pool which proved to be quite the conversation piece with everyone daring each other to go down. If the kids were too scared to go down by themselves, we sent Matt down with them which worked out great. I was thrilled to see Mia so happy in the pool because up to that point she had not been very happy in the water, always fighting me for her independence. But this pool had a wading area so she was in heaven being able to run around somewhat uninhibited.

Though I was sick and we were all tired from the action-packed reunion, we had a fun Fourth of July with Tori's family. The highlight of the night was watching Alex, Jack, and Bryan lighting fireworks and the excitement the boys got every time one went off. But Tori also made some delicious food and because they made aerial fireworks legal in Utah this year, we got to see many amateur firework shows from everyone taking advantage of that opportunity. It was terrifying and fantastic all at the same time.

Playing with Alex's Cozy Coupe

Loved having someone to play with

Fell in mud but she don't care

Parade

Pooltime with Pikey, Blake, Tori and Alex

Mia, Pikey, Blake

Julie, Johanita, Matt, Blake, Mia, Pikey, Landon

Mary

View of the pool and waterslide

Johanita, Me, Noah

After our trip to Utah in July for a family reunion, Matt and I spent 10 days in (or traveling to and from) Tokyo, Japan. Matt had a work conference there for 3 days; so I happily joined him, while my mom watched Mia for a week and then my friend, Lauren, and mother-in-law, Kathy both watched for a couple days each too. I think you all probably saw our travel updates through social media so I won't repeat too much. But we had a wonderful time together exploring Tokyo and enjoying time together. Though we truly missed Mia (at least for the first couple days :), it felt amazing for me to be able to wander around and not have to worry about anyone else for a little bit. It was a great reminder to me that I am more than just Mia's mom, which is hard to see when taking care of a toddler all day, everyday. The food was interesting, and Matt opted to eat at Domino's Pizza and McDonald's the last couple days. Imagine his surprise to discover that a large Domino's pizza was almost as small as a personal pan pizza in America. But there was tons to explore around Tokyo, tons of people, and we had a good time despite the very hot and humid weather.

Yoyogi Park

Garden at our first hotel

View from the Imperial Garden

Imperial Palace grounds

Shibuya Crossing

Akihabara

Asakusa street shopping

Me at a shrine, but I can't remember which one

Me at the Senso-ji Buddhist temple

I found Godzilla while walking through Shibuya

Infamous Shibuya honey toast

Since Tokyo, we've had fun enjoying the summer together as a family - going to the beach / boardwalk in Santa Cruz, including taking Mia on carnival rides, taking Mia to a concert at Google, dining at the Costco Food court, you know the usual.

Mia enjoying the park (almost daily)

Mia at Matt's work party at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk - loaded up in her wagon about to walk the boardwalk together

At the beach

Swimming at my Aunt Lori's house

Unfortunately, my sister-in-law, Paige passed away suddenly on August 6th. Paige had gastric bypass surgery (the most drastic kind) done about 12 years ago and has had many health problems since. Her death is attributed, at least in part, to complications from this surgery. So Matt, Mia, and I made our first road trip together down to SoCal to attend her funeral and spend time with my brother, Ryan, and our niece and nephews.

My oldest brother, Ryan, and his wife, Paige

The funeral was beautiful and was a great reminder of all the wonderful things Paige has done for others. Though she was quite the firecracker and at times could drive me crazy, she also had become the older sister I never had. Unfortunately the last year and a half, I did not talk to Paige much due to disagreements that don't matter now, but I will never forget how she had reached out to me when I was in the hospital after having Mia knowing that I was struggling. I can't even begin to imagine how Ryan and his kids feel, or will cope, as they move forward without their wife and mother. But I also know she is finally at peace now, after struggling so much with her health, especially in the last couple years.

Though it was a sad occasion, we really enjoyed being with Ryan and his kids and introducing them to Mia, who couldn't get enough of their trampoline - or the chickens they raise (that live under the trampoline)! We ended up extending our trip a couple days to take advantage of extra time with them, sneak in a visit with Lane and Kathy, and see Dave Romney and his family. Mia had a blast digging through all of the boxes of Kathy's old toys that her kids played with. Matt and Mia were elated when Kathy sent us home with the race car that can be taken apart and put back together - Matt's favorite toy as a child. At least once a day I find Mia holding the little yellow wrench tool to the wheels trying to figure out how to take the wheels off herself.

Matt is busy back at work and looking forward to another business trip to Vegas in a couple weeks. But most importantly he has the glow of football season on him. I'm constantly amazed at how much joy football - and really Fantasy Football - brings him. He is dying to watch games with Mia and already tries to explain the sport to her. She likes to lounge on his lap and watch sports with him and clap her hands.

A few weeks ago, I took Mia to a gymnastics/tumbling class with a friend and she absolutely loved it! Definitely plays to her strength of being fearless and always wanting to be moving. So now I'm looking into making this a regular thing for us to do together - and how to bring in a little money to fit it into our budget.

South Bay Area Apartment Hunting

Many of you have asked how our apartment hunting went in San Jose (besides the craziness of the car). We realized during our first day of hunting that we were in way over our head and probably should have planned ahead more or planned more time to look. San Jose and it's surrounding areas have so many apartments!

We looked at probably 40 or 50 different apartments, condos, and duplexes in the 3 and a half days we were there. We went with a list of about 25 from Craigslist that I had found before we left Utah. But then we found a lot more just driving around specific areas.

Matt and I went into this adventure not quite sure what we wanted in an apartment exactly, but we came out knowing two things - Matt wanted some kind of air-conditioning and I wanted a washer and dryer or hookups for a w/d in the apartment. I just can not imagine going back to a laundromat style again, especially when we will both be working full-time.

Matt had his eyes opened in one of the first apartments we looked at when he found out they did not have any air-conditioning. I had lived in San Diego in an apartment without A/C so I knew they do make houses and apartments without a/c but Matt had not come upon this yet. Only two of the 40 apartments we looked at had central air-conditioning and several more had a wall A/C unit in the living room.

The best part was the way that each sales person would try to spin it and say things like "but we have the nice ocean breeze here so you really don't need it" or "you really don't need it with the wind that blows continuously through here" or "you can pay $400 more a month and live in our nice upgraded apartments which have the A/C wall unit." First of all, San Diego has an ocean breeze, San Francisco has an ocean breeze, but SAN JOSE DOES NOT HAVE AN OCEAN BREEZE. I just felt like they thought we were idiots when they told us something like that.

Most of the apartments we looked at were smaller than our apartment in Draper now and we were surprised how much older they were. They were all more than twice the rent too! We loved the Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Cupertino area but we just could not find a place that we both loved that was in the price range we wanted to pay.

After our extensive search and the car trip home to hash it out together, Matt and I chose an apartment complex called "The Woods" located just south of Downtown San Jose. We were truly impressed with the management and the way they run their complex and were thrilled to find out we could sign a 6-month lease without having to pay hundreds more a month relative to a 12-month lease. So this way, we will have a nice place without being locked in for a year while getting to know the area and spend more time house hunting.

We love the Woods complex which really is a mega-complex of 6 different complexes, five swimming pools, a large theater room, 5 fitness centers, a rent able guest suite and 1500 apartments in one. It is really its own neighborhood and we are able to have a 2 bed / 2 bath with a washer / dryer and air-conditioning. They also don't allow any dogs in the complex, only cats, which we were happy about (sorry you dog lovers) but we have experienced too many people in apartments who don't take care of their dog poop or control their dog's barking.

Inside The Woods

Duramwood Village, where our apartment is located

Kitchen view inside our model

One of the swimming pools at the Woods

We are excited to start over and see how The Woods fits as our new home. And since we will have the guest bedroom we wanted, we'd love visitors :)  Check out the following link for a video tour we found on their website:   http://www.woodsapartments.com/videotour.php

We love you all and want to give a shout out to all those who have helped us get to know more about the San Jose area (Rachel and Carrie Langlois, Tiffany and Steve Stock, Emily Harris, Brad Moss, Sean Kelly, Peter Chapman, Lane McGhee and others...)

We do know our new address and if you want it, just ask.

Heroes of the Highway

We would like to dedicate this post to the two tow truck drivers that picked us up along our treks to and from San Jose when Keri's Honda, Sparky, overheated twice. One of the tow truck drivers called himself a "hero of the highway" and though in my mind (Keri), I had a million sarcastic ways to make fun of him for saying that, I held my tongue and actually found it quite fitting.

These tow truck driver take their jobs very seriously and really try to make you feel comfortable and laugh about your situation. They were very simple but genuine men and we are grateful for their help.

On Wednesday night (June 29th), we had already driven about 9 hours and were about 2 more hours away from Fairfield when Sparky overheated going through the Donner Pass in California. It was around 1 or 2am in the morning so you can imagine how unhappy we were to have to stop. We had to be towed about 20 miles back to Truckee and should have paid $150 since we had the basic AAA membership which covers only 5 tow miles, but our wonderful tow driver went ahead and waived that for us. 

We spent the night at the Truckee Donner Lodge worried about our car and if we were going to be able to make it down to San Jose to check out apartments. We only had a couple days to look as it was. Since the mechanic told us it would take a day or two to fix our car, Keri's wonderful Aunt Lori came and picked us up from Roseville and then drove us down to Fairfield, where we picked up Keri's parents car.

Donner Pass, where Sparky first overheated

Truckee Donner lodge where we spent Wednesday night

We ended up having the mechanic replace the water pump, the radiator, and the thermostat and he said the head gasket and engine were fine.

Keri's dad drove us back to Truckee on Tuesday, July 5th and we got only 60 miles away before the engine started overheating again. So this time it was about 1pm and we sat for an hour in the hot desert heat in the middle of nowhere (Nevada) and waited to be towed again. Thank goodness we smartened up and Matt had already upgraded our AAA membership just days ago.

Our tow driver, James, was very nice though. He told us all about how he lives at home with his parents again and had to started driving a tow truck after the economy killed his construction business. He spends his days off watching his little down syndrome brother and he worked on the Fourth of July because he felt bad that people would be left out on the highway. He is one that said he feels like a "hero of the highway".

James towed us 30 miles back to Reno where we waited another day for them to fully inspect the car. We checked in to the Sands Hotel for only $30 a night and it was really only worth that. We found out on Wednesday morning that Sparky's head gasket was blown. We had to bid adieu to Sparky until we can pull her back to San Jose with us in a month and we rented a car to get home. The rest of the trip went smoothly but we feel quite beat up and stressed out after such a long week.

Wadsworth, NV where Sparky overheated on the way home

The Sands Hotel where we stayed in Reno

Sparky in her finest days

Sparky's fate now probably

Fourth of July

During our recent trip to NorCal, Matt kept reminding me to "find joy in the journey" and I'd say that part of my joy was on the Fourth of July. We headed up to my hometown, Fairfield, on Sunday night and got to spend the Fourth of July with my fam.

Mom, Bo, Jayla and I went to the annual Fairfield Fourth of July parade to watch Dad march with the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars). The parade was always a wonderful tradition for my family. Dad started out in the parade when I was in high school dressing up as James Brown and then Elvis Presley and dancing around in the parade. Now he has taken to marching with the veterans. It's probably a little more fitting for him seeing as how a white James Brown just felt a little wrong.

The parade was a little light this year more than I remember but it was still great to be able to come back and be reminded of how much culture is in Fairfield. There were groups of all of shapes and sizes and everyone was just happy to celebrate the diversity.

Downtown Fairfield during the parade

Dad, on the end. I kept trying to make him laugh including yelling that his fly was down. He takes his march very seriously.

The VFW (best part about it is that they were right behind the Disabled Veterans float).

After the parade, Mom, Dad, Bo, Matt and I all decided to drive out to Suisun Valley and hit up some fruit stands. I love driving out in the country especially since a couple of vineyards/wineries have been built in the last few years. Not that I drink but they were just beautiful to look at and it really dresses up our little hometown.

We only found one little fruit stand/bakery open but we had a wonderful time driving around all packed in one car.

We got some great treats at this little bakery, which I had never noticed, including some homemade peaches and cream ice cream.

The little bakery we found

Larry's Produce, the fruit stand we were hoping would be open

One of the vineyards in Suisun

One of the new homes built at one of the newer Suisun vineyard

We ended the night with a wonderful homecooked meal and by watching the fireworks show. 

I really felt like this was a nice reminder that Fairfield was not the hick, boring town I thought it was when I moved away. It's actually quite pretty with so much diversity. Though don't get me wrong, I won't be moving back anytime soon.