Our trip to Ohio

After a fun 2 weeks with my family in California, the kids and I flew back to Ohio to spend a couple more weeks together.  Poor Andrew had to stay behind and work, but he was the sweetest and used all his spare time to re-finish my great-grandparents' kitchen table and a buffet from my house growing up.  They turned out wonderfully! I'm so lucky to have such a sweet husband!

We had so much fun in Ohio!  It was fun to spend time with my brother and sister.  We were able to attend my cousin Justin's wedding- it was great to see all my extended family and the wedding was beautiful!

Other highlights included the Wright Air Force Museum in Dayton with Kim and Darrell

Going to Cleveland with my grandparents and cousins

Playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house

A couple of fun afternoon's with my high school bestie Heather and her cute kids

Ice cream at Bidinger's

Jake and McKenna are incredibly lucky to have such great aunts, uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents! We loved our time in Ohio!

Grandpa and Grandma Jensen come to Cali

We have been so lucky to have visitors so much of the summer. Just 10 days after Andrew's parents came to San Jose, my parents flew in. And they got to stay for 2 weeks!

We walked on the Golden Gate Bridge, visited the Jelly Belly factory, went to the beach, swam, and played. We played a lot! Jake and McKenna loved every minute of having them here, and so did I! I even got to go shopping with just my mom. And grocery shopping without kids? So luxurious! I even took some naps while grandma and grandpa played away. 

I'm so glad they got to come and we're already looking forward to their next visit over thanksgiving!

Grammy and Grandpa visit

Just a couple of weeks after moving to San Jose, we were lucky enough to have Andrew's mom, dad, and sister Maddie visit. And what made it even more fun was a surprise visit from his sister Morgan and her family for the first weekend of his parents being here. Jake and McKenna had just one cousin until a couple of weeks ago, and they love cute Jaylee. It was so fun for them to be able to spend a weekend just playing together. And McKenna had never met most of Andrew's side of the family, so it was exciting for her to meet her aunts and Uncle Braden!

Some highlights of the trip were the beach (twice!), swimming in the apartment pools, a trip to San Francisco, and showing the family around our favorite parks. Jake and McKenna had so much fun, and so did Andrew and I!

Underwear!!

June 21, 2015

Just when I started to wonder if Jake would have to wear diapers for the rest of his life, he officially potty trained!! I think because he waited so long, it was super easy and fast. Phew and hallelujah! 

We talked to Jake about going on the potty, bought him underwear and bribery candy, but nothing worked until he decided he wanted a bike. We told him if he wanted, we could take his diapers to the store and trade them in for a bike. He readily agreed and it worked!

So now we have the cutest underwear clad bike rider around!

Beach bums

We spent most of our first week in California unpacking, but our first big adventure was a trip to the beach just a few days after arriving. We're about an hour away from a handful of beautiful beaches. We quickly discovered that the Pacific Ocean is way too cold to go in past your knees, but the sand and sun (well, clouds) have been great!  We've spent most Saturday's at the beach and have visited a new one every time. The kids love it, and we love it too!  What a beautiful place to live!

Our big move

I have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to keep up with blogging, but I know I'll regret it later if I don't. And right now the kids are asleep in their car seats, so I'm stuck in the car with them. A perfect time to at least start catching up. 

We moved. Across the country. It was crazy and hectic and stressful, but we survived! It's been about 7 weeks now, and so far we are really happy with our new home. Thank goodness! It's so scary to make such a big change and to be so far away from family, but we know we made the right decision and are exactly where Heavenly Father wants us. And that feels good!

A nice thing about working for a great company like Apple was the relocation service. I don't know how we'll ever move again without packers, movers, a truck driver, and unloaders. It was glorious. 

While our stuff moved across the country, we spent a few days with my family. It was such a bittersweet time for obvious reasons. But I'm so glad we got to spend so much quality time together, and we all held it together impressively well. 

Our flight was crazy early. We woke up at 3am and were on the road well before 4am. Poor Kyle flew with us and had a rough day, but thank goodness for doggy drugs. He was back to himself by the next day and has adjusted so well to our new place. 

The kids handled everything so, so well. They were exhausted from being woken up so early, so they slept quite a bit on the flights. Even Andrew and I were able to doze off a couple of times. 

We landed in San Jose and stopped at the In-n-Out closest to the airport. Delicious! We ate outside, enjoying the gorgeous weather. Which has probably been the best part of California so far. It's always, always beautiful. I've gotten used to that SO fast :)

After our burgers, we drove to our new apartment complex, which was so surreal and exciting! We went inside, officially signed the lease, and they showed us our unit, the parking garage, etc. We had only ever seen it on a floor plan, but it was just what we were hoping for and has worked out great for us!

What I was most nervous about was going from 3 bedrooms to 2. The kids do have to share a room, but it has gone SO much more smoothly than I could have even hoped! It turns out the kids do better together than the ever did apart! I didn't see that coming, but I'm so very grateful. That's a huge answered prayer for me!

That first night we set up an air mattress that we had stick into a suitcase and all slept in the kids' room. 21 long hours after leaving my parents house, I think we were all tired enough to sleep no matter how rough the conditions were :) And thankfully the kids room is huge- way bigger than I had even imagined. I think that has made sharing so much easier too. 

We slept well and the next morning our movers arrived- 2 football players from San Jose State University (who promised us tickets to the BYU v San Jose game!!!). It was fun to get to know them, and fantastic to not have to load all our stuff up to our 4th story apartment. Thankfully there are elevators! We only had a few items damaged with the move, and recently we got a check to make up for it. Happily we got a new vacuum out of the deal :) I won't complain that they broke that!

To keep the kids out of the way of the movers, I took them to the nice city park that is a 3 minute walk from our place. That has been so wonderful to have so close!  While at the park, I started chatting with the nicest girl who actually goes to the same church as we do. She was so sweet and invited me to all the fun groups she's involved with, so we made friends right off the bat. What a blessing! I was so worried that people would be snotty and stuck up in California, but I think they've actually been some of the nicest people I've ever met. I think that because it's such a tech area in Silicon Valley that most people don't have family around, which means friends become like family to them. People have been so warm and kind. 

I worried and worried about moving, but it has gone practically perfectly. I'm so glad that when Andrew was offered this job that we prayed and received an answer from Heavenly Father that this is where we're supposed to be. I doubt we'll be in San Jose forever, but it feels so right and good to be here for now.