There's no place like home

We decided last minute to go to the beach this evening. I figure we better take advantage of the warm weather and water while it lasts. I absolutely love living in San Diego. Today, Bowen was telling me a story about when he was out at sea he dreamed of living in a place like this. He'd asked someone that lived here at the time what it was like. The person said, "It's like living in a movie." I agree! I couldn't ask for anything better.

The lighting was soooo perfect I had to take some pictures. Here's just a few of the many.

Labor Day weekend 09'

What a fun weekend! Our day started with calling a tow truck to come and take the Jimmy to the shop. I had replaced the starter, but it still wouldn't start. Sooo we're now waiting for a diagnosis. After that, we put the boards on the car and got it all loaded for the beach, aaaand... it wouldn't start. After some serious prayers and a little luck it did start and we were off. We met up with our good friends, The Galbasinies and the Riches. We had fun surfing and soaking up the sun. The kids had fun playing in the water and eating the sand. I wish I would've taken more pictures but I kind of forgot to. Oh well.

If I get Mase a bucket of water and spread his sand toys out, it'll keep him occupied for quite a while. He's such a busybody!

By midday the babies were exhausted!

I love my precious little boy... ...and my precious big boy!

Tourmaline sunset

That evening we got into the car to head to the Riches for dinner. Aaaand the car wouldn't start. Oh, but that wasn't going to get us down. Dave came and rescued us with a jump and we were off! Kari made an amazing dinner and super yummy frozen yogurt. Thanks KK! As you can imagine, the football game was on. Can I get a BYU!?! That game was amazing. When Dave and Bowen would yell at the TV, Mason would run in the room and just scream back. He didn't know why everyone was yelling but wanted to get involved! After a victorious win this is what Bowen said, "You know the church is true when they [the players] play a game like that." Ha ha! He's so funny! After a fun filled evening we headed home with no car trouble at all.

Then came Sunday.

In our car once more, all ready for church, aaand it wont start. Luckily our sweet neighbor was just pulling up and he gave us a jump.

Fast forward three hours...aaaand our car won't start. Another jump to get us going. On our way this was our conversation. Me, "Honey, can we pleeease just go to Autozone and get a new battery?" Bowen, "Ya, let's go right now!"

I really don't like shopping on Sunday, but this was a must! Too much money later we were all set with a new battery and a smooth starting car.

That evening we had a new couple in our ward, Pete and Maren Leavitt, come over for dinner. They were so sweet and nice. It was good to get to know them a little better. Hopefully they stay in our ward for a while. After they headed home Bowen, Mason, and I topped off the evening with a Redbox movie rental. yesssssss!

This morning we woke up and cleaned the house. One of the many things I love about Bowen is that he's a very clean, organized, everything has it's place kind of guy. Thanks babe! He needed to study for the LSAT so Mason and and I went shopping...well browsing. After a couple hours I picked up Bowen and we headed to a BBQ hosted by some other friends from the ward. We were able to visit for a while, but needed to get back a do a bit of yard work. Well, that didn't happen. We detoured over to SDU and drove around the campus and ended up at the Law building. We walked around, let Mase chase the pigeons, and picked up some information about applying, requirements, loans, all that really important stuff that you don't really want to do but you have to. It's a beautiful campus and I really, really hope Bowen is able to get in there for Law School. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

We topped off the night with a trip back to the beach for a bit of surfing followed by dinner at Hooters. Military Monday with a 20% discount. Mmmm....wings.

I love Labor Day weekend!

Free Tuesday

I recently learned that on Tuesdays you can get into one of the museums at Balboa Park for free. Yesterday it was the Natural History Museum. I'd been wanting to go for quite a while now because they had the Body Worlds exhibit. Usually it's around $20 to get in the Museum and another $25 or so to see Body Worlds. Well, I was a bargain hunter and found some tickets on Craigslist for only 10 bucks! Free entrance and $10 for a ticket...awesome! Heidi came with us and helped with Mason tremendously! We went right during nap time, so he wasn't to happy. But, he had fun running around and touching everything. There was one part of the museum that had snakes and he looooved watching and making ssssssss noises at them. What a fun morning! We're going to try and do the other free Tuesday museums for the rest of the month so anyone is invited to come along!

Inside the "cave"

He was fascinated by this dinosaur. He kept touching it and pointing at its nose.

For the past couple of days there has been this spider in my backyard. He builds a web at night and then when morning comes he undoes it and crawls away and hides. Every time I see it it's twice as big as the night before. I hate spiders, but this is pretty cool. I'm curious to see how big it actually gets.

It's eating a fly

Handy woman

About a week and a half ago the starter on Bowens car pooped out. Woopy! He's been so busy he hasn't really had time to work to much on it. He's been taking my car to work and Mase and I have been stuck at home. Talk about stir crazy! So this past Saturday we worked on it. Since the car wasn't jacked up it was a bit of a squeeze for Bowen. He got it about half way then it was my turn to get the cables and such off. I finally got it out! What a pain! I went and bought a new one but by the time I got back it was getting dark and I didn't have enough time to put it back in. Well, today I put that stinkin starter back in! I have to admit, I'm pretty proud of myself! The most work I've ever done on a car is checking the oil, jumping the battery, and helping my dad rotate the tires. This was an accomplishment in my book!

Being this greasy took me back to the days of working on Uncle Lee's farm and dad calling me a Grease Monkey.

Good thing I bought some Orange Clean and shop towels. I feel like a girl again!

Some updates

I've found that I always write about events that we've done, and never update on what's going on in our day to day lives. I know not everyone wants to know these insignificant things, but this blog is kind of like a journal to me. I feel it's important to write these things down.

Bowen has been the Young Men's President at church for a couple months now. He really enjoys it and I think the boys really look up to and respect him. He's currently studying to take his LSAT and hopefully get into Law School this upcoming year. We both hope that he gets into a School here in San Diego. If not, we'll worry about those details when they arise :o) He's still working at NASSCO in the ship building industry. He's working on his second ship as an Area Manager. It's set to launch in February so the closer it gets to that, the busier he is. He likes the guys he works with so that makes it enjoyable to be there. He balances all that he has going on so well! Bowen is a phenomenal husband and father. He loves his family so much. The other day he and Mason were at the park. There were a couple kids playing soccer, so Mason went right over to them and tried to play. This struck a tender spot in Bowens heart. He can't wait to coach his little boy in sports. It's what he was meant to do!

I recently got called to be a Beehive advisor for the Young Women at church. Heidi is also a teacher with me, so we trade off teaching every other week. I've only taught once so far, but I already love being there. The girls are so sweet. I hope that I'll be able to reach out to them and be an example. Since we moved from the apartments into our house, I had to give up my property management job. So now I'm a full time mommy! I'm still learning all the places to go and things to do in our area. Mason and I are always on an adventure.

Speaking of Mason, he's developing such a sense of humor. He knows when he's being funny and will keep doing whatever he's doing. Such as, putting his hands over his mouth and blowing so that it makes a zurbert noise. He can successfully climb on and off the couch, but can only climb up stairs. He know where his eyes, nose, mouth, piggies (toes), and belly button are. Without teaching him, he's discovered where his little man part is as well. He can say Mom, Dad, dog, no, tree, shoe, yes, and Heidi. He loves bugs, leaves, sticks, balls, trucks, and mud. Can you tell he's a boy?!? He also loves books and singing the ABC's, Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam, and counting to 5. He mimics the tune of the ABC's (ay ay ay dee dee awr awr) and can count to three (duh doo chee), but only when he wants. I love my little boy so much! I only hope that I can be a good mom and teach him to do what's right. I hope that he'll be strong in the church and be a great leader like his daddy.

The other day, Mason put on my shoes and thought it was pretty cool. He walked around in them for as long as he could before they fell off. Then he proceeded to whine at me until I put them back on him.

We went to the beach on Saturday with the Hachtman's and Galbasini's. The kids had fun playing in the water and sand and we had a good time just visiting and soaking up the sun. All the kids tried a bit a surfing. Mason wasn't to thrilled with the idea, but started to enjoy it towards the end.

There are a few couples with kid(s) in our ward that don't have any family here to use as babysitters. It's kind of a stretch to go out on a date then have to come home and pay a babysitter. So, thanks to Jackie putting it together, we've come up with co op babysitting. We and 2 other families take turns watching each others kids on Friday (or whatever day) nights. This allows us about 2 days a month to go out on a date baby free. Woot woot! It seems to work well and it's nice for the kids to get together and play. I'm sure we'll continue this as long as possible.

This was our date night on Friday. We picked up Heidi and Gordon and went bowling at the Navy base on Coronado. I love the benefits of being military! Not only was it super cheap, but there was hardly anyone there! We had a good time just hanging out.

I love our house. It's been so nice to call it home. Even though it's still pretty small, it feels huge compared to our last place. We've definitely felt the pains of paying a mortgage every month though. It's been something that will still take some time to get used to. Clipping coupons and shopping on a strict budget while trying to get our food storage up to where it needs to be is just part of my weekly agenda. One thing that we've been trying to do (now that we have the room) is have a different family from the ward come over each week. It doesn't always work every week, but we do our best. It's nice to be able to get to know each other better and develop relationships with people we may have never gotten to know. I hope that our home can be a place of peace that others would want to be.

We've both been making a conscious effort to get in to better shape. Surfing is a good workout, but I need to do more. Mason thinks it's hilarious when you work out and tries to do what you're doing. The other day he was working out with Bowen attempting to do push ups and stretches.

We decided to cancel our cable so now we have no television channels. We both felt like we needed to be doing other things other than wasting our time watching TV. Even though I didn't watch that much of it anyway, my day seems so much more productive. I'm able to think clearer and accomplish more. I only hope Bowen will be able to survive football season! Our home seems calmer too, so for now, this is what works.

After church activities

Andrea and Shari out for a visit

The day after I got back from Utah my Aunt Andrea and her friend, Shari, came out to San Diego for a little vacation before school started again. We were so happy to have them come out and visit! We had so much fun! They got in late Wednesday night and the poor things were starving so I quickly grilled some chicken and threw together some salad for them. They soon got settled in and we all headed to bed. Early the next day we got up, made peanut butter sandwiches and headed to SeaWorld for a day of adventures! We caught most all of the shows, saw all the exhibits and animals, and minus our tickets we only spent about 5 bucks! Woop woop! The girls went on a few of the rides to get wet and cool off a bit. Even though we sat in the soak zone for Shamu, we hardly got wet. It was so much fun! We stayed until closing, so we were able to see the night shows which are pretty awesome as well. We came home to find Bowen asleep on the couch. Awww... The next day was a little bit more relaxed. We met up with Aunt Moreen for some brunch at DZ Akins diner in La Mesa. It was so nice to finally see her! We've lived here this whole time and we'd never met up until then. She was so nice and even bought us our meals. After we took a couple pictures and said our goodbyes we headed back to Pacific Beach. We went to Belmont Park and the Wave House and just walked around a bit. After that we went to the Closet for some SHOPPING! No trip would be complete with out some Yogurtland.

I think they were hooked with the first bite!

Of course Mason devoured most of mine...maybe.

It seemed as soon as we were done there it was time to head back to the house and get ready to go to Annie at the Starlight theater in Balboa Park. Shari had never had In N Out before, so that's what we picked up for dinner. We met up with my friend, Shawnie and her stepdaughter outside the theater. After devouring our scrumptious burgers we headed inside. The play was so cute! It's an outdoor theater, so when the airplanes fly over all the actors stop and as soon as the plane is gone, they resume right back to where thy left off. What a fun day that was!

Saturday morning was, of course, beach day! We kind of got a late start but managed to finally get out the door before noon. We even found a great spot to park which is always a bonus! The girls wanted to try surfing so I took them out. The current was so bad I couldn't even stand up to position the girls in the waves. So Bowen came out and helped them. They were both so close to standing up, but didn't quite get it.

Andrea almost standing up

Switching places

Shari almost got it

It didn't help that the waves weren't to great either though...oh well, I think they had fun anyway. That evening after we'd gotten back and rested a bit, the girls volunteered to babysit Mason while Bowen and I went out on a Date for our 2 year anniversary. Such Sweethearts! We went to see a movie. I think they thought we were pretty lame for just doing that, but it's a very rare occasion that we actually go out, let alone go to a movie. Mason and theaters just don't mix if you know what I mean. ha ha! On our way home we stopped by the Stake Youth Dance just in time to help clean up. By the time we got home Mason was sound asleep and the girls had just finished their second movie. Bowen took them to the Airport early Sunday Morning. It was so fun to have them out here for a few days! I hope they had a good time and weren't to bored with us :) I know Mason sure enjoyed their company and i know Bowen and I did too!