Since Chase and I were only in Utah for a couple days, we decided the best way to see the most people would be to have a family picnic in the park. Conveniently enough, we planned it for that Saturday, my birthday! It was a really fun afternoon and a beautiful day! Everyone brought some food, and we had some birthday dessert. We had a great time! Such a fun excuse to spend time with amazing people, including some Pages, Hardys, Morins, and Nielsens.
Paden, Rebecca, Brian, and Cadie
Jonne, Chase, Nana, and Jana
Chase playing with his new Leap Frog laptop. He loves it!
Morins and Hardys
Yummy bundt cake dessert.
We had gotten bundt cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes. They are amazing! We bought a chocolate chocolate-chip and a white chocolate raspberry. Definitely look them up -- yum! And they can be decorated all fancy. So fun!
And there was Chase off in the corner by himself... :)
Blowing out the candles. They only put eight on the cakes :)
Marcus had sent some beautiful roses for me with his brother.
A great surprise!
Chase was super busy with his lap top.
Concentrating Hard.
And when we got home, Marcus had another birthday surprise!
Perfume, headphones, and an iPad promissory note.
The perfume is called Hypnotic Poison. It's an Epcot exclusive that we smelled while we were on vacation there. It smells incredible!
Then when I went to YW on Tuesday, the girls made me a cake and a candy-gram! That was a really fun surprise!
It was a lot of fun being able to celebrate my birthday with so many family members (and of course the girls at church)! Definitely the biggest party I've ever had, though I'm sure having an out of town baby there was the biggest pull for everyone to attend :)
After our trip to Oceanside, Chase and I drove back to Arizona with my family, spent a few days in Scottsdale, went to my grandparents' cabin for a couple days, drove up to Utah, and stayed a few nights in my parents' new house in Sandy. All that was in probably eight days. It was really quick, but we had a blast. And Chase loved having more space to run in circles and more cupboards to investigate.
Marcus had to get back to work, so he flew straight home from San Diego, but he left me a box of chocolates -- one for each day as a countdown to my birthday. All delicious truffles, my favorite! Isn't he so sweet? (Joke! Ha)
SCOTTSDALE
Gram let Chase have some of her ice cream cone.
She never got that back.
Watching the rain.
Resting in the dog kennel.
New shoes -- they're so big!
CABIN IN MUNDS PARK
Chase learned to say a new name.
Driving the Rhino.
A cow, for Marcus
A nervous driver -- it's been awhile since I was behind a wheel!
Watching Kade Skateboarding. Chase thought it was hilarious.
SANDY
Watching a movie on the stairs
Say cheese!
Going up and down...
We had a few house projects to help with.
We moved this up from the basement.
This was my curio that was on the second floor.
We took it downstairs to the basement.
Figuring out the pivot plan.
Having Law School prep discussions.
Visiting Annie and Rea's home and calling them on the phone.
Figuring out yet another door.
We had a great time out west visiting family, helping unpack the new house, going out to eat, and (Chase would want me to add) opening and closing every door in sight. (We also had a picnic in the park on my birthday so we could see more family in town. I have another blog post about that because I had more pictures to go through.)
We're back home in New York, which is nice to be back in our own beds, but we miss seeing everyone! Four more months until our next trip out west! Looking forward to Christmas in Scottsdale with the Gardners!
We had a great time in Oceanside again this year. We missed Trevor, Jake, Alyssa, and Courtney, especially when Chase would start running up and down the beach-- definitely could've used some more reinforcements :) The week went by quickly, but it was so beautiful and relaxing. We love to read with the waves in the background, and like I said, Chase loved everything about the beach. Here are a bunch of pictures and video clips from the week. Most are of Chase in the sand because that was what he wanted to do most often :)
Killing time en route to the beach with Toy Story
Checking out the ocean the first time.
He didn't like the sand on his hands
Chasing Chase -- should've named him "Sits quietly"
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