October

October was also a very fun-filled month. At the beginning of October, I finally reached my weight goal that I had set for myself in February. I still would've had to lose more weight if I wanted to look like Jillian Michaels (yeah, like that's ever going to happen!) but I was excited that I had worked hard and reached that goal. Unfortunately, I did not stay there for long. The day I reached it, I went out for dinner and then did not eat well or work out regularly that weekend. The following week I went to San Francisco and so I did not work out regularly and I ate out for every meal. Pretty soon after I got back was Halloween and then the long string of Holidays and birthdays started. Anyway, I am just proud to say that I reached my goal and it will happen again, and the next time I reach that goal, I really want to actually maintain it :)

As mentioned above, in October I went to San Francisco with my friend, Kim, for a girls' trip. We were there from Thursday until Monday. Those dates weren't ideal, but we got a really good price on our flights by flying those days. I don't have a ton of pictures so I'll try to fill in the blanks where there are not pictures.

We began our trip by taking the wrong train into the city. I knew we needed a certain train, but apparently there were two lines with the same name in it and we picked the wrong one. We didn't realize we had made that mistake until we had stopped at the end of the line. Fortunately, we hadn't gone TOO far and were able to get back on the right train going the right way pretty quickly.

Waiting for Kim to get ready

While we were there, we decided to go see the movie Pitch Perfect because neither of us had seen it yet. We liked it so much that we snuck into another theater and saw the last 45 minutes again ;) When we were walking outside of the theater, we heard this music and saw this big crowd walking down the courtyard. We decided to follow them because we had nothing better to do and when the crowd stopped, we realized that we had been following a Samba band. There were three dancers who looked like they had just stepped straight out of Carnival. It was really cool to be surrounded by that atmosphere. It lasted maybe 30 minutes and then dispersed. I tried to get some pictures, but both of my cameras had nearly-dead batteries and there were of course people in the way.

You can kind of see two of the dancers

The band

One of the dancers. See what I mean? Totally decked out!

The first time we went to Fisherman's Wharf (we went 2 or 3 times)

We rode the cable cars (one of our favorite things in SF) as much as possible. On our last full day there, we went down to Pier 39 to take a tour of the bay. We tried to go to Alcatraz but apparently if you don't book way ahead, you will most likely not be able to go. Instead, we took an audio tour via boat around the bay.

View from the cable car on the way to Pier 39. I thought the fog was cool

About to head out on the tour

Alcatraz before the tour got started

View of the city from the bay

And of course, on the day we took the tour on the bay, it was completely foggy. The recording was telling us all these things you could see and we could see none of them. It hadn't been foggy most of the time while we were there; but then again, I'm sure it's usually more foggy on the water anyway.

The golden gate bridge as we're passing under it

You could barely see the bridge at all

Sail boat

You always have to get a picture of yourself on a cable car!

One of the days we went to the Golden Gate park. I've never been there and it was really beautiful. However, we tried to get out and totally got lost for about an hour. Lame. We wanted to go into these Japanese Gardens but it cost money and we didn't want to pay for it. 

Kim and I outside of the Japanese Gardens

While we were there, we got a 3 day MUNI pass which let us ride the bus and cable cars. The last time we went to San Francisco, we only rode the cable cars. This time we took the bus quite a bit which let us see more things. 

Finally on the bus after we got lost trying to get out of the Golden Gate Park. When we got on, it took 5-10 minutes before the driver could go because we all had to be behind the yellow line. It was CRAZY! This picture is when it was actually a little better, when I was able to finally sit down, but of course it doesn't do the situation justice. Kim and I were separated for quite a while.

Other highlights from the trip: we walked down Haight Street which was pretty cool. We went to Fisherman's Wharf a few times and ate yummy sour dough things and bought loaves of sour dough to take home. (I used to not like sour dough but it's really growing on me.) We went shopping a bunch at places like H&M, Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf and discovered this store called Uniqlo. (I think it's supposed to be a mix of unique and clothes.) It was brand new and you had to wait in line to get in. We checked it out but it wasn't really my style. It was a pretty cool store, though.

At the airport trying to get home. For some reason, it was REALLY busy that morning. The line for security went around the baggage carousels and out the door. We got there about an hour early because we didn't have to check our bags, and we barely made it on the plane.

30 Before 30

This is not an original idea, by any means. I was inspired by my friend, Arika, when I saw her list on her blog. I've been meaning to make my own list for a while, but just haven't done it. Several of these I stole from her, but some are from a list of my own that I started in college. That list idea was also stolen (this time from my roommate, Rachel) but it is a life-long list with no time frame on it. These things are not in any particular order; some are serious and some are silly but all things that I really want to do. A few are things I've already done, but either they were important things that I had been thinking about doing for a long time and/or I want to do them again. I turn 30 in November of 2015 so I have a little less than 3 years to complete these goals.

My 100-thing scrap book

 #1. On my list was "Have children". Obviously I've had more than one, I just haven't updated it yet.

30 before 30

*Go snowboarding (I've been once but I didn't do well at all and want a do-over)

*See the Grand Canyon

*Go on a cruise (I have done this one - post about it soon - but I do want to go on another one, either before I'm 30 or for my 30th birthday)

*Start a garden

*Take a cooking class with Josh

*Start a surrogacy-resource website (with a few of my good friends)

*Ask 12 people their favorite book and read it (I got this idea here)

*Take another girls’ trip

*Have another baby

*Have a weekly date with Josh (I'm not sure if this one has a time frame, but I want to do this for a least a few months in a row, even if it's just a date at home after the kids are in bed)

*Anonymously pay for a stranger’s meal or leave 100% tip (I've thought about doing this as a tradition around Christmastime)

*Crochet or knit something

*Reach my goal weight & stay within +/- 5 lbs for 3 months (I reached a goal weight I had set for myself this past October but only stayed there for about a week before starting to gain weight, post to come)

*Move into a bigger place
*Throw a [housewarming] party in our new place

*Buy a “family” car (This already happened but it was a big deal. You can read about it here)

*Go on family trips

*Run a 10k

*Attend the temple every week for 6 months

*Make my children’s Halloween costumes (at least one year)

*Milk a cow

*See “Wicked” (This has happened, too, but it's something I've wanted to do for a really long time and I want to see it again. Read this post.)

*Do a “Secret Santa” with my kids for another family

*Do at least one random act of kindness every day for a week

*Try something I said I’d never try

*Buy a sewing machine

*Complete at least 5 sewing projects

*Refinish a piece of furniture

*Go jet skiing

*Read all of the Doctrine & Covenants

Fall Family Pictures

At the end of September or beginning of October we had our yearly family pictures taken. I think they turned out pretty well :)

I love these two!

I know I'm pretty biased, but I can't get enough of this face!

I can't believe how big he's getting! He's such a little MAN!

I really like this picture, even though Sofia's mid-cry

One of my absolute favorites!

Love, love, LOVE this one!

I love the fall colors :)

Why, yes, we do make a pretty good-looking couple, don't we? ;)

September

September was full of lots of fun stuff for me. Steven turned four, one of my friends and I participated in the Dirty Dash, and then another friend and I went to New York City for the weekend.

For those of you who don't know, the dirty dash is basically just a crazy obstacle course. Neither of us had done it but we thought it would be really fun.

Meghann & I before the race. Our team name was "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" so we had 80's costumes

 Meghann's husband Scott came with us and so he took pictures for us at a few parts of the race. 

One of the first obstacles was jumping over hay bales

They had this HUGE slip-n-slide that I was really excited about. Unfortunately, I picked the wrong lane because the girl in front of me got stuck part of the way down. I was going pretty fast but I had to stop myself so I wouldn't run into her.

There was mud and water all throughout the course. This was the last huge mud hole that we had to climb up and through.

See? Big mud hole.

I AM SHE-RA!

After the mud bath

We rock!

The same day that I ran the Dirty Dash, my friend, Amanda and I got on a plane to go to New York City. My friend, Amanda, is one of my surrogate friends, and she was going out to Connecticut for her medical screening. The agency allowed her to take someone with her, so I was able to go.

We were staying in Connecticut but on Sunday we took the train into the city and were able to spend the day. We took the Staten Island Ferry so we could get a view of the Statue of Liberty without actually spending the time or money to see it close-up.

The coast guard. Apparently they carry automatic weapons...

Amanda and I in front of the Wall Street subway station

This fountain is right by City Hall

We were also able to go to the 9/11 Memorial. It was really cool. We are in front of the South Tower Memorial which is in the exact foot print of the building.

Me in front of the "Freedom Tower" aka One World Trade Center that is still under construction

Right outside of Central Park there is a really big round-about. In the middle there is a statue of Christopher Columbus on top of a 75-foot tower. While we were there, an artist put up this really cool exhibit around it. He made a living room around the Columbus statue so you could get an up close and personal look. This is Amanda and I outside of the living room with Central Park West behind us

Inside the exhibit