Surprise

This weekend I accomplished what I am calling a minor miracle. I managed to surprise my husband with a little trip for his 30th birthday. It is quite the miracle because:

a). I'd been planning it for over five months and didn't let it slip. This is truly a miracle because there were so many times I came close to mentioning it, and caught myself.

b). way too many people knew about it. My friend commented on the eve of the trip, "you've really told a lot of people about it". To which I replied, "well, a few". Her response was "pretty much everyone who knows you knows about it". Yikes. Maybe I didn't like the truth, but it was the reality. I told far too many people. Even with all that information out there and out of my hands, no one gave it away (thank you everyone).

So as you can see it was pretty amazing that he was surprised in the end. Like really surprised. As in didn't even have the slightest inclination that I would be planning something. I love it. Or should I feel a little lame that he wouldn't have thought I'd do something special for his thirtieth? I'll focus on the loving it part.

So where did we go? We went to one of the Jono's bucket list locations. Was it the beach in Mexico? Nope. Shopping in NYC? C'mon, you know him better than that. Greece? That's next year (in my wildest dreams, at least). We went to Yosemite. As in the national park. Jonathan has been talking about going there for years. Seeing pictures of our friends' trip, Katy & Jeff, got the wheels in my mind turning over Thanksgiving break. And thus the planning began.

I secretly hid some of my hard-earned volleyball money, some Christmas cash that Jono hadn't accounted for (sneaky, I know), and some money from my little bow business (yeah little bow business). I booked our accommodations, flights and rental car through my dad's credit card. I arranged a fun weekend for Clara with the Hooks and Pickerings (thank you nana/papa and Carly + boys). I called his work and schemed with his co-workers a conference he would attend, since we couldn't figure out a way to keep fake patients on his schedule. And it all came together perfectly.

On the night before we left, I really started to freak out. Was Jonathan going to be upset that I didn't let him mentally prepare? He loves planning and looking forward to trips. Was he going to be mad that he wasn't caught up with his charts at work? I tried everything (short of telling him) to get him to go back to work Wednesday night and catch up on them. In the end I decided that I'd kept it a surprise for five months, I might as well tell him at the very last minute.

A little background: On March 27th I started a thirty day countdown to Jono's birthday. I had kind of screwed myself over last year by listing twenty-nine things I loved about Jonathan. I should've saved that idea for this year! So I had to come up with something else - and thus, the countdown came to be. Every day from the 27th to his actual birthday (April 26th), I have been giving Jonathan a little number card with some kind of gift. Things like special books, lattes at work, massages, art projects from Clara. Acts of service like making a lunch (I never make my husband a lunch - pathetic, I know), dumping our leaves from the fall at the waste to energy plant, and ironing pants (another dreaded task). You get the idea.

So on the 14th of April at 3:30 in the morning, I turned on the light and handed Jonathan his day #18 card with a wrapped present. He was mostly asleep, but proceeded to open the present. It was a wrapped Yosemite book I had ordered online. He said "oh cool" or something like that. So I said, "we're going there." And he said, "oh cool". And I replied, "I mean we're going there today. We're leaving in an hour." Then I spent the next ten minutes convincing him that we were, in fact, going. I brought up our packed bags and finally it began to sink in. I'm pretty sure it took him most of the morning to really get it. And by then we were in our rental car outside Oakland, on the way to Yosemite.

And it was at that moment that I actually started enjoying our weekend. I was a bit stressed out beforehand. That Jonathan would find out. That he'd be mad when he did find out (ha. quote: " besides our wedding day and Clara being born, this is the best day of my life"). That I'd booked something incorrectly. That something would go wrong.

Thankfully, everything went according to plan. The weather was amazing (the park had been closed the week before due to a huge snow storm). Even Obama got his act together and extended the federal budget - or the park would've been closed. Ugh. I'm just glad that even the things out of my hands turned out okay.

If you've made it this far (congrats), here's the good stuff: the pictures. If any of you have been to Yosemite, you know how breathtaking it is. As in utterly ridiculous. Holy. Amazing. Even these great pictures can't even begin to capture the place.

On Thursday we got there in time to see a few sites, eat out at the Yosemite lodge, eat some s'mores over a fire, and collapse into our cozy little tent cabin. All of these pictures were taken the first day (by Jono, of course). I love a great picture - but let me tell you that my husband has some serious stamina. I just can't keep up. There is evidence below (one or two where he's captured me sitting by the car, waiting). It's quite the beautiful place to be "waiting", I know. I'm not complaining. But I didn't complain when our friends Jeff and Katy arrived and Jonathan had another photographer to join forces with.

Some pictures from day one.

Jeff and Jono awoke early Friday morning for some sunrise shots of Half Dome and El Capitan. I love the reflection shots.

Later that morning, we watched this little rascal cross our paths. Jonathan jumped out of the car and ended up getting this picture of the bobcat.

And here are a few other animal shots from the weekend, while I'm thinking about it...

After tracking down the bobcat, we drove to the mariposa grove and met Leah and Travis. They drove up from Orange County early in the morning and spent the weekend with us. We spent the day hiking around the giant sequoias and other landmarks, eating Leah's delicious chicken chili (once frozen, as you can tell) and later eating a fancy dessert at the Ahwahnee, a four diamond hotel in the park.

Saturday we decided to go on the six mile round-trip hike to upper Yosemite Falls. It was a killer hike (switchbacks the entire time, basically), with quite the rewarding views. We made it nearly to the top before exhaustion set in. Pizza and a relaxing night of games at the Ahwahnee lobby rewarded our hard work.

And on Sunday we said our goodbyes. And made the trek back to Oakland to catch our flight. We made just one more important stop before leaving the state of California.

And that concluded our trip. Thank you Leah and Trav, Jeff and Katy for an awesome weekend. And thank you "everyone" who knew - for not ruining the surprise ;). I can rest easy these days. It's been done. It was great. I have officially surprised my husband and I don't have to do it ever again, right?

Weekend in Montana

I have always loved Montana. It's close in proximity (part of it is close, I should say). It's ridiculously beautiful. And it grows some pretty darn good people. I mean, most people hailing from Montana are pretty great. At least the ones I know well (Andrea and Neal are just two). I'm sure there are some crazies; I just don't know them.

I love Montana even more since I have a family member living there. My littlest brother, Ethan, is a freshman at the U of M. This past weekend we drove over to Missoula to watch him play tennis. We actually weren't sure if he'd have the opportunity to play, but he did. He lost in a thrilling tie breaker, but of course we enjoyed watching him. No one more than Miss Clara. I'm not quite sure how "Uncle E" has risen in the ranks to become family favorite, but he somehow trumps everyone else, including grammy and grampy. This little girl is definitely smitten with her uncle.

In addition to watching some great tennis, we (our little family of three plus grammy, grampy, aunt "Pammy" and great uncle Dave) explored the the campus, ate a great meal at MacKenzie River Pizza, went on a chilly walk and enjoyed some ice cream at the Big Dipper. Let's just say that this summer will look much different than last summer when it comes to ice cream. Gone are the days of consuming the goodness in front of Clara, enjoying her oblivion.

The boys even took a 6:30 am hike to the M, overlooking the city. I decided to sleep instead, but I'm sure it was great fun.

We'll be glad to go back. We really love that place. In fact, we both agreed that we wouldn't mind living there. But only if we could get everyone we love to come with us. Since I don't see that happening, we probably won't make the move anytime soon. But there is still the appeal.

Simplicity

I am reading a really good book. Actually, I have read it once and am working my way through a second time. And yes, if I've talked to you about this, you're probably already rolling your eyes. Now Amy is posting about it? Things are really getting out of hand ;).

But it kind of summarizes this place in life where I currently find myself. And it explains a bit of what I've been up to lately. The book is called Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider. How many people do you know without a vowel in their first name? Now you (kind of) know one. Anyways, it is a great book. A really great book.

What is this great book about, you ask? Well, the subtitle gives you an idea, the clutter free approach to intentional living. The first part of the book talks about creating a family mission statement to guide all kinds of decisions about how you use your time and resources. I don't know if other people relate, but since making the choice to stay at home, I feel like I've been bombarded with options. And this is a good thing. (It's funny I used to wonder if staying at home might be boring. Ha.) There are toddler groups and classes, opportunities to work part-time in certain arenas, ministries, etc. etc. etc. When I was teaching, it was easy to focus on doing that well. The little bit of leftover time was easily consumed with family and friends. Now, time is a little bit trickier. There is a whole lot more of it, but not as much as you might think (when you count all that eating and sleeping time). It can easily be absorbed in dozens of great activities. But I don't want to look back on these years and see that I ran around from thing to thing, doing twelve things that I really was not passionate about. I want to choose every thing on my calendar because it fits with what we're about as a family.

So we wrote the family mission statement. We wrote the (surprisingly long) list of weekly and monthly commitments. And we put everything on the chopping block. It was a great process. The result? Quite a few changes are on the horizon in the next few months. And I'm hoping we do this continuously. It'll certainly be necessary, I think.

Part two of the book? The household purge. After a whole lot of motivating (and a little bit of guilt, but not too much ;)), she guides you through one room in your house at a time. We're only a few days in and have been thrilled with the piles of things that are leaving our home. How is it possible that in just 2.5 years of living in a space, we've accumulated so much? Clara is only some of the answer.

Is there anything as freeing as watching bins and piles leave your house, never to return? At this exact moment in time I can honestly say no!

Now I do acknowledge that this book was just what I needed to read at this moment in time. It might not be what you need. After recommending it to a few friends who have gone out and bought it, I'm a bit worried. It might not be all that great for where they find themselves in life at the moment. But then again, if you did buy it, I bet you'd get something out of it. Even if you already have a family mission statement and a perfectly purged home ;).

Toddler Co-op

Clara loves her toddler co-op. And we finally made it there last Friday, after weeks of sickness and trips out of town. Here are a few pictures of the twenty-three month old (P.S. Don't you have to stop counting by months when they hit the two year mark? I'm going to say her age in months as many times as I possibly can in the coming weeks!)...

Her favorite activities at co-op, in order of obsession:

1. train whistle (which signals taking the rope train to music)

2. snack (if I'm really honest, it's tied for 1st place. Notice how she is the only one shoving her face in this picture)

3. music time (which involved the ever-popular parachute this week)

4. painting

5. tunnel/slide

6. listening to a book on CD (mostly just putting on the ear phones)

7. tire bouncing

8. waiting to wash her hands (this might be higher on the list, actually). I don't have a picture of this one, but it has to make the list.

9. looking at fish

10. playdough

There you have it. A day in the life of Clara at co-op. Life doesn't get much better than that, for the Clarabelle ;).