This is how we do it

Bye Bye California!
We are in full on moving mode! Boxes are being packed, kids are being shuffled around, and we are having to say goodbye to all our great friends here in the bay area. We started off the goodbyes by dropping our kids off at our good friends the Greens who live in the city, while Ronnie and I went out to dinner. Nice huh? We had to cash in on a generous gift certificate and offer to babysit from the Greens before we left town! We did get to hang out a little and then sadly say goodbye. They have been amazing co-workers and wonderful friends. We will miss you Eric, Marla, Sadie, and baby on the way!
Each month the girls in our ward get together and have a Girls Night Out. We go to a restaurant in the area and chat till they kick us out! This month they dedicated the GNO to me! Thanks girls, it was so fun to see everyone and I will miss our girl time. I think this is a tradition I will have to start in our new ward.

Later in the week we met our good friends the Pace's out in Pleasanton for dinner. It is always fun spending time with the Pace family and we will miss them a lot! We lived with them in Utah and then they came out here to Nor. Cal just after we did. We think they should follow us to Seattle now! At least they have family in the area so they will be up to visit often! It's just great how close the girls are and how they seem to pick right up where they left off each time they get together. They can find fun anywhere, with anything. This trip they made a slide out of the escalator and a band with the musical instruments on the restaurant wall. Becca was hinting at how old Beckham is getting and maybe it's time for another? I shot her down real quick- our little Beckham is enough for a few years to come! However, if any baby out there could make me baby hungry, it would be that little Caulder. He was so snugly and squishy, just as a baby should be! We love you Pace family and hope to see you up in Seattle very soon!

On Saturday our goodbyes continued with a going away party given by my good friend Jenny. Her and her husband Ryan were so nice to open their home to some of our ward friends for a Mexican Fiesta Farewell! The evening was a blast; filled with yummy food, mojito's, margaritas, strawberry daiquiris (all of the virgin type of course) and hours upon hours of Guitar Hero! (Oh how I wish I had my camera!) If you haven't played yet, watch out, you will become addicted; finding every excuse you can to go play, ripping the guitars out of your children's hands and totally ignoring everything except which little color of dot is passing by! You know it's bad when you schedule a play date for your kids to get together and the moms end up playing GH the whole time! Good times! I will miss Jenny so very much! We have had a blast chatting, shopping, trick or treating, playing with our little girls, GNO's ,and enjoying her gorgeous back yard. Madison and Abby are very close in age and get along great. And, her son Tanner is a blast, he was in my CTR 8 class and was my comic relief each Sunday, he's a hoot! I wish I had those pictures of him on Halloween last year, he was Nacho Libre, running around the neighborhood in underoos, tights, a cape and mustache- Classic! Your the man T! We will miss the Watts terribly but we know we will keep in touch for a long time! So, in my absence, I now call on all of the rest of my girlfriends in the ward to take care of my Jenny, she is fragile, and breaks easily! No more bursting appendixes, broken necks, tornadoes, or flooding homes for you Jen! (yes, that was all within a year and that wasn't all that happened either! I tell you, she's fragile!) I love you Jenny!

We had our last Sunday here in Cali, and had to sat goodbye to our classes we teach. Ronnie taught a "parting thoughts" lesson to the YM while I chased Beckham around for 2 hours. (Why can't nursery start a little earlier?) I did get a chance to peek in on my CTR 8 class to say goodbye and give lots of hugs. Those kids are so adorable and have such great testimonies of the gospel. I really think they taught me so much more than I taught them. We will really miss our ward. It has been so much fun and we have made some amazing friends. The bishop told me that he was so sad to see Ronnie go. He has really done a great job in Young Men's and the boys look up to him a lot. I think it has been Ronnie's favorite calling and hopes to be involved with the youth in our next ward.

So now I am blogging away when I should be packing! But, I think this will be the last blog here in California. I probably won't post again for a while. We leave on Saturday and get to Seattle on Monday evening. I am packing the apartment up this week while Ronnie is at a conference for his new job. Thankfully my friends and my sister are helping out with the kids so I can get lots done. My parents are meeting us up in Seattle to help unpack and get settled before we take off for vacation! Yippee! Nana and Papa are staying with the kids while Ronnie and I escape to Costa Rica for a week! It will be a much needed relaxing trip. We rented a beach house and plan to lounge in the pool and on the beach most of the time. I am taking 3 books and plan to take many naps each day. We will try and get out a few times to see the sights. Neither of us have been to Costa Rica so we are thinking we should do a few things at least! We are going to do a zip line canopy tour and 4-wheel out to a beach to see turtles lay their eggs in the sand. Ronnie is trying to convince me to let him scuba again, I don't know about that! After his "episode" the last time we were in Hawaii, I told him NEVER again! We will see! It should be a great time! There isn't much that tops vacations with your hubby at a tropical location!

Wish us luck with this move, it should be interesting! We are really going to miss it here. Such amazing friends and great things to do. If you ever get the opportunity to move to Nor. Cal. I highly recommend it, it's been a blast! Bye!