Saturday, May 23, 2015
Solvang and a Wedding Reception, June 2014
In June we had a wonderful time visiting Seth's family in San Francisco for Scott and Susan's wedding reception. We decided to make it a fun road trip and after doing some research discovered a little town to visit on our way up. Solvang is an old Danish town on the central coast of CA. We had an awesome time browsing through the shops looking at cuckoo clocks and family crests, enjoying a delicious lunch of sausages and ebelskivers, and collecting some Danish pastries to share with the family in SF. Once we reached the bay area, the kids enjoyed their time on the swing, with their cousins, and visiting Chinatown (as usual) and the Golden Gate Bridge. Seth enjoyed reconnecting with old friends he hadn't seen in years. The kids and I were also blessed with the opportunity to finally meet Werner and Gisela Backes, some dear friends of the Nielsen family from Germany. They are dear, sweet people, and we hope to be able to see them again before too many years have passed! And of course, we were delighted to be able to join in the celebration welcoming Susan to the family!
The Winds of Change begin to blow...
While we were visiting Utah in May, I had a sudden awakening to just how unsettled I was in our current life situation. It had been a very difficult transition moving from Point Loma to our new house, and dealing with everything that came with that - being so far away from work, our nice library and shopping areas, and school; a home just barely big enough to house our growing family; basically just realizing that I couldn't continue to live my life in Point Loma and being unwilling to commit to putting roots down in our new area. I just didn't feel comfortable there; it wasn't "home".
I don't want to sound ungrateful or snobbish, because that wasn't the case. We loved our little home, and we worked hard to make it a good place for our children. We made precious memories there; it was our first house. It was very fulfilling to finally have a yard for the boys to play in. It was Seth's first opportunity to do yardwork with the boys, and Eli especially loved working with his Daddy outside. I spent countless hours playing baseball and "kick the ball on the swing" with Joshua. We laid out the landscaping for the back yard and thanks to Papa's generous donations were able to fulfill many of those plans. The boys loved exploring on the hill and digging in the dirt. I loved my roses and my trellises; our home had charm. The kids played zebras out front, pretending to lunch on the palm fronds from the trees in our yard. I took many pleasant walks through Rohr park, before Ivy was born, with Eli having a snack and reading "Harold and the Purple Crayon" in the stroller. We lived near the best donut shop in San Diego. And we were blessed to meet many wonderful people in our new ward; albeit brief, we'll always be grateful for our association with them.
And yet, some things were just off. For example, the kids were afraid to go outside without me; we didn't really know any of our neighbors -- we saw more of their guard dogs than we did of them! We had envisioned a neighborhood full of young families (our reasoning being, they can't afford homes in Point Loma, so they must all move out there!) and hopefully some ward members, but that just was not the case. Instead of finding a more permanent version of the community feel we'd had at our apartment on Adrian Street, back in the day when we'd first moved to San Diego, we found ourselves more isolated -- too far from former ward friends and school friends, not close enough to current ward friends, and feeling not at all at home in our new area.
So by the time we were coming home from Utah, I was starting to come to grips with what I'd slowly been realizing for the past nine months or so -- the fact that we just wouldn't be able to find what we were looking for in San Diego anymore. Even with the buildup, it came as rather a shock. We'd never even considered leaving San Diego! We thought we would be there forever. But with our family expanding, and the children getting older, and financial limitations, I knew in my heart that we needed to make a change. Again. That wasn't the lifestyle for us.
When we first got back to SD from our trip, I remember telling Seth that I wanted to move to Utah. Now, I loved SD, and neither one of us has ever wanted to live in Utah, so it was no surprise that he didn't take me seriously. I was upset, and convinced that we needed to go, but after a day or so I realized, yeah I didn't really want to move there. Nothing against Utah of course -- we'd to school there and loved it, but it just didn't feel like the place for our family to be. We've already done Utah! But still I felt like I wanted a change -- a place where we could afford a large, lovely home, in a nice neighborhood with amenities and young families, and more friends than guard dogs living on our block! It took about a month for Seth to realize that I was serious, and since we'd gone through this before when I was unhappy about living in Ridgecrest, he knew it was for real. The question was, where should we go? And how would we even go about doing it?
I don't want to sound ungrateful or snobbish, because that wasn't the case. We loved our little home, and we worked hard to make it a good place for our children. We made precious memories there; it was our first house. It was very fulfilling to finally have a yard for the boys to play in. It was Seth's first opportunity to do yardwork with the boys, and Eli especially loved working with his Daddy outside. I spent countless hours playing baseball and "kick the ball on the swing" with Joshua. We laid out the landscaping for the back yard and thanks to Papa's generous donations were able to fulfill many of those plans. The boys loved exploring on the hill and digging in the dirt. I loved my roses and my trellises; our home had charm. The kids played zebras out front, pretending to lunch on the palm fronds from the trees in our yard. I took many pleasant walks through Rohr park, before Ivy was born, with Eli having a snack and reading "Harold and the Purple Crayon" in the stroller. We lived near the best donut shop in San Diego. And we were blessed to meet many wonderful people in our new ward; albeit brief, we'll always be grateful for our association with them.
And yet, some things were just off. For example, the kids were afraid to go outside without me; we didn't really know any of our neighbors -- we saw more of their guard dogs than we did of them! We had envisioned a neighborhood full of young families (our reasoning being, they can't afford homes in Point Loma, so they must all move out there!) and hopefully some ward members, but that just was not the case. Instead of finding a more permanent version of the community feel we'd had at our apartment on Adrian Street, back in the day when we'd first moved to San Diego, we found ourselves more isolated -- too far from former ward friends and school friends, not close enough to current ward friends, and feeling not at all at home in our new area.
So by the time we were coming home from Utah, I was starting to come to grips with what I'd slowly been realizing for the past nine months or so -- the fact that we just wouldn't be able to find what we were looking for in San Diego anymore. Even with the buildup, it came as rather a shock. We'd never even considered leaving San Diego! We thought we would be there forever. But with our family expanding, and the children getting older, and financial limitations, I knew in my heart that we needed to make a change. Again. That wasn't the lifestyle for us.
When we first got back to SD from our trip, I remember telling Seth that I wanted to move to Utah. Now, I loved SD, and neither one of us has ever wanted to live in Utah, so it was no surprise that he didn't take me seriously. I was upset, and convinced that we needed to go, but after a day or so I realized, yeah I didn't really want to move there. Nothing against Utah of course -- we'd to school there and loved it, but it just didn't feel like the place for our family to be. We've already done Utah! But still I felt like I wanted a change -- a place where we could afford a large, lovely home, in a nice neighborhood with amenities and young families, and more friends than guard dogs living on our block! It took about a month for Seth to realize that I was serious, and since we'd gone through this before when I was unhappy about living in Ridgecrest, he knew it was for real. The question was, where should we go? And how would we even go about doing it?
Friday, May 22, 2015
Seth's Surprise Birthday
Because Seth's birthday is the day after Joshua's, on or near Father's Day, and a week before our anniversary and Eli's birthday, it often gets overlooked. I try to celebrate it, I really do, but it's such a happily crowded month, I just can't keep up. So in 2014 the kids and I decided to throw Seth a surprise birthday party at the end of May! It was very simple but so much fun and so memorable.
First we made a "birthday cake" of chocolate-dipped macaroons piled up high with a Spiderman figure on top. For his birthday present, a very suave Spiderman apron. Then we took him out for a fun afternoon of miniature golfing at Boomers -- something he'd always wanted to do but we'd just never gotten around to. It was a great day. He's such a patient and understanding husband, he would never complain about feeling shortchanged on his birthday, but just the same it was very fulfilling to do something special to celebrate the special place he has in our family and in our hearts.
First we made a "birthday cake" of chocolate-dipped macaroons piled up high with a Spiderman figure on top. For his birthday present, a very suave Spiderman apron. Then we took him out for a fun afternoon of miniature golfing at Boomers -- something he'd always wanted to do but we'd just never gotten around to. It was a great day. He's such a patient and understanding husband, he would never complain about feeling shortchanged on his birthday, but just the same it was very fulfilling to do something special to celebrate the special place he has in our family and in our hearts.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
