Surprise Visitors!

Guess who came to visit?

(rraawwrrrr)

That's right, Baby Maylee and her wonderful parents!

Monday evening as we were eating dinner, Keith told me that he invited one of his classmates to come over and work on a project. So, after dinner we cleaned the house and around 9:00 (when he was supposed to come) Keith got a text. He said Kyle wasn't going to make it because his kid was sick.

Cool, I hadn't dusted and was fine having a "mostly" clean house. I started doing other things. Around 10:30 Keith came in and sat by me on the couch. He said, "I have to tell you something. Kyle was never coming over tonight." To which I replied, "You really felt like you had to make that up to get me to clean the house? I promise, I would have just done it!"

Laughing, he told me no, someone else was coming over. I couldn't guess who so he finally had to tell me. (It was getting too late, he had to go to bed)

BEST SURPRISE EVER!!!!! (even better than me jumping out of a box!)

My sister, brother-in-law and baby niece were on their way!

They had left early enough that morning that had the roads and traffic been better, they would have made it here before I got off of work. They didn't make it until about 12:30 that night though.

They had been texting Keith and were hoping to make it by 9:00 (hence the Kyle story) but the pass was slow-moving. They told me their 2 different surprise plans though (had they made it earlier)

One was to just be sitting in my house when I got home from work. (I would have flipped)

The other one was to leave Maylee in her carseat on our front door step and then doorbell ditch us. (I honestly don't know what I would have done)

Anyway, it was still a great surprise (and I still had time to dust and finish cleaning the house) and it was SUCH a fun week with them here!

Here are some of the pictures. They were able to go and do a few more things than I have documentation of, unfortunately Keith and I had to deal with "real life" (work and school) part of the time.

Baby Maylee loved Uncle Keith. They were so cute this day, she was just cuddled right on his shoulder, perfectly content.

While they were here we toured the Jelly Belly Factory

Even Baby-May got to wear a hat!

We visited Fisherman's Warf, Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street and Golden Gate Park (it poured the entire day, of course)

I stayed in the car with the baby while Keith went out to take pictures of Whit and Tobin.

Love, Love, Love this baby girl!

Golden Gate Park

Keith and Tobin at the Ocean

Mama and Baby, taking a snooze

Uncle Keith and Maylee watching a basketball game

Her onesie says "My Aunt is My BFF!" (compliments of yours truly)

2 of my all time favorite girls

Taking a little nap the night before they left

Here's a little video of Maylee and Uncle Keith talking.

Thank you SO much for coming Giruad Family, it meant a lot to us!

Basketball

Touro California vs. Touro Nevada

Keith recently played in this monumental basketball game. He came home one day last fall and told me about it and said he was going to try out for the team. I thought, "Oh, how fun. A friendly little basketball game between the 2 campuses."

Nope. Not little at all.

I don't know how Touro Nevada did it, but here they had multiple open gyms and then 2 full days of tryouts. The team got cut down to about 20 after the try outs and throughout their weekly practices (since November) the numbers slowly decreased.

Finally, a few weeks ago, they cut the team down to 11 "sponsored" players. Sponsored meaning the school payed for their plane ticket to Las Vegas, provided each player their own hotel room for 2 nights, $80 to do whatever they pleased with, and a team hat.

It was a little intense. Sadly, Touro, CA lost by 3 points in overtime! : ( But, just as cool as in little league, they got these participant medals. Nevada got another trophy for their case.

(so blurry it hurts your eyes to look at, sorry!)

Keith humoring me with an enthusiastic, super cheesy picture with his medal, hat, and basketball.

Where to start?

After a 3 month hiatus, where do I start?

I didn't blog a dang thing about the holidays.

Pretty sure I can't catch up at this point.

Not with details any way, I'm just not that dedicated of a blogger. (obviously)

We went home for Thanksgiving and for Christmas. It was wonderful!

One holiday story: We weren't going to go home for Thanksgiving but my younger sister was having her baby shower and at the last minute we decided to make the trip. It was good to be home and see everyone and it was especially fun to be home for Whitneys baby shower. (Seriously? How is my baby sister old enough to have a baby of her own?)

Since we decided last minute to go home, we thought it would be fun to surprise Whitney. I can't believe we didn't get a picture, it would make this story so much better. When we moved down we had a really big box and I couldn't just throw it away, because great things can come from really big boxes. I made a giant bow out of strips of construction paper and when we got to Pocatello, we went straight to Whitney and Tobins house. I climbed in the box (on Whitney's front door step) and Keith put the bow on top while my Dad called Whitney to tell her he left something for her on her front porch. To shorten the story, she didn't believe him and Keith finally had to go and knock on the door. She came out and I jumped out of the box and it was fantastic!

(Whitney, baby belly Maylee, excited Aunt Chels)

Well, now I have the slightest urge to finish blogging about the holidays,

But I won't.

I know exactly how it will go.

I will get about 1/2 way done, either fall asleep or get distracted, and then never come back and finish.

I know. It has already happened once.

So, that's all the holiday blogging that will probably happen. From here on out, I'll try harder to keep up-to-date.

Or, at least I'll think about it. :)

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On a different note, I made these tonight for second dinner/dessert. They were fantastic. There are 2 of them set aside for me for the morning.

I am very, very excited.

24 Hour Drive, 48 Hour Visit

My parents were kind enough to come down and visit us for a weekend. They drove 12 hours on Wednesday (Nov. 10th), stayed and visited for Thursday and Friday, and then drove the 12 hours home on Saturday. It was a quick trip but we were so grateful they made it!! And, my handy-man Dad got quite a few of our apartments weird quirks figured out/fixed.

On Thursday we didn't stray too far from home. We went and somewhat toured Mare Island, where Keith's school is. We stopped at the Mare Island Museum and learned more about the history of the area and took a few pictures.

Outside the Museum

We spent the rest of the day driving around. We stopped by Lake Herman (accidentally--I was navigating and I'm not very good) and then went up through Napa Valley and drove through the vineyards.

Friday we went into San Francisco and spent the morning there before I had to go to work in the afternoon.
AT&T Park, where the Giants play. (Ya know, the world series champions?) As much as we love this area, it was some crazy times during the world series. I would have to leave an hour before work started just to make sure I got there on time.

We also stopped at Candlestick Park, obviously the home of the 49ers. As you can guess, these stops were more for my Dad than my Mom.

We also saw Lombard street, which was kind of fun. I don't get what the big fuss is, but the little strip of the street that is so steep and windy was kept really neat and pretty.

Pier 39 was also visited. I love watching the Sea Lions, they crack me up. They interact with each other quite a bit and when one of them gets annoyed with another, they shove each other off of the dock.

View of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate behind us.
We got to see the Pier 39 tree being decorated, it didn't look like a fun or fast process.

We then drove back to Oakland and went to the Oakland Temple and visitor center. They have an amazing photography display at the visitor center through the end of the year, Reflections of Christ. Seriously, AmAzInG! (click to learn more about LDS Temples or the Oakland Temple Visitor Center Events)

The view from the temple, overlooking Oakland

Thanks Mom and Dad for the visit, you are the best!

Captain Jack

The Friday before Halloween Keith volunteered/was forced to come with me to work, dressed in his pirate costume. One of the other staff members was kind enough to take my kids at recess while I hid the clues for our treasure hunt. I went out and got my kindergartners, pretending to go about our day as normal. Keith and I had it all arranged and he "ran" into us in the hallway.

He asked the first child in line if he was "brave enough to follow orders and stay true in the face of danger and almost certain death?" (Line from Pirates of the Caribbean)

Slightly terrified, he looked at me and then back at Keith and slowly shook his head no. Ya..... wasn't expecting that one. Finally I said I was brave enough and one of the girls, while pushing me towards Keith, said "She's brave enough, TAKE HER!! TAKE HER!!" Didn't even think twice about sacrificing me!! Awesome.

Finally Keith asked if they could help him look for his lost treasure. He passed out eye patches (that the school conveniently already had) and read us his first clue.

We went in and out of the school a few times

Looking for clues

Jack reading a clue

When they went looking for their last clue, I made up an excuse to run an errand. I literally ran in and got the treasure chest, ran outside and hid it, and then ran back in, just as they had found the last clue. We then turned the clues over and put them together and it made a treasure map on the back.
It led us all over the back playground and through the school, then back to the front play ground. **Side Note: I originally got the idea to do a treasure hunt from the kids. They are always digging in the wood chips and finding "treasure." I thought it would be fun to actually find treasure in there one time.

They found the treasure!

(Keith helped me make this treasure chest-he was seriously awesome during this whole thing!)

In the treasure box was ring pops, gummy pirate teeth, and pretzels. <---to get something in their systems other than sugar The two blonde boys on the end aren't actually in my group, they were just hanging around and wanted to join us.
One of the kids ask to hug Jack Sparrow and so a few of them did. One kid went up, acting like he was going to hug him and then tried to grab his treasure chest. Little Rascal!!
Keith was even kind enough to come back for story time.

We all had a blast and the kids still talk about Captain Jack. What a trooper of a husband I have!

29

It's true. Today we are celebrating the completion of Keith's 29th year on this earth!!!













Happy Birthday to the most patient, kind, and understanding man! You are the best Keith!