A Trip to California + Lots of Surprises!

Last weekend we headed to CA to visit Gm and Gp Bailey. We got a ride to the airport from my amazingly awesome friend Lis who was pretty excited about the Diet Coke we got her for her efforts ☺. She dropped us off and we checked in, but soon after realized we had left his one and only bottle full of milk in Lis's car! Bless her soul though she had noticed and came back! Thank heavens.

After we got to the gate Justin went and grabbed some food while I tried to get Nolan to take some Benadryl. Nolan hadn't napped well that day so I was super nervous that he would have a tough time on the plane. He wasn't having any of it though and threw an absolute fit, which was unlike him and I worried that's what we were in for for the rest of the night. Justin even told me he could hear Nolan yelling from around the corner at Wendys (in a crowded airport)!. Oey. Stressed me out. But after I stopped trying to shove icky medicine in him he calmed down a bit, then Justin got back with the "fies" and Nolan was good to go. He didn't sleep on the plane either, but was really good (once again, I worried for nothing!) His favorite thing to do was pull down the window shades.

I found this little Elmo doll the morning of the trip and he loves it! Here he is showing Elmo the view ☺

Surprise #1 

Pam picked us up at the airport and took us straight to BJ's to meet Doug for dinner. Little did Pam know that Doug had left work a bit early and made his own trip to the airport to pick up one of her best friends, Debbie Egge, to surprise her for her birthday! (Although at this point she still didn't know that Debbie had shown up for her birthday, just that she couldn't come the next week as planned ☺) Nolan took to "Aunt Debbie" pretty quickly and by the end of the trip knew her name and could pick her out in pictures! He even was asking for Debbie in the car on the way to the airport, too cute.

Nolan has been a little shy lately, even with family, but this trip he was on top of his cuteness game! I was so surprised he was so animated at dinner, especially considering he hadn't napped much and had just gone on a flight. Leave it to him...

Pointing out the phone on the menu

I'm pretty sure Gp Bailey ordered spaghetti just so he could share with Nolan. That kid loves spaghetti! 

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Surprise #2

We had an appointment to find out the gender of BB2 first thing in the morning on July 14 (the day we left for CA), but told Pam and Doug we wouldn't be finding out until later in the month so we could surprise them. 

Well, we are SO excited to report that we are having another BOY! Every single member of my family called it correctly when I asked what their guesses were over text the night before. That makes 5 grandson's for my parents. Now we can't wait to find out what BJ and Kirsten are having!

We made the announcement with blue balloons and a 'Little Brother' onesie.

Just Nolan being cute, checking out Gm and Gp's bathtub

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Surprise #3

Brianna made the trip from NYC! To avoid any suspicion she took an Uber from the airport to Pier 33. Justin had dropped a pin with the location of our parked car, where Doug had left a key on the front tire (risky in downtown SF) so she could store her luggage, then run to catch the boat to Alcatraz. Talk about planning, timing, and lots of luck!! She barely made it onto our ferry as the last passenger. Pam hasn't been that surprised or speechless since we told her we were expecting our first baby! ☺

A mom's work is never done. Trying to stop Nolan from pushing the stroller into strangers on the ferry ☺

Nolan was super cute looking out onto the water

Hanging out with Gp. 

This little boy was Gp's shadow (especially the last couple of days). It seemed like his head was on a constant swivel looking for "Tapa." Gp always has a phone and let's him sit in the front seat of his car and "drive" for long periods of time - what more could Nolan want?!! ♥

Pam and Debbie

 Alcatraz from the boat

One of the most fascinating things to me was learning how many families with children lived and played on Alcatraz. This is me in front of the school house/apartments.

Where you would pick up your clothes and toiletries

 Showers

Cutest little inmate ever!

It was a little hard to listen to the tour with a 20 month old that wants nothing more from life than to press any and all buttons within his reach, but I think we got the gist of it! Grandma even let him listen a few times. 

Justin and Nolan in "the pit."

Where visitors would come to talk. Here I am visiting my husband the criminal hehe. 

Justin would have been ok as an inmate at Alcatraz because they apparently played a lot of baseball.

A windy, but beautiful view of San Francisco from Alcatraz Island

I love the look of pure joy on his face being swung by Gm and Aunt Brianna. You can almost hear the giggles coming out of him! 

Waiting in line to get back on the ferry, hungry but still an amazing, cheerful little boy!

Family selfie on the ferry back

I also wanted to add this awesome pic from the car heading towards Embarcadero Dr. It looked like we were driving into a painting. So beautiful!

After Alcatraz we headed to Walnut Creek to see Debbie's parents old house and meet up with my good friend Melissa, her husband Srini and son Leo. It was a looong drive with lots of traffic and poor Nolan kept asking for milk, but we didn't have any and couldn't get off the freeway to make a stop. I was able to stave off his hunger with some other snacks and he finally fell asleep about an hour into our hour and a half drive. I can't believe how good he was confined in the car and wanting milk that we didn't have. Oh wait, I can. I love that boy so much!

Leo was very friendly and kept wanting to touch Nolan, but Nolan was a little shy/tired and leaned as far away from Leo as possible whenever he tried to touch him haha.

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Saturday morning Justin, Doug and I headed to the golf course for a lesson and 9 holes while the rest of the gang went and got their nails done (Nolan didn't get his nails done ☺, but apparently was perfect at the salon).

The lesson was awesome and so helpful for me. I finally feel comfortable hitting with my irons!!

 

After golf we headed to Costco to grab a few last minute things for Pam's surprise party. I may have also picked up this super cute 49ers chair for Nolan hehe.

We got back home, picked up Nolan, and headed to In 'n' Out for lunch. 

Gp showing Nolan how to drum

While we headed to lunch, the other girls headed to the Oakland Temple to do some initiatories. Here's where Brianna being in town, and Pam's inability to say no to her, came in handy ☺ See, Pam still didn't know there was a big surprise party planned for her that evening, however she had invited several families + children over for dinner and there was still a lot to be done. Doug had a plan to get Pam out of the house for a few hours so that some friends could set up, but to be honest I'm not sure if it would have worked. I'm sure she would have argued that she just had too much to do and suggest we go without her or something. I probably would have done the same thing. Well, Brianna kept insisting on going to the temple and somehow was able to convince her mom to go not even four hours before the party. Only Brianna could have pulled it off ☺ plus, Pam probably felt guilty denying a trip to the temple. It's the temple! haha. Well it worked like a charm and got her out of the house for a solid 3 hours which gave us plenty of time to get ready for the party!

Surprise #4

  The BIG surprise!

I guess I don't have a picture of her walking in, but I think it's safe to say she was pretty surprised to find everyone there!

To the dismay of his grandparents that really wanted to show him off, Nolan was napping when the party started. We waited about an hour, but couldn't fend off the grandparents any longer than that and woke him up ☺

Eating his favorite...chips!

These three were pretty darn cute sitting here together so we had a little photo shoot.

The bubble machine was a big hit, but the kids kept picking it up or knocking it over so Justin came up with the genius idea to put it up on a ladder. Problem solved. 

Lastly, Doug had a bunch of pictures of Pam out on display. I can't get over this one of Pam as a baby. It's like baby Justin wearing a dress!! Cute ♥

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On Sunday we decided we just couldn't wait any longer to post our exciting news on social media. We took about a zillion pictures trying to get a good one and while it didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned, I think they turned out pretty cute!

We announced that "Nolan is pretty excited to be a big brother!! Baby brother is due to arrive December 2nd ♥"

A couple cute outtakes

Brianna came in and gave Nolan a big lipstick-ey kiss when she left on Sunday which woke him up from his nap. He was in a bit of a mood after that, but it didn't stop her from stealing kisses!

I think in this picture he took Mr. Binks out and was handing it to me without even looking, like "here, take it." haha.

Out for a Sunday stroll 

Unknown to us our flight was delayed for over an hour which meant we didn't get into the SLC airport until almost 1am and didn't get to sleep until 2. Yuck! But we made it! Thanks again to "Summer Lis" for being willing to pick us up at that ghastly hour!