2011 Recap - June

Jeff's brother Ryan and his family came back to the United States for the summer. He is doing a Ph.D. at Cambridge University in England so we hadn't been able to see them for a while. They came with Jeff's parents and Jeff's sister Jo from Portland to visit Fresno and we took them up to Yosemite National Park...beautiful day and the waterfalls were incredible.

At my cousin Courtney's wedding... I always love an excuse to dress up!

Jeff worked the month of June at one of his clients in Monterey. We tagged along for a couple weeks and hung out with his parents who live there. It is such a beautiful time of year because it is all in bloom!

Our hotel on the beach in Monterey

5 year Anniversary Cruise!!

Okay...so I am officially horrible at blogging. It is July and I already have a ton of stuff to write about for summer and I haven't even posted about our Anniversary cruise in May. So much catching up to do....I want to remember it all so I guess the pattern is that I will write about stuff 2 months after it happens. Oh well, C'est la vie! So Jeff and I have been married 5 years! Crazy. It has been an incredible five years and I can't imagine spending it with anyone else. Jeff makes me laugh and loves life to the fullest. For our 5 year on May 12th we left Jamo with my parents and hopped on a plane to Miami and took a 5 day cruise in the Carribbean. Here are some of our happenings:

Gotta love formal night on the cruise... Nothing like dressing up.

Mr. GQ

The ship was great. Sure the entertainment was cheesy at times, but we had good food, played bingo, sang kareoke, ate "warm chocolate melting cakes" whenever we got the chance, and watched our fair share of the live entertainment. One day they asked for men volunteers from the audience and Jeff raised his hand and went on stage. Little did he know it was for a "push-up" contest and there were some huge guys on the stage...so I was nervous for him. He pulled it out though and won the contest! That's my Jeffy!!

Our first stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We got a taxi to go hike the famous Dunn's River Falls...so much fun. Some parts were pretty steep and slippery but we made it all the way to the top!!

Beautiful Blue Jamaican Water

Can you tell we are excited about being in the Caribbean?

Jeff and our cruise ship

Next was Grand Cayman Island

We took a boat out in the ocean to this reef to go snorkeling. The water was so blue it looked like Blue Gatorade...

Fish on the reef...

By the reef was this sandbar that is shallow enough to stand even though it is out in the middle of the ocean...it is called Stingray City because a ton on stingrays come and feed there. Here is a picture of us getting friendly with one of the stingrays. As you can see Jeff was getting a little more intimate than I was...all I kept thinking about was how the Crocodile Hunter was killed by one of these!

After the cruise we spent two days in Miami on South Beach. Again, I couldn't get over how blue the water was! It's so different from California beaches.

We ate our anniversary dinner at a beautiful restaurant in South Beach. I'm glad I saw South Beach but it's a little too crazy for me! We walked back to our hotel after dinner around 8pm and all I can say is that I'm glad it wasn't later than that because I didn't feel very safe and there were some interesting people that come out!

On the way back to Fresno we arranged to have a long layover in Houston so we could meet up with old friends. Of course we had to meet at the best BBQ place in town...Rudy's. All I can say is creamed corn! It was fun catching up with old friends...this is a great group of ladies!

No stop in Houston would be complete without a visit to La Madeleines...I love their strawberry spinach salad and pretty much everything else on the menu!

We also saw our friends John and Bonnie and their triplet boys...too bad Jamisen wasn't there to play with his three friends. They are so stinkin' cute!! Seeing them made me really miss Jamisen. It was so nice to have a break and I came home feeling like such a better mommy because I was much more appreciative of the time I get to spend with Jamisen.

Perfect way to celebrate 5 years! May we have many more to come!!

Cassi, Lenna, and Luke visit Fresno!!

Cassi, my college roomate from BYU, and Luke and Lenna came to visit us in Fresno at the beginning of May and we had SO much having them here. During our Junior year at as roomates at BYU, we both met our husbands and got engaged and married about the same time and were such close friends in our early part of marriage as we both lived in Utah...so it has been hard to live away from them. It was so good to be together again as couples and we always have such a good time together. Felt like old times! They had never been to Sequoia National Park...so we took them to see the sights around Fresno.

Jamisen kept trying to hold Lenna's hand in the backseat... little foward with the ladies.

Luke and Lenna

Happy Easter

March Madness Recap

In continuance of trying to up to date our blog....here is a recap of the month of March..

For most of the month of March, Jeff worked in L.A.. He had a hotel in Orange County and so we followed him down there and stayed in the hotel with him. While it is tough that Jeff travels so much with his job...it is nice that he is traveling and working in "touristy" places (Monterey and Orange County) so Jamisen and I like to come down and visit him. One night after work we visited Disneyland and went to Downtown Disney and walked around. Jamisen loved all the lights.

We stayed the weekend and got a hotel in Newport Beach...one of my favorite places on earth.

We also swung by Hollywood on the way home.... Jeff and Jamo with "Jamie Fox"

My old roomate Adele and her husband Josh and the kids stopped by our house in Fresno to visit. So good to catch up!

So all of the sudden...something clicked and Jamisen realized that we folded our arms and bowed our heads when we said a prayer. As we were watching General Conference we were folding our arms for the prayer and we looked up and Jamisen had walked over to the bottom of our stairs and was bowing his head and folding his arms. We were so proud.

February Recap

So I am getting discouraged about catching up on our blog....but I will persevere!!!!

February was a busy month spent away from home. Jeff worked the whole month in San Juan Bautista (near Monterey) so Jamisen and I spent every other week visiting him. Rather than driving home for Valentine's weekend we decided to spend it in San Francisco. We lucked out on the weather the day we got there-it was a sunny, gorgeous day even though it was a little on the chilly side. It's amazing how weather can affect your perception of a place. In the past I haven't been a huge fan of San Fran because it's always foggy, cold and gloomy when I go. However, after this trip I am completely in love with the city. It really is one of the most beautiful cities around! Enjoy the pics of our month!

YUM....enough said :)
We walked up this hill to get a good view of the bridge and city. It was extremely windy up there so we had to bundle up!

How cute is this beanie we bought for Jamisen? I just love it and it keeps his ears so warm!

Walking to Pier 39 - all of the tulips were in bloom

Jeff enjoying a sourdough bread bowl with clam chowder near Fisherman's Wharf

We stopped by the Oakland temple. I love this temple sooo much! The grounds are so beautiful!

Back in Monterey we made a visit to the infamous log at Point Lobos. It is a Schill tradition to line up sitting on the log and get a picture. This was my first visit and I feel officially initiated into the fam!

Jamisen doing his "fishy face". He cracks us up! He seriously sucks his cheeks in so far and creates the most dramatic fish face!

This is just a funny story I have to write down. One night in our hotel we had just turned the lights out to go to bed when we heard a little rustling of plastic. Then we heard Jamisen rummaging around and the next sound was a perfect "crunch!" Jeff and I were laughing so hard because we knew Jamisen had managed to get his hands on the wafer cookies sitting high on the counter above his bed. We flipped on the lights and quickly took a picture of him. Here he is caught in the act!

With Grandma Schill at the downtown Farmer's Market. This is one of my favorite things to do in Monterey. I love walking down the street and eating tons of free samples! The highlights are fresh seasonal fruit, raspberry roasted almonds, hot naan, and a whole display of different flavored olive oils and balsamic vinaigrettes.

Having fun with Grandpa Schill

The first week we were there Uncle Steve had a conference in Monterey so we got to spend some time with him. Jamisen loved all of the attention he got!

The next week we were there Uncle Rob was working in Palo Alto so we drove up there to pick him up and spent the day sight-seeing around. We saw Facebook headquarters and Apple headquarters and Stanford. Jamisen had fun playing games with Uncle Rob :)

Jamo and I playing at the beach in Monterey

World's Largest Artichoke! haha. I LOVE artichokes so when I heard that Castroville is the artichoke capital of the world and its about 20 minutes away from Monterey I had to visit! Jamisen and I had lunch at pretty much the only restaurant there that featured their famous fried artichokes. They were de-lish!

Valentine's Dinner on Cannery Row

Jeff's parents were so nice to watch Jamisen while we went out to dinner for Valentine's Day. It was such a treat to sit and talk and not shovel our food in our mouths!