San Diego!

At the end of March, I went to San Diego for a week for the NBEA annual conference - the National Business Education Association. Last year I went to the conference in Chicago and really enjoyed the sessions I attended and colleagues that I met, so I knew I wanted to go again this year. It's always refreshing to be with other teachers with the same passions as I have for the subject I teach, and I hope I can go to this many more times over the years. It was my first time to San Diego, so of course I was picture happy. It was so fun to be there - I had heard great things about the city, but now I got to experience it for myself!





Coming from cold Minnesota, I was excited to see sun and palm trees when I stepped out of the airport doors to catch a taxi to the hotel. I was looking forward to the conference ahead, and to the warm, beautiful change of scenery. No snow here!

Despite fighting a bad sinus infection while in San Diego and feeling sick from my early pregnancy, I was still able to enjoy my week. The view from my hotel room was awesome! Here is what I saw when I looked out the windows in my room - the pool was right below me, and I was looking out at the marina and to Coronado island. Isn't is nice?






Looking straight across the bay from my hotel room you can see some reddish-colored turrets dotting the horizon on the other side of the island. That is the famous and historical Hotel del Coronado. I was told by many that had been to San Diego that I had to go to this place and check it out. So on one of my breaks from the conference I headed over there on a short taxi ride, curious to see what all the hype was about.




The Hotel Del, as locals call it, was first built in 1888 and is a National Historic Landmark. According to the Hotel Del website, the resort has hosted eleven U.S. Presidents, Princes from overseas, American greats such as Thomas Edison, Charles Lindbergh, and Babe Ruth, and Hollywood celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, Madonna, and Brad Pitt. There have also been many movies and tv shows filmed here over the years.


I looked around inside the hotel for a few minutes, but I wanted to get outside and experiences the famous beachfront. I would explore the inside more later before I left. I grabbed a sandwich to go at the outdoor cafe near the pool, ate on the outdoor deck overlooking the water and beach, and headed out onto the sand. I was in heaven! It is interesting to note that it was actually warmer in Minnesota during the week I was in San Diego. The sun is deceiving - it was actually breezy and cool by southern California standards. But that didn't stop visitors from being outside swimming, walking the beach, and enjoying the beautiful views. I talked to my friend Laura who lives in Los Angeles while sitting on the beach, and she said to me, "Isn't it cold sitting out there?" I was actually just fine - the beauty of the place was keeping me warm. :)








There were two men building these elaborate sand castles on the beach right outside of the resort. Very cool! When I was looking at this, a group of older couples were walking by and asked if I wanted them to take a picture for me so I could be in it. I must have looked like a tourist with the big cheesy grin on my face and camera in my hand - go figure. We got talking, and I learned that the man who took my picture grew up in the Twin Cities and moved to So Cal about 15 years earlier for his job. Very nice people to chat with... it's really a small world!


My best friend Laura was able to take a few days out of her busy work and doctorate program schedule to come down from Los Angeles for a few days and see me. She had plenty of work to do on her own, so I went to all of my conference sessions, she got some of her work done, and we were able to hang out a bit on my breaks from the conference. Laura grew up in St. Paul, and we went to middle and high school together and have a lot of fun memories. She is the kind of friend that I am only able to see about once a year or so, but we can just pick up like no time has passed. I love friends like that - she means so much to me. This isn't a great picture of us, but the only one I got. Like I said, it was windy and chilly!


Laura had been to San Diego before, which was nice because she was more familiar with the area. We visited the historic Gaslamp Quarters several times, called "The Historic Heart of San Diego." It was just a short few blocks walk outside of our hotel. There were some fun shops, cafes, and restaurants to explore.




We wanted to check out this cool looking "blue" building with the blue lights outside...


It was a beautiful, upscale hotel - fun to walk inside and see the lobby.


There was a nice walking park right outside of our hotel and on the marina. Laura and I walked here on our last day before we went home. You can see some Marine ships in the water off to the left. I didn't realize that San Diego is a Marine town and home to the Marine Corps base Camp Pendleton - interesting to learn.




The hotel I stayed at and the site of the 2010 NBEA conference - the San Diego Marriott Marina. From the two NBEA annual conferences that I've been to so far, I really appreciate that they have interesting and educational sessions to attend everyday that I can take back and use in my teaching, yet they also always encourage all of the convention goers to enjoy the city, explore, and rejuvenate during the week. We work hard during the school year after all, we deserve it! :)




A beautiful sunset to end my nice week in San Diego. I hope I can go to many more NBEA conferences in the future, I do really enjoy the whole experience.

Baby Girls - 19 weeks & 19 months!

That's right, the title of this post says GIRLS, plural! We're having another little girl! We were so excited to hear that fun news, and we really look forward to watching our two sweet girls grow up together, so close in age - almost two years exactly! We hope that they can be good friends and really enjoy each other. It's so fun to think about...

Here is a picture of me at 19 weeks pregnant with Baby Girl #2. I feel like my tummy is growing faster than when I was pregnant with Mckenna, but I've heard that typically women start to show a bit sooner after they've already been pregnant before, and I guess I am almost halfway through too. But ironically, as of an OB appointment a few days ago, the few pounds I've gained so far have been several less than what I remember gaining at this same time with Mckenna. Maybe because I was pretty sick during the first trimester with this baby, and I wasn't sick at all with Mckenna. Who knows!



We had a level 2 ultrasound at 18 weeks, less than one week ago, and it was so cool to see an actual baby moving around in there! She was kicking, wiggling around, waving her arms and hands, and opening and closing her little mouth. All is well with the baby, and the doctor said that she looks "perfect" - so reassuring to hear. Here are a few ultrasound pictures from our visit.

It's hard to see in this small picture, but you can see her eyes, nose, and mouth - very cute!






Hi, everybody! :)


Moving on from our 19-week sweetie to our 19-month sweetie! The following stats are from the end of April and are a few weeks old now, but here are the numbers from Mckenna's 18-month pediatrician wellness check-up. Weight: 24 lbs, 15 oz. (58th percentile), height: 33.8 inches (94%), head circumference: 19 inches (89%). It is interesting to note that Mckenna's weight didn't change at all from her last appointment in early February (76% in weight in Feb.), but her height did change by over 2 inches, so her weight percentile for 18-months went down to 58% because of her growing height. (Can you imagine if we all grew an inch taller every month - wow!) I asked the doctor about this, and he said that it was perfectly fine. He asked if she had been more active lately, which indeed she has. Just in the past few months as the weather has gotten warmer here, the daycare crew goes outside sometimes twice a day - before lunch, and after their afternoon naps. So she is burning off more calories running around outside! (And really, doesn't that happen to most Minnesotans when the cold winter turns into the nicer, warmer spring?) :) Here are some pictures taken at her 18-month appointment.

She doesn't sit still anymore like she used to in this scale... hmmm, I wonder why? :) It's more fun to wiggle around and push buttons anyway, right?


Check out that belly - LOVE it!


Mckenna got a few updated shots, and as always, she was a trooper. Whenever I get a shot, I always look away - I don't like to see the needle. But she was looking the whole time (even though you notice that I'm trying to turn her head away because needles somewhat freak me out, and that's my natural reaction) and she didn't even flinch - good girl!


This is what she did when I asked her where her bandaid was...


"Hey, look at this - I'm so cool!" :)


Here are a few cute pictures taken just today, 5/19/10, in our backyard. This week the weather has been awesome, and today was no exception. Mckenna was enjoying a dip in her little wading pool on this sunny 80 degree day! It was funny, the water was pretty cold just coming from the hose, and for what seemed like a few minutes she just stood and bent down like she was going to sit. But every time her legs and bottom touched the cold water, she would shiver and say, "Oh!" and look at us like, "now what do I do?" This happened several times over before we helped her to sit - we got a chuckle from her very real reactions. After she sat down, she got used to the cool water temp quickly in the warm weather. She seemed to really like playing and splashing around.




Love those cheeks and that big, toothy smile! :)


Pretty blue eyes - she gets those baby blues from her daddy.


More recent pictures to come over the next few weeks - stay tuned!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there... to moms that are expecting, to moms with little ones, growing kids, and adults out of the house. To grandmas and great-grandmas. To moms with loved ones close by and far away. I feel happy, special, and blessed to be a mom, and I hope you do too - today and always!

March - Spring Break 2010

Going back through my pictures from March, I realize that I didn't really take many pictures that much except for during our spring break trip to Chicago to visit the Johnsons. We had a great time as always, as you'll see below.

This is a random picture of Mckenna from earlier in March... messy after dinner with a hairdo to match! :)


Now onto the spring break pictures. Earlier this year, Cam, Linnea, Gwen, and Sonja moved from their condo in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood to a house in the close to Chicago suburb of Wilmette. When we stayed with them for a few days, they had just been there for a few weeks, but were still so willing to have us come and stay with them.

Gwen and Sonja share a really cute bedroom, complete with a fun new green paint job on the walls that I believe Gwen picked out special for their room. In one of the crawl/storage spaces in the room, Cam used his awesome skills to make a small "den" (as Gwen calls it) play room for the girls, with an easy chair, books, toys, and a cute little window looking into the den from the bedroom. Mckenna loved playing in here with her cousins!

You can't really see it very well, but Mckenna is wearing a shirt that says "Big Sister" on it. Matt and Cam's parents came over to visit while we were in Wilmette and brought Uncle Dave and the Grandmas - Fran and Harriet. We hadn't yet told anyone that we were expecting, so we changed Mckenna into this shirt and had her run into the room with everyone to show it off. I think it took a few seconds for the whole room to see it, but everyone was surprised and excited! I tried to get some cute pictures with her wearing this shirt that day, but none really turned out.












Linnea reading a book to all three girls. I thought this was an adorable photo op! Linnea is such an amazing mom... what a blessing for Gwen and Sonja to have such a wonderful mommy that loves them so very much. :)




I thought Gwen was really cute with the younger girls, helping them read books and play. So sweet!






On the afternoon of St. Patty's Day, we went to Tre Kroner (Swedish - not Irish!) for lunch - right across the street from North Park University and a few blocks from Swedish Covenant Hospital, where Cam works. Cam was able to meet us for lunch, and we all had a fun and yummy meal together. Gwen even got green pancakes and shared them with Sonja and Mckenna. Here is the group after lunch - it was a nice, sunny day - hard to smile for the camera when looking into the sun!


After lunch, Cam went back to work, Linnea and her girls went back to the house for nap time, and Matt, Mckenna and I went across the street from Tre Kroner to The Sweden Shop for a few minutes to look around. Mckenna had fun with the hats, books, and stuffed animals - go figure! We ended up getting her a small Pippi Longstocking doll (which is a Swedish story by Astrid Lindgren), which she loves.




Back at the house, and playing on the porch. The girls used this big moving box as a stage. I think we were singing a song here and these sweeties were dancing and clapping along - cute!


Fun in the backyard...






One of the days of our visit, Cam took the day off of work and we all went to the Lincoln Park zoo for the morning. On our drive there, we drove past Swedish Covenant's fitness center, and Cam pointed out that his picture was on one of the outside walls of the building! So I had to take a picture as we drove past - look at that stud! Cam mentioned that he wished he had been holding bigger weights when the picture was taken... Matt thought that was funny. :)


The Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. I was so excited to go to the zoo! This was the first time that Mckenna had ever been to the zoo, so I was looking forward to seeing how she reacted to the animals. And I hadn't been to the zoo for years, and never to the Lincoln Park Zoo, so I was really happy to be there... I felt like a kid again!


The flamingos - love them!


Leopards - very sleek and cool.


Words can't express how fun it was for me to see Mckenna watching and pointing at the animals, smiling and "talking" at each stop. I loved it!


The seals - it was fun to watch them swim by and then circle around and come back near us.




The lions. Music from The Lion King kept running through my head when we were watching them - I love that movie. :)


Cool gal wearing daddy's sunglasses.


The giraffes...


...and the ostriches.


Then we moved on to the primate area. I thought their intertwined fuzzy tails were cute.








LOVE her! :)


In this picture Gwen had her hand up against the glass "giving five" to this big ape.


Look at that face - it hardly even looks real!


The girls were getting tired, so we packed up to head back to the house. Here is an out-the-window picture of Lake Michigan.


Cam and Linnea were kind enough to drive past the Bahai Temple on our way home, right on Lake Michigan. I always think it's cool to drive past this place - it's big and seems to come out of nowhere. This is my not so great picture from the car window.


Here is a much better picture from the internet. Isn't it cool looking?


Our tired, sweet baby girl, fast asleep on the car ride home. She fell asleep soon after we left the zoo, and so did her cousins.


I love those pink cheeks - what a cutie!


I think we were all tired after a fun day of walking around outside in the nice weather, including the adults! Right after taking this picture, I went to lay down and take a nap myself.


We started our trip in Elgin for a few days, and then after several fun days in Wilmette, went back to Elgin for a day to say goodbye to Craig and Karen before driving back to Minnesota. Overall, we had really nice weather during our visit, which was great because we could be outside a lot. Here are the grandparents taking Mckenna for a short walk. She is really on the move these days, so it's always nice to get outside and burn off some of her abundant toddler energy!






We always have such a great time on our visits to Illinois. We feel so lucky and blessed to have such wonderful family that we love to visit and see several times a year. We hope that our children can get to know their Johnson cousins well over the years and really be friends, like Matt and Cam were able to do with their cousins in Minnesota while growing up in Illinois. We look forward to seeing everyone again this summer at the cabin in Wisconsin for more fun times!