Catch up

So I haven't blogged much since moving to LA, but here are some highlights over the last 2 1/2 months (or some of the highlights that we took pictures of anyways).

We hiked Strawberry Peak on September 5.  It was an overgrown trail and we were poked several times by a very pokey plant or by yucca plants or by cactus.  We didn't see anyone on the hike which we thought was weird considering it was still very close to LA.  Then as we finished the hike, we had to go through a fenced area that said it was closed.  Woops!  We had a hard time finding the start of the trail, so we didn't even see the start where it was closed off.  It was a fun hike, but I got very very tired on it.

Here's our customary "top of the mountain" picture.

There was a fire here and the dead trees among the smaller green plants were kind of spooky looking.

The pointy mountain in the middle is Strawberry Peak from the road.

On October 8, we hiked Sandstone Peak (also known as Mt. Allen) which was a short, but very scenic hike.  In the second picture, you can see the ocean behind Jeremy.  We could see lots of islands too.

Other than hiking, we have also gone on a few mountain bike rides.  The best trail we have found is the Backbone trail and it goes forever.  It reminds me of the Crest trail in Utah because it is so beautiful and has lots of smooth single track through the trees.

We have also spent a lot of time at the beach.  We usually go about once a week and here are some of my favorite pictures from the beach.

If you look at this picture closely, you can see a dolphin in the left half of the picture.  We went to Zuma Beach in Malibu because they have dolphins a lot.  We were really hoping and then we saw them!  They were so close to the beach and playing in the waves, it was awesome!

I like watching birds at the beach.  They are so funny how they run into and away from the waves, how the dive-bombers are so fast zooming into the ocean.  This bird had the longest beak ever.

Jeremy was boogie-boarding and all the seagulls stopped to watch him...

Its a Girl!!

We are having a little GIRL!!  

We are so excited and I'm already planning all sorts of cute pink things to make for her.  It is just so awesome to know that we are having a girl and now we get to have fun coming up with a name.  Thank you everyone who guessed, and congrats to those who got it right.  

One other funny thing, we have had 4 different proposals from our friends with boys already.  Who says we can't have arranged marriages... 

Taking one to the Polls ;)

Well everyone, I guess I haven't made it official unless its on the blog, right? 

I am pregnant!  The baby is due March 5, 2012.  I am almost 18 weeks along and we are finding out the baby's gender late next week!  So here's the vote.  Who thinks it will be a girl and who thinks it will be a boy?  I don't have the slightest clue what I think, but Jeremy is sure we are having a boy.  This is all because of statistics (that's what he says anyways).  We have 4 nieces and no nephews, so he thinks we will even it out...  we'll see. 

Anyways, I hope you all comment with your guess since I guess it's not really something we can vote on to actually change the outcome.  We are super excited to find out!

As a side note, this is our first radish from our garden in LA. We are very proud of our growing abilities.

Kings Canyon National Park

After spending a day in Sequoia National Park, we drove over to Kings Canyon National Park (their borders touch).  We found a camping spot, set up our tent, and had dinner.  Here are pictures from the next day.  I think it would be hard to appreciate Kings Canyon fully unless you hiked a few miles past the last paved road like we did.  The views got better and better.

The road was really cool right here.  It was super narrow and windy with a straight up rock face to one side and a cliff down to the river on the other side.

We went for a little moonlight hike to a small waterfall, but this was the best picture.

Kings Canyon reminded us a lot of Yosemite.  Huge granite cliffs with beautiful forests and rivers.

The Kings River was very clear and you could see the deep bottom very clearly.

This was half-way up the hike to Mist Falls.  This view is the one that nobody gets from the road.  The rock formation is called the Sphinx and it was incredible.  This was a huge valley.

Mist Falls

Jeremy walking over a very large tree over the river.  It wasn't even scary because the tree was so wide.

Here's the only picture we took of ourselves.  We loved Kings Canyon and recommend it to everyone.

Sequoia National Parks

Well, in case you didn't know already, we moved to Los Angeles, California.  The move was "fun" and it is so green and beautiful here.  We love it so far.  Last weekend, we decided to take a break from all the moving in stuff and drove a few hours to Sequoia National Park.  

This is the start of the hike to Moro Rock which was up very narrow stairways with railing the whole time.  It was an incredible view.  

The view from the top.

Looking back down what we came up.

This is the Tunnel Log that everyone (including us) wanted to drive through.

This is General Sherman. It is the largest tree in the world (by volume and weight).  It is actually not the tallest or widest tree in the world.  It is 36.5 feet in diameter at the base and still 13.7 feet in diameter 180 feet high.  Its largest branch is bigger than any other tree east of the Mississippi River.  It is 275 feet tall, and 2,200 years old.

General Sherman is too big for good pictures.

 This is General Grant which is the widest tree in the world at 40 feet.  It is also the National Christmas Tree.  It didn't look anything like a Christmas tree to me...

Trying to show how big General Grant is.

Our trip to Utah

We took a trip to Utah for Katie and Joe's wedding, and to see family!  I didn't take a ton of pictures and my camera ran out of batteries, so here's what I have.  We had so much fun with everyone and seeing the beautiful green mountains.

Our nieces seem to love being buried in the sand.  Jeremy was trying not to get her white leggings dirty, but she wanted to be buried all the way up.  Sorry Shalane, but Alta has a way of getting what she wants ;)

Ellie was so cute walking around, but the sand was a little uneven for her to walk without lots of plopping onto the ground.

We also had a great party for Pioneer Days with fireworks too!  We had so much fun being with the family.  It was great!

Independence Day in Ellensburg

We went to Ellensburg, WA for the weekend and had a great time with family, and especially with our two little nieces.  Mykelle loved the trampoline.  I also taught her to say "I'm patriotic!"  She did a pretty good job with it although you had to know what she was saying to understand.

Mykelle really liked that Jeremy could bury her feet.

This is the view from the front yard looking at the Mt. Stewart.  There is a lot of snow this year.

Hailey is such a happy girl.  She hates her stomach and loves to stand up and walk holding your fingers.  She will probably walk before she can crawl.

Grandpa and the girls.

Hailey loved this balloon and watching the older cousins keeping it off the ground.