Did we really just get a minivan?!?

We had such a fun visit with Nate's brother Charles & his wife Kristin over this last weekend. They did us the favor of driving Mom & Dad Hill's minivan over from Idaho for us during the tail end of their spring break. We're buying their minivan since Mom & Dad won't be needing it in Brazil, and we'll be needing it because...well, just keep reading :)


It was SO awesome to have them here and especially to get to know Kristin better, since they were just married last September and live in Rexburg, ID (not to be confused with Marcie's brother Charles & his wife Mara who ALSO got married last September and ALSO live in Rexburg!). It's wonderful to see a couple so happy together and so well matched for each other. Natalie and Lucas warmed right up to them and were thrilled to have an aunt and uncle to play all their fun little games with them on their level.

We wanted to give Charles & Kristin the true California Saturday getaway experience. So we piled all our beach gear in the van and headed for our favorite beach in Santa Cruz, about an hour southwest of us. Though the weather in April is still not warm enough for comfortable swimming (actually, it never really is in NoCal), but all of us did manage to tough it out and get in the water and some even did a little boogie boarding. The kids had a blast digging and wading. Charles humored Lucas with endless rounds of building sand towers just so he could knock them down and say 'again! again!' Natalie hunted for sand bugs and had loved being Kristin's model for lots of photos (Kristin is a photography major at BYU-Idaho).



We watched the surfers and got ice cream at Marianne's - the world's best ice cream shop. After we got home Charles and Kristin got to take a dip in the hot tub and a spin in the convertible. And they even let us go out on a date of our own that night.

Since we're most likely selling the convertible (sad, sad, sad) we took it for a drive together, and as we were heading home, we saw big carnival lights at the base of the road. Turned out to be a big high school fundraiser, complete with all kinds of rides and noise and lights. We (well, I) couldn't resist the chance to be kids again and just try out the nice tame ferris wheel and so we bought tickets. While we waited in line, we realized it was a really FAST ferris wheel, kind of old and rickety, the kind that could make you really nauseous...I came really close to backing out, but Nate, who is generally the more queasy one, insisted on sticking with it. All I could think of was the book 'The Five People you Meet in Heaven' where the ride goes wrong...I was starting to really panic! But we got on, and once it got started it was so much fun! It totally felt like we were weightless as we went around each time. We just laughed at what old fogies we were being freaked out by a ferris wheel.


I couldn't get that song from 'My Turn on Earth' out of my head:

The world turns 'round like a Ferris wheel
Some times you're low and sometimes you're high
But even way down you can never forget
The thrill you feel when you're touchin' the sky

My turn, it's my turn
It ends with death it begins with birth
And it's my turn, it's my turn
It's my turn on Earth

Anyway - as we went around and around together - I felt an overwhelming feeling of gratitude, for the chance to have 'my turn' at this particular place and time in history, to have Nate by my side through thick and thin, and Natalie and Lucas, and...another little one on the way!! :) (congrats if you've read this far!) We just had our 3 month doctor visit today, heard the heartbeat and all is looking good. We're very excited and grateful to be growing our family and giving another special someone their turn on earth. We feel very blessed. Due date is end of October. So much for spacing out the birthdays! :)


(this is the ultrasound from our first visit about 5 weeks ago - teeny tiny peanut!)

A funny little coincidence - before we left on our date we told Charles & Kristin they could pick any movie to watch. When we came home they were watching 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven' - ha!! what are the chances?! If you haven't read the book, it's a good quick & inspiring read.

So, back to the weekend travelogue... on Sunday we went to church and were grateful for the extra hands to help with wiggly kids in sacrament meeting and with our overflowing bags. After lunch, we piled in the van again and went up to Marin county to take a walk through Muir Woods where the Giant Redwoods are. It was free National parks day so we figured it was a good choice for a Sunday afternoon :)




Unfortunately on the way home we were struck with the beginnings of a nasty rotovirus - suffice it to say that within the next 24 hours all six of us had experienced it and poor Charles and Kristin had to delay their flight a day and go to the hospital because of it - nasty nasty bug. Not how we wanted to wrap up our visit together - but we were grateful they were well enough to finally make it back home!