Q4 2024 - Q2 2025.

Somehow I forgot all about this blog. Life has really kicked into gear lately. I thought things might slow down for a bit after I went on maternity leave, but no!

In the time since my last update, we celebrated multiple friends' birthdays and had various family adventures.

Following our NC trip in the summer, we stayed local as much as possible. Our family trips ramped up toward the end of the year and into 2025 because we know once the second baby comes, we will likely be home for a long time. Even with Liam, it took us 9 months before we traveled anywhere.

Autumn 2024:

Winter 2024 & 2025:

We visited NC again in November for a short period (for us anyway) to celebrate Thanksgiving and get in the Christmas spirit with my side of the family. It snowed one day which was fun to introduce Liam to! Although he seems to only tolerate it for a few minutes, haha. Such a California baby.

After NC, we took our first family road trip up the California coast to spend a few days in Monterey and a few days at the Redwood National Park near Crescent City. It was a wonderful trip! I love the central coast and we hiked as much as we could. What a great way to spend Christmas and New Years Day. Liam struggled a bit with the car ride, but we made it.

Once we made it home, it was time to prepare for the newest addition to our family.

But it wasn't long until we took another trip. This time we spent the weekend in Disneyland as part of Lexi's Christmas present! It was so much fun!! I've never been much of a "Disney adult," but I can totally become one with kids.

And then it was back to our usual activities.

Spring 2025:

We took one last trip to NC before baby just to have a bit more time with Papa and Lola before we are homebound for a while. Even though it was March, it snowed again! And again, Liam was not impressed with it. We were able to spend time with extended family, including my Great Uncle Jasper and his children, and we had a small "baby sprinkle" for our spring baby. This trip was special too since we got to visit with some long time friends including Jacqueline, Michael, and Kelsey. Kelsey was a real help because she would play and entertain Liam while I had to work. A true friend and honorary aunt!

Then back to hiking and trying to get outside as much as possible!

Our last trip before the baby came in April. We drove up to Cambria with Lexi, Tony, and Linda for a weekend of hiking, the beach, elephant seals, and Hearst Castle! I didn't have many expectations for our trip since I had never heard of Cambria before, but we had a marvelous time. The weather was perfect and the hike we did on the coast was so beautiful. I can't wait to go back!

And now we are just hanging out at home on baby watch. I may have a couple more weeks to go, but Liam was born a little earlier than I expected (around 40 weeks), so I'm on alert now, haha. We have so many other changes coming this year, it's overwhelming. I was hoping my maternity leave would be more relaxing, but hopefully the dust will settle in time to enjoy the last few weeks of it with my children.

Until then.... (Whenever I get back to this.)