Moving Back to KC

We lived in Hacienda Heights, which is on the east side of LA. We picked out an apartment close to my husband's work so that he could ride his bike to work. Our Corolla was in Alabama at my parent's house, and we were sharing the Sequoia. So that allowed me to have the car every day, saved us lots of gas money (gas hovered around $4.25 a gallon while we were there), and helped my husband lose some weight.

Our apartment had two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a living room, dining nook, and kitchen. So here's a fun cost-of-living comparison- the apartment was exactly one-third the size of my KC house and cost almost exactly what the mortgage payment is. But of course my husband's company compensates employees for extra expenses like this, so that's what paid for the apartment. Really, the only thing that costs more in LA is the housing and gas. Everything else is the same- groceries, movies, dining out, etc. So we kept the same tightwad budget we used in KC.

hall bathroom

tiny kitchen

master bath

master bedroom

dining nook

living room

Me and J after we finished getting everything out

my husband was sweaty from moving for 4 hours

It took my husband about three days to drive our stuff back to KC. He took the southern route and went through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. I said, "HELL NO!" to that and bought a first class ticket out of LA. Ha! I found a pricing error on Delta's website that allowed me to snag that flight for just a little more than an economy ticket, so J and I flew in style to Alabama to pick up our car and see the family.

J loves planes and screamed when I took him away from the window.

He found his buddy from across the aisle while I was getting our luggage.

J at 18 Months

Weight: 23 lbs
Height: 32"

Teeth: 15

Words: still not talking

Favorite game: tag/hide and seek

Favorite book: any of his books about trucks

Favorite toy: a Christmas decoration/toy that sings "Sleigh Ride"

Favorite TV show: anything on the Baby First channel

Favorite activities: anything outside

Favorite food: bananas with peanut butter

Favorite thing ever: trucks/planes/dogs/cats/horses

making "dirt angels" at the park

Here are little tidbits about J:

• He is still nursing.

• He can identify several body parts: head, ears, nose, mouth, belly button, and toes. He can almost do "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," except the beginning is more like "head, belly, toes." He can do the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose part if I sing very slowly.
• He's slowly transitioning back down to one nap a day. I think he's been needing two naps because he went through a growth spurt- he grew two inches and gained one pound in the last two months.

• J knows to put his hands together when we say grace.

• Sleep training is going really well. J hardly ever wakes up in the middle of the night any more, so I know his quality of sleep is a lot better without us. My husband doesn't need to stay in the room until he falls asleep anymore. He can kiss J goodnight and leave, and he will fall asleep on his own.
• He can identify "the Auburn" (Auburn's interlocking A-U).
• J loooooooves reading. He makes me read to him about twenty times a day. He also can hold a book correctly (not upside down or anything). We take him to the library every week and check out ten new books. He loves to play with the toys and run around and play tag with his dad.
• He is getting better at puzzles, but he can't do any on his own yet.
• J loves helping me with chores. He likes to "help" me sweep and do laundry.
• He can drink out of a regular cup (no handles) all by himself. I keep about an inch of water in his cup and leave it on a chair for him. If he's thirsty, he can go to the chair, pick up the cup, drink, and put it back without my help. I taught him to do this because I know kids walk around with sippy cups, try to drink and walk at the same time, and fall and injure their mouths. He has two sippy cups, but only uses them without the lids 
• He tries to dress and undress himself. He can sometimes take off his shirts, socks, and shoes, and he can sometimes put on his shoes.  

playing at the library

Last LA Weekend- Santa Monica

The last errand we needed to do before packing up the house was getting our car detailed. The place was in Santa Monica, which is a 45-minute drive from where we lived in Hacienda Heights. The SM Pier was also on our list of stuff to do, so we all went and made a fun day of it before we had to start packing up the apartment.

He's pointing to a plane. Santa Monica Place has a lot of high-end shops and restaurants. Needless to say, the Burkes were window shopping.

A Tesla in beta testing

must be nice

Santa Monica Pier

We were too cheap to ride anything.

We walked this path for a few miles. So beautiful!

Looking back at these pictures makes me really miss LA. It's such a beautiful place to live, the weather is incredible, people are nice and friendly, and there's always something to do, even free/cheap stuff for people like us. You can never really be bored there. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to live there, even for only a few months. We'll be moving to San Diego in about seven months, so I'm already working on my list of things I want to do there. Thanks for reading! Moving adventures up next!

Labor Day Weekend- San Francisco

AKA the weekend where everything was a major fail. We wanted to check SF off of our California to-do list before we had to head back home. So we made last-minute plans for Labor Day weekend to see SF.

Day 1:
Our trip started out with driving up to SF on the 1 (Californian for "Highway 1"). We took that route instead of the 5 because we wanted to go through Malibu and Santa Barbara. We stopped at the beautiful El Matador Beach; it had a lot of big and small rocks. My husband tripped over a small rock and dropped my camera in the ocean, so...RIP Fujifilm. Fail #1. Here's a Google picture:

We decided that one day we want to rent a convertible and drive it from LA to Santa Barbara and back because that stretch is so beautiful. The rest of the way to SF was very beautiful........until we got about 2/3 of the way and then wanted to drive our car off the cliffs because of motion sickness/having to go 20 mph when we were starving and needing to find food. We finally got to Monterey and stopped at Fisherman's Wharf for dinner. We ordered a beautiful, delicious, expensive seafood dinner that I wanted to throw up because I was pregnant (first-world problems, I know). Then we got back in the car for the last bit to SF. I think we got in around 11, which made it a fourteen-hour trip since we left at 9 that morning. J was awesome, as there was minimal fussing/crying the whole way.

Day 2:
Started out shopping. I was an idiot and didn't bring a jacket for J, so we went to JC Penney and reluctantly shelled out $9 for a jacket (I hate spending more than $5 on an article of clothing for kids because they grow so quickly). Then we went to Target and bought a new and improved Fujifilm. Except for the fact that it's defective and I need to send it in for servicing. I can't catch a break. (First-world problem, I know, I'm thankful I have the money to go out and buy a camera on a whim.) Our first scheduled stop was Chinatown. All we did was walk around and eat yummy food from one of the shops- pork dumpling things and shrimp thingumabobs.

looks gross, but was SO GOOD

Next stop was Fisherman's Wharf. We just walked around and took pictures of Alcatraz. We didn't go on the tour because it was sold out. Next was watching the Auburn game at Rogue/Nick's Crispy Tacos on Nob Hill. Somehow I managed to run into friends from Auburn in a random bar in San Francisco. War Eagle!

We went to the hotel and let J take a nap after that. When he woke up, we went to Ghirardelli Square and ate some peanut butter/ice cream/fudge concoction. Then we walked around Union Square and ate at Santorini Mediterranean Cuisine. Of course this was the one time I forgot a diaper bag, and so of course J had a monster blowout. My husband walked around the grocery stores and drug stores, but no one had diapers or wipes. So poor baby had to wallow in his filth until we got home. Fail #2.

Day 3:

We drove on the Golden Gate Bridge, except it was so foggy you couldn't see anything. Go figure.

at least the parking was free

Ok, here is Fail #3. So we were driving to Muir Woods to see the redwoods. A sign said there was no more parking, and you had to take the bus. So we stopped at the bus stop and waited for a long time. While we waited, we calculated that at the rate the buses were going, we wouldn't be able to do anything else on our list that day because so much time would be spent waiting on and riding buses. So after standing in line for a long time, we left and decided to drive up ourselves and try to find a spot. We didn't. So we basically just drove through the woods and weren't able to get out and take pictures with the redwoods.

Fail #4: We wanted to see the SF Zoo because it is one of the best in the country. So we parked around 3:45 and stopped at a coffee shop to get my husband a bite to eat because he didn't want to pay for ridiculously overpriced zoo food. We got to the zoo at 4, which is when they stop admitting people because it closes at 5. So we just looked at the free exhibit. I think my husband was secretly happy about this because he didn't have to spend money and we still got to see a beautiful exhibit.

We saw Lombard Street,

got pictures with the cable cars, walked around Pier 39,

and went to Boudin's and were happy to see that the famous bread bowls we wanted were the cheapest items on the menu.

Day 4:

This day we just drove back to LA and stopped at the Hearst Castle on the way. Fail #5: the tour was really expensive. And J got security called on us in the first three minutes because he was fussy. We were super stressed out for the rest of the tour because we were afraid of getting kicked out if J made a peep. Not a total waste of money, but still very frustrating.

All in all, it was a fun mini-vacation. I haven't been to San Fran in fifteen years, so it was nice to go again, even though some of our plans got messed up. Sorry this post was two months late ^-^