Star Wars Date

One perk to working at Lucasfilm is the films they play in their local theater. Employees and their families are welcome to come to free screenings of specific movies every week. We signed up to go to Star Wars Episode 7 even though we had already seen it. I mean, who would pass up seeing STAR WARS where STAR WARS was CREATED?! Not us!

So on Friday, I made sure Riley was happily settled with her gracious grandparents before heading down to San Fransisco. The drive was thankfully a cinch (basically stay on one freeway the entire way) and my favorite part was going across the Golden Gate bridge in the fog. I didn't realize I was on the bridge until all of a sudden the huge tower loomed out of the fog right ahead of me! So tempted to take a picture, but staying alive to watch Star Wars thankfully won out in the mental debate to take out my phone. 

I met up with my cute husband and we braved the rainy streets San Fransisco to peruse restaurants for dinner. We settled on Mediterranean food (the schwarma from Utah has bolstered our opinion of greek food tremendously) and enjoyed catching up with each other as we stuff ourselves silly with lamb and unexpected free dessert (the owner was being particularly gregarious that night). We waddled back to the theater while Chris explained the different statues and trails across the beautiful LucasFilm territory. 

Waiting in the lobby for the theater to open up

We were joined by David M., a long time family friend, and now a coworker of Chris, and also the screenwriter of the TV show Chris is now working on. Very neat! 

I was suspecting that since many of these people had at least had a hand in developing this film, it would be an enthusiastic crowd, laughing boisterously at the too familiar jokes and whooping when a shot they created flitted across the screen. 

But I was wrong. 

Almost completely opposite of what I was thinking, the audience was unusually quiet and polite as the beginning title scrolled, all the way until the credits rolled. Everyone stayed in their seats until the very last credit left the screen, and everyone clapped politely every time Lucasfilm was mentioned in the credits. 

Pretty cool.

The theater was great-there were no bad seats, it was nice and comfortable. But my favorite part was the sound-whoo! It was LOUD and it felt like you were RIGHT THERE amidst the characters! Loved that.

After the movie, we chattered consistently about new insights and speculated about future plots as we winded our way home on the non-trafficy roads (so nice!). 

We got home to find Riley had been  sound asleep since 8pm! Maybe leaving her with grandparents should be a regular routine... :) 

All in all, I'm glad we took the time for a date. I love spending time with Christopher, and this date was long overdue.

Rebel Legos

Chris having direct access to the Lucasfilm store, and an employee discount to boot, could be a problem...

He came home with a lego set the other day.

It is a spaceship from the Star Wars Rebels TV show, and it is awesome...!

It had six packets of Legos, separated in order to make the task of completing it more manageable. Ben, Chris and I each manned two of the packets as we took turns putting this bad boy together.

Here is the finished product-complete with moving wings, a trapdoor, a firing turret, a place to hang up the weapons, access to the bridge and a spring-loaded shooting laser (that just so happens to be a big piece of plastic, but still cool anyway ;) )

Have I mentioned that Chris' internship rocks?

Saturdays

Saturdays have easily become our favorite day of the week. Saturday used to mean all day work for me, but now it is a day that Riley and I get to play with Dad all day long!

We decided to go on a long walk, and we tried out Riley in forward position to see if she enjoyed it more than in her car seat. I don't know if she preferred either way, but she sure looked cute sitting there like a big kid.

Thinking Juices

The great thing about pacing around the house with a very awake baby at 4am is that it is a great time to get a talk together.

Talk for Sunday: check!

Now the tricky part will be getting enough sleep so I don't fall asleep on the pulpit...

Truth

We had a Women's Fireside tonight, and we had the privilege of hearing from Sister Dalton. She mostly spoke about how we are women warriors of these last days with divine worth. It was amazing how her words really did make me think of myself in a new light, one that inspired me to be better.

Later that night, I was lying aside Chris and going over the thoughts I had during the fireside. I was surprised when my thoughts went to Chris, and how I love that he is Riley's dad. I love the way she looks at him. I love that even at the tender age of 4 1/2 months, she is developing a relationship with him where there are things that her Dad can do for her that no one else can. I love that Riley has a wonderful example of Christ in her father.

These sweet feelings washed over me, and I was grateful to know that I had heard Truth tonight. In my experience, the Truth tends to uplift me and also elevates others in my eyes, and this was one of those precious moments.

LucasFilm and Staying at Home

Chris completed his first week at LucasFilm! He works with cool people and got an R2D2 pen, so it couldn't be going better!

The hardest part has been the commute; in particular, finding the right bus and getting to it on time. On Monday he missed his bus and quickly caught another one, which brought him to a completely different city. He ended up needing to be rescued by Papa Wasden, and in that moment I was again grateful for our situation living with them. It would have been a blind venture for me, not knowing the area, and having a tired baby besides would have made the trip daunting, to say the least. By the end of the week, he had everything figured out. It is a long commute, and all that is left to be complained of is only getting to see my Sweetheart at 7pm. That is almost no time together! I am very grateful for our situation though, so I will try not to begrudge it too much.

Why are you taking a picture when there
are mangos to be eaten?!

Staying home with Riley has been fun. Being her primary caregiver now, it is interesting how I feel much more in touch with when she needs to be going down for naps or what she needs. At one point I was able to comfort her when no one else could. Although I had earned this knowledge at a high cost (sleepless nights and constant attention) I couldn't help but feel my heart warm that I get to be this sweet girl's mother.








These are from a day when she refused to take a nap. So I brought out the big guns-the stroller!

Squinting at me defiantly

Two minutes later 

In the end, mom's always win!

We are at the point that her schedule could do with some fine tuning... some days her nap and night schedule are hunky dory, while other days are... not so hunky dory. We are trying to decide if we should let her cry it out...? It is something we have at times resolved to do, but after hearing 15 minutes of crying, our resolve instantly dissipates. But if it would be better to her to firm up a routine, we may just have to go for it.

Ben has been getting closer with her, and that has been so fun to witness! He is very sweet with her. At church on Sunday she almost crawled up in his lap as he entertained her with his camera on his phone :) She likes to watch him whenever he enters the room and stare at him until she gets a response out of him.

Purple Hippo

Nothing surpasses the happiness generated by a purple hippo...!

Slide

Late Night Laughter

Late night laughter that is almost crying

But it is still contagious :)

The Time of Sleeping In and Long Showers

I know it has been quite a few weeks since blogging. You know how when you are on vacation, your time is filled with something, but it is never something productive? And the sound of doing something sounds like the most unappealing thing you could ever do?

Yeah, that has been the last few weeks.

And it has been awesome!!

Chris and I volunteered to make one dinner a week. This is so that we can help out a bit, but also so we don't become so rusty on making food that we starve once we are set out on our own in 6 months. We also pitch in here and there with cleaning, but all in all, there is no way we can repay Chris' family for all that they do for us! It has been a huge blessing that they have allowed us to live here with them, and we couldn't ask for more gracious hosts.

She loves having her own chair at the table!

We are loving the weather here! It is still a tad nippy from the humidity, but it has been great to be able to go out on walks when the sun is out.

First walk with the carrier

She likes it as much as we do! ...at least how it tastes

Mimi and Papa are so cute with Riley! I love that she has been able to get to know her grandparents (and Ben) while we have been here.

She has become more adventurous in the tub! She seems to enjoy kicking around these days. And then sometimes she enjoys lounging back on her dad and licking his elbows. Just depends on the day.

I am really going to miss having Chris and the family around so much as they go to work, but I am looking forward to being a stay-at-home mom now!! This is what I have always wanted to be since I was a little girl, so I want to enjoy it! However, the time of Sleeping In and Long Showers has now come to an end.

Reaching for toys

Samus Boot leggings

Embarrassment

The first time Riley is embarrassed by her dad is officially caught on film

Copycat

Chris wiggles his toes, and Riley tries to mimic him by kicking her leg. Not quite the same thing, but she has the general idea :)

Four Months

 Our sweet little girl turned 4 months today!

These days whenever Riley is held, she assumes her position of facing outward and leaning forward. If she is tired you can get away with holding her looking over your shoulder or lying horizontally, but normally she will only tolerate these positions for .75 seconds before she starts fidgeting.

Riley is doing really well eating solid foods! She seems to like rice cereal and bananas, but she is not so keen on the applesauce.

 She has always liked to have her diaper changed, but now as soon as her pants, socks and/or diaper go off, the legs go up and she begins to enthusiastically play with her feet.

 She started bath time with dad! I have never seen her so cautious about something! In the beginning, she mostly just observed the water dripping from the faucet and looked around a whole lot. Now she is beginning to kick more and want to play with her toys.

 She is getting to the stage where SHE wants to hold her bottle, and no one else! ...even though she can't exactly hold it straight.

When she gets tired these days, there are many times that she will just fall asleep in your arms if you are talking, or lie on your shoulder as you walk around. This picture below is from when we went to Mimi's work to show her off, and she was so tired that she was staring at me like this for a couple minutes straight!

She has advanced leaps and bounds when it comes to holding up her head and tolerating tummy time. She is getting good at grabbing things rather than just swatting at them, and she is trying to figure out scooting when her toys are out of reach. Her scooting results in a lot of aggravated wriggling and face plants, so hopefully she will figure out her arms soon, for her face's sake...

Utah Dash

The time came all too soon to return to Utah.

We already had return tickets to Utah (since we didn't hear back about the internship until a week before we left for Christmas break) so we used the time to dash back to our storage for essential items for the next six months. We flew back on Friday evening, Jon picked us up from the airport (at 11pm, bless that man's heart!) and he gave us a lift to our car. We then went to the storage unit, packed up our car, then crashed over at R&Js at midnight for some much needed sleep. We arouse early in the morning (8:30am... hehe. A little later than we had anticipated...) and winded our way back to our new California home. Thankfully, Mimi and Papa graciously allowed Riley to party with them these couple days while we travelled.

Papa sleeping on the job

Although it was hard to leave Riley for any length of time, I was extremely grateful to know that she was in good hands, and that she was not screaming in the back of the car the entire way. Especially when we hit horrendous traffic in the mountains that delayed our journey for a couple hours. We received little updates here and there on how Riley was doing fine, which I really appreciated.

Happy Riley!

When we arrived back home around 9:30pm, it was so nice to be out of that car! And even though Riley woke up multiple times that night, I don't remember being so happy to hear her cry and be able to hold her again.