more SF adventures

I have been having so much fun with Nicole. She is so positive and happy all the time and makes me laugh all day long. I love her! I am sad to be leaving tomorrow but here are a few of the adventures we have had lately:

-Weekly checkups. Everything looked great again. Seeing Baby D on the ultrasound and hearing his heartbeat is amazing. The other day Nicole made a comment along the lines of , "Most women who have a baby with spina bifida, that keep it, are religious." That statement kept going through my mind as I saw his head and his heart beating on the screen. How anyone could do that to their unborn child is beyond me. I have seen him and heard him. Baby D is a human being. He has as much of a right to this life as any other baby. He is going to have great parents and a great extended family that love him beyond words. Because he will have some physical limitations does not make him any less special. If anything, he is more special. I know he will bring so much joy to our family and I can't wait to meet him.

-More fun lunches and dinners. San Francisco sure knows how to do good food.

-Packages from Mr. Jennings. He sent up some of my very favorite treats, which are total contraband in rooms, but Nicole and I have been enjoying the sugar.

-Ghiradelli Square. They give out free samples! Which was awesome. It was very big and pretty being right there next to the water.I'm going to miss this girl. Thank goodness for sisters.

exploratorium and park day

The exploratorium was a success. There were a lot of cool things to explore. I'm sure Nicole will post some more pictures of our adventures in there. The highlights inside the exploratorium:
-The mood bubble (or germ bubble according to Nicole) that you placed over your head
-Shadow box which captured your shadows at a particular moment up on the wall
-Speech Delay machine
-Startle Response Booth (even though neither one of us were very startled)

Outside the exploratorium was a really pretty "tribute to love" dome and column outside by a lake with swans in it. It was very romantic. I guess it is called the palace to Fine Arts. I feel like Emily would have loved it.


Today we went to the park because it was actually sunny and warm outside today. We sat on a blanket in the botanical gardens for a few hours, playing Monopoly (the card game) and reading. Even though we are a little burnt from the outing, it was totally worth it. We watched a gopher stick his head up and get ALL THE WAY OUT of his little hole. I have never seen one do that before! Did you know that gophers actually have tails like mice? I bet you didn't because they never come all the way out of their holes. Look for pictures of the gopher on Nicole's blog. It was a highlight of the day.

San Francisco!

Well I have been here in San Francisco for three days now. I must admit that I was really looking forward to returning to California for great weather, but I think it is worse here than in Utah! It is windy and cold (well at least for my cold blooded genes) but it is very pretty. This is my first time in this city.

Nicole is doing great! She is pretty fun to hang out with all day. Every night we eat out, come back and video chat with someone and then watch a show or movie. Last night was Young Victoria. You should all watch it. We loved it.

Yesterday was appointment day at the hospital. I pushed her up to the hospital and we were able to see Baby D on the sonogram. It was amazing. We saw a perfect picture of his little ear and the outline of lots of hair on his head! Its incredible that technology can do that. I love that little guy so much already.

We had a two hour break after that so we went to this little restaurant named Pamelo for lunch. It is "globally refreshing". (Everyone here in San Fran is very concerned with being healthy and organic. I have learned that we should ONLY be eating meat from grass fed cows. Any other way is just inhumane. Don't forget it.) The hilarious thing was that this restaurant was two big hills down. It was pretty hard wheeling the chair down these hills. I had a firm grasp on the handles and couldn't talk because I was so focused on not letting Nicole go. Could you imagine? We made it though and the food was very exotic. I had plantains in my Cuban dish. The hard part was getting back up the hills. My goal was to make it to the top of the block without stopping. I put my head all the way down and pushed with my legs. I told Nicole to tell me if I was going to run into anything. Needless to say, I wish we had a picture documenting it. We were laughing so hard though and I achieved my goal! The other highlight of the day was hearing Baby D's heartbeat. That was a really cool experience for me.

Hope you all had a great Memorial Day! Nicole and I were able to go to the beach with some friends from the Ward and have hot dogs and fruit and other treats. Granted, we were all bundled up in our sweatshirts and blankets, but we were at the beach! That is another thing I am so glad about. There are so many couples in the Ward up here that are so kind to Nicole and her support person. They are always offering rides, and inviting us to events. Seeing that has made me more resolved to be that kind of a person because I know now more than ever how appreciative the recipient is.

Today we are going to the science Exploratorium! Pictures and stories will follow soon.