spatula

mmmm...the boy got his first taste of licking the spatula clean after we made ice cream this weekend and by the looks on his face, i think he enjoyed it!

zoo buddies!

last friday we met up with some of our friends for an impromptu gathering at the zoo! as new zoo members, i can see us spending lots of time here! the great thing about having a membership is that you don't have to stress about getting your money worth by trying to get around to see all of the animals/exhibits...we can pick and choose and if we have a meltdown and need to leave - no worries, we'll just come again another day! we hope to get to some of the zoo concerts that are free with the membership, but the wednesday 7pm shows may be hard for us.

here are a few pics of the afternoon:

kellen and tom checking out the big stuffed bears at the entrance

tom, sydney and kellen in front of the giant fish tank

kellen didn't want to get off his little farm stool!

zoo buddies!

(t-man had just come close to falling off his stool, so wasn't loving it at that moment!)

5 years | mama's day

things have been really crazy and i haven't really had time to even think about updating the blog...but here's a little recap of the two big highlights of the last month!

5 years {san francisco}
in honor of our 5 wedding anniversary, aa and i, took a trip to san francisco. it was our first overnighter with both of us away from the boy. we spent three nights in downtown sf and basically ate and walked our way around the city. here's a list of deliciousness that we ate:

• fish taco in the ferry street building
• a late night french dinner in union square
• hot fudge mint chocolate chip sundae at ghiradelli square
• 4 pound carnitas burrito in the mission (that was me alone!)
• salt and pepper shrimp with mushrooms and sesame chicken in chinatown
• scrambled eggs w/ spinach and salmon at the ferry street building farmers market
• crab and shrimp cocktail and clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl at fisherman's wharf
• falafel wrap and chicken/veggie shawarma just outside of golden gate park
• pints of anchor steam beer in the haight while watching the kentucky derby (ok, water for me!)
• cheddar sourdough roll from the ferry street building
  

mmmmm....makes my mouth water just remembering the goodness! thank god we walked our butts all over the city, up and down the hills, because if not i would have for sure been up 10 pounds! :) unfortunately i didn't get a lot of pictures...only two in fact and they are pretty much the same photo! i often have this dilemma of wanting lots of pictures of our adventures, but wanting to fully live in the moment and not being behind the camera the whole time. how do you balance that for yourselves...capturing the adventure, but also being in the moment?

it was a wonderful trip, despite the rain! it was so nice to be a couple again and just enjoy each other's company...oh and to SLEEP! unfortunately my internal clock seems to be permanently set on kellen time, so i woke up at all of our normal times, but i didn't allow myself out of bed until 7am each morning! it was wonderful. we sure did miss our boy, but he was in the excellent care of his grandma jan and papa rick. unfortunately for them he wasn't feeling so well, so he was a bit of a cranky pants for most of the time. we are so thankful to them for having him so that we could get away for those few days!

mama's day #2 {beach.brunch.friends}
my mother's day weekend actually started on saturday. we woke up to a beautiful, sunny day and decided to head to cannon beach. after opening my card, filled with pictures of the boy and me - and the cute photo to the right, we got ready to hit the road. an hour and a half later and one trip back to the house, we were finally on our way! it was timed perfectly for k to take a nap and we arrived just in time for lunch! we had a delicious seafood lunch at ecola seafood market and then ventured out to the sand. it was a warm, but very windy day. at first the boy wasn't too sure about the sand. he has a thing against textures and right away he hopped onto the beach chair that we had brought along. he then decided to sit on the edge of the blanket and play in the sand with his new beach toys. after aa went down to the water and filled his bucket up with water, he decided to get brave and venture down for more water. next thing we knew he was sitting at the edge of the water with the waves lapping up over him! he was soaked and getting covered in sand. he thought it was great! we played on the beach for an almost a couple of hours before putting the boy in the bob and heading our for a walk on the beach and hopefully a nap! kellen had other plans, he relaxed, but refused to take a nap. we ended up getting an ice cream cone and for the first time he enjoyed a bit of ice cream. after a quick play session in the grass to burn a bit of energy we hit the road back home and all had a good night sleep! kellen even gifted me with a mother's day sleep in until 8:20am!! what a treat!

on sunday, aaron and kellen went to the farmer's market and came home with tomato plants and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. we had a delicious brunch, all made by the gassner men. that evening we had a playdate and dinner with some friends who all have babies right around kellen's age. it was wonderful to spend time with this group of people, as we all met through the hospital mom's group when our babes were just weeks old and we essentially became mother's together. i guess our babies really aren't babies anymore, as they are talking, running, climbing and playing together now...but really, won't they always be our babies? especially on mother's day!

Issues!

Between not having the time or energy and our computer going down (yes...its been down and out again!!) my blogging has clearly suffered. I miss it and promise to be back soon!

In the meantime, check out my friend Meghan's blog - Sit Still - the link is over there to the right. She's a super talented seamstress and has been designing her own aprons, whipping up amazing handbags, diaper bags and quilits and has even been known to give some of them away to her lucky readers! I just so happened to be the lucky winner of her most recent giveaway! I probably shouldn't clue you in, because it decreases my chances for next time, but I know you'll all be so amazed by her work!

Be back very soon with more on our sf trip and my amazing mothers day!

making it official!

i'm back and WAY behind, but let me just get right to it... This is hardly a surprise for most of my readers (if i still have any, that is~!), but we are excited to announce that baby gassner #2 is on the way! this ultrasound sound is at 9 weeks 6 days and i'm now 14 weeks 1 day, so the little rolo (will tell the story another day!) is now looking more like a baby than a bean and is approximately 3-4 inches long already. we are over the moon and can't wait to find out if we are having a boy or a girl - but have decided to wait until the day of his/her birth - which is scheduled to be sometime around october 31! probably won't be a halloween baby, but will for sure be an october baby, so that will make 3 out of 4 of us october birthdays! i'm finally feeling good. i can't complain too much, because i haven't actually been sick...but i had 3-4 weeks where i felt really nauseous and NOTHING sounded good to eat - except crap, of course! i've been extra tired, but honestly i don't know i can blame the pregnancy or if it's just a build up of 17 months of pure exhaustion! i'd be lying if i didn't admit that there are times where i feel a bit anxious, wondering how we will manage 2 little ones. they will be ~23 months apart, which my doctor says is a perfect age difference...but i'm bracing myself for it to be a challenging first year or two! i'm hopeful that this time around i'll feel a little more confident, a little more calm and a little more relaxed. i hear that it is easier the second time around and i hope that it's true for us! either way...i know that we couldn't be more thrilled to add another little one to our family and we're up for the challenge and the joy!

ok - it's so good to have our computer back...we had a major virus and had to re-install the whole Operating System (ok...we didn't do it, but a paid professional did!). let me tell you...our files were recovered, but i sure felt SO much better knowing that even if they weren't, they were safely backed up on our external hard drive (thank you, bry!). i have so much more to share (like our BIG trip away from the boy to SF!!), but it will have to wait for another day!