Grandma is in town and it is better than Santa!

And she started things off with a bang! She came bearing gifts. Practically a whole suitcase full of the cutest stuffed animals that sing and make animal noises. The cow scared him a bit but other than that he was in some kind of baby heaven that only lets babies and gift-giving-grandmas (say that 3 times fast) in.

 

She spent her days here just kissing Gray's cheeks and loving on him as much as his squirmy little self would allow. One day, they strolled the Pier while I went for a quick jog. It's amazing how much easier less-hard a San Francisco hill is when you aren't pushing a 40 lb stroller up it. Followed by the traditional bowl of clam chowder, she couldn't resist and neither could I.

 Kimball had to step away for a few days for a dental conference. It was perfect timing to have a mom to spend my nights with watching Sound of Music and South Pacific. The next day we took a picnic to Golden Gate Park and fed the squirrels, not ducks. The first squirrel didn't even wait til I had the nuts out of my pocket to literally straddle my thigh until I shook it off. You better believe I was that freakin' annoying girl screaming in the middle of the park while my mom, the QUEEN of germ-a-phobs, was all hunky-dory with them and letting them climb all over her. Barf. I made her sleep outside that night.

She helped me run all my errands, clean up all my messes, finish all my primary projects, get all the bargains at the flower market and get all my girl-talk out, all in time to catch the sunset.

You're Invited to a Mustache Bash

We are back in Utah and Idaho now-a-days and I am finding myself with a little extra time on my hands and missing these great people: 

Right before we headed out for the summer, my two great friends Alysse and Jane threw Kimball and I the most adorable baby shower. Let's be honest, sometimes the conversation at baby showers tend to gravitate towards talking about sore lady parts or the baby's latest blowout which no one is a fan of, so we thought that a co-ed shower with more of a 'bbq feel' would be the most fitting. It was such a blast and we couldn't have asked for a better goodbye/happy baby party. Kimball even learned some 'baby shower etiquette' when opening gifts in front of everyone; it wasn't as comfortable as he thought it would be :). We have some of the most amazing friends and feel so blessed to have gotten to know them over the past year. Pretty sure the Allens and Stantons were up all night making the adorable decorations and incredible food. Can't thank you guys enough, we loved it all!

Happy 75th Birthday Mr. Golden Gate Bridge!

A couple days ago, the Golden Gate Bridge turned 75 years old. I have to say I really am not much of a city girl. I have developed such an appreciation for cows and endless fields whenever I see them back in Idaho and Utah but the city has some incredible perks too, like getting to watch a firework show being lit off the Golden Gate Bridge. I don't think anyone could ever get sick of looking at that iconic bridge. Whether it's the safety orange color or the mountain drop background, there is just something that makes it so much more spectacular than any ordinary bridge. I really feel so lucky that we get to spend this little chapter of our lives in such a beautiful place, not to mention our incredible, photogenic friends that we get to share events like this with; love those Youngbergs and Allens and baby Evie was a real champ.

And we just found this fun video of the whole celebration: http://vimeo.com/43004940

Friends in the City

I have some catching up to do. Over the last month we had some of our besties come and visit us. Sydnie the crazy, decided the day before that she needed a weekend getaway and bought her ticket for the next night. That's the kind of spontaneity I can only hope to have one day. We had such a good time at the Farmer's Market on the Pier, checking out all the street performers (we saw all my favorites including trumpet boy, the bush man and the robot dancers) got clam chowder and hit up the beach when Kimball was done studying.

My favorite picture of the weekend definitely came from the beach visit. Unbeknownst to us, the beach we chose to go to happened to have been the most popular nude beach in San Francisco. And I thought walking down the street in the Castro was a sight for sore eyes. I had no idea that it was fashionable to walk around in just your shirt and flip-flops or if you're a woman, just your pants and bolo tie. Unfortunately, someone at my house also thought it was a great idea and no it is not me. Anyways, I would share the money shot with you but blogger.com won't allow it, ha! I'll leave it up to your imagination to fill in the blanks.

And then the very next week, we got a wonderful visit from Emsio. And we just talked. I can't even tell you what we did and my phone being broken has left me with a lack of pictures except for the super flattering ones the boys decided to take while Emo and I were on a bathroom hunt. I just know that we talked and talked and it was awesome. We went on a gorgeous hike in the Presidio, got some killer ice cream, ran (and someone walked) across the Golden Gate Bridge because one of the items on Emo's bucket list is to run across one of the 7 world wonders. The GG Bridge is number 8 on that list if anyone was wondering. :) Had a beautiful temple visit and then I drug them all along to an overrated flee market and then before I knew it she was gone again! Come back Emo, come back.

Happy Mother's Day!

Recently, Allegiant Airline has opened up a new direct flight from Idaho Falls to Oakland and at the most ridiculous and fantastic prices ever! So I decided that for $50 each way, we could afford to send me home for a quick Mother's day/Mother's birthday weekend surprise visit! With a lot of help from Kimball's family and my brother's, we were able to throw my mom a little birthday bash. It seems like surprises are the only eventful things that happen in my life right now but seriously it's Kimball's and my way of  making it up to ourselves for having to miss out on all of the little get-togethers that our family's do while we are 12 hours away.

The original plan was to dress me up as Tyson's new girlfriend and have me sit in at dinner at Olive Garden (mom's favorite) until she realized that Tyson's new girlfriend looked strangely like her daughter and was for some reason, already pregnant. But because of a five hour flight delay (guess that's what you get when your entire flight costs only $100) the boys had to do dinner without me. So as soon as I got there, we threw a nasty black, Frankenstein's wife looking wig on me and the boys gave me Mom's dessert to bring into the kitchen to her. Tyson took some footage of the whole evening surprises from her dinner to the new tv to her visit from Samara from the ring (aka me) which can be seen here, here and here. Video #3 shows the unexpected reaction of her crumbling to the floor with laughter. Seriously? No tears? I come all this way for her birthday and she doesn't even cry? She just laughed at my dumb wig. Typical Sheri. I feel like I post videos of her like I'll post videos and pictures of my baby. But for now, she entertains me like a small child would. :)

The rest of the weekend flew by as I got to be there to say good-bye to my sister-in-law Mandi before she headed off to PA school in Philadelphia and spend time with my wonderful Burton family. Only one month left 'til we move home for the summer!

The Burton Family minus some keyplayers (Kimball, The Adams and Jeddy)

Mandi's Going Away Party

Don't forget, Trevor was there too.

To Haley, Amanda and Liz

We always joke about me getting on the blogging train, and how terribly terrible I am at it but you guys have to understand that the pressure you put on me after reading your eloquent blogs has been building for years now. I just had to wait till I had something big enough and exciting enough and interesting enough to write about. And it's finally here, my cookie-crumbling story has arrived! :) To be honest, I was starting to write about weird news reports, that's how boring work and the nightly television had gotten in my life ;). Plus, I figure you three are the only ones that will ever check out this blog, oh and the occasional family member and of course Taza (she already asked if she could do a guest post, I'm still thinking about it) but I wanted to share my fun news (feel free to scroll down whenever) with you guys in a fun way that we've been joking about for forever. I'm always telling you that my awesome blog is almost ready to go public. And yeah yeah, it's not great, there are a lot of missing pictures and it's no Amanda the chef or Haley the poet or Liz the Frenchy but now you guys can start teaching me. (PS Haley, you went private and since I've been inactive on this thing I don't have access anymore, invite?) I miss you best friends! Now you have a super valid reason to come visit San Francisco sometime in the next year cause this kid is going to need to meet his/her aunties :) Love you besties!

Sharing the News

Kimball and I have been scheming for the past couple months about how we wanted to share our good news with our families. My family does an annual snowmobiling trip every winter and knew that we'd be flying in for it. Please excuse my irreverence in the following video but seriously my mom's face was just too priceless.


Seymour Surprise from Tess Burton on Vimeo.


Kimball's family had no idea we were in town so Sunday morning we snuck up to Idaho and skyped them from their next-door neighbor's living room. I think the triple effect of BAM, we're in town and BAM, we're pregnant and BAM we're going to be here to have the baby BAM BAM BAM was a little overwhelming. Courtney didn't cry as hard as I was hoping for but the tears they lacked were made up for in high-pitched squeals :)

Burton Surprise from Tess Burton on Vimeo.

So Monday afternoon we had lunch with the Burton aunts and uncles and then headed back to Farmington where we met up with Whitney and Matt at a gas station in Kaysville. The original plan was to catch them at Matt's in Bountiful and hopefully get to watch the Bachelor with them but poor planning on my part had us spoiling the surprise to Matt and getting him to pull over on their way back home to Logan. We faked a letter from ABC saying that Kimball and 3 guests had won a trip to L.A to take a tour of the Bachelor mansion. Yeah, we got a little carried away but it was so worth it.
Checkett's Surprise from Tess Burton on Vimeo.

Right after the gas station attack, we had dinner with my mom and headed to Salt Lake where conveniently Mandi, Sarah and Tanner were watching the Jazz game at Mandi's boyfriend's house. We did a quick in and out, showed some ultrasounds, and a few belly rubs for the belly that isn't really there yet and then we headed on our way to the airport.Unfortunately I forgot to pull my camera out until the last second for this surprise but it was a great way to top off an incredible weekend.