Monday, October 21, 2013

It's Autumntime, it's autumntime!

Does anyone else remember that Primary song? Here is a refresher in case you've forgotten:

It's Autumntime Primary Song

And it is absolutely beautiful. I wish I had some good pictures of the beautiful red and orange and yellow trees all around our apartment. We had a few weeks where a family of blue jays took up residence in the trees by our parking lot - but it seems to have gotten too cold for them and they've flown south. We still have our little flock of quail, though - now probably 30 or more in number. I think my favorite part about this apartment is the huge mass of trees, bushes, and ivy right outside our window, and the constant sound of birds. And it's beautiful in the fall with the ivy leaves turning red and brown.

Of late: Ryan is marching steadily onward through the first semester of the accounting junior core and doing a great job of it. We've finally found a sort of balance - most days we have enough time to eat dinner together and do something short, even if it's later at night. He interviewed for two internships for this summer and was offered one at Squire, just right up the road in Orem. It's an advisory internship, which is what he thinks he wants to go into, so we're excited for the experience he'll get. It will probably be May - August, too, which will be great, and we won't have to move with a 4-month old (yay!).

They also offered him a part-time job in the interim - which he accepted this morning for just 5-10 hours a week, so that will also be great experience. In his "free" time, he's been busy putting in new blinds, helping me move furniture around, finishing up lawns for the summer, and driving me to Smith's at 10:30 at night to buy "real" chocolate.

I am still working from home about 18 hours a week as a project manager for a translation company in Salt Lake. I enjoy the job, it's picked up a little in the past week so it's not quite as boring :) Plus it's flexible, and most of the time "work" means watching my email, taking care of things as they come in or are assigned, and washing dishes or cleaning the floor in the meantime. It's nice to be able to stay caught up around the house while still working. While not working, I've been organizing the apartment, trying to get the second bedroom baby-ready, working on craft projects, cleaning, doing Relief Society stuff, and visiting with friends. It's still weird not working/studying full-time, but as I've started needing a nap more and more each day, I am a little bit grateful for how things are.
Watching BYU football

Ryan playing intramural tennis

Our beautiful, massive tomato plant that never produced a single tomato

Ryan fixing the baby's dresser that we got off KSL for only $20!

Our Christmas stockings - I taught myself free-motion quilting so I could embroider the names

Helping Lisa paint her kitchen by climbing around like a 6-months pregnant monkey.

Our ghost family - made from a plastic tablecloth, paper towels, and pipe cleaners.




Tuesday, August 27, 2013

More summer adventures

We went camping with my dad at Mirror Lake. It rained a lot... but was lots of fun anyway! 




See rocks, must climb... 

Awesome drop-off above the lake


Which of course means we must roll boulders off the edge


And toss trees over...


If all else fails, we drop rocks on logs to see if they'll break

And then we visit the Provo River Falls


Sometime before going camping, we also got to do the Jordanelle Triathlon. Ryan did the full sprint triathlon, and I did the swim portion in a sprint relay with McKenzi and Lisa.






And we finally made it back to the Manti Temple, for the first time since our sealing in 2011 :) While waiting for the session to start, I felt the baby move for the first time. Special experiences happen in Manti!



Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Little Sommerfeldt

For those who are interested, we will be posting occasional updates on Sommerfeldt #3 here: http://littlesommerfeldt.blogspot.com/ (or click on the tab at the top of our family blog). We'll put pictures on there every so often and you can also post guesses on whether it will be a boy or girl (we find out in a month!) on the Guesses tab.


We are so excited to welcome this little one into our family!

- Ryan & Jen

Monday, August 5, 2013

California!

We got to go to California this past week with my mom and it was so much fun! We spent two days in Disneyland and almost three days at various beaches. Ryan had a blast boogie boarding in the waves and Jennifer enjoyed it as well, though both Marilyn and Jennifer were longing for the warm, sunny beaches of Florida :) Next time we'll probably just save the extra money to get to Daytona Beach! There are more pictures on Ryan's phone of him on Grizzly River Run and me in various places... but I'm too impatient to wait and get them... I'll post them later :)

Monday - driving down and Newport Beach
Heading into the waves at Newport Beach

Newport Beach Pier


Watching the bodysurfers off Newport Beach Pier



Tuesday/Wednesday - Disneyland and California Adventure!!!
In front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle (In Florida it's Cinderella's castle - but in California it's Sleeping Beauty)

We have a lot of these pictures together :)
On our way to Splash Mountain, first thing, where we didn't wait in line at ALL! (That's what happens when you go on the water ride at 8:30 in the morning)
 
Ryan was so excited for Splash Mountain... :)
 

I love the faces I catch sometimes :)

This is what happens when I try to hold out the camera and get all three of us in the picture at once :)

And then a nice lady takes pity on us and offers to take our picture without us having to ask! Works like a charm, every time :)

Ryan was exasperated with me that I kept wanting to just watch the ducks.... but they were DISNEY ducks!!!



Exploring the caves on Tom Sawyer's Island

Soundsational parade - the music has been stuck in my head ever since :)

To infinity... and beyond!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Day 2 - Disneyland and California Adventure







Ryan's favorite - Grizzly River Run in California Adventure


Admiring the price of gasoline with envy in Cars Land in California Adventure



With Mater in Cars Land :)






Splash Mountain take 1

Take 2
Take 3!

Castle at night - when we left at almost midnight and headed to IHOP for dinner...
 
Thursday/Friday - La Jolla Cove, La Jolla Shores, Windansea Beach

Somebody's starfish on the beach at Windansea

Ryan's little boogie boarding friend. He thought every wave was cool, even if he only went four feet.
Sunset - beautiful in its cloudy way. The water sparkled, it was really pretty.
 
The beautiful scary looking storm we drove into on the way home...