It has been ALMOST a year since our last post, and needless to say, but we have been busy! I wanted to get everyone as up-to-date as possible so in order to continue the adventures we plan to have. A sum up of the past 8 months is:
1) Arrived in Alameda, CA, and Matt started work at the Coast Guard Personnel Services Center Surge Staffing Branch on July 19, 2010. He was thrown from the fire into the frying pan as he was dealing mainly with the personnel logistics side of the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. To date, he has helped to provide approximately 3000 members to the response efforts.
2) Erica and Matt celebrated their 1 year anniversary on 9/7/10. We headed to Pacifica and stayed the Best Western Lighthouse Inn, of which we stayed during our honeymoon.
3) In October, we headed to Texas to celebrate the marriage of our friends Jeremy and Borianna Yandell. It was a quick trip (less than 24 hours), and we were quite tired when we returned. But we were excited, not only for our newlywed friends, but also for the pregnancy test that turned out positive! June 24!
4) Matt took some leave from work Veteran's Day and we drove up to Ft. Bragg, CA in Mendocino County and had a lovely time together checking out some more of Northern California. Some of the sites we saw included the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, Glass Beach, and Point Cabrillo and Point Arena lighthouses. We stayed at the North Cliff Hotel, which had great amenities and views of the Pacific Ocean.
*Glass Beach
5) Thanksgiving was spent in Michigan with Matt's parents. Erica spent time with her mother-in-law at the Grand Rapids Art Museum looking at the on-tour Princess Diana collection and Matt fixed his four-wheeler so that dad could get the mail easier. It was great seeing all the family (Zolnierek's and Gregory's) while we were there.
6) Christmas was a busy season as Erica and Matt were part of the Christmas musical at church, as well as spending all the time with Erica's family. We spent Christmas Day in Sacramento with the Abshire's and December 26 in Alameda with the Kendall's. Again, it is always great to spend time with family!
7) This month we were able to get away for Valentine's Day. We took a little road trip to King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. We stayed at the Wuksachi Lodge in Sequoia which had a fabulous V-Day filet mignon dinner! We spent the rest of our trip looking at the largest trees in the world.
Currently, we are in week 23 of the pregnancy (over halfway)! Erica's baby bump continues to get more pronounced as time goes by and we are gearing up for the third trimester. We don't have any idea what gender the baby is going to be - it will be a surprise for all!
