Graduation, pregnancy brain, and other funny stories.

The month of June was a busy one at our house, to say the least. :-)

First of all, hooray for Josh! He is now a Master of Arts. Graduated with something like a 3.99999999 (I'm only exaggerating by hundredths of a point here... and that was while working full-time and being the Elders Quorum president). He is amazing!

My parents and Josh's dad were able to come visit for graduation, and that was wonderful! We had lots of fun adventures—San Diego, outlet mall, Bass Pro Shop, plus some nice comfy hanging out time. Graduation, like everything else on Cal State campus, had its complicated moments... and by complicated, I mean incompetent. :-) None of the spring graduates' names with Josh's degree were listed in the program; the university did have their graduation cards, but no place for them to line up, Josh told us; those in charge wouldn't have called them up to graduate if the four of them who were walking hadn't grabbed an usher and said, "We're graduating too!!" The usher found the associate dean, who found someone to help her put on their master's hoods, and later apologized profusely, saying that the Political Science department hadn't submitted any graduates from Josh's program for spring graduation... we still don't know what happened, but Josh did still get his diploma and final transcript, and those are the important things. Although it still makes me sad that his name wasn't in the program. :-(

My parents left the day after graduation, but Josh's dad got to stay a few more days, and we had some great adventures! We went to see an airplane museum; we were on the receiving end of a grocery store parking lot car accident (no one hurt, but our car is getting repainted by the other person's insurance—hooray for plastic door panels that pop back out!); and we went to see Josh's grandparents and great-grandparents' old homes in Oxnard and Ventura, and put our feet in the ocean, and drove Josh's dad around to places he used to know. And we picked lemons from the old lemon trees over the fence from the old church parking lot. :-)

And then the NEXT weekend, we went to San Fransisco! It was a flying visit—we drove up on Thursday, spent Friday and Saturday with Laurie and in the city, spend Sunday in Oroville and Sacramento, and drove home Sunday night. It was an awesome trip, though, one that we would've kicked ourselves for later if we hadn't done it. Here are some pictures:

Geneil, in front of a giant riverboat waterwheel at the SF Maritime Museum. Lots of cool boats here, just like the San Diego Maritime Museum, but we just looked at them along the dock.

Josh on the Maritime Museum dock, with Alcatraz in the background.

Josh and Geneil waiting in line for a cable car ride at the Ghiradelli Square station. (We have lots of video footage of riding the car up and down hills, but I don't know that you guys would find it very exciting.) :-) We did stop at Ghiradelli Square, and Laurie bought us sundaes; as Josh said, it was as amazing as advertised... and we didn't need any more chocolate for the rest of the month or so.

While in the city, we also went up Coit Tower; we drove through Chinatown, down Lombard Street, and just "around" a little downtown; we bought some Godiva chocolate at the huge Westfield mall at Union Square; we stopped for focaccia bread at a little authentic Italian corner shop that Laurie knows; we drove across the Golden Gate bridge a few times and the Bay Bridge once.

We stopped by to see a hero of Josh's who lives in the Bay area; his name is Alex Vraciu, and he was a WWII ace who flew Hellcats in the Pacific theater and, after a crash, spent six weeks in the jungles of the Philippines, leading a guerilla group back to American lines. We were very glad we called him; it was so cool to hear his stories!

We also went up to visit Kathy and Sims and their family before we headed home. Their family is looking and doing well as usual. :-) It was nice and relaxing to be at their house.

Then we stopped in Sacramento on the way home to see Cort and Heather, and then we drove home. And that was June! Crazy, huh?

In other news, pregnancy brain is a real phenomenon! It hit me suddenly a couple of weeks ago, and now I forget things and pronounce things wrong and... forget things... :-) I told my friend Melody that I would take her to the grocery store a few days ago; we made an appointment for about 2 in the afternoon. I thought about it all morning, then made Josh's lunch, and when Josh went back to work after lunch, I totally forgot about poor Melody. :-) She called me around 3, and we went and it was fine, but sheesh...

Geneil's tummy at 21 weeks or so, just past halfway.

I'm sure I'm forgetting other funny stories too, but I think I'll go ahead and post this. July and August are looking at least as crazy as June; I'll try to keep up. :-)