The Fremming Factor

Before and After

2011-05-15T16:59:00.000-07:00

We've now been in our house for 3 years, and have made a lot of changes to it. We had no idea what we were doing when we bought this house, but have learned a lot, and are happy with what we've done with it. Last year I posted some before and after pictures, but we've planted more trees, our plants have grown, we added rocks to our flower beds, and Stephen painted our door. So here's some fun before and after pictures of the outside of our house. (We've done a lot inside too, but the outside changes look the coolest.)

5 Year Anniversary!

2011-04-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

April 29th Stephen and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary! Time has gone by fast, and so much has happened. I'm grateful for Stephen and for our marriage. To celebrate we went over to the bay and stayed at this beautiful historic hotel in Berkeley. It's called the Berkeley City Club and was designed by the same architect that designed Hearst Castle down south. This place was called the little castle. It was beautiful. We had a fun experience walking around Berkeley on a Friday night, there is a very big variety of people there. We ate at this really cool restaurant, then Eleanor got to go in a swimming pool for the first time. She seemed to like it well enough. The pool at the hotel was all mosaic, and very beautiful, I did laps in it the next morning. The next day we met Mom and Dad Cromar in Union City, and we all got to use our Christmas gift from two Christmas's ago. We did indoor sky diving in the big wind tunnel. It was fun to get to fly. We loved it!

Easter

2011-04-24T14:30:00.000-07:00

We had a nice Easter weekend. Ryan, Jessica, Emily and Samuel came up that Saturday, and we had a lunch, and went to the park. It's so fun to live close enough that we get to see them, and that our kids get to see each other. (Eleanor's just going to love getting to be near her Merced cousins) Easter Sunday we went to Stephen's parents house, and had a nice dinner and evening. Eleanor got a cute basket from Mom Fremming with a chick stuffed animal. Eleanor loves chewing on the chick! My sister Jenny made Eleanor her Easter dress. She looked so very cute! We're grateful for this time of year, to see blossoms and new growth, and to celebrate the Savior's resurrection.

Spring Pictures!

2011-03-27T13:54:00.000-07:00

We had a coupon from when we had our pictures taken in December, so we got some more family pictures done, and got some pictures of Eleanor. Eleanor did such a great job! Usually when we bring out our camera she just stares at it and won't smile, but when we went to take pictures at JCPenneys, the photographer would say "peek-a-boo," and she would smile and he would take the picture. We were so glad to get so many pictures of her smiling, we just love her smile!

Tutu and Dog Hair

2011-03-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

For Emily's birthday I decided I wanted to make her a tutu for dress up. Emily is great at, and enjoys imaginary play a lot, so I thought this would be a fun gift. I've never made a tutu before, so I got online and watched a couple of videos on youtube, went to Walmart and picked out some tulle and ribbon, and made a tutu and some hair flower clips. I loved how it turned out, and Emily seemed to like it too.

Other news in our house...Molly got a hair cut. Actually a lot of hair cut, the groomer said that the hair they cut off Molly was equal to all the hair they cut off all the other dogs that day combined, and they were busy. Molly had a double coat of long hair, and spent most all of her days laying around the house panting. So we had her shaved, and she looks like a new dog. She plays a lot more now, and isn't panting like she used to. Hopefully she'll be more comfortable this summer compared to previous summers. Here are her before and after pictures.

Funny Faces

2011-03-20T14:29:00.000-07:00

So we think Eleanor is a super beautiful baby, but lately we've gotten some pictures of her making some funny faces that I wanted to share. Here are Eleanor's cute/funny faces.

Cricuting!

2011-02-27T21:58:00.000-08:00

Here are two projects I did last week. Both were very cheap, but took some time. The Family tiles are 4"x4" tiles. Stephen drilled holes through them, and I used ribbon to connect them. The Season block are 7 blocks that spell all four seasons. Here are the letter combos front and back if you want to do this (T S, M I, N M, E G, W U, A R, U P). I got the wood from Home Depot's scrap wood section, and they cut it into blocks for me. It ended up being 51 cents for 14 blocks! Stephen sanded them for me, then I just had to figure out which papers to use that would go with different seasons. I like how they turned out. I also made a little plaque with a quote from President Monson about gratitude. All three of these items I donated for the YM/YW spaghetti dinner auction. The people that won them seemed excited about them. I now want to make some for myself.

Yosemite Trip

2011-01-21T17:56:00.000-08:00

We took a trip to Yosemite during January. We stayed at Curry Village in an heated tent cabin, and Eleanor did a great job sleeping in a travel bassinet. We had originally planned on going ice skating, but changed our minds to the much safer activity of snowshoeing. We had a wonderful time. It was sunny and warm and we both ended up taking off our coats and pushing up our sleeves. We took a bus up to badger pass, and went snowshoeing for 2 hours with a group led by a Park Ranger. It ended up only costing $5 each for Stephen and I, which was so much cheaper than renting them and going on our own. We snowshoed through the woods and to a beautiful vista point where we were able to see 1/3 of Yosemite (Yosemite National Park covers almost 1,200 square miles). Stephen carried Eleanor in the front pack, and she ended up sleeping the whole 2 hours! It was very peaceful to walk through the woods on the snow, and very easy too. We really enjoyed it and hope to do more snowshoeing in the future.

Visit to Great Grandma

2011-01-17T11:37:00.000-08:00

On Martin Luther King Day Stephen didn't have work so we went down to Fresno to visit his Grandma. It was the first time Eleanor got to meet her Great Grandma. We had a great visit. The last time we had visited her was near the end of my pregnancy and she had felt Eleanor kick. She seemed delighted to get to meet Eleanor. She talked to her, played with her, held her and watched her. We were really glad to get to visit.

New Years Day Trip

2011-01-01T20:31:00.000-08:00

New Years Day we took our first day trip with Eleanor over to the coast. We spent the day in Monterey at the aquarium, which is one of my favorite places ever. Eleanor seemed to like looking at the fish, and the jelly fish. Stephen really enjoyed the Seahorse part, his favorite seahorse was the Weedy Seadragon. Eleanor watched the jelly fish a lot. My favorite part was the part where you can touch stuff, and I got to pet a bat ray, it felt soft and smooth. The kelp forest was also really neat to look at, with the shark, ray, and other big fish. That night we went to Captain Bulwackers to eat, it's one of Stephen's favorite restaurants over there, and I had given him a coupon for it for Christmas. The food was delicious! Eleanor did a great job on the drive there and home, and we were glad to find out that she can make longer trips. What a nice day, oh how I wish we lived on the coast!

More Pictures

2010-12-30T15:06:00.000-08:00

Christmas

2010-12-28T15:46:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas at the Fremmings. Stephen's brother Scott and his family came from Idaho, and Stephen's sister Kellee and her husband Ken came from Utah. His sister Kim and her family were also there, and us. Eleanor got to be around and meet new cousins and Aunts and Uncles. We had fun playing games, eating yummy food, and visiting with each other. Eleanor got a vibrating bouncer that she loves to lay in.

Life with Eleanor

2010-12-28T15:12:00.000-08:00

We love Eleanor! We're glad she is part of our family. Things we love about Eleanor: holding her, giving her baths because she enjoys sitting in the water, looking at her, when she sleeps against your chest, her beautiful face, talking with her, her pout face (so cute), kissing her cheeks and head, seeing her great smiles, dancing with her, her cute hiccups, how she looks like a frog when she kicks, her beautiful hands and feet, feeding her, watching her watch the mobile with awe while she's in her swing, how she truly looks like a piece of heaven, how happy she is to kick around naked when she's getting her diaper changed, watching our family members enjoy and love her, watching her look at things and learn, seeing her smile at our dogs, seeing our dog's interest in her, watching her look at the Christmas tree lights, taking her on walks so she can see beautiful nature, her great bubble blowing, how much she loves staring at the quilt her grandma made, and bringing her home because it feels even more homey with her here.

Pictures

2010-12-06T11:23:00.000-08:00

We got these pictures taken at JC Penneys. It turned out to be an exciting experience taking pictures with a baby. Last year we took pictures with our dogs, and when I told my sister Jenny how crazy it was, she said that it sounded like taking pictures with kids. I thought she was just being funny, turns out she wasn't. In the end they got some really nice pictures.

Eleanor

2010-11-15T20:24:00.000-08:00

She's here!!! Eleanor Naomi Fremming was born November 2nd at 11:26 am. She weighed 6 lbs 12 oz, and was 20 in. long. She is such a beautiful girl, and we are so grateful to have her in our home and family. We love this little girl! This is my favorite picture of her, it's from her first bath, she liked having the water run over her head.

Eleanor's Birth

2010-11-02T11:26:00.000-07:00

On November 1st I woke up at 3:30 am in mild labor. I was scheduled that day to be induced because I was over a week over my due date. We went into the hospital at 6:00 am, but I wasn't dilated or effaced much, so they went ahead and induced me. They gave me pills every four hours that were meant to soften the cervix, and bring on contractions. My contractions that had started early that morning continued, and worsened throughout that day, and into the next. While we waited I walked the halls of the hospital, we played some games, and watched a little bit of a movie. It took a very long time, and I was lucky to have Stephen and Mom there helping me. In the evening the contractions had gotten worse enough that I had them give me some pain medication, then finally at 5:00 am the next morning I was far enough along that they gave me an epidural. After that I was able to get some sleep, and my labor was able to progress. Towards the end the epidural wasn't working on my left side, and I was able to feel the contractions, which helped in me knowing when they were coming, and when to push. Delivery was an amazing experience. They set up a mirror so that I could see, which helped me to know what to do. I loved getting to see her born! Eleanor Naomi Fremming was born at 11:26 am November 2nd. She weighed 6 lbs 12 oz, and was 20 in long. She was beautiful from birth. After she came out, Stephen cut the umbilical cord, they wiped her off, then laid her on my chest. She was calm and just looked around for a long time. I loved just looking at her. Both Stephen and I cried just looking at her, and feeling so blessed to be able to have this baby. She was born pink skinned, and had long dark hair. Stephen's parents came in to see her right after she was born, and my dad came up that night to see her. All of our family were excited for her birth. I am so grateful to have gotten to have the wonderful experience of giving birth to Eleanor. It was had, but extremely worth it. We love her.

Pumpkins

2010-10-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

This year we decided to try something different with our pumpkins. Instead of carving, we cut vinyl and used it to decorate the pumpkins. I like how they turned out, it was a lot less messy than carving, and they'll last longer. Stephen says he's going to carve the back of his, but for now here's our fun vinyl decorating.

Baby Room!

2010-10-17T17:05:00.000-07:00

One week until our baby's due date on October 24th! Time is getting closer, and we're getting excited. These last couple of months I've been working, with some help, on the baby's/my craft room. Here are the before pictures, we had just been storing things in there for the last 2 years. Also pictures of the pretty much completed room. I cut the decorations on the walls out of vinyl using my cricut, I like how it turned out.

Apple Hill

2010-09-19T20:37:00.000-07:00

On Friday we went to Apple Hill. We had a wonderful time. This is our 3rd year going together. The other two years we went on Saturday, this year we found out going on Friday is such a good idea, they were way less crowded. We spent most of our time at the bigger orchards, eating baked goods, drinking apple cider, looking at crafts, and just enjoying the time together. We liked eating all the apple items, we had: apple doughnut, apple turnover (my favorite), apple cider, apple cookie, apple pie, sour cream apple pie (Stephen's favorite), caramel apple, and apples. We were sugared out by the end of the day. It was beautiful up there.

Fantastic Family Coast Trip

2010-09-14T14:26:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we took a wonderful trip with our dogs Molly and Honey. It was our first over night trip with them to some place besides our parents house. Stephen had Friday off, so Thursday after work we drove over to the Monterey Coast area. We stayed in Pacific Grove, and that night took them for a nice walk around Asilomar Conference Center Grounds. The next day we took them down to Asilomar beach, and let them run. They had such a wonderful time running up and down the beach, playing in the waves, playing with a couple other dogs, chasing birds, exploring, and just running free. That afternoon we took them into Monterey to Cannery Row where we got some clam chowder, and sat in the beautiful sunshine. We then went over to Carmel, and played on Carmel's beautiful beach, where there were a lot of dogs running around (it's an off leash beach). It was so prefect getting to sit there on that great beach, looking out into the ocean, while our dogs ran around or laid near us. What a wonderful weekend!

Time is getting closer!

2010-08-31T16:58:00.000-07:00

We're so excited for the approaching birth of our little girl! Eight weeks to go to my due date, which is October 24th. We feel extremely blessed to have this baby coming into our lives. We have been praying and hoping for a long time, and are grateful for this miracle. Here are some fun pictures. The pregnant picture is me at 31 weeks. The painting was given to us by the Cromar siblings. It is titled "For this child I've prayed." We're so grateful for both of our families prayers and generosity.

Fremming Family Reunion

2010-07-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

The Fremming Family Reunion was great! We stayed in the same condos we usually do at Pine Wild in Lake Tahoe. We enjoyed spending time with family, taking a hike around Spooner Lake, a paper airplane contest (Stephen's Spruce Goose dominated), the family talent show, eating delicious food, playing golf at the Bijou golf course, a round of miniature golf at Magic Carpet, enjoying a shake at the Snowcone burger joint, playing down on the beach and in the lake, and playing games. Our family put on a fun baby shower for us down on the beach one night. We played funny games like decide which candy is in the diaper, they gave us some great gifts including some clothes for Eleanor, and a cute diaper bag. On our way home was also stopped and had lunch at Silver Lake. I love spending time in such beautiful nature with family.

Cromar Family Reunion

2010-06-25T13:38:00.000-07:00

The Cromar Family Reunion was at Sunset State Beach. Part of the family stayed in a beach house overlooking Sunset Beach, and the rest of the family stayed at the Sunset Beach campgrounds. We had fun spending time with family, playing games, playing on the beach, having a baby shower, and just being together. Jessica, Jennifer, and I were all pregnant, so we had a triple baby shower. We played some fun games, ate treats, gave advice, cried some, and opened gifts. All of my siblings had gone together to get Stephen and I a beautiful painting by Elspeth Young called "For this Child I Prayed." It's a beautiful painting depicting Hannah and Samuel from the Bible. It was a very sweet gift, because we had prayed for a long time for this baby, and so had our families. We had a wonderful reunion, and were glad that all of the siblings were able to come.

Front yard Makeover

2010-06-01T12:05:00.000-07:00

When we bought our house, we knew we would have to do a lot of work on the front yard. There were five foot Junipers lining the sidewalk making it so that you couldn't see our house. We also had tall Cypress covering the front of our house. Over two years Stephen with the help of our dads and my brother, tore everything out, put in a new fence, put in sprinklers and a soaker hose system, and planted new plants in the front yard. It turned out great! We also got our house painted, which makes it look even better. Here are the before and after pictures. We planted some beautiful trees that aren't in the pictures, but they look awesome!

Disneyland with the Bass Family

2010-04-30T16:12:00.000-07:00

To celebrate our anniversary, and visit with our friends Jared and Aubrey before they moved, we took a trip down south, and went to Disneyland for two days. We spent one day at Disneyland, and the next day at California Adventures. I was about 17 weeks pregnant, so I didn't go on very many rides, but we still had fun, and I got to help watch Jared and Aubrey's baby Adelyn while they went on rides. It worked out well. To celebrate our anniversary we went to the Blue Bayou restaurant and had an amazing (and expensive) dinner. The Blue Bayou is part of the New Orleans part of Disneyland, and you can see it when you are on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. They make it look like you are outside by a river eating dinner. I (Chelsea) got to be a participant in a show we went to earlier on that day. It's the Billy Hill and the Hillbillies show. They picked me out of the crowd, even though I was looking the other way, and I got to play the fiddle with them. Mostly they were just making jokes, and as I walked back to my seat the main guy said "Chelsea, call me." It was very funny, and I laughed really hard the whole time. At California Adventures we really enjoyed the Aladdin Show. It's amazing how many super talented people work at Disneyland.

Hawaii- Maui

2010-02-14T11:26:00.000-08:00

We went to an extremely packed church in Lahaina for sacrament meeting. We then came back to Mahina Surf, packed a lunch and began our trek on the road to Hana. It was quite the drive, with jungle thicker than what we had seen on our hike in Oahu. The road was extremely curvy and was narrow enough for one car in some locations. It was beautiful though. We stopped off on three different occasions. The first was to take a small walk through jungle to a beautiful secluded waterfall and pool of water. The second was for lunch at this little park that had roosters, hens, and CATS just hanging out. It was so odd to see them there, like someone had dropped some off and they had kittens and began living in the jungle. At one point a rooster came gliding down out an extremely tall tree. So weird! The third and final stop was in a little community on the rocky violent shores. We had fun watching the waves crash into the lava rock. I found a rock that was close to the action, yet just out of reach of getting wet. It was fun to have the waves crash right before me, like I was directing the waves like a maestro. We then turned around and drove back to Mahina Surf. Mama wasn’t feeling so well and got motion sickness on the return trip. Thankfully after a short time in the restroom, she was back to her perky self. Dad and I used the barbecues down by the pool to cook sirloin steak a grilled vegetables. It was very fun to grill in that environment. We prepared a feast of sirloin steak, grilled vegetables, salad, and garlic bread and ate out on our lanai. It’s been a wonderful trip to Hawaii and one that we will remember forever!

Hawaii- Maui

2010-02-13T11:25:00.000-08:00

We had ourselves an early morning snorkeling adventure at Ahihi Kinau reserve in South Maui. It had the best conditions of any of the snorkeling spots in Maui. Even with the winter silt coming from the southern oceans, the shape of the bay limited its impact on visibility, so Dad and I were able to spend a good amount of time snorkeling among the beautiful reefs. Had the sun come out, we would have had perfect snorkel conditions. Even with the cloud cover, we found some excellent locations and saw some amazing stuff! I even got the courage up to do some diving. On one dive, I was trying to get a closer look at an unusual fish, and I surprised an octopus and it came out of hiding. It was a great snorkeling site and one that we definitely need to check out the next time we come back. Summer is the best time, but if we ever go back during winter, Ahihi is the place to go. Dad wanted to explore some more of the area in the car so we took a drive into a very cool area further southeast of Makena and Ahihi reserve to La Perouse Bay. To get there, we had to cross a field of volcanic rock that had erupted from a cinder cone just visible up the hill. I felt like we were driving on the surface of the moon. We came back to Mahina Surf and relaxed for a while in preparation for the Luau at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The Luau was very cool. The food was excellent and we had access to an open bar (non-alcoholic options of course, the fruit punch was killer!). The entertainment was also very good, though about one half of the dances were Tahitian which means it was a bit scandalous when compared to the Polynesian Cultural Center dancing. We ended up sitting next to some very friendly people. One of the couples was visiting from Southern California and the wife guessed correctly that we were LDS. Funny how you can just pick them out sometimes. The same thing happened to Chelsea and I at Pearl Harbor. During the film, we sat behind a family that had “the look”. After chatting with the grandma on the ferry at the close of the tour, she asked if we were LDS because I mentioned Chelsea having participated in a Luau during college. Small Mormon world. Now back to the Hyatt Regency luau, another couple was a newly married couple from South Dakota: Elias and Mara. He is a pulmonary doctor and she has a bachelor’s in English. Both are Middle Eastern, he from Syria and she from Saudi Arabia. They were extremely friendly and funny. After it was over, Elias wanted to take some pictures for us and asked if we would take some for them too. Funny how you can connect with perfect strangers sometimes. He said he will e-mail me the pictures he took; nice guy.

Hawaii- Maui

2010-02-12T11:24:00.000-08:00

We had a nice breakfast out on our porch (lanai, as they are called here). We then walked to a Farmer’s Market about a mile from the condo and got some fresh fruits, vegetables, pineapple salsa, and a coconut (for Chelsea, she loves them). We then went to Maalaea Bay and spent a good portion of the day on a whale watching boat. Mom and dad had taken some Dramamine to lessen the chance of getting sea sick and it made them very lethargic. Mom slept most of the way home and was not herself for a full 30 hours (the box said the effects lasted 24 hours.). We all had a great time on the whale watching boat and saw lots of whale activity. The highlight was when a mother and calf came directly toward our boat and passed almost right under it. In those circumstances, boats must turn off their propellers and wait until the whales have moved on to a greater distance. When we returned to the condo, Chelsea and I cooked our tomato squash pasta dish using the vegetables from the farmer’s market. We then played couples Canasta. I think we should probably get rid of Canasta, I really don’t think it’s a good game for anyone’s marriage.

Hawaii- Maui

2010-02-11T15:43:00.000-08:00

We took a nice long walk along the highway with my parents the next morning and admired the houses, landscaping, cobwebs, and spiders. The weather was just perfect, not too hot, not too cool, and the humidity was just right. We spent a good portion of the day at Kaanapali beach, or better known as Black Rock. It was a blast! I slipped into my wet suit and spent many hours body surfing, body boarding, and snorkeling. At one point during the day, Chelsea, Dad, and I were about to enter the water near black rock to snorkel and we saw people pointing and motioning and talking about seeing a turtle in the water. We rushed to put on our equipment and got into the water as soon as possible, but the water was so cloudy that the turtle slipped away. Later on in the day while I was body surfing, some more people began pointing excitedly at the water not too far off, so I ran up, got my snorkel equipment on, and booked it for the ocean. After a few minutes of searching, I saw it! I swam with that giant sea turtle for a good five minutes. When I felt too many people were crowding it, I did some more snorkeling near black rock and saw a lot of very cool fish. The snorkeling conditions were actually not that great, but seeing the sea turtle made it all worth it. The surf was definitely up and the waves had some serious power. I had fun trying to mimic a couple locals who crashed into incoming waves with their body boards and would complete full flips from the force of the impact. My collisions lacked some of the finesse that they had mastered. Dad, Chelsea, and I did a fair amount of snorkeling around black rock and I was proud of how long Chelsea snorkeled with us (she is not a fan of being in deeper ocean water). Because of the winter currents from the South, the water was quite cloudy and lacked the clarity and colors that mom and dad had experienced during past visits. The odd thing about the weather that day was that the rain would come and go throughout the day, but the sun always seemed to come back out. Fun Maui weather! We went back to the condo, showered, and went to a great local place for dinner, Aloha Mixed Plate in Lahaina. We sat outside on the patio and ate traditional Hawaiian local food: poi, shrimp, mahi mahi, Kalua Pork, and other good stuff. It was a great time chatting and enjoying the food, tiki torches, and scenery. We walked through Lahaina and did some window shopping, enjoyed some yummy ice cream (vanilla with coconut, macadamia nut, and caramel swirl) and saw the largest Banyan tree in the world. The banyan tree has roots that grow from the limbs downward. We saw many of them during our Florida trip last year, but this giant Banyan tree had been planted and modified by the locals over more than a hundred years to what it is today. Earlier on in the day, we had talked about playing games after going back to the condo. My dad was doing something on the computer and assumed that we would tell him when the game was ready, but when he turned around to check, we were all sound asleep!

Hawaii- Oahu

2010-02-10T18:28:00.000-08:00

We got a late start on our planned snorkeling trip back to Hanauma Bay due to the hotel experience of the previous night. The jellyfish had moved on from the bay and we had our first shot at snorkeling in Hawaii. We saw such a variety of fish in the short time we were in the water. The coolest was the giant school of trumpet fish (narrow and long, eel-like fish) and the giant parrot fish. I wanted to stay longer, but we had to get back to the crappy hotel to shower and check out before noon. We did so and left the hotel, very glad to be out of there and on the road again. We once again met up with the Beckham’s and caravanned to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We met Natalie Horrocks at the Dole plantation and Chelsea had a fun time catching up with her friend. We enjoyed some amazing pineapple ice cream and then boarded the Pineapple Express, a train which took us around some of the pineapple fields. We walked around the grounds and bought a pineapple, said goodbye to Natalie, and then headed up to a surfer town just up the road on Natalie’s recommendation for some good “shave ice” (not “shaved ice”, as one might think). Cameron and I walked in and out of no less than seven surf shops while the girls chatted at the shave ice shop. We then said goodbye to the Beckham’s and continued our journey north to check out the 20 foot waves that had been predicted for this day on the north shore. We were not disappointed. We sat on the beach as the lifeguards warned all swimmers not to enter the water beyond the knee as the waves were a 9 out of 10 on the wave scale. Our time on Oahu was coming to a close, so we drove to the Honolulu airport, dropped off our rental car, and shuttled over to our terminal for our inter-island flight to Maui. My parents picked us up, gave us a sea shell lei greeting, and drove us to Mahina Surf, a set of beach condos that my family has been staying at for years. We drove into Mahina Surf and mom and dad took us down to the rocky shore to spot a few sea turtles that they had discovered the day before.

Hawaii- Oahu

2010-02-09T18:28:00.000-08:00

We caravanned with the Beckham’s to the North Shore to visit the Laie temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center. We walked the grounds, snapped some photos, and watched a video in the visitor’s center about the history of the church in the Laie area. Then we walked the grounds of BYU Hawaii and got some Kalua pork and macaroni salad at a L&L Hawaiian barbecue. We continued on to the Polynesian Cultural Center and had a wonderful time visiting the “islands” of Aotearoa (New Zealand), Samoa, Hawaii, Tonga, and Tahiti. We played with poi balls, got Maori “tattoos”, and Chelsea played a stick tossing game in New Zealand. We had a fun time in Samoa as we watched them climb a palm tree, make coconut milk, and eventually made fire after several failed attempts. We listened to the ukulele, a nose flute, drums, and guitars in Hawaii as a very talented musician played while a hula dance was performed. After that, all of us had a quick hula lesson out under a large tree and we took a ukulele lesson from some LDS volunteers. Then it was over to Tonga for the most hilarious show of the day when a white guy from Idaho, a black guy from Dalla,s and a chinese man attempted to play their drums and yell out Tongan war cries. After Tonga, we went to Tahiti for some hip swaying and knee popping action. Their dancing is NOT like the other island dancing, that’s for sure. We had a nice buffet dinner while the Beckham’s went to a luau. Then we enjoyed the most wonderful Polynesian cultural show I have ever seen, “Ha: Breath of Life”. It was incredible. We had excellent seats in the open air theater. The sound, lighting, energy, music, dancing (also fire dancing!), were top notch and I doubt I’ll see anything quite like it again. We drove back into Honolulu, and through a series of events ended up staying the night in a different hotel from the previous two nights. We had planned on camping (sleeping in our car) at a state camping site on the north shore, but this did not work out as planned (much to the joy of my parents) so we got another “3 star” hotel for the night, which turned out to be an awful experience. You can't always trust the rating system on deal websites. The day was wonderful, but the hotel was a nightmare.

Hawaii- Oahu

2010-02-08T18:26:00.000-08:00

This was a day that I want to hit the rewind button and play over and over again. Chelsea and I awoke at 5:00 a.m. bright eyed and bushy tailed to begin our Oahu vacation. We decided to get an early start and do some snorkeling in a popular nature reserve known as Hanauma Bay. As we drove into the reserve, we saw several signs that read “Bay Closed due to Jellyfish”. We took advantage of the early hour to enjoy a sunrise at a lookout point not far from the parking lot. My friend, Cameron Beckham was also in Oahu with his mom, Vicki, and his 7 month pregnant wife, Stephanie. We met them on Waikiki beach. I had been planning on surfing along with Cameron and Vicki and as we spoke with the rental hut, Vicki urged Chelsea to also consider taking a surf lesson and she agreed! Some of the other surf bum instructors commented on my full bodied wet suit and said that I must have been a boy scout (“be prepared”). I admitted to being a boy scout, and was grateful for it so that I wouldn’t get a sunburn or board rash on the first full day of vacation. It was a surreal experience surfing on Waikiki. One of those, “I can’t believe I’m here doing this!” moments. Chelsea had an awesome time and was all smiles. We all had a lot of success in getting up and enjoying the ride. I even caught a couple waves myself. After our surf lesson, Chelsea and I took to the trail (on a recommendation from Natalie Horrocks) to hike to a waterfall in the middle of a jungle. We got lost on the drive to the trailhead and ended up at the entrance of a fancy country club and saw a wild pig walking around. We eventually found the trailhead and found ourselves in the middle of a dense jungle. The hike took us across a stream about 4-6 times and through muddy, clayey soil. Many times, the trail wasn’t clearly marked and we had to do some backtracking to get back on the trail. After one hour of strenuous hiking we arrived at our destination, a secret waterfall and pool of water. We made our way out of the jungle just before dark. We ate dinner at a great place called the Hula Grill, located in the Royal Hawaiian shopping center. We sat in the family friendly bar area and had a wonderful meal of coconut shrimp and fish and chips while being serenaded by an extremely talented young Hawaiian man with his guitar and voice. It was a magical moment sitting there enjoying a great meal in a wonderful environment and listening to him sing “Somewhere over the rainbow / What a Wonderful World”. Chelsea and I walked back to our hotel just floating thinking about the wonderful day we had.

Hawaii- Oahu

2010-02-07T14:11:00.000-08:00

When we arrived in Honolulu, I instantly felt the relaxed, laid back atmosphere wash over me. Our first destination was Pearl Harbor. We got our free tickets to the Arizona memorial and played around with the vintage periscopes and anti-air weapons. We learned about what happened prior to, and during the attack. After the film, we exited the theater and boarded a large ferry which took us to the memorial which was built right over the wreckage of the Arizona. Large drops of oil could be seen rising to the surface of the water. Volunteers handed out flowers to drop in the water. The names of all the men who died were engraved onto a stone wall on one end of the building. I was caught off guard by strong emotions of sadness, gratitude, and patriotism. It was a sobering experience that all Americans should experience. After Pearl Harbor, Chelsea and I had an adventure finding the right place to eat. We ended up eating at a Japanese tepanyaki style restaurant that was an absolute blast. Chelsea had never experienced the in-your-face cooking of tepanyaki and had a great time watching our chef slice and dice our shrimp, create a volcano by igniting oil in a stacked onion, and cooking up our fresh vegetables, steak, and fish. We got settled in at the Aqua Waikiki Wave and took a short walk to the beach and back to complete a very full day.

Halloween

2009-11-01T12:53:00.000-08:00

From Halloween

Last night we had a fun Halloween. We did a murder mystery dinner called "Hoo hung Woo." It was fun getting to play dress up and act and accuse with family. I was Ding Ling- Silver Bell, Stephen was Gereral Shang Hi Shek, Mom Cromar was Hoo Ting- Jade Owl, Dad Cromar was Pen ta-gon, Kara was Woo Pi- Joyous Flower, Ben was Hao Di-Do, Ryan was Hoo Li-gan, and Mom Fremming was Wee Ping- Willow Blossom. We had Chinese food. It was a fun night.

Apple Hill

2009-10-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went with Stephen's parents to Apple Hill up near Placerville. We loved it. We parked our car and rode the shuttle around to about 4 or 5 apple farms. We had a fun time trying the good apple juice, and all the baked goods. They have these good apple donuts there. My favorite though was the apple turnover. The leaves on the trees were just starting to change colors, so we got to see some pretty Fall.

Update Time!!!

2009-10-11T13:10:00.000-07:00

At the end of August Stephen and I attended Stephen's 10 year high school reunion. Wow, how time flies when you're busy with school, a mission, school, getting married, and starting a real job.

For Labor Day weekend we took a trip to Yosemite National Park. What a beautiful place, I so want to move there. We got to stay there for 4 nights in Curry Village. We had fun riding our bikes, hiking, and taking an art class. One of the days we hiked up to Vernal Falls, and then Stephen went on to Half-Dome. I stayed on top of Vernal Falls for over an hour just enjoying the peace and beauty. Stephen took amazing pictures of the view from Half-Dome. His total hike time there and back was about 9 1/2 hours. He loved being on top. Stephen's parents came up for 2 days, and Ryan and Jessica came up for 1. We loved it there.

We celebrated Stephen's 28th Birthday on the 29th of September. That Sunday we had a nice family dinner down in Merced. On his birthday Stephen took the afternoon off of work and went golfing. That night we went out to eat at Sweetriver. Stephen enjoyed his birthday, and the great birthday gifts. I gave him Planet Earth and Blue Planet, and we have been enjoying watching episode at night. What a crazy cool set of movies.

Last week we went to see the Barenaked Ladies in concert at the Fresno Fair. They were fantastic. Really great performers. We had been a little worried about how the concert would be since one of the main singers, Steve, had left the band, but they sounded great.

Oxymoron

2009-08-16T15:02:00.000-07:00

Here's my random post:
So the other day I went shopping. I had decided that I wanted a more professional wardrobe for work. So I went shopping and had one heck of a time finding pant, but I finally found some nice ones. The problem with pants these days, especially dress pants is that the bigger the dress pants, the taller they figure you are. So not true. I am a very average height, and a very average size, so you would think that an average size of pants would fit and average height girl. Once again, very much not true. So the pants that fit me are made for a girl that is at least 5'9".
There being not much way to get around this I decide that's okay, because I need some nice dress shoes. So I think to myself "I just need some comfortable heels." Right after I thought it, I realized "comfortable heels" is very much an oxymoron. But I decide to try to find some anyways. I found the cutest shoes, seriously cute shoes, and they are Aerosoles so they should be good for my feet.
I decide to wear these "comfortable heels" for the first day of school. Turns out that they support my feet very well, but also take off the skin on both pinky toes making it very hard to walk by the end of the day. When I got home I took care of the toes, and put band-aids on them. The next day they were feeling pretty good. The day after that one of the band-aids comes off, and when I got home I didn't do anything about it. Gross part- then Molly licked it, and it began to sting.
Yesterday morning when I woke up my toe was hurting very badly, it was swollen and super red. I realized it was infected and decided to take care of it later. As the day went on it got worse, and in the afternoon when I decided to take care of it, I saw that there was a red line going from the toe up my foot. Of course that kind of freaked me out, because I didn't want blood poisoning, so I went to the doctor and he put me on antibiotics.
Moral of the story- don't be a moron when you know something is an Oxymoron.
P.S. I'm now on antibiotics, and doing very well. No more red line.

Cont. Update Time

2009-07-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

Continuation from the previous post.

Father's Day: Kara, Mom and I make Dad a sign that tells where all his kids live, and how far from Merced they are. He loved it. Kara and I used our Cricut's (thanks so much Mom Fremming for mine) to cut out all the vinyl lettering, mom cut and painted the sign, and she and I put all the letters on. It was a fun project, great idea mom.

Girl's Reunion: The Smith Family reunion was in Oregon this year, so we decided to have a Girl's reunion at Magan's house in Washington the week before the Smith reunion. Mom, Jessica, Emily and I drove about 16 hours up to Magan's house. Emily did so great for being so young. Kara and Jenny also flew in, and we got lots of time to hangout together. We went to the Zoo, the Children's Museum, had a baby shower for Kara, played at the park, helped Magan move some, and chatted a lot. It was fun to get to be there.

Smith Reunion: We drove to Lincoln City for the Smith reunion. I was only there for an evening, but was glad to get to see some of my relatives, and the beach. The picture of Tyler and Kara I just thought was funny, so I wanted to post it. How far along are you Tyler?

Fremming Reunion: From Oregon I flew out to Lake Tahoe where Stephen's family had their reunion. We were there for about 5 days or so. It was beautiful weather, and fun being with more family. The day after I got there we got to take out some wave runners on the lake, super fun! That day Stephen and I also got burnt. We forgot to reapply, though we did come up with a very good parable about sun burns and the effects of sin, repentance, and gospel protection. We also played miniature golf, Stephen played real golf, we took a hike, rode a tandem bike, and got to watch the fireworks over the lake. Lots of fun and great food. Sorry there aren't any pictures from the Fremming reunion, I accidentally left my camera in Oregon.

Update Time!

2009-07-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

It's about time right. So we've had a busy spring and beginning of summer, and we've loved it. Here's a little update on where we've been, and what we've been doing.

Memorial Weekend: we went to Huntington Beach to visit Stephen's friend Jared, and his wife Aubrey. We also got to see Brandon and Natalia. We played on the beach, watched professional volleyball, ate yummy food, and had fun just hanging out.

Plays: School ended and that week we went to see Lion King with my parents and Ryan and Jessica. For mothers day I gave my moms tickets to see Wicked. So at the end of June we had a girls night and drove up to San Francisco to see Wicked. It was my mom, Stephen's mom, my sister-in-law Jessica, Stephen's sister Kim, and myself. It was fantastic!

Utah Trip: Mid June we took a trip to Utah for Cameron's wedding. Cameron and Stephen have been friends since who knows when, for sure forever. We got to stay with Stephen's sister Kellee. We were glad to get to be there for Cameron's wedding, and Stephen enjoyed hanging out with some of his old friends. I got to stay in Utah a couple days more than Stephen, and visit my sister Kara. I loved hanging out with her and Ben. She is for sure the cutest pregnant girl ever, and the greatest friend ever.

Three Happy Years

2009-05-17T15:36:00.000-07:00

On April 29th we celebrated our 3 year Wedding Anniversary! It has been a great and fast three years. For our anniversary we went to San Jose and stayed at the Hayes Mansion. It's a mansion that was built in 1905 for the Hayes family, then was later bought by the City of San Jose who turned it into a hotel/resort and conference center. We loved it.
We also went to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. It is also a mansion, but a much crazier one. It was built on for 38 years on going 24/7 because Sarah Winchester felt that she was haunted by the people that had been killed by Winchester guns, and a psychic told her that she had to never stop building on the house, or else she would die. Crazy house with windows in the floor, doors leading to walls, stairs going to the ceiling, and all sorts of other eccentricities.
It was a wonderful weekend. We look forward to this next year.

Florida in February

2009-05-17T13:57:00.000-07:00

I know, I'm a little late, story of my life. Our trip to Florida in February was wonderful! We spent time in Miami, Orlando, the Everglades, Key Biscayne, and Key Largo. We went to Orlando for a couple of days and went to two of the Disney parks. We went to the Epcot center and loved the World Showcase. We did a lot of eating at the different countries, and enjoyed learning about them. We also spent a day at the Animal Kingdom and got to see some really cool animals, ride fun roller-coaster, see the Nemo musical and take a safari ride.
While in Miami we visited a lot of people from my mission. It was so great to see people that I knew, taught and loved doing so well in the Gospel. We walked around down town Miami, and I got to show Stephen all the places I loved.
We also went to the everglades to see the alligators, took an air boat ride, watched an alligator wrestler, and I even got to hold a baby alligator.
One of our last days there we went down to Key Largo and went snorkeling. Neither of us had ever been snorkeling. We enjoyed it. Stephen in particular. We snorkeled over a live coral reef, and got to see many beautiful fish.
It was a wonderful trip, and I'm so glad we got to go.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-28T18:09:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year Stephen and I wanted to do a family (including our dogs) Christmas picture. What fun that was! We got a little taste of what it will be like taking pictures with kids. Out of like 25 pictures, not a single one turned out right. Molly (the black one) did great posing, but Honey (the tan one) doesn't have the posing down yet. In most of the pictures she was looking backwards at Stephen, or trying to bite him, or looking at me, or trying to run away. So no Christmas picture cards for us this year. We do love our dogs. I took this picture of them for an ornament for Stephen. I am amazed at other people's pictures.

Junipers are gone! (well... mostly)

2008-09-21T18:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Dad and Stephen spent the day getting rid of the junipers covering our house. We think that they are very ugly, so we're trying to get rid of them. Yesterday they cut them down, and pulled out some of the bushed on the side of our house. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks they will get the stumps out.

Newport Beach Trip

2008-09-21T18:09:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took a trip to Newport Beach. There we stayed at this beach home on Balboa Island. The home belongs to the family of one of Stephen's friends from school, Brandon. We stayed with two other couples, Brandon and Natalia, and Jared and Aubrey, both from Stephen's program. Friday after we got there, we went to this cool fish restaurant, than walked out on the pier. That night we also went to the local hoppin' spot, Dad's Original Frozen Banana, and got delicious frozen bananas. Saturday we spent a wonderful day hanging out and going to the beach. Stephen tried surfing and Chelsea boogie boarded. It was so much fun playing in the water thanks to some wetsuits of Brandon's. We are so sold on wetsuits, they just make things better. That night we took another trip to get frozen bananas, good stuff. Sunday we got to go see the temple there. It's about 3 years old, very beautiful. Different from a lot of the other temples. We really loved our trip to Newport, and had a hard time leaving. Vacations are so much better than work!

2008-09-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

Chelsea's new hair! Well, hair cut that is. Chelsea grew her hair out and cut it to donate to Locks of Love. Here's her new do. After looking in all those hair magazines where the girls all have that funny no smile look, she just had to take one.

Living Happily

2008-06-27T14:49:00.000-07:00

We moved into our house a little over a month ago, and are loving it. We've been working on the yard, and organizing inside the house. The day we got the keys to our house we also got a dog from the animal shelter. Her name is Molly and she is a black retriever mix. She is a little less than a year, and we love having her around. She is fun to play with, and good company for Chelsea during the day. She is still a puppy so she does enjoy digging and chewing up our hose, but we still love her.

Two Year Anniversary!

2008-04-30T14:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our two year anniversary! How time flies when you are having fun. Stephen arranged a special dinner for us at his house, and when I get there, there was a note that said to press play on the CD player for our gift. When I pressed play, it was the music from The Phantom of the Opera! How exciting! We're going May 23rd, we're both really excited.

"Our House, in the Middle of Our Street"

2008-03-31T09:55:00.001-07:00

Last Friday we got the call that we had been accepted on a house we had made an offer on. Yippee for us! It's a 3 bedroom 2 bath house in Northern Turlock, just a block south of Cal State Stanislaus. We are so excited. It was built in 1979, is a corner lot on a quiet street and cul-de-sac. We should be moving in around the first of May. We are excited to set-up house, but will be sad to not be within walking distance of our families. Yeah, this is going to be our house!