Two weekends ago my best friend, Mark, and his wife, Tori, came to Sacramento to have breakfast with my fiancée and me. After marrying November of last year they were open about their intention to get pregnant within the first year. For the past few months, every time we hop on Xbox Live with our other friend David, David and I are constantly asking Mark when he’s going to make us uncles (no pressure right?). Well, a few minutes after we were seated at the restaurant Mark turns to me and says, “Don’t be mad. I didn’t technically lie to you, but I wanted to tell you in person. Tori’s 14 weeks pregnant!”.

Knowing how important being a father is to him and how much they both want a child, I was filled with immense joy and just gave him the broest of bro hugs right there in the booth. And this was just the beginning of the joy that ensued that day. Mark explained that at Tori’s 12-week appointment the doctor wasn’t certain of the gender but that he would be able to confirm the gender at her 16-week appointment. Well Mark, with his impatience, found a place in the Arden area that does walk-in ultrasounds. It was so cool seeing his face just beam with excitement as the technician performed the ultrasound, seeing the baby’s spine, feet, head and hands. We even got to hear the heart beat! The caption in the picture is so adequate that right after leaving from finding out the gender, we went to the mall to buy his baby girl some clothes.

Hello everyone! A few weeks ago, my family decided to go on a last-minute trip to Yosemite. I say “they decided” and not “we decided” because to be honest I didn’t want to go at first. It wasn’t because I don’t like Yosemite, I actually love it there so much I make it a goal to go a couple times a year to disconnect from everything. I didn’t want to go at first because it was late notice and it was later in the morning so that meant we weren’t going to get there until the afternoon which meant there was going to be a long line to get into the park and traffic and parking were going to be terrible. If there is anything I hate more than not being able to plan my day it is being suck in traffic and finding parking in overcrowded areas. Just thinking about going gave me anxiety, I wanted to be at home watching Netflix eating a PB&J with a glass of milk (I wanted it to be a lazy weekend). I eventually decided to go, and I was right! We didn’t get there until the late afternoon, we waited in line for about an hour to get into the park, traffic was bad, and the parking situation was a disaster but I had a great time! Even though I would’ve much rather preferred to go another day so that we wouldn’t have dealt with the huge crowds of people, I’m glad I went and got to spend time with my family.

Hi guys! This is my first loop post ever! Forewarning, writing has never been my strong suit, but I'm not scared of much after going on a backpacking trip to Havasupai Falls, Arizona a few weeks ago. We hiked 10 miles to the campgrounds and were amazed at how beautiful Havasupai Falls was in person. The next day we hiked 2 miles to Mooney Falls down a scary trail. (See left picture) Once we got back to camp we hiked into the village to see what time the helicopter flies out the next morning, come to find out, it did not. We quickly realized we would have to hike the 10 miles back to the car, uphill. Reality began to sink in. So that night we packed up camp, strapped on our headlamps and ever so slowly began our hike. We were all extremely tired but we finally made it at 1:00 am...I've never fallen asleep so fast in my life before. Regardless of the treacherous and unexpected hike out, the experience and views were worth it! And more importantly we learned that you can do a lot when you don't give up and push yourself. And yes, I highly suggest anyone to do this trip!