Merced

On Saturday morning, Kathy--my buddy and co-worker from Jelly Belly--picked up Reagan and I and we headed down south to the cute little town of Merced to visit a friend of ours, Cathy. We we're expecting it to be a longer drive, so we were pleasantly surprised when we did arrive. Merced reminded me a lot of Utah; mostly the older neighborhoods with older homes. It had kind of a small farming town feel to it. Really cool. Cathy had an old piano and so she played a little for Reagan, then I played a little for them.

Kathy and a very tired Reagan.

Yup, she was pooped.

Marcus, Cathy's husband, played for a minute with Reagan, She definitely prefers grown men to women. She always has!

Cathy made us a scrumptious-and healthy-lunch. We had chicken salad sandwiches on fresh criossants with a spinach and feta cheese pasta. The desserts are in the middle of the table and were calling my name the entire time: chocolate mint cookies, chocolate graham cookies, and Lofthouse pink frosted sugar cookie. If you have never had a Lofthouse sugar cookie, you are missing out. They melt in your mouth. As a side note, I went to the Lofthouse plant out in Syracuse, Utah, when I was in college. They do not let you in on how they frost the cookie during the manufacturing process. That information is highly proprietary.
Cathy made name plates for us, including Reagan!!
I had to include this: the Paris bathroom. And yes, I got to use it.Hanging out by the pool.
Swinging--such a fun activity!
Everyone is smiling...except Reagan.
I loved Cathy's kitchen. She had two convection ovens (lucky!) and a little nook in the corner. And a luxury I do not enjoy in my kitchen right now: windows!!
This refrigerator rocked.
They pretty much redesigned this entire house and it was gorgeous.
Cathy preparing lunch.
This is Reagan's famous grin.

We had a fun time and are looking forward to going back! The drive home wasn't as quick as the drive there. We hit some traffic on the 580 and 45 minutes later found out that there were two accidents near the 580-680 interchange. Reagan was pretty good though! I did have my portable DVD player and it came in handy!

Today Reagan is 11 months and in one month she will be 1 year old. I remember thinking almost a year ago that I couldn't imagine having a 1 year old. I wondered what she would be like, look like, her personality. Now I know :):)