I'm Still Full

Danna, my friend who I met here almost 5 years ago,

came up for a week with her family en route to their move to Hawaii.

It felt just like the good ol days and we squeezed so much (food) in.

EARTHBOUND FARMS

(sharing soft serve above (which is so good, but avoid the frozen yogurt))

The herb garden is in the background.

The kids garden was new and improved.

So cute.

Love it there.

THE WEICHERS' HOUSE

Clint & Amanda hosted lunch at their cute house.

It's on property that overlooks Pebble Beach.

The kids hunted the beach there for golf balls.

Based on Sally's bulging shirt they succeeded.

Then most of the balls got hit back to where they came from.

He left a very dirty, happy boy.

Baby buddies.

 LOVER'S POINT

The Pace's came down for the day and we went to Wagon Wheel, then the beach.

Oatmeal pancakes and turkey avocado eggs benedict from Heaven.

Lover's Point: also a little slice of Heaven.

LAST DAY

(yesterday)

Lunch here.

A walk to Pavel's Bakerei (love that we can walk).

More playing here (where Lucien joined the girls' make-up party).

 Dennis the Menace Park.

The Farmer's Market (naan wraps).

 This is when the kids said good-bye.

Post good-bye bird holding @ the market.

Then that night Danna and I met up again for appetizers and dessert at Passionfish.

Appetizers were really good.

Dessert was not.

Service was horrible.

Danna is awesome.

The end.

Vintage and Modern

7/5

That play table and high chair have been around since Owen's baby days.

Which was 9 years ago.

So they're practically vintage.

The bed head, however, is new.

Independence Day 2013

^Parade watching in downtown Monterey^

Living History Day at the Cooper-Molera Adobe Garden

Free carnival in downtown Monterey

Jump-roping with rope made at Living History Day

A "bike parade" inspired by the parade we watched earlier that day.

Sally started out on her own, then Drew joined her.

They basically rode up and down a street near our house,

positioning their flags in different places on themselves and their bikes.

I was the only spectator.

Thanks to the Weichers we learned that fireworks were legal one city over.

We met them at a great spot near a lake where a bunch of people were doing their own fireworks.

 It was perfect and made up for no local fireworks show.

Blondes vs Brunettes

We've only been away from Carlsbad for 3 weeks, but we miss everyone.

Made us happy to meet up with our vacationing friends at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

$1 rides on Mondays and Tuesdays, holler.

picture by Ashley

Although they're not pictured, we got bonus time with them today when they stopped in Monterey.

 Love Dennis the Menace park.

House Quirks

 We got lucky with this house.

It's bigger than our last place.

It's in a great neighborhood with good schools.

And our old landlord gave us a deal.

Definitely a blessing.

But I have to make fun of this blessing just a little bit.

I love that it has a mail slot and our mail just appears on the floor.

But it's funny that the floor it appears on is in the kitchen behind our table.

(also the flooring and rubber baseboards are not the most attractive)

The other quirky thing is this very church-like divider at the entrance to the hall.

 It doesn't go all the way up to the ceiling (so it doesn't really block any sound).

And it doesn't lock (so we can't trap kids back there).

So whatever it's purpose is, we don't know, but the kids have fun with it.

On an unrelated note, August got a most fitting card during our family night game.

Guided Drawing

So this is kind of big news.

I found an art project that we ALL (yes, even me) like:

Guided drawings from Great Artist Mom.

On this particular day we did the space ship.

But our favorite was the monster from Where the Wild Things Are.

We've done these a couple days this week during August's morning nap and it's fun.

(we learned about painting with water colors over crayons in the Wild Things tutorial)

Yes, that's mine and I'm proud of it.

Sleep Training

At 9 months, August is still not sleeping through the night.

All my fault since I get up with any little peep.

But now that he's in a crib (hallelujah), I am finally letting him cry it out.

That top picture was taken after night 1.

By that big smile you wouldn't think he had been screaming a lot of the night.

But he did and I'm glad it's over.

We're so close now.

So close!

Fake Father's Day

6/23

For real Father's Day, Justin was up here all by his lonesome while we were in AZ.

He had to book it here cause his school started that Monday (June 17).

So we celebrated a week late.

And I know it's just not the same (especially in the middle of unpacking),

but at least he got a much-needed nap with his favorite baby.

Oh and we can't forget Drew's coupon for taking off his (Justin's) socks happily.

Shout out to Justin:

Thanks for working your bootie off for us.

And for being both an awesome dad and a fun kid at the same time (it's a rare talent).

We love you!