A U.E.

Or Unplanned Event as my grandpa calls them. He says you can't take a vacation without one. I concur. Here's a doozie...

While we were in Pismo we decided to go play on their famous sand dunes. So we head out to the beach. You stop at this booth where you pay $5 and the CA Parks Dept. people tell you to drive your car out onto the sand. Yes, drive your car out onto the sand! Oh, and stay on the hard packed sand they say. At this point it was a good thing my dad was driving my van because I never would have done it - way too chicken! And if Chris had been with us, we never would have done it - way too careful! But hey grandpa, he's up for adventure so onto the sand we drive.
Freaky is all I have to say. Maybe if you don't own the car it's cool, but for me it was freaky. Here we are following my aunt and uncle and then parked on the beach at the dunes.

So we had a rolicking good time at the dunes. We rolled, we summersaulted, we layed. We also ate it, got it stuck in our eyes and had it in every revice but hey!



And then we headed back. And then we got stuck.
Super stuck. We were not going anywhere!! What they hadn't warned us about when we paid our $5 was that the tide was going to come in. I'm not a beach bum, I didn't think about that!!! So on the way back to the road there was almost no hard packed sand left, the water had covered it all. So as my dad explained it his choice was water or the soft sand and the soft sand seemed the safest option. Ok, I definitely agreed with him there. So what to do? We're standing around deciding if we should try to dig, or if we should ask a passerby for help. We're laughing a lot and I'm freaking out a bit. And then a Parks Dept. truck pulls up. The lady turns out to be soooooo nice, but she rushes up to us and says, you know that the tide will be past your car in 40 minutes right?! WHAT!!! WHAT???!!!! WHAT??!! We have less than 30 minutes to get it moved or it will be floating out to sea. (And yes, she said it happens every week. Really?! Really??) Anyway, Holy Crap! So all of our slight panic turns into major panic and we call the tow number she gave us. She assured us they could be there in 5 minutes but 25 (horrific) minutes later they finally arrive.
I didn't get a good shot of the water, but it was under the back wheel by the time they got there and got us hooked up:


So while we were waiting, these two other cars got stuck too.

And these local punks were taking bets on who was going to wash out to sea first. I guess that's what you do for fun on a chilly Friday if you're from Pismo beach. :-)
The view from the van as the tow is pulling us to safety.

The relief on my face as they did so!!
Thanks for such an eventful vacation dad!!!

Central Coast

My mom and dad took us up the Central Coast for a week in Feb. We had such a blast! We really missed our Daddy, but he got so much done without us and we got totally spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa.
Being relatively new to California, I had no idea what the Central Coast was like. ITS SO BEAUTIFUL! We stayed in Pismo Beach and got to do so many fun things...

We played at the beach with our cousins, chased the waves and dug for treasures in the sand.

Hee hee.
We checked out the monarch butterfly park
(Uncle Matt, you got the best photo!)

We got to eat at the famous Cracked Crab! (Oh. my. delicious!)



We spent an afternoon with the elephant seals. They are so ugly! But you could sit there forever and watch them. (And no, they're not dead!)

We visited the Madonna Inn. Everything is pink! The paint, the cakes, the napkins, the sugar (seriously!) the benches and every last bit of the decor. I do not have a photo (thank goodness) of the giant waterfall urinal in the men's room. But I'm pretty sure peeing in a waterfall with grandpa was the highlight of Shea's trip.


We went to Solvang. It's so cute! We shopped, we tasted every Danish pastry in sight, I found a new Vera Bradley purse for 50% off! And... I bought my aebleskiver pan! I sense a party coming on!

We encouraged babies and kids to play with weapons. :-)
The toy bow is now Shea's favorite toy.

And all the sudden we realized that my sister's baby had grabbed the toy bowie knife. It made a great chew toy, but looked so freaky we had to take pictures
I love her "I will get you" face in this one. :-)

The village

I know I've bragged before about what a dream this phase of our lives has been. A DREAM! I love it here. I love SoCal. I love the weather, I love, love, love being at home with my babies. I love my job. I love our ward. I love my calling. I love that Chris gets to be home with us a lot. I love being able to do all the fun SoCal things, Disneyland, the jewelry district, the museums, the beach (even though I secretly hate the beach) the food, etc. etc. etc. There's so much fun stuff to do here. It never gets old. But what I really really really really really love is the Village. Or rather the people in the village. I love that at least twice a day I can walk directly outside my door and find this:
5-10 of my favorite women on the planet and all their kids. I am in heaven and my kids are in heaven! What will I do when we don't have this?

I love these women. Jaime and Lauren are the most service-oriented, loving, thoughtful, kind women I know. They babysit my kids, they make us dinner when we're sick or stressed, they always have the ingredients that I forgot to get from the grocery store, they even anticipate my needs. Before I even started thinking about Clare's birthday, Jaime and Tamara brought me their cupcake books and Lauren called from a good Albertsons sale to see what cake mix I would want and then bought it and brought it to me! They tell me about good sales, they share shipping charges with me, they always let me vent and always have good suggestions for everything!!

I love you!! I love it here, I never want to leave. Washers and dryers are overrated. :-)

Happy Birthday Clare!

Clare is so so sooooo 2! She knows exactly what she wants and how to get it - and watch out if she doesn't!! She's also beautiful, funny, sassy, smart, sweet, cuddly and we ADORE her.

Happy birthday my beautiful girl!!!

Here she is in all her "I'm the princess today" glory!
Her garden party:
(So much easier than a cake - I might do cupcakes every year!)
Grandma! We could not have survived this week without you!! It was so busy and you were a lifesaver. Thank you so so much for all your help!! We were so so so so glad you could be there for her b-day. And Aunt DeeDee coming was the icing on the cake! In Clare's own words, "It's so fun!!!"
Getting instructions on blowing out the candle. (Which she apparently didn't follow very well, so thanks Bentley for the help!!)

Partying. (Sorry moms, for the green frosting that you saw repeatedly over the next few days! Hee hee.)



Giving loves!
The happy girl with new baby Molly when it was all over. I think that smile says it was a successful day!
Happy Birthday Clarey. We love you!

Calling Grandpa

Clare spends, I don't know, 18 hours a week on the phone with her Grandpa. She really, really loves her grandpa. "I call bampa" is something we hear whenever anything cool, exciting, sad, happy or even just a little bit eventful happens in her life. I think it could be because of this:
She spent most of the first two weeks of her life, asleep on grandpa's chest. So she does talk to grandpa a lot, but most of the hours she spends on the "phone" she's actually not on a phone at all. In fact, we've discovered that almost ANYTHING will double as a phone for her. Some of my favorites:
TV remote controls, calculators, car keys (w/ buttons of course) the car stereo remote, legos, the thermometer, a toy fart machine, finger nail clippers, blocks, assorted kitchen utensils, my hair pick, her brush, the camera, a fat marker, my lipstick and lately any scrap of paper. I know, she's creative. :-) I've been trying to get pictures lately of her various conversations with grandpa. Here are a few:

Scrap of paper~

Program from a baptism~
Calculator~
Thermometer~
Remote~
Fart machine :-)~
What will Clare do when you're here grandpa? Who will she call??? :-) We love you!