September at the Beach

Wow, it has been a while since I last updated the blog! That is an indication of how insanely busy life has been lately. Amidst all that insanity was a fabulous trip to California in September to visit family and stay at the beach house, a tradition we love and one that gains more meaning as the girls get older and really start to relish in it.

As you can imagine, and as you've likely heard us bitch and moan about, air travel with two kids as young as ours is a totally exhausting pain in the ass! The flight out was nothing less than a nightmare. Despite a carry-on full of snacks, DVDs, games, stickers and assorted other crap from the dollar section at Target, the girls were on the verge of uncontrollable. Isla wanted to cruise up and down the aisle the whole time and when she couldn't due to take off, ascent, turbulence, etc. she screeched and whined and wriggled around pissed off. It got to the point where the flight attendants would take turns walking by to scoop her up to walk her to the back of the plane to entertain her. She gladly went with every one of them....anywhere was better than stuck with mom and dad! Addison was relatively amused by her latest DVD obsession (Beauty and the Beast), but that was fleeting, and the cries of "I wanna get down! I have to go potty! I wanna snack! I wanna see out the window! Isla is hitting me" and on and on and on wore our patience down quickly. At one point we just looked at each other and laughed - what else can you do? Isla finally fell asleep on the descent, and remained asleep in her stroller throughout our layover.

All that aside, we arrived in one piece and headed into a week of family and fun! The first 2 days were spent with the Grandpas where we hit the amazing Farmer's Market and visited the "Butterflies Alive" exhibit at the Museum of Natural History in Santa Barbara. On Sunday morning we had breakfast together, and then DJ, the girls and I headed down to the beach house. We had 3 solid days of gorgeous weather (then it turned foggy) and the girls had a BLAST! Addison surprised us with how brave she was with the waves and water compared to last year. She was giddy with excitement and could have spent the entire day running in and out of the waves. We grilled and cooked every night, had bonfires with toasted marshmallows, hung out with Uncle Grant and Aunt Stacy (who are SO good with the girls) and played with Grandma Pam and Caddie the dog. DJ was really into the kayaks and even managed to squeeze in some surfing on one of the days. We would walk up and down the beautifully calm beach at night after the girls went to bed, gaze at the stars and dream about living there, right on the beach. What a dream that would be! But alas, reality rules.

We were, of course, sad to leave. However, the flight back was so much more pleasant. Isla slept during the actual flight which was a huge bonus. There was a lovely family in the row behind us who took a liking to the girls and ended up entertaining them for a good portion of the flight. At one point Addison was sitting on the mom's lap reading stories! Now, why she didn't want to have anything to do with US reading stories to her I can't tell you, but we were just excited that there was no whining and wailing. We jumped right back into the rat race when we arrived home, with a week from hell with work. Long story short, DJ and I both received promotions, so we went out to celebrate that AND our anniversary last Friday night. The fall is definitely here, the weather is gorgeous. We're just trying to soak it all in before the cold comes!

This is how tired the girls were after we got home from dinner on our first night in SB

The best Farmer's Market EVER on Saturday morning!

Making "scary monster" faces
Checking out the Mammoth exhibit at the museumOur little butterflies!






















Ooohhhhh....Isla loves her some whipped cream!

Creating with seaweed

Exploring the sea wall

With Uncle in the ocean

Beautiful view down the beach from in front of the house

Breakfast with a view

Early morning seashell hunt

One of Addison's favorite things to do was rinse off in the outside sower

One of my favorite pics

this one too

Hanging with Aunt Stacy

DJ on his kayak

Addison called him a banana!

My pumpkin

Starfish!

Playing with Eric

Yes, she's naked and preferred to be that way on the beach :)

Making friends with the sea anenomes

Fun with Maddox

Bonfire time

Loving the fresh oranges from Grandpa's tree

Crazy for whipped cream

Movie star

Dolphins dancing!

The Drunken Sailor

Yippee! Isla started walking over the last two weeks, at around 14 and 1/2 months. Little Isla began by taking a few lumbering steps, and is now at the point of waddling around like a drunken little sailor. This feels so early to us considering Addison didn't take her first tentative steps until she was almost 18 months old. It's amazing how fast they pick it up once they get going. Isla is also climbing up stairs and learning how to back down as well. Can't believe our baby is no longer a baby! She says "please", "thank you", "mama" "daddy", "Isla", "Nana", "Ba", "ball", "yeah", "no", "night night", "cheers" and tons of other words. She also makes all the basic animal sounds (and names the animals) and can even mumble the alphabet and count to 10 right along with Addison. There's a lot to say about having a 3 year old sister to look up to and mimic. She loves to dance along to music and attempts to sing any song, especially Old MacDonald.

It's been a whirlwind the last couple of weeks with Gramma Pam here to watch the girls while Brenda was on vacation, followed by a visit from Logan for his 16th birthday. Gramma had a great time and so did Addison and Isla. Amidst all the action, Gramma was even able to give a little facelift to a dollhouse for Addison that used to belong to DJ's sister Joel. It's the sweetest little house and just needed some TLC - TLC that I don't have the time or creativity to give it. Addison and Isla absolutely love it, and it's filled with furniture and people that Gramma provided as well. It was like Christmas in August! Thank you Gramma!

Logan's visit was brief, but fun. He's so grown up now, it's hard to believe I met the little guy when he was just 7 years old! He's learning to drive and plans on getting his license in January of next year so we're thinking he might be able to come and visit more often. He tried sushi for the first time and thought he'd died and gone to heaven. He loved it! It may just be the extra incentive he needs to get to the big city more often! Addison and Isla just glomb onto him - another new person to play with.

DJ left for Nicaragua at 3am yesterday, which marked the beginning of my stint as solo-mom for 2 weeks. I'll admit - the day was tiring, between Isla's clinginess (it's like she knows something is a miss and DJ is gone) and Addison's 3-year-old-ness. At one point she hit me, for which I placed her into a time out, wherein she told me to go away. I learned by watching the movie "Tangled" that this is where she got that lovely phrase. Nice. In any case, the weekend is one thing, but it will be interesting to see how the hectic weekday routine plays out, both in the morning and in the evenings. Luckily I have help from Ba and Nana lined us, as well as from some of the neighbor girls here and there. Callie is actually staying with Ba and Nana, so that takes a huge load off - thank you!

I figured I'd better get a posting up for the family to peruse because it might be a while before you hear from me next. Send me positive vibes and a ton of patience! We're looking SO forward to our trip to California just days after DJ returns. Perfect timing for some quality family connect time.

Silly girl

Playing with the dollhouse

Dollhouse details

Enjoying a smoothie after a morning walk around Lake Harriet

The drunken sailor walk

Dollhouse play time

Just when you thought she couldn't find another place to scoot!

Splashing in the rain

They love this thing - Bird is the Word - an Easter gift from Gramma that's still going strong!