Carpinteria trip

Ya'll, I think we can officially call ourselves campers.  The weekend after Owen's birthday camping trip we headed out again, this time to Carpinteria with a group of friends from school. 

Most of the group went up thursday, but we waited til friday because of work and book fair obligations.

Packed the essentials of course:

When daddy got home from work we were ready to hit the road and made it to Carp by dinner.

Three other families were already there and right after dinner it was marshmallow time.  Owen's allergies have sort of thrown us for a loop these days (I should probably write about that soon, if only for my future self to look back on), but I have the best friends in the world who went out of their way to get allergy friendly marshmallows. 

The gang

Such a happy guy:

Scott and one of his best friends Aoibeanne.  I also think there is a chance that both of my boys have a HUGE crush on her.  Totally ok with that - she's one of the best and so is her family!

My girls.  Joanne didn't come up until saturday, but we honored her by posing with her tequila bottle that she made for me a few months back.  It comes everywhere ; )  

Love my woman tribe!

My guys roasting marshmallows. 

Saturday morning cuddles.  I'm the luckiest. 

We took it slow on Saturday morning and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, coffee refills and biking before we headed down to the beach.

Little bike gang.  Love them all!

Joanne and her family met us mid morning as well as two of our favorite teachers.  I mean who gets to go camping with their teachers?  These women are truly the greatest.

Miss Jennifer wasted no time and got straight to reading to the kids (like she doesn't do this enough during the week) how much does she love her job?! 

We spent the rest of the day on the beach.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  I have no pictures, of course!  Some of the mamas went into town for some shopping, but this mama opted for a swim in the ocean. That's how nice it was.

Miss Sandy (another teacher) needed to go her car, so we sent her on the adult scooter.  Ha.  I'm sure she loved that I took pictures too! ; )

It was Emily's birthday weekend so of course we celebrated with props and noise makers. 

Love these people.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed out so we could make a stop at Parker John and Levi's birthday party.  Unfortunately allergies go the best of Owen so we didn't stay long.

To give you an idea this was Owen about 2 minutes after we got home:

It was a great weekend!  I can't wait for our next camping trip with our friends!

Turning 3

Owen has officially been 3 for two weeks now.  We celebrated his birthday at the beach with a camping trip.  Our first in a few months.  We were definitely itching to get out and his birthday was the perfect excuse!

We camped at Emma Wood this time as our favorite spot, Rincon, was full.  It did not disappoint.  The beach is a little rockier making it harder to swim and boogie board but we still managed to have the perfect weekend.

Friday night sunset

A boy and his dog.  Charlie is getting old and the beach is getting tougher for him, but he still loves it and I love watching the boys getting to play with him here.

Obligatory family selfie.

Nothing prettier:

The boys watching the sunset.

The next morning we played while I made breakfast and we waited for the tide to recede just a bit.

We got a great spot at the beach where we spent the rest of the day.  Mimi and Papa, Auntie, Parker John and Eden came out to hang with us for the day as well.

This guy got down with some guac, clothing optional.

My girls:

Living with ALL BOYS makes me thankful for the girl time I get with my sister and niece.  Poor Eden is going to get so sick of me wanting to girly stuff with her.  Ha.

Exploring all day:

Last day as a two year old:

Sister/Wine time:

Waving to the train (several times a day but always a highlight)

More beach sunsets

Brian and the big boys.  Just love Scott and Parker's bond!

The morning we woke up with a three year old in the 'house'.  And is there anywhere better to wake up on your birthday than the beach??!!  I doubt it.  

We decided to move up to day parking after breakfast so we didn't have to vacate the beach at noon and also so some friends could meet us at the beach and park for free.  Parker, Jude and co. came out and spent the day at the beach with us.  They have truly become great friends, I feel so lucky to have met so many like minded families through our little school village. 

These four boys literally did not stop moving all day!  

Happy birthday to my baby!  I can't believe your "baby" years are over.  We just love the little person you are becoming and can't wait to see what three has in store.  More on Owen as a three year old later, I promise!

So March...

Ok really, March was a blur.  We were busy every weekend.  Actually this was the first weekend we were even home I think.  

The first weekend of March I did a three day seminar for work.  It sounds grueling, but if I'm being honest....it was AWESOME!  I would be a professional student if that was a thing.  And the boys did a great job of holding down the fort and making the birthday party circuit without me.

Don't remember when this was but this guy and I went out for some special time.  He's so fun y'all!

And school of course.  Oh school.

This picture was sent to me of Scott and his little buddy buddy Parker fake fighting while the girls sat  on the play structure cheering them on. Apparently this is a regular thing.  I just can't.  What am I going to do with these boys?!?!?!!  

Fight club.  Sigh.

Short and sweet guys, I'll catch up yet.

Turning 5

So what if I just start updating the blog once a month?  Because that seems to be the rate I'm going.  In an attempt to catch us up I'll rewind to Scott's birthday, over a month ago. 

No idea how this guy is 5.  I mean seriously.  Scott has been excited about this birthday for a while, with kindergarten around the corner I think he could sense it was a big one.  

His birthday was on a friday and we basically just did our morning routine that day until daddy came home early to start the celebrations.  We had a bounce house scheduled to be dropped off for the weekend around 3 and some friends coming over to play after school that day.  Around 2:00 I was snacking on some macadamia nuts when Owen asked for one.  I didn't really think too much about it when I handed him one, even though about 6 months ago they had seemed to be possibly connected to hives.  I remember thinking as I handed it to him, "hmm this will be interesting, I should keep my eye on him incase he gets hives again."

In less than five minutes Owen had run to the bathroom to throw up (a totally normal occurrence in our house, so normal in fact that he is well trained in making it to the toilet before he vomits and that I usually wait a minute or two to get in there and check on him).  By the time I got to the bathroom with him he was crying and freaking out that he couldn't throw up.  Brian came in to check on him too, at this point his eyes were starting to swell.  I grabbed him and ran out the door.  Thankfully Brian was home so I didn't have to load up Scott and he was able to stay home with Brian and wait for the bounce house guy.

I called our ped from the car to make sure I could come to her office over going to the ER.  We were at her office about 10 minutes after Owen had eaten the macadamia at which point Owen's face was swollen beyond recognition.  I will you spare you the pictures, its pretty upsetting.  

We waited at the peds office until she felt comfortable that his breathing was normal.  After several doses of benadryl and an injection we were sent home with a prescription for an epi pen.  

A few hours later we were home, and Owen was of course passed out for the day.  Poor little love.  Its definitely a birthday we will never forget, but not for the best reasons.  

Scott was oh so worried for his brother, and was pretty upset by his swollen face when he finally saw him again the next morning.  Such a good big brother.

We ended up canceling our friday afternoon friends, and just had  a few school friends and cousins over saturday for some bounce house fun!

Grandma and Gpa came to visit on Saturday and brought the boys a fish tank for their birthday.  Brian took them out later that night and let all the boys (including Parker John) choose some fish and decorations for the tank.  6 fish and a frog (and as of this post 3 fish have survived):  Darth vader, yoda, storm trooper, fishy fish, froggy frog, darth sidious and elsa.

On Sunday I took Scott with some girlfriends and their littles to see our favorite babysitter (and daughter of one of our favorite teachers) star in Annie at our local community theatre.  She was phenomenal and the boys had a really great time.  Scott's biggest concern: "Where is Jade's real hair?"

Parker, Scott and our sweet Ms. Sandy.  

It was a fun and eventful weekend!  And I plan on writing up Scott's little 5 year old interview soon!

`

Vail 2015

We spent NYE with good friends and discussed a possible ski trip in February.  Well all the stars aligned and we made it happen! Woohoo!  Our friend's sister is working and living in Vail for the season and offered up her place for us to stay, combine that with airline points and available grandparents for babysitting and we were off!

 We headed out thursday only to find out our flight had been cancelled and we wouldn't be on another one until that evening, so Brian and I decided to start our vacation with a stroll around Santa Monica.

After our late flight, lay over in phoenix and car rental we ended up arriving in Denver around 2:30am.  Thankfully we have cousins in Denver and were able to crash at their place before driving up to the mountains in the morning. 

We arrived in Vail in the next day in time for lunch and wandered the village until we met up with our friends.

We just barely beat the snow and it was so fun and magical.

Catching snow flakes:

Not a great picture but I tried to capture the awesome snow fall.

I went to this coffee shop at least three times.  Cold weather means I NEED a warm beverage to carry with me, and this place even used almond milk. 

Just freezing:

  

The first night we went to dinner and then to a fun little bar with live music.

 Nothing makes you feel like you're in college again quite like jager shots.  (The bar was giving them out, notice each of the hubbies is holding two because Alexis and I chose to pass!)

Next morning after the snow fall:

The next day we hit the slopes.  The snow was coming down hard but it didn't stop us.  It actually wasn't horribly cold and the conditions were great!

Snow selfie:

We ended up taking longer to get down for lunch than we thought and by the time we did Alexis and I were tired and freezing.  After lunch the boys went back for a few hours while the girls headed into the village for drinks:

The boys finished up and met us for dinner and we walked around again until we were all too tired to move (which was around 7:30) 

Day two of skiing, the conditions were amazing and less snow was pelting us in the face. We broke for lunch at the perfect time so we were warmed up and rested for the afternoon. 

Back story, Brian and Beau went to the top of one area the day before and took a wrong turn and ended up spending a good amount of time in the trees.  The next day they wanted to show us the top and somehow we took the same wrong turn and ended up in the trees.  Alexis and I are not through the trees skiers.  We are both pretty cautious, needless to say we took our skis off and went down the rest of the way on our butts.  Shout out to Beau who captured it on film.  LOL.  And shout out to Brian who skied down through the trees carrying extra equipment.

Skiing with my honey:

All this guy wanted was some chili in a bread bowl and we found it on day two.  Day made.

Alexis and me on the lift.  It could really be any two random people given how we are dressed.

We took a break around 3 at the Ritz for bloody Mary's by the fire.  Amazing.

 Two hours and two bloody mary's later we skied back to the condo and called it a day.  

On our way out of town we were able to stop and visit with cousins.   It was an amazing weekend.  I am so grateful for the times Brian and I get to get away together and for the friendship with have with the Daniels family!  We are already planning our ski trip for next year ; )