San Francisco weekend

At the end of May there was a seminar in San Francisco that I really wanted to take.  A one day about the neuroendocrine-immunology of environmental triggers.  If you know Owen you know this had his name written all over it.  They weren't going to offer it in my area for at least the rest of this year and fortunately I was able to convince Mimi we should make a girls weekend out of it.  

We headed up early Thursday and made it to Burlingame by mid afternoon.  Friday we headed into the city to walk and see the sights.  I know I've mentioned before, but I grew up having days in the city where we would just walk all over and explore.  This day did not disappoint, we started in the morning at a coffee shop and then found a chocolate shop that was just opening up, so lattes and homemade truffles for breakfast it was! 

We walked by all the usual places

And explored a few new neighborhoods.

And FINALLY got to go to the ferry building.  This wasn't around when I was growing up and I had yet to visit it, although I have been watching it on the food network for years.  I already knew the vendors I wanted to visit inside.  

Bocalone was fascinating, but I'm not much of a meat girl (especially the processed kind) so we didn't eat there, just admired.  We settled on splitting an empanada at Mariposa bakery.  Everything they make is gluten free and PHENOMENAL!  I wish I could have bought one of each, especially so I bring some home to the boys.

We also found this amazing mushroom and truffle shop:

I could have probably spent the whole day in this building!

We spent most of the afternoon in art galleries.  My favorite was the one dedicated to the art of Dr. Seuss - I fell in love with a piece depicting McElligot's Pool...I even know exactly where I would hang it in our house.  Maybe next time.

That night we found the most amazing Thai restaurant for dinner.  So amazing that we went again Saturday night after the seminar.

The seminar on Saturday was so beneficial.  Mimi even got to sit in for some.  I'm still digesting all the material almost a month later.

It was a great weekend and we should probably make it an annual thing. ; )

New House: Before

So then there was this one time we decided to buy a new house....

We were not looking.  But then our neighbors decided to buy the house 7 houses down from their current house because it had a pool.  We were excited, now we had a pool to use! Yay!  Then we (brian) got the bug and I know he is always looking at real estate and somewhere around the end of february he really started looking.

One night he told me he wanted me to look at this listing he had found online.  Yeah yeah, fine.  So I looked.  And it looked great.  But I thought, there is no way we would seriously do this.  The next day he had made arrangements to go see it in person with our real estate agent.  Still I'm thinking, sure, whatever babe, its never gonna happen.  

We went to see this house and before we walked in I made it clear that if the house was a POS or needed really any major remodeling inside I was OUT!  We've remodeled houses, I'm done with that. So we walked in....and what do you know it looked pretty good.  I was pleasantly surprised to say the least.  We had to bring the boys with us to see the house that night and they loved it too.  Scott even offered to give us his $10 birthday monday if we could buy the house with the pool. 

We left excited but still knowing there was probably no way.  We would have to sell our house first and could we do that? for what we needed to? in the time frame we had?  Probably not.  We made an offer anyways, contingent on the sale of our Westlake house.  We had 21 days to sell the house.  So then that craziness began.  We cleaned, took pictures, listed and waited....about 2 days.  We had an offer for full asking price.  The stars had aligned and we were moving.  Of course we had to go through all the negotiation headaches, but I'll spare you the details.  It all worked out and about 6 weeks after seeing the house we were moving in.  With the help of some of the most incredible friends in all the land we got everything moved out in about 24 hours - it was a whirlwind made all the more exciting by a bridal shower we were hosting that weekend and the school book fair (that I run) happening the same week!  But now looking back it all worked out great and we love our house more everyday!

Since these pictures were taken we have painted every room in the house, excluding the half bath off the kitchen. Everything was beautifully painted, just not remotely in our color palette.  So I give you the before with the after coming soon (hopefully)

Kitchen

Dining

Family room

Playroom, boys room looks about the same but my picture came out too dark

Master (if you think it looks bright that's because it was the color of the SUN)

Backyard 

Since moving in I think the boys have gone for a swim nearly everyday (until this week when we started construction on our back yard to replace the concrete, more on that later).  We love everything about the house and look forward to the memories we will make here for years to come!

And that's where we've been!!!

Way back in April

Our most recent trip to Rincon was way back in April for my birthday weekend.  I can officially say that now it has been too long since we've been back, but moving between then and now is a pretty good excuse.

The boys and I headed up early on friday and started the weekend right with popsicles and waves!

A little beach zen for my baby dudes...

This also happened to be the friday of spring break.  We had been planning a big camping trip, but with the move on the horizon we decided to postpone and I can't complain about our Plan B destination one bit. 

My view from the camper (That's Brian, don't worry, we don't let the kids down in the waves without us)

Birthday sunset....

Grandpa happened to be in town visiting that weekend so we got to show him what Rincon is all about.  We started saturday morning with breakfast in Carpinteria, first stop: Lucky Llama for lattes and acai bowls.

The previous Rincon trip I lost my favorite hat during a paddle board wipeout.  So for my birthday the boys took me to a little surf shop in town to pick out a new one! Love what they picked!

Saturday night we decided on Beach House Tacos on the pier for dinner.

And we taught the boys "bear, hunter, princess" to pass the time while we waited for our tacos.

Love beach nights

Scott cuddles up on a rock watching the sunset.  I love this kid.

Grandpa brought the boys snorkel sets, naturally Owen had to try it all on! LOL!

It was the perfect birthday weekend and the perfect getaway before the craziness of moving was upon us!

A little taste of school

Its hard to believe, but we are at the end of the school year.  The last few weeks have been a blur of field trips and activities and mostly a lot of fun.

Scott's class celebrated mothers day with a breakfast hosted by the kids.  They dressed up, met us at the door with flowers, walked us to our seats and served us a yummy meal.  It was the cutest thing in the world!!!  My amazing friend Sandy helped by taking Owen to school that morning so Scott and I could have some special time over breakfast, truly unforgettable. 

I'm back in book club at preschool and I'm loving that from our new house I can just hop on my bike and be there in 5 minutes!

Scott's class recently took a field trip to the Gentle Barn in Santa Clarita.  They rescue all kinds of animals and let them live out their days here.

We got to hug cows.

Feed horses.

Play with and bathe emus. 

Hang out with this turkey.

And pet this pig.

Later that day we picked up Owen from school and got to bring home this masterpiece he had been working on - its nearly as heavy as he is, but its looking beautiful on our fireplace hearth.

Lately...

Basically a phone dump post:

Owen at school playing with black lights.  So RAD!

Owen and Eden hanging in the parking lot.  She reached for him and said "Oweeee".  So cute.  And you can half see Scott in the back ground fist fighting with Parker.  Lovely.

One of Scott's latest school projects: building a robot out of junk around the house, he had to name it and give it a job and features that helped with its job.  

Owen didn't want to be left out.  He will have basically already done kindergarten by the time he gets there in a few years.

Hanging at school:

Scott taking advantage of outdoor classroom time at his school.  This day they were writing a story about how to catch a leprechaun.

Scott's salt bottle art project.

Owen and his school posse.  These three are a good time!

Scott, post fun run at his school.  He worked so hard and had so much fun.

After the fun run was a big school carnival complete with bounce houses and games.

And a soak your teacher with a water balloon booth!!!

Scott made sure to win extra prizes for his brother (heart skips a beat).  All of the prizes were gently used toys and games donated by students (and we left with so much junk...shoot me!).  Well Scott won Owen a stuffed Simba and given Owen's allergies and sensitivities I felt it necessary to wash it first.  So Owen just sat and watched til his toy from his brother was ready....so sweet.

And I'm pretty sure this is a video of Scott soaking Ms. Tori.  Not sure if it will work or not.

Tiny Ninjas

I'm so far behind.  But I have an excuse....and a new house.  More on that later.  For now I post a few that I started and never finished.

The boys have been taking Ninja class at our local gymnastics place, part gymnastics part martial arts...totally awesome!  They can be in the same class and its one hour every week and its just blissful for me to sit and watch them both and not have to chase anyone around!

Scott, Owen and coach Kevin

On this day they did a class picture after they filmed a couple of fun obstacle course videos set to mission impossible music...and they were told to make a tough guy face...and this is what I got from Owen.