Back from San Diego!

I'm finally back from San Diego! While the weather in San Diego ALMOST made me want to move there (think high of 70 and sunny with NO humidity), it's good to be back home and back to my sweet babies and husband too! It was nice to spend a few days away, but gosh I missed my boys so much! Fingers crossed I passed my test (I feel good about it!), but thankfully it was over on Saturday and I got to relax Saturday and Sunday before the conference started on Monday.

 

Carrie and Andres came down Saturday to hang out with me. I'm thankful for these work trips that take me out west so I can see them too! We had a blast. Carrie, being the foodie, planned our meals and bars and it was all great! We went to dinner at Searsucker (a MUST try--it was so delicious that I ended up taking our Birmingham group there again on Monday night!). The location of Searsucker reminded me a bit of Bourbon Street though--think people everywhere who might have been a bit overserved. :) Carrie had heard of a bar called Polite Provisions so we headed there after dinner. It was a bit outside of the city and such a nice change from the hustle and bustle of the Gaslamp District of San Diego where there were people everywhere! This place was so quaint! So glad Carrie is "in the business" so we can try all the neat spots. 

 

 

Saturday, we literally stayed in bed until 11! Heaven!!! It was such a relaxing morning. I can't remember the last time I got to do that. Then, we made ourselves get up and walked to lunch. We ate at the Neighborhood and had another fabulous meal. They took me through Coronado before having to leave to head back to Los Angeles (Andres was taking the red-eye that night to DC so they had to get back). I decided to lay out by the pool with a good book. It was kind of chilly by the pool if you can imagine that, but with this view, I could stand it! Our hotel was right on the water so it was beautiful! 

 

Our Birmingham group went to dinner Sunday night at de'Medici and had another fabulous meal. It was an upscale Italian restaurant with servers that really put on a show for you. I highly recommend it. I really should have taken pictures of the food! I couldn't stop eating though (and they definitely did not stop filling my glass of wine!). Ha! Sign of a good dinner! 

 

Monday and Tuesday were filled with continuing professional education classes. Some good, some horrible. I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I make it through those things though!

 

It was so nice to get home to the boys. I got home at 11:30 last night. I tried my best to wake them up to tell them that Mommy was home, but they weren't having any of it! :) I had to wait until this morning to get my hugs and kisses!

 

Unfortunately, on Monday of this week, Harrison started throwing up. If it weren't for grandparents, I'm not sure Joel would have survived! At least that's what I think--he sounds like he had it under control! :) We are still battling ears with Harrison and are going back to the ENT tomorrow to hopefully get some answers. We are at our wits end with this. We were trying one last time to get it cleared up and we finished the antibiotic, ear drops, and vinegar and water flushing twice a day last Thursday and by Monday, he was throwing up and his ear was majorly draining again. It's hard being across the country when your child is sick and is so resistant to anything you give him.

 

Thankfully, he is definitely feeling better today. He was even in my heels tonight! He thought he was hot stuff walking all around the house tonight in them! Notice his Padres PJ's...not that we are Padres fans, but I did stay right next to the stadium so that means something, right?!?!

And of course Hudson had to get in on the heel action too! He LOVED his souvenir so much...I'm not sure he is going to take it off. Love these boys so so so much...

Glad to be back to my world! Oh and props to Joel while I was gone. He did great (even though he went to the lake for the weekend to get help, I made dinners for him, laid out outfits, his mom helped every day, yada yada yada). I wonder if it really was as easy as he made it sound...

I doubt it!

A Play Date and a Lake Weekend

It's not often that I get to experience play dates. That is one thing working moms miss out on, however, this summer I'm doing my best to get some play dates in with friends on my off days and last Friday was one of them. We headed over the Kincaid's to play for the morning and we all had so much fun! How could you not have fun with this huge inflatable water slide!?!?

 

 Cooling off!

 Harrison LOVED the slide and did it over and over again. He wore himself flat out and hung really well with the big kids!

 Then there were water guns and I was somehow the target...

That afternoon, we decided on an impromptu trip to the lake for the night (which turned into both nights!). We had one of the best weekends at the lake ever! The boys had such a blast and no one wanted to come home! Even Jordan and Anna came up there so it was a lot of fun!

The weather was beautiful! We went on a boat ride at sunset and it was even a bit chilly!

 This boy kept saying, "This is SOOOO fun!" over and over again. Love these times!

Harrison was not so sure about the boat ride. I thought he would warm up as the weekend went on, but boat riding was not at the top of his list of fun. Gator riding, however, was his thing and we went on numerous rides throughout the weekend! Even ones that began before 7 am (he was just too excited to sleep). We did see a bald eagle on one of our gator rides so that was really neat!

We built campfires both nights and made s'mores! Hudson was Daddy's big helper in gathering sticks for the fires. Harrison just loved throwing marshmallows in the fire. I'm sure the ants are loving those this week!

 He kept saying, "Hot, hot!"

This picture is blurry, but can you tell how much Hudson adores his Pops? Doing everything Pops does...

Saturday morning we were all eating breakfast on the porch and I looked out into the yard and there was Harrison up on the lawnmower. I didn't realize until later that the key was in the ignition! He was loving just sitting up there pretending to drive! We gotta watch this boy!

 Then there was big tractor rides all around...

 Harrison is on this one...

We swam (not my favorite part--lake water is yuck to me), but Hudson loved it. Our attempt at a family shot...this is pretty much keeping it real.

 Hudson wanted to go tubing, but the tube has a hole in it. Maybe next time. We did get to watch Anna and Jordan wakeboard and ski, and Hudson became a great watchman for when they went down! He was so worried each time! Oh this precious boy's heart...

What a wonderful weekend we had! I'm leaving Friday for San Diego for work and coming back Tuesday. I'm not thrilled about it (I HATE leaving the kids), but Carrie and Andres are driving down to see me so I am looking forward to that part! I have to take a test on Saturday which has been most of the cause of the lack in blogging lately (every free minute has been spent studying), but that will be over soon and I can't wait for that! I don't know what Joel and the boys are going to be up to this weekend, but I'm thinking that they will probably be going wherever his parents are going if I had to guess...which probably means another trip back to the lake! Heaven for boys! :)

Maybe I will be back to regularly scheduled blogging next week!

Donuts/Doughnuts with Dad and Happy Father's Day

Just sent these 3 off to Donuts with Dad at school. The boys were SO excited that Daddy was going with them today! He is normally gone before they wake up so this was such a treat! I'm sure that Joel will not take a picture at school so I had to snap one before they went!

 

We had a fabulous Father's Day weekend at the lake. Will update soon with pictures. Life has been so busy lately that I have not had the time to blog, but wanted to make sure we celebrated Daddy on his 5th Father's Day. We love you!

 

Also, Happy Father's Day to my Dad and Joel's Dad! We are lucky to have such great Dads in our life!

 

Lastly, the spelling of donuts has always really bothered me. Is it donuts or is it doughnuts??? In case you were wondering (like I was) on the correct spelling of donuts/doughnuts, here's what I found:

Doughnut vs. donut

The dictionary-approved spelling for the ring-shaped cake made of dough and fried in fat is doughnut. The shortened donut has been around since the late 1800s, but it wasn’t popularized until the late 20th century, when the successful American doughnut chain Dunkin’ Donuts made it ubiquitous. Today, writers outside the U.S. still favor doughnut by a wide margin. Donut appears about a third of the time in published American writing.

Donut is a simpler spelling, so it may grow even more common now that it has a foothold. Those of us who don’t wish to assist Dunkin’ Donuts’s branding would be wise to resist the trend, though.

 

Happy Monday!!!

Beach Trip

We got back yesterday from a week long beach trip. It was just what the doctor ordered for all of us. It wasn't the most relaxing vacation I have ever had (is any vacation relaxing with small children???), but it was so nice to get away, forget about work, and focus on one thing--our little family!

 

We did not have one drop of rain until yesterday morning when we were leaving. It was perfect weather the whole week! It was a bit windy though, and there was a red flag all week, so there wasn't much getting in the ocean, not that I would have gotten in very far anyway with all the sea life we saw too!

 

Most days were spent on the beach and in the pool multiple times. Harrison wasn't much of a fan of the sand, but Hudson wasn't either at this point. He was tolerable of it though, so we could at least be down there. Once we got the baby pool out down there, between that and snacks, he was good to go.

He was fearless in the pool though and by the end of the week was refusing to put on the puddle jumper. Oh how we have a wild one.

We flew kites on the beach at sunset. Does it get any better than this???

 

 My buddy and me, who was attached to me all week. Daddy would not do, but that's ok!

These two had so much fun digging holes in the sand.

 

Most nights after dinner, we would head out to the bluff and watch the sunset (Hudson's request every night!), and all the kids would congregate and play until dark. The parents would drink their cocktails and gossip and watch the little ones wear themselves out even more. It's what we used to do down there growing up and it's so fun watching the tradition continue!

 

It was good sleeping down there for the most part. We did not have a crib, so we took our bed rails and Harrison slept big boy style and did great! I was worried he would not want to go back to the crib last night, but he was fine. Only problem was that he and Hudson would wake up at the crack of dawn and come out before 7 everyday. They came out of their room with these little devious smiles on their faces and were ready for the day!

Right after the above picture was taken, we watched the "big kids" catch a black racer snake in the courtyard. Not my favorite activity of the week, but Hudson was right there in the middle of the action. He was not afraid in the least! I immediately texted my mom because I remember having to take one of those black racers home in a bucket with us one summer. Vann was always catching snakes down there. That is one thing I will never ever be doing!

One night we headed down to Rosemary for the Kids Rock the Block party. It sounded like a good idea until Hudson wanted to get his face painted and the line for it was literally an hour long. Forget the bounce houses or the balloon man. It was the only thing he wanted to do. So, we waited. Thankfully, the evening could not have been more beautiful!

 It was worth the wait!

He got just what he wanted--a blue dragon face! Definitely the high for the day. The low for the day was removing the blue paint! :(

 He got his hair spray painted to match!

To break up the routine a bit, we headed down to Destin on Wednesday to look at the boats and eat at Harry T's. I highly recommend Harry T's if you have kids. We sat outside and watched the boats come in and out of the harbor and you would have thought it was the best thing the kids have ever done. They loved it. Then, we walked down the docks and checked out the boats. Fun stuff for little boys!

 

We also hit up Alys Beach a good bit as it is just a short stroll from our place. The donut truck was a must on several days, and Hudson and Joel even rode down there on their bikes one day to get us breakfast. I was so proud of my little guy for doing that with such little experience with his bike. He only fell 3 times according to Joel! :)

 

One of the kids' favorite activities was the Alys Beach splash pad. We will definitely be hitting that up again. Harrison had so much fun knocking everyone over and unfortunately hurt a little girl (I'm telling you, he is a bruiser). I would get out of the way if I saw him coming at me!

 



 Then it was back to the pool for more fun!

 I tried getting a picture of them on the beach. No such luck. Maybe next year!

We always have to eat at the Red Bar, so we did that Friday night. It did not disappoint. Live bands = my kids dancing the night away. I caught a lady video taping them on her I-phone. I thought that was kind of weird???

We then got some pictures after dinner. I had wanted to get some on the beach, but with Harrison not really loving the sand, we thought better of it and found this cute little dock near the Red Bar. Unfortunately, we were not able to stay but for about 5 minutes for fear that Harrison would jump off the dock. :)

LOVE this picture of Hudson and Joel.

 

We had a great trip and can't wait to go back in a few weeks with Carrie and Andres!