hugs & pumpkins

Two posts in one week!

Yesterday, we visited Cox Farms in Virginia with my best friends Elizabeth and Mary Kate! Can I tell you how special it is to be able to see my girls any time I want?! We've been apart for many years, and so we like to get together now as often as our schedules allow. Mary Kate and Elizabeth waited patiently for us to arrive after some icky traffic.

Emma and Charlotte were having the time of their lives. I don't think they stopped smiling the entire time. We ladies commented that we could have sat and watched them play all day. :)

I'm sure you'll see from the photos how great our day was. It's absolutely gorgeous here - fall is blooming, and I've waited a LONG time to enjoy these colors and the cooler air. Oh Happy Fall!

Oh yes! I almost forgot to mention that you'll notice my fancy shmancy watermark. What do you think?

Emma calls down to Charlotte: "Hey Charlotte! I'll help you up!"


Squeals and giggles all around...

Ring a round the rosy.....

pocket full of posies...

ashes...ashes...we all....fall...

...DOWN!


Emma and Charlotte perfecting their sorority "lean-in" during snack time:


Taking turns pulling each other in the flower carts..



sliding down the slide together..


Then it was time to do a little shopping. Emma wanted to buy some "baby pumpkins"

and Charlotte wanted some delicious kettle corn. When Elizabeth asked her how she was going to pay for it, she said, "mommy give me money!" So here she is with mommy's wallet :)



Then it was time for more hay time!

LOTS of hugs and kisses this day. I am so excited about their friendship. I'm thinking summer Europe backpacking trip in 2018?? :)

Finally...we have handsome AJ, who was perfectly content to watch the action enthusiastically. I would have gotten a bunch of awesome shots of AJ and his sister, but in my haste I didn't realize that my auto focus accidentally switched to manual focus during his series (slaps forehead). I'm so sorry, AJ! We'll get you next time I promise!! :)

Catalina!

I still have photos from July to post (and yes, I realize it's October!) but I did want to post a slideshow from our trip to Catalina before we left San Diego. We had never been and I am SO glad we went! Our fantastic neighbors Chris & Jean invited us to go and we had a blast (we miss you guys!!)

Catalina Island was once the weekend destination belonging to the Wrigley family (as in Wrigley gum!) The island was entirely theirs and slowly, it came to be knowns as a playground for the rich & famous in Southern California during the first part of the century. People would take a ferry to the island, to dance the night away at the penthouse casino. In the 80's, the family sold off a large portion of the island to the local government as a tourist destination and the island exploded.

There are SO many fun things to do there - snorkeling, hiking, shopping, beaching and just enjoying the Mediterranean-like setting. I wish we'd had more time, because I definitely would have gone back again!

This blog will not RIP!

our new normal

Ok, so I have a LOT to catch up on. But I just wanted to upload pics from today. We're just now starting to feel normal again. It's been 3 weeks since our movers came and packed up our life in San Diego (that reminds me...I've got to come up with a new tagline for our blog name!) and now we're settling in back east. We're having a great time being back home. The heat doesn't even bother me right now, because, there's RAIN! And crickets! And so many other wonderful familiar things that make everything feel extra special.

We managed to move into our old house, and get everything set up for now. It's a looong road ahead - lots of house projects we want to accomplish. But we're totally loving the extra space. Emma literally runs around and dances in all the open areas. :)

Technically, we're still living by the 'water'. We traded the Pacific Ocean for the lake and even though we lived here before, it's awesome now with a little one! There is a 2 mile path around the lake, and a perfect tot lot just steps from our back door. We went exploring this morning before lunch.

checking out the ducks down by the dock:

Where on EARTH did she get those curls? And do you see that bow in her hair? Don't tell her it's there - she NEVER lets me go near her with one.

Putting the moves on Mason at the playground.

Enjoying the slide and the swing (or as she calls it, 'Whee!')

Poaching some sunscreen from Mason's grandma. She loves any kind of cream - she's definitely a girly girl. Just doesn't like bows!!

Checking out mom's shades. Hey - who's that in the reflection? hehe.

You may think I took this picture to show off her beautiful eyelashes. They are beautiful, but that's not what I was trying to show. I think hands down, one of my absolute FAVORITE things about my daughter, one of the things I hope she NEVER outgrows, is the thick, blonde, wispy layer of baby hair she has all over her face. It's so thick that it grows in two different directions around her forehead. It's so thick that it shows through the sunscreen. The hair on her head isn't super thick, but her baby hair is. I'm not sure if you can see the reflection of the sun on the blonde hair in the picture, but I wanted to remember it forever. She's my little fuzzy peach. I could just eat her.

And finally, she's still obsessed with those darn squirrels. Here she is following one up a tree as we walked back up to the house. What a great day!

goodbye beach bungalow!

It's the last night in our little beach cottage here in San Diego. Tomorrow come the packers. We had an extra soapy bubble bath tonight to commemorate our last night. More to come soon, but here's a placeholder for ya!

June Jamboree!

I think June gets the award for one of the busiest months we've had in a long time. I have a whole month to catch up on with blogging!

After Dad & Josh left, Gammie and Poppa came to visit. They got to visit Emma on her last day of school and participate in her graduation. Here she is with her diploma:

Here is Gammie presenting Emma with a new book. She knows how much Emma loves the touch-and-feel books. This one is called, "peekaboo! I love you!"

So the Emster finished school, I finished work and celebrated my birthday all in one week. After Gammie and Poppa left, we all traveled to Houston to visit Sarah, John and baby Jack. We got to stay with them in their gorgeous house! It was reallllly hot that weekend, so poor us, we had to spend most of the days at their incredible neighborhood pool - complete with baby pool and water slide. Emma couldn't get enough of the 'wawa'. It was the first thing she asked for in the morning, and the last thing she talked about before going to bed. She would have swam allll day long. There were so many pictures, so I decided to compile a slideshow (make sure you can read the descriptions):



We couldn't pass up the opportunity to get some video at the pool too. Luckily, our point and shoot is waterproof so we could take it in the pool with us. Fun! You can catch Emma enjoying the water slide (note the HUGE smile on her face) and chanting 'more! more!'. We'll definitely have to get this one some swimming lessons soon, she is FEARLESS.

It's been just as busy back at home. In fact, we're having so much fun that Emma has decided to stop sleeping. Lucky me! I kid, I kid - I think she's cutting her 2 year molars. We've been enjoying the summer with great weather and being outdoors as much as possible. This includes a little outdoor painting (note the various stages of undress):

yummy watermelon

trips to the playground with friends,

Here she is playing with her friend, Shae. Emma and Shae were born on the exact same day!

more pool time
and...I got to finally break in the portable studio I got for my birthday. I love it! I can't wait to use it more. Emma was happy to help me do some test shots, and she's sporting her very first ponytail (or 'ponie' as she calls it). :)

That's all folks!! It's the last day of June, so tomorrow starts another month of great fun! We're headed to Vermont to celebrate Opa's 60th birthday and then to New York for our friend Justin's wedding. We'll be back soon!

A girl and her garden

These pics were taken at Hotel Del Coronado - what an amazing place. We had a great visit from Pache and Uncle Josh this weekend, so we took the whole gang here to get a little photoshoot in. Someone seemed to enjoy the good weather...

Forrest Gump

"everywhere I went...I WAS RUNNING"

Busy Bee

Emma is a very busy bee. All of these pictures were taken within 5 minutes. She loves coloring:

and playing with her baby. Here she is telling me "Shhhh.....the baby is sleeping."

and singing and clapping:

and trying on mama's slippers:

and climbing into and jumping off of the ottomans:

Me: "Emma, are you allowed to draw on the furniture or walls?"
Her: "Ohhhh no, no, no" (complete with shaking a finger, just like I do!)

All of this playing makes me tired! I think I'll take a little nap.