Easter 2016

How fun are these holidays with little ones? I mean experiencing all the traditions with them is just the best!

Easter morning Emma woke with such excitement! The Easter Bunny had hid the eggs and she was going to find them! She had such a blast finding those brightly colored plastic eggs and then meticulously opening each one. Some had stickers, some had jelly beans and some had CHANGE! Oh then on a breakfast of jelly beans she put each coin in her piggy bank and proceeded to shake it to hear the sound. We took the coins out of the bank several times just so she could put them back in. SO CUTE!

The Easter Bunny brought her a new outfit, a Minnie Mouse shaped plate with a new cup and a Playdoh set! Such fun! After the sugar high wore off we got ready to head to my aunt's home in Hermosa Beach. You may remember from the Easter bumpdate  with Emma.

My cousin, Emma's godmommy, pulled out her old kitchen set and Emma was in heaven playing with the plastic foods and all the tools that she had. We made the trek down to the beach to dip our toes in the water and Emma was NOT HAVING IT. She cried when we put her on the sand, when we tried to get her feet in the water, when mommy went into the water, when daddy went into the water. Poor thing was not interested in the beach one iota. We snapped a couple of photo's and then made our way back to the house.

Once back in the safe zone, Emma played and danced and snuggled with family while we ate some yummy food....I did not partake in the ham, but my cousin smoked an awesome side of beef and that went down so nicely!

On our way back up the hill we made sure to stop at the hospital where Emma came into the world and visit D's grandfather who had to have back surgery. On our way in we ran into his mom and grandma and made plans to get a bite to eat before we head out. We went up and spent a couple of minutes up there, we left because he was eating dinner, then went and had an Easter dinner of the Habit with Darin's mom, grandmother, sister and brother-in-law. It was a nice evening and we managed to get home in time to put Emma to bed. Poor thing was so wiped.

I hope your Easter was as wonderful as ours!

Beach Bums, Missions and Lots of Chalk

Ok, this post is a month behind. I know I know. It's been a crazy month! So on Memorial Day we checked off a couple of items from our Bucket List. We went into Santa Barbara for the afternoon with our good friend Mr. P. We hit up the Sandbar Restaurant when we made it into town and had a great Mexican lunch. Then we hit the road up to the Santa Barbara Mission. I had been as a child when we would camp at Carpinteria state beach, but D and Mr. P had never been inside the museum. We wandered around the mission and took in all the history there was, and of course I clicked away at my shutter. We all enjoyed the cemetery and spent loads of time trying to figure out what the headstones meant. Mr. P wanted a photo with the old tree, but there were many signs telling people to stay off....so we obeyed. We made our way into the church and continued through the chapels and finally into the artifact area where we could see how the monks lived when the Mission first opened. Very informative and lots of cool things to look at.

When we finished the tour we went outside to where there was a big Memorial Day event taking place. Hundred's of artists were in front of the mission drawing up some incredible things with chalk. We wandered around and took some more photos. We then wandered around and took a little hike trying to find something else that was interesting, but realized after a 30 minute hike that we went the wrong way. We treked our way back to the truck and then back over to the restaurant to see if Mr. P left his phone, they had it. We hopped in the truck and made our way over to the beach where we wandered past the biggest home I had ever seen. We walked up and down, taking more photos and taking in the scenery. We saw a pod of dolphins just off shore and a lot of birds. We took in the salty air and just chilled in the sand before we made our way back home. It was a great day!