Vacation's all I ever wanted

We are finally back from our long, extended break from the tight grasp of Canada's cold weather and funny enough probably missed much of the best weather of the year. The major casualty of our return was that our grass has dead spots everywhere. Other than that, our garden is a jungle. We are going to have tomatoes galore and our basil and peas are going berserka. It is really fun to see the girls' excitement as they pick and eat things from the garden. It is all that I hoped it would be. We ran out of sticks and what not to support the plants so I ran over to the ever trusty "Dollarama" and had to improvise as the garden section is starting to be a little bare. So I bought this "fishing pole" made out of bamboo and then Greg was able to use pieces of it to secure the tomatoes and peas. Pretty funny. (If we could easily send you one, Stephan we would because it would give you a good laugh.) I've been on quite a blog hiatus (sorry devoted fans) so I'll be forced to hit you with a wave of updates. Here we go.

Tier #1 of the Vacation break-down. CALIFORNIA/ARIZONA

I flew out early since Greg can't take off the amount of time I can for a vacation. Of course they missed their dad (as did I) but luckily there were also lots of other family members and activities to keep them busy and distracted. My faves about California were:

• Going to the beach.
• Shopping at the thrift stores.
• Shopping at Target (too many visits to admit and I still didn't get through the whole store sufficiently).
• Going out to eat. I seriously can't get sick of In & Out or Mexican food. My tight pants can prove it. Yikes!
  
• Laying out in the backyard.
• Watching the cousins all play together.
• Watching Tati in the sprinklers.
  
• Having a "Bachelorette" finale party. There I admitted it.
• I was able to see some old, dear friends (Liza, Leah, Nicole)
  
• Celebrating our 8 year anniversary. I even whisked Greg away on a surprise overnight getaway. Woo-woo.
• Celebrating my birthday with some fresh strawberry shortcake and HEAVY whipping cream. Delish. It has been a while since I shared a birthday with family around.
  

Here are some photo highlights:

(Sea lions in the Santa Barbara harbor.)

(On our "Pirate Tour" of the harbor. Doesn't that face say it all? She LOVED it! Her first water voyage.)

(Inside the beach tent eating snacks with Grandpa.)

(I wish everyday were like this.)

(Tati calls sunglasses her "Eyes". I love that. )

(Chloe had a blast playing in the sand. Now that she is older, not all of it ends up inside her bathing suit either so that is nice.)

(I love this picture.)

(The water was cold but she didn't care.)

(Daddy doesn't really like water but he knows we do so he does it anyway. Thanks Greg.)

(Isn't this an awesome background for a pic? This was after a long and very hot hike with my brother and his family. We were super impressed at what a great hiker Chloe was.)

(This is a shot of the cousins on their big hike. Chloe absolutely LOVED spending time with all her cousins.)

(Here's a shot that Greg caught of the two sisters reading books together. They really do love each other. We love when they actually are showing it.)

Then we went to Arizona to visit my sis. That is a trip that only few brave would muster straight up in the summer time but it was actually not that bad. I enjoyed the intense heat because it finally defrosted my bones from the longest winter ever known to man. It always feels like I don't have enough time with my sis. and it was great to let the cousins play together here too. Well really Chloe was in heaven here because Emily is her same age and she worships the ground that Hallie (just turned 10) walks on. Hallie is the grown up version of what we imagine Chloe will be like and Emily is the tom-boy version of Chloe. If Chloe didn't want to play super heroes, she would simply ask Hallie for an idea and next thing you know the Littlest Pet Shops were at East High or something. I have to also say that it is super fun to be around "Fat Carlie" because she eats lots of yummy food and has more time to just hang out. I didn't realize how much I missed her. (FYI, she isn't "fat", she's pregnant but that means that all the body building regime is on hold and we can even sneak away to the grocery store and share an eclair donut on the way home before anybody at home could see us. he he.)

My favorite part about our visit was the backyard pool. This pool should like be in a movie. The color, the waterfall, the slide. It is all so beautiful and warm. Usually I'm the only one who gets excited about swimming but this time Chloe and Tati were right with me. Chloe is usually such a scaredy with swimming but suddenly when her swim teacher, Hallie, was teaching her, she was brave city. (Maybe the life jacket helped too.) It was just what she needed to feel the confidence to actually take some real swimming lessons.

(Notice she is all alone here. And notice she is smiling.)

(This is Tati being pushed in and out of the waterfall. She thought it was hilarious. So cute.)

And we'll end this long post with a great movie. Tati loves balls. She wants to throw them, kick them, even sleep with them. This was a series of movies so we had to pic the best one. She was trying to figure out how she could hold 3 balls all at once. It was so fun to watch her brain problem solving. She's a little smartie.