recent adventures

or otherwise titled, "picture vomit". you choose. 

but seriously, sorry i have been missing from this little blog (i know all 12 followers really cared! oh crap... i'm a follower, what!?! how'd that happen? um, 11 followers... awkward...hahaha) we have been crazy busy lately. after getting home from San Diego we went to work fixing up our house. we decided we would invest a little of the money we had saved to make it more cozy since we wouldn't be getting a new house. more on that in a later post! 

in the meantime, i thought it would be nice to fill you in on my most recent adventures in SD. 

7am breakfast before we hit the road, i'm sleepy!

my husband left the day before i did to go to a conference in Orange County for work. i had just gotten super sick the day before that, so it was all up to me to clean the house, pack all our bags, load the car, and drive down (during the DAY!!! if you know me at all you know i like to drive at night so the kids sleep the whole way down!). it could have gone bad quick but i prepared myself for an adventure, and i have to say it wasn't that bad. God's grace is sufficient! we woke up Thursday morning, got dressed, and went to breakfast before hitting the road. i stocked the care full of etch-a-sketches, journals, crayons, kids laptops, and good music. i even had a cooler in the front seat with healthy snacks! i was feeling like supermom! ha!

we stopped once before the grapevine to make a potty break, and the kids were doing awesome. they did ask me about every 30 min. if we were in San Diego yet. they still have absolutely no concept of time, so it was challenging trying to figure out how to explain it to them. i finally just started saying, "nope... not yet!".

our second stop was in L.A. to visit my brother!!! he's in his first quarter at UCLA and we really miss him! i picked him up and we went out to lunch.

he's probably my favorite person on Earth other than my husband and children. 

he's a great Tio. 

he treated us to some tasty cookies at a place called Ditty Riese. they were goooooood!

you can even have them make fresh ice cream cookie sandwiches right there for you!

last shot before dropping him off. 

once we had lunch and dropped him back off at the dorms it was naptime for the kids. i tried to get to SD as quickly, and safely, as possible while they slept. i made it down by 3:30. just in time to drop the kids off at my parents, change my clothes, and leave again for Leah's wedding rehearsal at 5pm.

so honored to share these moments with her.

we've been best friends since 6th grade and if i didn't have her through junior high and high school i would have suffered a tragic social death due to no one understanding me (drama!). but for reals, we were inseparable for YEARS and had such a great time being silly and making such amazing memories. i hope my kids have great friends like her all through their school years, having her really did help me make it through some awkward stages. 

and she was the most beautiful bride! her husband (who is the most perfect match for her on the face of the Earth!!) is one lucky fellow. 

first dance as a married lady!

view from the wedding. i do miss seeing the ocean a little!

wedding shoes! 

 the next day my family threw me a 30th birthday party. it was nice and mellow and a great time visiting with my beloved family that we miss so much.

ALMOST 30!

my husband lead worship for all 5 services at The Rock church in San Diego that Sunday so he had to leave really early that morning. i think he left at like 5:30am or something crazy! what a long day. 

this kids and i kicked back at my parents. my sweet stepmom let the kids eat in the living room with a lap tray. what a special treat! (we NEVER eat in the living room. ever.)

then we met our besties at The Rock and enjoyed worshipping together like we used to 7 or 8 years ago when we all went to the same church. what a sweet time. even the kids all got to be in the same classroom!

i know i struggle man-handling those pumpkin guts... so later that day we painted pumpkins with my parents. painting is much easier on the little muscles. 

Big A painted Batman and Robin on his pumpkin and little a painted a "rainbow" and a "kitty" on hers (um, i never could see it...).

my sweet dad. one of his favorite things to do is blow dry the kids hair after baths. he always did our hair when we were little too. something about going to bed with our hair wet rubs him wrong. its cause he's old and mexican. 

our last day in San Diego was Halloween morning. and since the next day would be my 30th birthday, my husband treated me to my favorite restaurant, Hash House A Go Go! nom nom.

he had a scramble with sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese with a farm of potatoes.

i had the vanilla waffle that could feed a small family. in fact, it fed my kids and i and i still had half left!

after that we went straight over to the besties house to meet their newest addition!!!! 

little a said it would be ok if she was her little sister. ok. i'm cool with that too. 

after spending the best 4 hours with our besties it was time to get ready for trick-or-treating. we decided to go to my in-laws since they live in a nice, quiet neighborhood.

Bumblebee and Snow White

wearing my MIL's mask from New Orleans. best costume i could conjure up.

we had a blast going door to door. we did one circle around the block and headed back to the house for baths and packing up. then we hit the road to drive home. 

Big A seizing the opportunity in the back seat to dig for gold. i bet it was a big one seeing how deep he was digging!

the road home had a few hick-ups... like us getting rear-ended in the fog only 45 minutes into the drive (don't worry, everyone was ok!). it could have been wayyyy worse and we are counting our blessings. but we made it and are back to the normal routine. 

whew! that was a lot. are you tired yet? i am just reliving it. but i really enjoyed this trip down. we usually come home more exhausted, but this trip was pretty restful! 

so. good. 

xoxo,

tara