some big news and some things we did...

Happy Monday everyone! 

Here are a few things we did this weekend.

Well...I wanted to start off by sharing some big news for our family! 

Over the weekend we went to visit the dirt grounds of where our new house will be built! We are moving! (well, technically not for a while) I am beyond excited and so grateful for this new chapter for us. Its been such a long journey to get to this place and I'll share more on that next time. But, for now...here is a little picture of our dirt lot that we love so much! ;) 

I got to have breakfast with the bestie! And we always wear matching outfits unplanned! Its been like this since high school! ha! I guess great minds think a like :) We are going to start planning un-matching outfits now before we hang out. 

 This girl has been walking everywhere this weekend! And when you need to walk across the room and only have two hands, you use your mouth for help ;) 

The best part of the weekend was spent at our local city's carnival!

We ate food trucks and one yummy funnel cake covered in vanilla ice cream, chocolate, strawberries and bananas. Sophia kept insisting that something smelled but no one else could smell it. lol. that's why she is plugging her nose. 

Games are by far our favorite part of the carnival. Sophia wanted to play every game! Thankfully many of these booths are "everyone win" type of game booths. She was a bit confused when she had to walk away from some game booths empty handed ;)

I'm kind of an undefeated "whack a mole!" game winner ;) 

i won this doll for her ;) 

Sophia felt brave enough to challenge me at the "whack a mole" and beat me! I guess she is the new undefeated champion. ;) 

She won a doll for Zaylee!

And what's a carnival without going on some rides! Luckily she just made the height requirement...her gracious hat helped!:) Poor girl's got her parent's short genes. 

i heard giggles the whole time they were spinning 

Zaylee playing with some more of the prizes we won

And a weekend is never complete without a family run to Costco! 

Have a wonderful week! Make it a great day! 

Santa Barbara, Part 2

Here is part 2 of our trip to Santa Barbara! 

These pictures were taken just on our first two days of being there (there is a part three to come :) We usually keep the same schedule while we are there, basically sleep in ( thank you to those dark thick curtains that keep the room black as night even in the brightest morning hours. The girls seriously sleep in until 9 am! alleluia!), get up, walk to breakfast on property, go for a beautiful walk, swim, eat, sleep. It is absolutely relaxing and everyone is happy. 

^ we get to take our left over drinks from dinner to go! can't let good wine go to waste ;)^

^ chasing bunnies on the resort is one of Sophia's favorite things to do^

^ i love that the beach is so close! ^

^ the resort has this amazing sand area with a huge basket of toys! The girls loved it. Zaylee is really into putting things into buckets lately, so she had a blast!^ 

after the hard day of driving up to Santa Barbara with the girls, i think we made up for it the next day ;)

Part 3 to come soon...

Have a wonderful weekend!

Santa Barbara, part 1

Last week we went on our annual vacation to Santa Barbara. We were there for our honeymoon five years ago and we go back each year to "re-celebrate" our anniversary, the only thing different now is that we bring the kids ;)

Whenever we go, we always say "next year we will come alone." But then again, we have so much fun making a family trip out of it that I'm not sure if Santa Barbara would ever be so much fun if it weren't for those two.

But this year, our trip started off on a different note ;)

Mike and I woke up with a plan that morning to make sure we departed by 9 am so that Zaylee can take her morning nap and the whole drive would be peaceful. But, Monday morning came and a million unexpected things turned up, baby took her nap at home (unplanned) and we left at 11:30! Needless to say it wasn't a quiet drive up...so we stopped 45 minutes shy of our destination for a stretch break. Here's what happened:

^ the first 5 minutes of our road trip :) everyone was happy happy! this didn't last long with our happy camper in the backseat  ^

^ disgruntled littles after a long car ride ^

^ we take stretch break quite seriously around here ^

annnd then...mike started to do some flips in the sand....

and guess what happened??! His wedding band fell off and we lost it in sand!!

We made Sophia freeze and started to frantically crawl through the sand, but there was no luck. We asked the park ranger if she had a metal detector and I even downloaded a metal detector app on my phone (btw it doesn't work, so don't waste your time). The park ranger gave us a small business card of a man who looks for goods with his metal detector for fun and wished us luck! 

We call him twice, left a voicemail and headed up to Santa Barbara with hopes and a lot of prayers to good ol' Saint Anthony. Once we got to our hotel, we got a phone call from the metal detector's wife (he is hearing impaired) and she said they can meet us and help us find the ring. Mike and Sophia drove 45 minutes south again... and this man found it! They were the nicest people and didn't even want to take any money for it. It was truly a miracle!  

God bless these sweet people! If you ever lose something in the Ventura County beach area...let me know :) I'll hook you up with the nicest people who can help. 

We had a big celebration that night in Santa Barbara...and made our vacation right again. I'll share more on that next time. 

Next year, no more stretch breaks for us. ;)

fun in the sun

This weekend we spent as much time outdoors as possible. The weather felt like summer! On Saturday, we celebrated my mom's belated birthday with some good tacos, birthday cake and outdoor play in her yard. 

^ Happy birthday to the most loveliest and loving mama and grandma!^

^ these girls just love the dogs! Z kept wanting to pet them but would squeal at the same time ^

^this is my mom (who doesn't even know how to ride an adult bike)! She nearly made me pee in my pants by doing this. I will forever look at the video of her and Sophia riding around the yard on a bad day to cheer me up :) #coolestgrannyontheblock  ^  

^ her first bike ride...i can already picture her pedaling so fast on this one day!^

^ a perfect lazy weekend well spent!^

It was a great weekend. Okay, Monday...I'm going to kick your butt!