Another installment in the old slide archives... This is Michael with my Grandma and Grandpa Pinkley's dog at their house in Phoenix. (at least that is what I remember of this...)

 

Beach

I feel like we need to apologize for all of our beach time and great weather, but it's what we end up doing a lot of the time around here. We especially enjoy Sandyland beach in Carpinteria. It is a wide sandy beach with almost nobody ever on it and some giant rocks for climbing on right next to train tracks. There is also a surf shop nearby and the best restaurant in the world for kids (it has outdoor eating and a sandbox). It just doesn't get much better than this when you are 3 years old! Especially when mom and dad and you uncle are there.

 
 

Mommy

Just a cute picture of Mommy and Braedyn at the Zoo

 

Friends

We've met a lot of great people here in Carpinteria, and the fun of a small town is that you run into them all over the place. On a recent weekend afternoon we ran into our friend Jen from Reality at the beach. She joined us for a little ride around town and some dinner.

 

Michelle and Michael

More slides from the archive collection...

Wisconsin Dells

Braedyn really had a lot of fun playing with Elisabeth, Nicholas and Joshua.

Wisconsin Dells

As part of our trip to Iowa at Christmas this year we headed up to Wisconsin Dells to a large waterpark themed hotel. They had 3 large indoor waterparks and some snowy looking outdoor ones as well. There were also a bunch of other fun things to do there so it was a lot of fun. We went with Mema and Papa, Isaac and Jana, and Tony and Tricia with their kids. We stayed for 3 days and got to get really nice and wet and just enjoy playing around even though it was really cold outside!

Iowa Christmas Cookies

Some more Christmas pictures from our trip to Iowa...

Here's Braedyn and Papa Perry decorating some cookies.

Michelle and Michael

I've had thousands of slides laying around for years that I've been meaning to scan into digital format, but it was just too time consuming for me to ever get completed. These are all slides that my dad took when we were little kids growing up in Guam and Phoenix and probably other places. I finally bit the bullet and sent in about 350 of the better ones to a place called ScanCafe. They scan slides in for about 30 cents a slide and then send you a dvd. I'll post a few of them here over time. This is a picture of Michael and Michelle at some point when we were little kids.

Carpinteria

this is where we live...

Church

We go to a little church in Carpinteria called Reality. We typically ride our bikes the mile or so to get there as parking is tight and the weather is always nice, and then we can ride home along the beach and see the seals.

 

Lake Casitas

A couple weeks ago, after getting back from our Christmas trip, it was pretty foggy in Carpinteria, so we decided to head up into the mountains to get away from it. We went to Lake Casitas Recreation area which is about 30 minutes away from us. It is a nice little lake that we got to throw some rocks into and just generally lounge around in the sun. There was also a couple fun little playgrounds, but it was just nice to be outside with no agenda.

 
 
 

Surfing

Carpinteria is a little surf town, it is surrounded by well know surf breaks and a lot of surf companies are based here or have ties to here. Daddy spends an awful lot of time out surfing and some of this surf mentatlity is starting to wear off on Braedyn. He says that he is learning how to swim at the YMCA so that he can go surfing with daddy, and he loves to go to the beach to watch as well. He'll also stand on any board that is laying around just to start to get the feel of it. This day he even got to go stand on a board in the water and ride a little wave in with some help from dad.

 
 
 
 

Isaac Surfing

Isaac wanted to give surfing a try while he was out for a visit so we grabbed some boards and a wetsuit on Saturday and headed down to Sandyland beach in Carpinteria for some lessons.

 
 
 

Uncle Isaac

Uncle Isaac came for a visit with his girlfriend Jana. They went off and did some of the touristy stuff on a couple days and then hung out with us and tooled around town a bit just enjoying the fabulous weather we have been having. They, of course, couldn't wait to get back to the snow and sub-zero temps of Iowa to show off their newly acquired tans.... They made it back after spending an unplanned night in Dallas. We're looking forward to their coming back again soon! Braedyn had a lot of fun and is still talking about their visit and asking if they are coming back today.


 
 
 

Christmas

Braedyn got more presents at Mema and Papa's house in Iowa.

 

Family Photo

It was nice to be with family over the holidays in Iowa. Braedyn's great grandma was around for some of the festivities so we were able to get some family photos while we were there.

 

Christmas

I told you I was a little behind on posting....

We opened Christmas gifts on the morning of Christmas eve as we were flying out early Christmas morning. Braedyn got some painting supplies as well as some musical instruments and a little scoot bike. He's really been enjoying his instruments and is happy to refer to himself as "the band" these days.