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.

Travel Sleep

On Christmas morning we got up at 4AM to catch a flight from Santa Barbara to Cedar Rapids. It didn't take Braedyn long to fall asleep on the plane to some of his music on his Zune. He did great travelling this trip and we're hoping he'll do as good on our 17 hour flight to Manila in Feb.

On our return flight home we had no problems in Cedar Rapids or Denver even with the possibility of snow, however Santa Barbara's perfect weather let us down as a thick fog rolled in and forced our plane to divert to LAX. When we got there United Airlines pretty much just left us high and dry to find our own way home. In the process of finding a rental car Braedyn found a nice cozy bench to sleep on. We ended up renting a car and making the long drive home.

Nurseries

Carpinteria is in an agricultural area and thus there are a lot of nurseries around here. Many of them have what amount to botanical gardens to show off many of their plants. We've been visiting a few of them in search of an outdoor firepit, but have really been enjoying checking out the plant life and the many other interesting things that they have.

Rincon Beach

We had a near perfect day just before Christmas that we headed to Rincon Beach for. Someone had built this amazing sandcastle there that we checked out for a little while, but the destructive side of Braedyn was wanting to lay seige to the castle so we moved on to the tidepools that were created from the low tide that day.

 
 
 
 

Karate Kid

We couldn't quite capture it on camera, but Braedyn would stand on this log and raise one foot up with his arms in the air doing the Karate Kid move and then jumping off of the log with a kick and a 'hi ya!'.

 
 

Naptime

Braedyn wasn't wanting to go to bed for his nap eventhough he was exhausted. Then Dori decided that a nap looked like a good idea.

 

Toro Canyon Park

Horsing around after our hike. There was a nice grassy area to run and play in at the park and then we headed back to the car.

 
 

Dune Jumping

Another day at Carp beach jumping off of the sand dunes.

Toro Canyon Park

After our hike there was a cool rock outcropping that we checked out. Braedyn got to do his first gap jump!

 
 
 
 

Toro Canyon Park

At the top of the hill that we hiked to there was a nice little gazeebo overlooking the orchards on the hillsides. We stopped here for lunch and a few pictures.

 
 

Toro Canyon Park

I'm doing a little catchup on the picture posting here... On December 20th we headed to Toro Canyon park nearby for a short hike. The park is really nice and is close to Carpinteria. It has good parking, nice playground areas and some really fun woodsy areas for exploring. There was a nice little hike that we did up to the top of a hill that overlooked the ocean and some avocado groves as well. Come to find out later, there was also a good amount of poison oak around there, Braedyn ended up with a pretty nasty rash on his legs for a few days.

 
 
 
 

Happy New Year

Well we made it through another year again. We made it back home from our Christmas trip to Iowa, although we got rerouted to LAX because Santa Barbara was too foggy to land. Here we were all worried about snow in Iowa and Denver and then it's Santa Barbara weather that throws us for a loop. Oh well. We ended up grabbing a rental car from LAX and driving home. We we're going to rent a car in Santa Barbara anyhow as our Prius decided to not start the night before we left on our trip, we made it to the airport after a frantiv call to a local taxi service. The drive up was certainly foggy, but we made in good time since it was late on New Years eve. We gave a ride to another guy who was on our plane, it turned out he lived in Afghanistan working for an NGO, so he had some interesting stories to entertain us on the ride. We made it home safe and Braedyn was a little trooper the whole time.

We're looking forward to the coming year. We have lots of friends and family coming to visit and some trips planned to go see others. Come visit us if you don't have plans to yet! Braedyn will be starting pre-school in March after he turns 3. Dori will be turning 6 this year and is starting to like the beach more each time we take her. Not too much else planned for the year and no big resolutions here besides working on our tans and getting Talisha surfing. Happy new year to all, we hope to see you all this year.

Here's a picture from our New Years day outing to Rincon beach in Carpinteria (it's still foggy).