Fountains

In the morning at our hotel we had a nice relaxing morning getting ready to go hang out with the Brown's again. We walked down for breakfast and checked out the fountains. But before that we checked out the view from the balcony and Daddy got one of the coveted, extra long, cuddle hugs from Braedyn, that made his week!
 

Our hotel had lots of fun fountains to check out in the morning.
 
 
 

Sleeping

On our Thanksgiving trip we stayed the night at a hotel. After a long day of travelling and playing hard our two kids tuckered out pretty quickly.

 
 

Thanksgiving beach fun

After a hearty turkey dinner we headed to the beach for some playing in the sand.

 
 
 

Thanksgiving

Braedyn had a lot of fun playing with his little buddy Connor. We spent Thanksgiving at the Hyatt in Newport Beach where they had an amazing spread of food. The boys picked at it a little and then were off to playing. They ran around the whole hotel checking everything out that there was to see and do.

 
 

Thanksgiving Road Trip

Road trippin it on Turkey Day. With Braedyn all geared up with his (our) zune we headed down to Newport Beach to spend Thanksgiving Day and the day after with friends Mike and Becky, Connor, and Becky's parents Dean and Collen. They were all in CA for a warm sunny vacation. Becky is a friend of Talisha's from high school and although they are several states apart they have stayed close. Connor and Braedyn are just 4 months apart and thoroughly enjoyed there time together. If asked what he did over Thanksgiving Braedyn will still answer "went to Connor's place" and then quickly follows it up with "should we go there today?"

Turbo Beach Sledding

Since we had the sled at the beach to ride down the big burm of sand we decided to take a walk and Braedyn wanted to ride. He has some sort of addiction to speed lately and is always yelling "TURBO!" to daddy whenever we are on the bike, in the stroller, riding on shoulders, or in a sled on the beach. I'll tell you what, sprinting through deep, soft sand pulling a sled with a 30 pound toddler is a good workout.

 
 

Dori

Yes, Dori is still part of the family. She mostly hangs out at home, but does go out for quite a few walks to the neighborhood park and other places. We decided to start taking her to the beach despite the bath that it requires afterwards.

 

Sand Sledding

Apparently every year at the beginning of "winter", the city of Carpinteria tries to save their sandy beaches by pushing all of the sand up into a big burm across the entire beach. It seems like it probably blocks the view of all the ocean front homes, but it sure makes for a fun time for a toddler. We headed down to check it out and got to make some giant jumps from the top and then go sledding down the hill on borrowed boogie boards.

 
 

Birthday Party

We headed to a friend's house last Saturday for their baby's one year birthday party. Cake is always a big hit and Braedyn now knows that it comes with parties!

 
 
 

Hammonds Beach

We recently purchased the book Santa Barbara Fun and have been exploring different places out of the book. Hammonds beach is a nice beach that is nearby and we hadn't been to it so we decided to head up on Sunday afternoon.

Sandyland Beach

We realize that our blog has become a little boring lately as all we ever have on it are beach pictures, but really it's the main thing that we do. Just about any day will find us heading out to a new beach we haven't been to in order to dig holes in the sand, throw rock in the waves, chase some birds, and watch the sunset. It will be a long time before we tire of going, especially when it brings so much joy to us to watch Braedyn thoroughly enjoying himeself in what we've dubbed as his favorite playground.

 
 
 
 

Happy Thanksgiving

We have been so blessed and are so very thankful for so many things. Our family and friends are the top of the list to be thankful for. And although we don't get to see you all every day you are in our thoughts and prayers constantly. Have a great holiday.

 

Birthday Parties

It seems like everyone we know in Carpinteria is turning one! Here's Braedyn hanging out at a couple of different one year birthday parties.

 
 
 
 

Working out

The beach park in Carpinteria has a nice little outdoor workout area that mom and dad sometimes stop off at during runs. Braedyn has really taken to it lately and has even begun to tell us that he wants to go exercise.

 
 
 

Saturday morning coffee

We typically take it pretty easy on the weekends, maybe a hike or a trip up to Santa Barbara for something, but most of the time we just hang out. The one ritual we have on these no-plan days is a morning bike ride to the coffee shop in town and then down to the beach. Here's a little photo journey of our trip from home to the coffee shop.
On the second photo you can really see the smoke billowing out of the foothills up in Santa Barbara. It looks like smog but it is smoke. This was the fist Saturday after the Tea Fire. The fire broke out Thursday evening as a result of a bonfire left to smolder by a group of 10 local college students at the Tea house, an abandoned mansion in Montecito. When the winds kicked up well that was that. Note to those unaware, Never leave fires smoldering in this state, especially in the mountains. We never got smoke in Carp but it was definitely obvious as you drove into Santa Barbara for the first few days following the fire. This fire looked so close, to Talisha, on the night of the actual blaze. Turns out it was quite a ways away from our house anyway. In her credit you could supposedly even see the flames from Ventura on the night of the blaze. Ventura is another 25 minutes S on Hwy 101.