Decorating

We've been getting the house all decorated up. This week we headed down to the local boy scout troop Christmas tree patch and let Braedyn pick out our tree. We then strapped it to the top of the Prius and drove home and got it all setup. Over the next few nights we proceeded to deck it with lights and ornaments. Braedyn really got into hanging ornaments and choosing where to hang lights in the house this year. He even helped setup the nativity set and went so far as to take all of the characters in the nativity set to use the bathroom, all of them just had to pee except for the angel that needed help wiping.....

Kinder Music Pictures

Kinder Music had a benefit photography session that Braedyn had his pictures taken at.

Alice Keck Park Gardens

More pictures from our day at Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens. It was a perfect day and we could hardly believe that we were in shorts and sandals working on our tans on Nov 30!

 
 
 
 

Alice Keck Park Gardens

We picked up a book by a local author called Santa Barbara Fun and have been visiting many of the places listed in there. This day we headed into Santa Barbara for a visit to a park that we had been by many times without stopping in. Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens is a must visit. This place has rocks to climb on, streams to get wet in, all sorts of plants and bushes to hide in and turtles in a pond! What more could a toddler want in life. We played for quite a while and then enjoyed the last day of November with a picnic on the lawn.

 
 
 
 

Friends

For the second day in a row, Braedyn had a blast with Connor. This day we headed down to Laguna beach for some playtime and lunch. After that we got back in the car for the long drive back home.

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!