Category: Beachy

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Memorial Beach Day

We’re not even done with the weekend but I had to post a few videos of the beach day yesterday.  Our kids are having so much more fun at the beach lately, which in turn makes it that much more fun for us too.  Asher finally will play in the waves (ok, ‘in the waves’ is even being generous…he’ll touch his toes in the water at least)…it only took him 4 years to warm up to it (who’s kid is this?!).  But no matter, at least we were diligent 😂.  Here’s yesterday (he decided no pants was the way to go):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V88cxIWwT5Q
What a great view! 😉

The remainder of the weekend was no less fun – BBQ & backyard s’mores with friends, then water park at Lake Casitas to finish it off!


I love summer!  And it’s just the beginning! (More to come soon – this was a start of an old post!)

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Family beach night

This was a week or so ago – a few days after Jesse’s surgery.  

For extended family who might not have realized – since we’ve kind of been hiding in a hole of sorts for months and months – Jesse tore his ACL again in February, along with his PCL (I think that’s the one), and his meniscus got stuck between his knee in an ‘aftershock’ injury (basically from walking around with the torn ACL for a few months).  So, to prolong a long story, he’s been waiting on a surgery date, unable to walk, since April/May or so.  And he finally had surgery late July.  So, if you haven’t heard from us, it’s because it’s been a somewhat tough last couple of months and we are really, really glad to see a light at the end after a successful surgery!

Back to the task at hand…a few days after surgery, Jesse wanted to get out of the house (it was super hot the two-three days following the surgery, and he was stuck in an immobilizer from his hip to below the knee)…so we went and picked up Blenders for dinner and parked at the beach.  He sat in the car, but at least got some fresh ocean air (heals better than the pain killers, I can tell you with confidence after watching his face!)…and the kids and I played in the sand right between the car and the water.

It’s times like these I’m acutely aware of how thankful I am for so many parts of our lives.  To name a few:

* Our kiddos (duh).  But here’s something I’m really thankful for often, but don’t mention enough – that they are best friends and built-in playmates.  Nope, they don’t always get along…and nope, they don’t always want to do the same activities.  But on the whole, these two have eachother’s  backs and are the best of pals.  

* Where we live.  Dang, Santa Barbara is expensive and I complain a lot about that, often to the point of not appreciating what we have.  But it really is the best spot in the world (especially to enjoy evenings like this)- not too hot, not too cold, beach, mountains, a little bit city, a little bit country, and very few bugs (weird, but I kid you not – every other place I’ve been that has nice evenings like this also has bug bites!  And I for some reason am tasty and get eaten alive!  Not in SB though!).  It’s kind of perfect for us, and can’t believe we’re so blessed that it’s home!
* Health.  We have two healthy kiddos (hands down our number one blessing).  I am blessed to be able-bodied enough to take care of the house, kids, and Jesse while he recovers.  It’s made me appreciate that there’s two of us when he is healthy and that what he has is “fixable”, and that’s a lot to be thankful for that not everyone can count on.

I could go on, but you get the picture.  It’s not a’first’ or anything new or exciting, but I took a bunch of pictures with the intent of sharing because it was one of those moments I would give anything to pause and relive over and over to memorize every sound, taste, scent, and sight.  If time would freeze a moment, I think one of these ‘normal’ nights would be my choice above anything extraordinary – they are my favorite in all the land.

 (Here Ash was playing in our “super duper long, tall shadows, Mommy”!):

Here’s just a quick clip of some of the live pictures converted to video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WThTBHT9Fg

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Just Beachy 

I love when an unexpected warm weekend pops up in winter between all those cold, windy ones!  That day was today and we took advantage of our clear, fairly warm, winter beach day.

   
   We were able to meet Selah’s first nanny there with her 7 month old daughter, visiting from Kansas.  Liz will always hold a special place in our heart.  Some day we’ll venture to Kansas to visit her farm, but for today we were pretty content running around in the sand, collecting just the slightest sunburn from the winter sun low in the sky.
A few pics of the day I snapped with my little beauty.  Love this place we are blessed to live in, and love the little sweethearts I get to do life more than more.  If only I could bottle up her joy to save for a rainy day…

   
    
    
    
 

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Happy Place

Can’t explain exactly what it is about the lake that makes it my favorite.  It’s just a little bit of everything.  The best of all five senses washed into one spot.

Whatever it is, as soon as we go to the beach and I take one big breath, the drive and whiny kids in the car are all worth it.

Here’s our night of dancing in the soft sand at the water’s edge, throwing rocks just to hear the sweet splash, drawing our names in the soft sand, and breathing in the life of moments that matter, until the sun just sneaks over the edge of the world, leaving barely a hint of sunset to wash us with warm color…

   
    
    
    
   And now we rest, because tomorrow we’ll play.

Amen.

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The Unexpected Moments

  Sometimes the best evenings are the unplanned, unexpected gems.  Tuesday at the jobsite resulted in my car stranded at the office (they had to “borrow” the steel plate covering the excavation in front of the driveway where I park…and it didn’t come back until about 6 pm).  So, Jesse and the kids came down to help.  

My little inspectors:

   
     Since I needed the car for the morning, we decided to hang out around the area until I could drive home.  What else to do in the touristy waterfront of Santa Barbara but walk to the end of the pier and have ice cream for dinner!

    (As long as we’re unhealthy, why stop at dyes!  I cringe at the color of her ice cream, but sometimes I just say, oh well!)
 

It turns out, we live in a really pretty area!  And people pay to visit here,  we were reminded why!   It was the most gorgeous evening out, and had a great time as a ‘tourist’ family.  

   
             

We even made it home in time for Selah to help Daddy put on the last parts of the shed roof he is building…

  While I prepared a ‘real dinner that actually had other food groups like vegetables 😉.
I’ve had a pretty gnarly sinus infection the past couple of weeks, so I’ve been struggling through work days for the most part.  So, this evening was a much needed reminder of the beauty in my own backyard (& cuteness in our own household of course, which I’m thankful for each day).  So much fun we might have to do it again sometime when we stranded by choice! 😉❤️😘

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Beach Bums

Last weekend (pre-current-sickness), we had one of those funny parenting experiences.  It’s one of those times you’ve been hoping for – when your kid is finally old enough and skilled enough to do something you enjoy with you…and they do it and actually enjoy it also!  Maybe even want to do it again!  And again!  

This happened with Selah finally with “surfing” (ie. Body boarding, which to her is surfing).  The funny part though is now she wants her daddy to take her surfing (totally awesome, right?!) every time we go to the beach.  Which is really cool.  I cannot stress enough how awesome we find this.  But the funny parenting moment is when you realize that this thing you’ve been wanting your kid to love doing, sometimes becomes a whole lot of work for you once they’re into it.  Prime example:  now that Selah wants to surf at the beach every time…this means Jesse has to go in the water every time.  And this is sometimes really cold. And not always what he wants to do at the relaxing beach spot for a lunch picnic.  BUT – she loves it, and it’s SO fun to watch her & her daddy – so who can complain?! (Ok, Jesse can. Because the water was COLD this weekend!) 😉

I’m sorry to say I did not get pictures of them in the water.  I did, however, get them playing “airplane” off a ledge at the edge of the beach.  

   

 Clearly Asher needs to do everything Selah does:

   

 And one more close-up of my gangsta baby:

  

Proof it was cold?  Selah warming up in our driveway in the sun afterwards! (With chocolate shake in hand):

  Asher also decided he needed to hone his “skills” too since he wants to do everything “sissy” does:

  These three.  ❤️ them!