Uncle Greg!

Last week my bro had the opportunity to come down to visit for a week to do an engagement shoot and a few family shoots. Great for him and his business, great for my family, too! Bummer we didn't get to see Kristen this time around, hopefully the next trip - the kiddos miss there Auntie Kristen!

.

Anyway, Greg got to spend some extra time hanging out with us all this week and it was a lot of fun being able to catch up and hang out, and the kids just had a blast :) Here are some of the highlights:

.

Got to go to lunch just my mom, bro and myself - shared a pot of steamed clams, scallops and shrimp - deeeeeelish!!! :)

.

Beach day!!! Had a blast taking the kids, Josh and my bro to the beach - wasn't a terribly long trip (or a very warm day), but we had plenty of fun :)

.

Uncle Greg & Daddy had fun digging holes for the kiddos - they loved it!

(can you tell he's from Portland? The kids are about 10 shades darker than he is, LOL)

.

"Look how deep the whole is, mommy!"

.

.

Look who found us on the beach? We had a surprise visit from Josh's bro, Uncle David! A fun surprise :)

.
Livin' it up, California beach style. Crazy.

.

Love her :)

.

and him!!

.

They love their Uncle Greg - so glad we got to spend some great quality time with him this time around!

Leo Carrillo Ranch!

On Memorial Day just a few weeks ago, we had fun celebrating with our friends and their families at a BBQ at a neighborhood park several of our friends live near. After eating, playing and talking, we packed up and headed home, and on our way out caught a glimpse of their neighborhood peacock, tail feathers in full display! We just drove past it really, but it got me thinking about Leo Carrillo Ranch. I think it's amazing that peacocks are native and live in the "wild" of So Cal - they seem so exotic! Leo Carrillo Ranch is one of the places they flock to - I'm not quite sure the history, as far as whether they were bred there, or if they just chose the location, but the property is full of peacocks. About a year ago I met a friend there, and they were having an off year. On our entire walk, we saw maybe 2 peacocks, both female with nothing fancy to show. Bust.  Knowing that it is currently their mating season, I figured there had to be more there now - and boy was I right!!! The kiddos and I met up with Sarah and her little ones, and we embarked on our journey through the ranch. Here is a glimpse into what we saw!

.

There were so many with their feathers out, it was incredible. And since there are people that visit the ranch often, they didn't seem to be too scared of us, the kids got to get as close as a few feet away to see their beauty close up - I mean, the blue of their bodies alone, incredible - God had a fun time designing these ones!

.

Apparently this peacock fancied K, as she approached he displayed his tail feathers - they kind of "shake" them out, really neat to see :)

.

.

.

In addition to all the colorful peacocks all around, Leo Carrillo is home to several albino peacocks - this is the first time I'd ever seen one, let alone got to walk within a few feet! He very briefly displayed his feathers, and it was almost shimmery/glittery/pearly white....very cool, this pic doesn't do him justice!

.

Exploring some of the ranch quarters  - L, M & K and baby A :) What fun!

.

I've decided this would be an amazing place to take family pics, especially if the sun was out, and the peacocks were still in full display!

.

Last, but not least, I got a video of one of the peacocks "wooing" a female peacock - I had no idea! Fascinating :)

.

"D" is for Dinosaur!

There is no doubt about it - in M's alphabet, "D" is for Dinosaur. What kind of dinosaur you ask? Any and all. We'll get into a conversation about dinosaurs and he'll start spouting off these names, how big they are, what they eat...and I'll think for sure he's making most of it up. Or guessing at least. He's just got a great imagination, right? Well I'm sure he has a great imagination, but all his dinosaur knowledge is fact!! He has a book of dinosaurs he reads with Grandma and Grandpa at there house, and another kid's National Geographic at ours that he loves to read with Daddy, and he just soaks it up. He loves everything dinosaur - books, toys, puzzles, movies, clothes.....just for example:

Dino t-shirt, dino puzzle (one of several) and the movie of choice that day was Dinosaur Ice Age.....and this was the day! A little over a month ago I realized the SD Natural History Museum currently has some specialty dinosaur exhibits - I checked it out online and it looked and sounded promising. I put it on my calendar for the first tuesday of June (first Tuesdays all museums in Balboa Park are free for SD residents, how awesome is that?!) and told Grandpa about it too, since I knew M would love to share the experience with him :) I wanted to keep it a surprise, so we didn't tell him where we were or what it was until we were there - and he was so excited!

.

Right as we entered there were some amazing, giant, dinosaur replicas - I'm not even sure the names (besides TRex of course), but ask M and he'll tell you!

.

There was a lot to check out, all the dinosaurs, of course, and more!

.

.

.

After surveying most of the museum we were on our way out, when we realized there was a whole wing we had missed - the most awesome part of the whole museum!!!! It was a dino path that walked around a room with animatronic dinosaurs, think Jurassic Park - M was hesitant at first (to say the least), but once Grandpa got him warmed up to it, he was running around and loving it. L-O-V-I-N-G it - I think he'd visit every day if he could! Such a great exhibit, I really recommend it, especially if your little one loves Dinosaurs as much as mine does!

 

 .

I love successful outings with these guys :)

.

Last but not least, we headed over to the zoo, just to say hello :) Short but sweet. So thankful for beautiful weather, and a wonderful day with Grandpa!

Summer is a comin'!!!

I can feel it already, can you? We have had some amazingly wonderful weather lately, outdoor activities are always so much more fun for the kids (and me!). We really live in such an amazing place, the weather is just incredible. We may or may not be taking our little family to someplace warmer in the near future....but more on that later :) 

For now, enjoy some snapshots in to our life as of lately :)

.

Enjoying an afternoon walk and scooter ride in "the grass area" by our house - I posted this one to Instagram and love the hashtags Uncle Rudy put to this: #deepthought #fistpump - I couldn't think of a clever caption for the photo - they are so funny! (In reality, Matthew was pouting and pondering over his scraped arm her had just gotten from falling off of his scooter - Kaylie was proud of her "rock climbing" abilities)

.

I love the days we get to the pool early enough that we have it all to ourselves!!! Love my little water babies :)

.

Not only did I get to relax in the sun while the kiddos splashed around, I was treated to a poolside 

manicure, lucky me! ;)

.

Beach Season has begun!! 

 

.

One evening recently we had a beach picnic dinner, and look who decided to join us? A grunion! I really hope to take the kids on a grunion run this year!

.

Cousin Lovin - a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of watching my niece, Shiloh, for the day! Both kids adore her and have so much fun, but Matthew in particular has a special bond with her :)

.

My latest cake pop order was for 4 dozen Rubber Ducky cake pops for a baby shower - what a cute idea! They were def on the more advanced/difficult side to make, but I'm pretty happy with how they turned out :) Now if they had agreed to the striped vintage straws instead of pop sticks, and tied with a little bow, that would have put the cuteness factor over the top :)

.

Did someone say Duckies? After the ducks had their fill (of the entire loaf of bread my kids chucked in there) we headed out to hike the trails - ended up hiking the trail up the hill and around to the fire station, then up that street and back to the duck pond - quite a long walk for those little legs, but an adventure none the less!

I loved Matthew's quote as he surveyed the land below him "Look at this whole world! Now that's what I'm talking about." Love my adventurous, exploratory kiddos :)
.
On another note, I am so extremely thankful that Gigi seems to be doing much better and is at home with my parents now - Gigi was sick and in the hospital for a while, where she ended up needing surgery (at 95 years old no less) and it was pretty scary for awhile. Praise the Lord she's with us for awhile longer :) Here is a pic of the kiddos visiting Gigi at the nursing facility she had a brief stay with (she lights up when she sees them, and they love her so much!) and the heart hand print and flowers they picked out for her :) So thankful!

We {heart} NCC Preschool!

There is no doubt about it, I am in love with North Coast Church Preschool! It really is amazing. The kids have been there for just about a year now, and they have loved every minute of it. From the amazing teachers to their friends, classes, activities, chapels, and just the fact that I can visit them while I'm working is just incredible.  Just a few pics related to preschool, as of lately...

.

So apparently NCC has incredibly delicious trees that these caterpillars flock to - every year! I took a stroll along campus and found at least 2 or 3 trees that were just covered in crazy looking catepillars. The Preschool harvested the caterpillars from one of the trees and the kids got to watch the process the caterpillars go through to become beautiful butterflies!

.

We got ot take one of the caterpillars home and watch the process ourselves as well - here is the butterfly it turned out to be!

.

Throughout the school year Matthew's class has been digging deep into the alphabet, devoting weeks to certain letters - well this particular week they were learning about the letters Q and U - and what better way to discover how connected Q and U are than by having a wedding for the two lovebirds ("they never want to be apart, they're great buddies") - it was really an adorable idea, complete with dancing and a cake reception following, lol

.

The class also had an egg incubator this year and hatched little baby chicks of all different colors - M & K were absolutely in love with them and wanted to hold them any opportunity they got!

.

.

.

That's just preschool as of lately, there will be a lot more summer fun to come  :)