California Part 1: On Land

California was good to us. The weather was pleasant, and we were able to be true sight-seers. :)

We LOVED Santa Monica! Street Musicians, shopping, the pier, and the end of Route 66.


And it's thanks to this wonderful friend and her husband for a place to stay and showing us all around town!


Per recommendation of Corrie, we visited the Aroma Cafe in the San Fernando Valley. Can we pause for a moment to say, "Yum!"?


On our return back to land, we wanted to see the Hollywood sign. We drove through a residential area to get these shots:



And because of all the hype, we had to try out "some" burger out in CA. And yes, it's worth the trip!




*More to come! (I gotta add Eric's "land" pictures.)

Sunny California

(Disregard the fact that we're inside)

California (Preview)

*No Pictures; Sorry, gotta find the camera in the packed items.

We came, we saw, we conquered. For real. :)

Our friends showed us Calabasas, Thousand Oaks, Malibu, and Santa Monica.

We cruised out of Long Beach to Catalina Island and Esenada, Mexico.

On our final two days, we saw Beverly Hills, Hollywood, San Fernando, and parts of downtown LA.

It was quite a trip. We're thankful that we could get away, have family time, and rest. Yay for vacation. :)

Who knew...

Costco’s trip was intentionally for packing tape, and I was ready to get moving on packing books and other miscellaneous, infrequently used items. I smiled as I bought bright, turquoise tape to label where the boxes would go in our new place. (At home) I try desperately to keep the tape from being so loud as I tape the bottom of the boxes while my little guy sleeps. Even though 15 months with a baby in our one-bedroom apartment has been long enough, I’m beginning to struggle with moving, wanting to videotape everything before it’s inundated with boxes, wanting to never forget this is where we brought Tim home. This is our home. And I feel like I’m abandoning it for some kind of “American Dream” of a bigger place with a yard. I feel like I’m going to somehow push our family apart by having more space. Bigger space and colors on the walls will not define who we are, but I’ve been so swept away into the “tomorrow” that I’m loosing today, loosing this noisy place I’ve grown to love. (Maybe this is what Eric felt like when we moved out of our studio apartment.) Geez…who knew moving could be so emotional? And when it comes down to it, we will still be who we are. God will still be who He promises to be. We will still wake each morning to spend breakfast together. We will still kiss each other goodnight and read sweet bedtime stories. We will even veg-out on our favorite shows and cook-out like last summer. Timothy will still be our baby, and we will still be joyfully stuck. I just want to savor these fleeting moments before they’re just a memory. (I can’t even keep it together when writing this.)

Short But Sweet

Just wanted to give a quick update:

*We found a new apt!! It's wonderful and has the perfect amount of space for us. It was a discouraging process that had an unexpected payoff. :)

*I can't handle the "big boy-ness" of Mr. T. He's really taking over the world, one step at a time (sorry if I've already used that before).
-Many mornings we'll take a little walk right outside of our apt. He walks back and forth on the sidewalk and climbs up and down the stairs.
-He says 'bubble' and does his fair share of eating. The only rejected food so far is green beans...hope he doesn't have my texture issues.
-His gymboree teacher said that he should move up to the next level even though he's 1.5 months too young for the class! The teacher makes adjustments for him so that tasks are harder.
-He takes his gymboree skills to the house where he's learned to climb on the couch! Dang...now we have to teach him 'down' so that he'll safely get off the couch.
-And here's the funniest and my favorite thing he learned (on his own), knocking on the door. It's so cute. He just knows to knock when a door is closed and even puts his hand in a fist position. Gotta love it!

Some messes are cute...

I came around the corner one morning to find Mr. T "surrounded" with a mess. :)

Our "Working" Boy

Mr. T is ready to go to work with Daddy today! And Daddy hooked him up with all the gear for the job (aka: from his job). Like Father like Son. :)