Brianne, Ethan, and Sophia: April 2009

Our Get Away

The first picture is of the beautiful gardens at the San Luis Obispo Mission. I have a story about it. I visited it when I was younger, on a family vacation. Brandon and I were just writing to each other at the time. He didn't know it then but he was all I could think about. My family took a trip and visited this mission as well as the Santa Barbra Zoo, Hearst Castle and other fun stops. Along the way, I bought and collected different things to send to him in a package I was making. Among these things, I bought a necklace from the missions gift shop, made from small wood beads. I ended up not sending it, thinking that he might not like it. Later in our marriage I came across it and told Brandon the story behind it. He liked it. He now wears it every once in a while, but right now it just hangs on the mirror of our white Honda. Not sure why. It just ended up there. I actually think it's some kind of prayer beads, or something like that. I thought it looked like a cool surfer necklace. With Brandon's hair long he looks the part. Now all he needs to do is learn to surf. We both want to someday.

We didn't take many picture of us together, so while we sat in the car looking at the beach (too cold and foggy to soak up the sun,) I snapped a few. Not the greatest. But it's the only one we took of us. Just never ended up asking anyone.

The beautiful, yet foggy picture of the ocean is at Moonstone Beach. Very nice beach.
Just across the highway from the beach is where we had our romantic dinner. The Hamlet is the name of the restaurant. It was nice with a nice setting and great view. We watched the surfers as we ate. As for the food, it sucked. Especially for the price, but the ambiance and the piano player who serenaded us and others in the restaurant, made up for it.

The frog I thought was just too cool to not take a picture with. Not sure what it's made from, but I loved this sculpture. It's in front of a store in Cambria.

Our trip was definitely needed. Thanks to Mom who watched the kids for 3 days! Even though it was foggy and a bit cold we still got a chance to relax, which was so nice. Oh, on the way home I did get to see dolphin. Again another highlight for me. Now it's back to the real life. Sophie let us know this, when she screamed and cried the whole way home last night. Almost an hour before falling asleep.

Hearst Castle

For our 6th Anniversary this year we took a 3 day vacation and visited Hearst Castle in San Simeon. Here are the pictures I took on our tour. It was pretty foggy as you might see in some of the pictures. With all the pictures I took you can really tell what I liked. I really enjoyed the beautiful Madonna and child paintings along with others. The first painting is my favorite. Sorry the shot was blurry. But the colors where so rich and vibrant. Loved it. The ceilings are amazing with all the detail wood work from old buildings and churches. I also love the pools, but who doesn't. Besides the beautiful pools, which by the way the indoor pool was drained for the first time since... I don't know when, but it was cool to see just how deep the pool actually is. Okay, so besides the pools I couldn't get enough pictures of the beautiful life size statues. (If you can't tell.) Our tour we got to see some on our walk but the ones that I took pictures of, are pretty much the ones we saw. Also on the way up to Hearst Castle that morning we were lucky enough to spot a Mama whale with her baby, swimming close to the shore. I get pretty excited about that kind of stuff. It was one of the biggest highlights of the trip for me. We didn't stop to take pictures since we had to be there in time for our tour. We probably should have.

Coloring Eggs

We colored eggs yesterday since we didn't get a chance to do it near or on Easter. The kids kind of had fun but got bored after 1 or 2 eggs. They just wanted to eat them. DeeDee even tried to get involved.

Easter

Our Easter:
Our kids weren't too excited at all about their baskets the Easter bunny brought them. Sophie grabbed her box of jelly beans and was content with shaking them around. Ethan saw his basket, grabbed a funsize Twix had me open it and said "Look Mommy, chocolate". He ate it and then went to find Daddy, satisfied with only that. The Easter bunny had also hidden eggs around their room. We didn't have a chance to dye eggs yet, we'll do it when Sophie feels better and can join us. We just are so busy with other things we didn't have time. Brandon worked on Friday and had class on Saturday 'til 1. I took the kids to an Easter egg hunt/breakfast at the church and then to the park afterwards. When Brandon got home we went to my Mom's, who always throws a big Easter bash with cousins. That's always a lot of fun for the kids. This included another hunt, pinata, and lots of yummy food and goodies. After that we stopped by Nonnie's and Gramps' to say hi. By the time we got home it was after midnight. The next morning was a rush since we woke up at 8, had the kids do their Easter thing and then I got them ready for church. As I was leaving for church Sophie threw up and I had to turn around and take her back home. I just ended up taking Ethan. She was sick all day and night. She seems to be doing better now but is sleeping most of the day today.
At church there was also another Easter egg hunt. Ethan's pretty funny; he stops, picks up a sucker and tries to open it, gets it open and then will pick up a few eggs. He would be happy with just his one sucker. Just like his one piece of candy on Halloween. This year they got more candy than I think they did on Halloween. Which reminds me, I told Ethan that the Easter bunny was coming on Sunday and he got all excited and said "I'll go get my pumpkin!" Every holiday has some association with Halloween to him, since candy is usually involved. I think Easter candy is my favorite since I'm having a hard time refraining. I might end up making cookies again and sending them to Brandon's work. So that was our Easter. We didn't take too many pictures with the rush, and our kids were just moving so much it was hard to. Here are the ones I did take of Ethan looking through his eggs, and Sophie sleeping since she's been sick. We also have an earlier one we thought was funny, of Sophie wearing a box.