Beach party

I am finally caught up on my photo sessions and can now get back to the blog world.

We have had a lot going on over here.  Addison turned 4 a week ago and her birthday post will eventually find it's way onto the blog.

For now, here are a few pics of an amazing birthday party we went to before Easter (yes, I'm way behind).  It was on the beach and perfect.  We were there to celebrate Abby & Samantha turning 2 & 5....and I'm now realizing I don't have any pics of the actual birthday festivities....or the birthday girls for crying out loud!  Just know that every last detail was amazing.  (They even had Chick Fil A.....a way to any Parsons' heart).

A day at the beach reminded me how excited I am for summer and appreciative that because of where we live I can actually enjoy that season!

 Yeah, bring on summer!

Spring has Sprung

Is love in the air?  This girl looks way too smitten at the ripe age of not even four yet to be riding on the back of a motorcycle with Logan.

 Our birds are back!  Well, different babies this year, but the nest right outside our door got used again for baby hummingbirds.  Apparently hummingbirds aren't picky and don't mind reusing a nest.  

We all love getting to see how much they change and how quickly!  While Andy thinks they are kinda cool, he is not so happy about the mess they leave.

Mess shmess, they're cute.

 Our backyard is blooming....

 This week has been awesome because some of my favorite people from Texas are in town!

My best friend Jacqueline (mom of those cute twins from a few posts back) was in town for work so we caught brunch at the Brigantine on Coronado Sunday.  I love this girl!

I adore our friendship and am so thankful for it...seriously getting a little teary eyed typing this.

I so wish for the umpteenth time that Texas and California could just be squeezed together so I could see her more often.

Guess who else is in town??!!

My parents are also here for "work".

My dad has a conference at Torrey Pines all week, so we have gotten to spend some special time with Nana & Poppy....and a few nice dinners and golf thrown in.

In other happenings...

Graham is living up to his age.

He is testing limits, screaming/yelling, and destroying everything.

Totally different kid in the last couple of weeks....

I'm not sending him away yet, but let's just say thank goodness we have a few extra hands around this week to wear him out.

Addison's nap is long gone and "quiet" time is not so quiet.

She thinks as long as she asks me 100 questions while whispering, it's still quiet time.

So this is what I see for much of Graham's nap.

The Ipad is friend to both of us.

After 9 days of rain in Houston and 2-3 days here...we were ready for some sunshine.

 We headed to the beach after nap to run off some energy.

It's getting easier to manage the beach by myself, yet still not EASY.

I did use a tip I found on Pinterest and tried baby powder to get off gritty sand.

End result....

I'll be picking up an obnoxious amount of it tomorrow at Costco to get us through the summer.

Amazing.

 

Camping at the beach

A few months back some of the dad's started planning a camping trip.

They wisely decided this would be a guys only trip, but even better, decided to include the kids.

I was TOTALLY supportive of this.

Us girls showed up to bring the pizza and s'mores supplies, take some pictures, and then kissed the boys and oldest kids good night.

We did get to all hang out and enjoy the sunset, which was gorgeous as always.

Pizza came from Giant Pizza, and they weren't lying ...it was huge.

Graham's car obsession has carried over to airplanes now. Ever since that tour we took of Palomar airport a few weeks ago, the boy points out every plane he sees or hears.

He loved getting to run around with the big kids, and when I wasn't tackling him to ensure he didn't run head first into the ocean, he was a piece of cake.

Trina, Kurt & Margeaux joined us. We had just picked them up from the airport a few hours earlier, and so they were kind of forced to "camp" for an hour or so before we went home and crawled into warm, DRY, clean beds.

I don't think they minded.

It's so funny to watch boys vs. girls.

The boys loved nothing more than diving head first into the sand, while the girls preferred to construct neat sand castles and wanted to wash off their hands as soon as they were done.

Another example of the boys' love of sand

The youngest ones had fun playing and then we took them home to dry cribs.

Partly for their benefit, but mostly for the benefit of their dads.

Multi-tasking at its finest.

Reason #4, 285 why I really like living here.

And then, it was time for the moms to leave and the real camping to begin.

"See you later suckers dads!"

But if camping really is your thing, which it IS SO NOT mine....

What better place to camp, than here?

It's Gettin' Hot in Here

When we first moved here.....NINE months ago already,

I was a little thrown at the thought that our house did not have air conditioning.

It blew my mind.

I was a little scared at the prospect of summer without it.

Thoughts of those couple of August days in Houston when Entergy had rolling blackouts and we had no air came to mind.

UGH.

I don't like to sweat. I don't like to be sticky.

I really don't know how I survived Houston summers for 31 years.

But I digress.

It's summer and our little heat wave last week brought the highs in the 80s.

Roll your eyes all you want.

80 outside....beautiful.

82 inside my house.....not OK.

I went to the gym every day last week, mostly because they had air conditioning.

How's that for ironic?

I don't like to sweat, therefore I go to the gym.

I will still take summer in San Diego any day over my hometown.

We invested in a few more fans, opened a few more windows and bought a box of Otter Pops at Costco. We're good now.

So today, we headed to the beach. Even though we live 5 minutes from it, you might be surprised to know that this was our first outing there ALL SUMMER.

Embarrassing, inexcusable, maybe, but have you met my husband?

He doesn't really care for the sand.

And two kiddos who love to propel themselves into 4 feet waves is a little too much for me to handle on my own.

But today, we convinced Andy we needed to go.

We loaded the car up and headed out.

In my mind I was picturing this......with maybe a few more people....it's summer, you know?

Yup. It's summer.

And everyone else in Southern California thought the beach was a great idea as well.

We found our little spot and settled in.

Are you ready for CUTENESS?

Ready or not...

Graham was excited to get his toes in the sand....but what he really wanted was the water.

So Andy fought the crowd and the waves and took him in.

And the little man was NONE TOO PLEASED that we decided we were good to go after 45 minutes.

What are you doing to stay cool?