Another Summer in SLO, Part 5 {Saturday in Morro Bay and More Adventures in Babysitting}

I am really trying to keep up with detailing everyone on our adventures while we are out here, but I'm already several days behind and the days keep getting busier and busier!  It's 10:15 on Thursday night, and I am just sitting down to write about last Saturday.  I'm definitely not complaining about our time out here -- the girls are having so much fun, and it's great catching up with our friends.

Now, on to last Saturday!  We took the girls up to Morro Bay to explore the town for awhile.  David used to live there, and I think we had only been a couple of times when we lived down here.  I accidentally took the long way there, but it was a pretty drive, and thankfully no one got carsick.  We parked downtown and took the girls out in the stroller to walk along the embarcadero.  We walked down by the electric boats that you can rent and one of the employees let us get on with the girls.  Olivia decided she definitely wants to come back and take the boat out.

We'd had a bit of a morning with Olivia, getting her attitude in check, and were hopeful that the afternoon would go smoothly.  And, I'm happy to report that it did.  She was really well-behaved and helpful, and earned herself a little basket of shells from the Shell Shop. {The pirate from Avila told her about that shop the night before.}  

The girls needed to burn a little energy off, so we took them to the playground and let them run around until David's hunger pains started making him hangry.  Nobody wants to see David hangry.  He tried to find food at a couple of different places and the wait was longer than he wanted {even though he was hungry} and then he found a place with a short wait, came to find me, and by the time he got back in line, the wait was 20-30 minutes.  I told him that from now on, when he needs to eat, just eat and don't worry about us!  Yikes.

➹ My two pearls, right there. ➹

On Sunday morning, we met up with our old neighbors, Bill and Leslie, at Zorro's in Shell Beach.  We told David we were taking him out for a belated Father's Day brunch since he was out of town on the actual Father's Day.  We had a nice time catching up with them at the restaurant, and then we all took a walk down towards the beach.  I left my phone and purse in the car, so I didn't get any pictures of our time together.  {So, does that mean it didn't happen?!}

We got home about a half hour before Kendall and Kate came over.  Their parents were going to a concert in Avila and we promised them that we would babysit the girls.  Those girls are just the sweetest -- I would watch them any day of the week.  We walked the girls down to a park right by our house to let them play.  And, we got super lucky because Jacob and his mom came to the park to hang out with us too!  It's so fun seeing everyone again.  I love how we can hang out and it's like no time has passed, even though it's been a whole year.

➹ Super Dad! ➹

Praise the Lord, we kept all four blondies safe and sound, and we even managed to feed them a somewhat healthy dinner before Sarah and Doug picked them up!  We can't wait for her to reciprocate on the babysitting part -- I know she won't have it as easy as we did! ;)

➹ Oh yeah, we could totally handle four kids. ➹

Day Date With Caleb

One of Olivia's favorite classmates from last year is in a different classroom than her this year, so we Caleb's mom and I planned a little morning date for the two of them {and the two of us!} could get together and hang out.  We went and cheered Caleb on in his T-ball game and then we all headed over to a Meet the Creature class!

♥♥♥♥♥♥

➹ A baby kangaroo! ➹

Such a fun morning with everyone!!

Our Summer in SLO, Part 12 {Avila, Ivan and Lazy Days}

When we first made the plan to head out to SLO for the month, we included a short trip to Palo Alto to visit some of our friends and a day trip to San Francisco for me to meet one of my blog friends, Mary {the author of Finding Magnolia}, in the hopes of becoming friends in real life.  Plus, we really wanted to get our four girls together for a play date...all that cuteness could surely cause world peace for at least a day.  Buuuuutttt, the more I thought about packing up clothes and toys for our girls for a short trip and living out of a hotel for a weekend just didn't sound all that appealing.  Especially when the option for staying put included not packing and not living out of a hotel and blueberries from Avila Valley Barn and donuts from DK's.

So stay put is what we did.  And, when I say we, I mean me and the girls.  David still got to go up to Palo Alto for the weekend to see his buddies.  Wife of the Year, right here.

Now back to those blueberries.  I act like it's the opportunity for the kids to run around and feed the goats and donkeys and horses, but really, it's the blueberries that had me going to Avila Valley barn twice that weekend.  I guess it also made for some cute pictures of the girls.

➹ Friday's trip... ➹

➹ Saturday's trip... ➹

➹ Oh, hey there donkey, say hi to your mother for me. ➹

➹ This crazy rooster gets to wander around freely. ➹

➹ Sydney was cracked up at the aforementioned rooster, while Liv was clearly not impressed. ➹

Thank goodness we filled up on all those nutritious blueberries, because the next morning we headed over to our favorite donut shop for sprinkled donuts and donut holes.  And guess who we ran into there? The SLOcal celebrity, Ivan Ulz.  We have been listening to his music since our first days at Boo Boo Records {the Firetruck song is always the closer at music time with Heidi} and so when he came in the shop and plopped down a copy of his cd on our table for the girls to have, we were a little star struck.  Like, just about did everything but ask him to sign his autograph on the cd.  So, naturally, we had to have some pictures taken...

We pretty much had no plans the rest of the day and it was so nice just being sort of lazy around the house, especially after that donut-induced food coma.

The next day we had a play date set with our friend Niki and her sweet little boy, Espen, but his nap ran long and we didn't get to meet up after all.  We were already up in SLO hanging with friends, so we just extended our date a little bit longer.   {Thanks, Sarah, Kendall and Katelyn for being such gracious hostesses!}

➹ Sydney went right to this bush and said cheeeeese. I've got her trained well! ➹

And, no transition here, but cue some trampoline pictures from later that evening!  

➹ Obviously not a trampoline picture. ➹

Our Summer in SLO, Part 11 {The Riley Boys}

I was feeling so good about only being a week behind in blogging and now I am a whole two weeks behind, and wahhh wahhhh, we aren't in California anymore.  So, I really need to get caught up.  Especially since my precious baby girl turns TWO this month and I have a little party to plan and slideshow to create.

Now, where were we?  Ahhhhh, yes, the playdate with the Riley boys!

We had our first playdate down in Oceano with Jacob and William and it was amazing at how much there was to do just by sticking close to the house.  We jumped on the trampoline, checked out the chickens, played on the play structure and in the indoor play area, had lunch and feasted on yummy popsicles that Jacob made especially for everyone.  It was most definitely a fun morning with our favorite SLO Brothers.

And, well, we just didn't quite get our fill of those boys, so we met up with them in SLO later that night for pizza, farmers' market and froyo.  Gotta love another mom whose love language is sweet treats like mine. ;)

➹ I need to bust out my DSLR more often! ➹

➹ She totally wanted in on the picture taking action! ➹

➹ They were quiet for a whole two minutes! ➹

You'd think after all that, we'd be sick of the boys, or they would be sick of us, but thank heavens they weren't and we were invited up for dinner at their house the next night.  Thank you, Rileys for loving us so much! ;)

We took a quick trip to Avila Valley Barn & Target the next morning and Sydney took a short nap in the car before heading back up for some dinnertime fun.

Maybe we had seen too much of each other {not possible} because the kids got kind of snippy with one another.  I'm pretty sure Sydney put the smack down on William more than once {the girl looks like she watches WWF on a regular basis and I swear she doesn't} and William had to tell Sydney, No, Sydney, Be nice! Be nice to me, Sydney! {Which, I caught her the other day shaking her finger at Olivia  and saying no the same way Willy was shaking his while he scolded her. Ha!}  And, for some reason, Olivia would not let Jacob push her in the swing and that was ALL that sweet boy wanted to do.  Finally, after dinner, she let him push her and they both had the best time.  They played in the sandbox together and Olivia recited her cheer from the day before while Jacob played some basketball.  {Jacob, Jacob, make that shot. Jacob, Jacob, you're so hot!} 

We made some break & bake cookies earlier in the day and after the kiddos performed some songs for us, we let them eat their hard-earned sweet treats.  

We had a fabulous back-to-back two days with these boys and we are just so grateful for their friendship.  I have a feeling these four are going to be in cahoots for many years to come!