12.30.2013

Cambria December 2013

Now that Christmas is over and James and I can finally breathe we are enjoying this downtime.
James had the rest of Christmas week off so we thought we would make the most of it and take a little trip somewhere. Our first inclination was to find snow, but since southern California has been so dry lately there isn't any real snow to be found within a four hour drive. (tear)
So instead we decided to embrace this warm weather (boo), and take an easy little overnight trip up north to one of our favorite weekend getaways- Cambria.

On the way we had lunch in San Luis Obispo and checked out their mission.
Makes for the perfect little stop to break up our drive.


Pen enjoying brushing up on her photography skills with her new digital camera ;)


lunch in San Luis Obispo



love that they have this cool little river walk

stretching our legs in Cambria at Moonstone Beach





what's the first thing to do when you find your hotel room?
snuggle and hide!

I didn't remember the fog catcher having a pool- much less jacuzzi (tear) so I got to sit back and take photos of these cuties instead

snuggling



this was me, and yes this was all the wine I allowed myself for the week
(cue tear)

pre-dinner sunset


jellies

a rare mommy photo

the wiggling muchkins

digging for their moonstones
the fog catcher gave them these little pails so cute

checking out the seals in San Simeon










my grandpa loved lighthouses

on the way back we stopped at Brothers in Los Olivos for lunch
and to end our brief holiday- a visit to Enjoy cupcakes!
the best!!!

so our weekend consisted of lots of beach walks/explorations, swimming in the pool and jacuzzi, yummy meals out and a fun movie night in front of the fireplace with popcorn. The kids loved it cause it was like a real sleepover to them- it was definitely harder than we expected to get them to go to sleep though-
the crazy monkeys.
:)

12.25.2013

Christmas 2013

I swear each year Christmas gets more special. A big reason for that is because our family just keeps growing- both in volume and in years. With each year that passes our little ladies understand more and more what the holidays are all about. Its even fun to see that they remember details of things we've done in the past, and that they appreciate these traditions we've started and look forward to them. It's teaching me that even though sometimes I feel like we might do too much or they might be too young to remember- its actually never too soon to start building their childhood memories.

decorating the tree
one fun tradition I've adopted from my family is to give each person
a special ornament each year so that over time our tree is filled with lots of memories
we also like to collect ornaments when we travel so that we can remember specific events

Christmas Eve at my parents was super fun this year
They went all out- it was like having two Christmases






Christmas morning- checking out a note Santa left her thanking her for the cookies

so excited about her Frozen castle








my joke is this was the "Frozen Christmas" :)

Gracie couldn't wait to go outside and enjoy her presents!


first big girl bike!


matching PJS! Ha!

Christmas dinner at my parents

kids table