2012 Christmas Card Letter

Merry Christmas!

This year seems to be continuing our pattern of crazy busyness! The beginning of the year found Nate switching companies for the third time in three years as Numerical Applications Inc. was bought out by Zachry (a construction firm looking to expand its base into the nuclear industry). It’s now a running joke in our family that Nate just isn’t able to hold a job for long. J With new business cards in place Nate also began his year with the first of many (oh so many) business trips to train fellow engineers in the wonders of the GOTHIC code, a nuclear modeling code that is hoped to be the new ‘it’ code in future years. Over the course of the year Nate traveled to exciting places such as San Antonio, Boston, Pittsburgh, Stonington Connecticut, Corvallis Oregon, and Burlington Kansas. Nate will mention that Kansas in the middle of July during one of their worst heat waves of the decade was particularly memorable. In addition, a trip to Atlanta, GA was also partaken as Nate participated in this year’s Nuclear Professional Engineer (PE) statistical grading group. In other words Nate was invited to review this year’s Nuclear PE exam to help determine the statistical score required for this year’s test takers to pass.  It’s amazing that Nate has any spare time, but with what he has he makes the most of it!

Abby's First Birthday

Speaking of spare time, this was the year that we decided to revamp the inside AND outside of our house. When we first moved into our house in 2010 we knew that it would soon need freshening up a bit with new floors and paint, but we were both a little shocked when all the signs were pointing to having this year be the year to do so. The end of January saw us scrambling to pack up boxes and move our household goods to the garage or borrowed horse trailer parked in the driveway as the beginning week of February was our “go” date for a new interior house. Within one week we went from dingy carpets, burned linoleum, and badly painted walls to bright, fresh, and fantastically updated new rooms. It really is amazing what a little paint and new carpet/linoleum can do to make a house look completely remodeled. But our house remodel wasn’t done yet! In July we decided that the outside needed updating too as the paint was so thin we were worried about wood damage.  This time we literally had three days’ notice before our painters arrived. Once again Teresa’s inability to pick out paint colors almost gave us the ugliest color of green (lesson learned: check the paint color AFTER it’s dried if you’re basing your color choice off of the paint numbers from a text of the woman whose house color you like), but through fast driving and stores open with later hours we now have a lovely and inviting look to our house exterior. 

Abby at 15 Months being silly

While the revamping of our house was an exciting moment of our year, the best moment of 2012 was celebrating Abigail’s first birthday with friends and family. Celebrating during our interior remodel made for some crazy scheduling but gathering together with so many important people in our lives was a moment not to be missed. Looking back over this year it’s amazing all the many milestones that Abby has accomplished. Hours after eating her birthday cupcake she had her first tooth pop through, three months later (and in the span of one week) she went from taking her first shaky steps to that initial toddler run, her babbles turned into spoken words and then just today her first sentence (!), she’s now sleeping through the night, yells her “Hi’s” and “Bye’s” to everyone she sees, has the most contagious laugh, and is pure joy to be around. It’s those still, quiet nights when we peek in and see her sleeping so peacefully that we realize how truly blessed we are.

Abby at 18 Months playing with Maddie

Ending out our family story, we are still enjoying the opportunity we are fortunate to have with Teresa working as a Stay at Home Mom. With home-cooked meals and a near-constant put together house she’s feeling like she’s settled into her job quite nicely. She’s so settled that this past year has seen her become more involved in a weekly bible study (JOY) and a monthly Mothers of Pre-Schoolers (MOPS) group. Add in scrapbooking and Bunco get-togethers with the girls and there are days where she wonders at how busy she is for not having a ‘real job’. J

Abby at 21 Months playing on the beach

2012 has been a year filled with travels, growing milestones, and the joys of day-to-day life for our family. To keep up with these daily life stories, please check out our blog at http://takers401.blogspot.com. We hope that your family has experienced its own exciting and wonderful events as well during this past year.

Our Family

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

Nate, Teresa, and Abby Carstens

Merry Christmases

Merry Christmas!

This year our family celebrated Christmas by first visiting Nate's family in Portland, OR the weekend before  Christmas and then driving home Christmas Eve to be able to celebrate with my family on Christmas day. Our celebrating got off to a little bit of a rocky start as Abby was just not having an enjoyable time riding in the car during our drive. Okay, who am I kidding? I've decided that Hell is not fire and brimstone but instead a never-ending car ride with a toddler. :-) Our drive, which normally takes 3.5 hours from door to door, instead took 5.5 hours and included three stops and one Exorcist like vomiting episode, plus all the accompanying whining, kicking, fussing, and yelling. But to Portland we did eventually land!

This year we decided to try a different sort of Christmas dinner and instead of spending all day preparing food and then dealing with the cleanup afterwards, we went out to dinner. I thought it turned out great as we sat down to a yummy feast at Sayler's Old Country Kitchen (one of the best stead restaurants I've ever been to) where Abby was so good for the two or so hours we were there (and since Nate and I were sitting at the opposite end of the table from Abby it was almost like we were on a date as well!) and had fun just talking to everyone before we headed home to open presents. Abby was a little funny this year with presents as she had zero interest in opening them (last year she had fun opening at least a few before becoming overwhelmed). We finally got her to open one and once she realized it was a baby (complete with towel, rubber ducky, and other bath assortments) she was done for the day. We kept half-opening gifts in the hopes that she'd eventually get into the spirit but eventually we got to the point where we realized we simply could not get her to open another one. :-) The rest of the time spent with Nate's parents and grandparents was passed by making up a bunch of freezer food, playing cribbage and other card games, and just enjoying each others company. All too soon Christmas Eve was upon us and it was time to head back home. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) our drive back took only 5 hours and Abby did nap a bit of it, but we were still very happy to get home.

Eating Christmas dinner at Country Kitchen. Notice how Nate and I are FAR away from Abby. We like to say it's to give her time with Grandma and Grandpa. Yeah, it's totally just for that. :-)

Opening the one present we were able to convince her to open.

Look at her face! She loves her new doll.

Swinging on her 'swing'. A $2.00 garage sale steal repurposed into a great swing.

Our plan Christmas morning was to wake up and head to Christmas Mass before joining up with my family but someone (ahem, Abby) decided that sleeping was for the weak and ended up waking up at 3:30am and refused to go back to sleep. At 6am I pulled her in to bed with me and decided that Mass wasn't going to happen this year. Instead we slept in until almost 9am before getting up and slowly starting our day. When we got to my parent's house the snacking was in full force (Chex Mix, pepper jelly with cream cheese on crackers, sausage balls, cookies and candies galore, and dinner just going in to the oven) so we ate and hung out while waiting for my brother David to wake up and come downstairs (he's home from college) and for Katie, Bo, and Haylee (sister, boyfriend, and daughter) to arrive. When they did they also brought the snow with them! It was going to be a White Christmas!

Abby almost got her princess skirt up and over her tushie. :-)

Haylee and Abby love each other so much. They're great cousins!

Soon we commenced with opening presents, which turned out really nicely even with the change we instituted this year. This year we decided to only buy gifts for the girls (Haylee and Abby) and not for each other ((well except Mom and Dad who still decided to buy for us kids as they said that since we're their kids it counted as only buying for kids - sneaky) and David as we didn't think it was fair that he buy for the girls and not 'get anything' for himself since he doesn't have a kid yet to buy for). So while it looks complicated on paper it really wasn't and we all agreed that it was nice not buying for the others when no one really needs anything anyways. I think we liked it so much that we'll continue this for next year as well! Anyways, after opening presents it had snowed enough that we decided to take the girls out in the backyard to play. Then Bo found two sleds. Then Katie got the idea of using the riding lawnmower/tractor to pull the sleds. What happened next was just an old fashioned "white trash" sledding party. Oh, the girls had SO MUCH FUN! Even us big kids got into the spirit of things!

Abby following Haylee's lead and walking on top of the garden wall and feeling so proud of herself.

Walking in a snowsuit is hard! "I've fallen and I can't get up!"

Then the girls had fun riding in a sled together, although Nate soon tired.

Katie's brilliant idea saved the day! Bo shows up his snowboarding skills, too.

The girls' giggles could be heard from far away. They thought this was such a fun ride! (Or really rides as they were probably pulled for a good 20 minutes before we stopped.) I love how Haylee is holding Abby's hand so Abby doesn't get scared.

Then Nate took over driving duties!

Eventually we took to the hill/driveway for some real sledding. Abby wasn't so sure about this and after a fun slides down the hill decided she wasn't quite big enough for down-hill sledding.

So Nate drove her around on her new bike from Uncle Bo, Aunt Katie, and Cousin Haylee!

All too soon the weather was getting colder (and so was Miss Haylee without her snow pants) and so we ended the day by watching How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Foo Panda before we all said our Merry Christmases and Good-byes. After talking with my family we agreed that this was the best Akers' Christmas we've had in a long time, in fact it's one of our best holiday memories ever (right up there with skiing on Thanksgiving where we would, literally, ski down the mountain and onto a chairlift as we were five of the twenty or so people on the mountain).

Overall this was a wonderful Christmas celebration with both of our families. We enjoyed being with each other and celebrating this special time of year together. Merry Christmas!

Abby's First Birthday Party Invite

Abby was recently invited to her first "friend's birthday party" (I don't count Haylee's birthdays as Haylee is family.) I'd like to say it was a low-key affair where Abby sweetly played with the other children while I lovingly sat just out of sight and had deep, meaningful conversations with the other moms. Instead I was smacked in the face with the reality of a birthday party with 15 odd children from ages 1-6 and how LOUD they can be. Holy Hannah! Abby dove right in and had a great time while I cowered in the corner with my drink grasped firmly in hand as if to hold off whatever hooligan might make their way towards me. :-)

She had a great time playing with the other kids (or, really, playing near them), eating pizza while sitting on the floor, and having yummy ice cream and cake. All too soon our no-nap-day caught up with us and we were saying our good-byes, but I consider this birthday party attendance a success. Here's to many more years of having fun celebrating the birth of her friends!

She thought she was so special to not only be sitting in the room with all the other big kids, but to also be big enough to sit and eat without mommy hovering nearby. I'd say she got half her pizza down before the call of the toys became too much for her to ignore. 

I did exert my mommy powers and decide that ice cream and cake were to be eaten away from the boys running in circles around the house. Plus, the TV was showing YouTube clips of all the Christmas movie songs so she was pretty happy where she was.

Abby's Santa Visit

Abby visited Santa at the mall today and for some reason she didn't seem too happy about it. :-)

Abby voicing her displeasure at being on Santa's lap.

7 Quick Takes Friday - Volume 8

--- 1 ---

Abby peed in the potty last night! It was at bath time and I thought she was just pretending to go, but when I went to grab the piece of toilet paper to throw away there was actual pee there! Nate and I were clapping and good-girling all over the place and she just nonchalantly got in the bath tub like it was no big deal. Looks like potty training is in our future.

--- 2 ---

I've been babysitting my almost six year-old niece this week as school is out for Thanksgiving (which isn't until NEXT week but I won't go into my rant on how it seems like kids are in school so much less these days when compared to when I was) and it's been fun watching the two girls play together. On the one hand they're playing means I get more time to do me-time things (some fun some work) but on the other having a six year old in the house who doesn't nap is an adjustment. Constant talking! :-)

--- 3 ---

I organized the pantry today! It's been on my to-do list for months but with Haylee over I finally had an opportunity to do something about it. Isn't it amazing how much stuff you think you have until you organize and realize that your pantry is now half empty?

--- 4 ---

I'm still meaning to post about Abby's Halloween this year but I'm waiting on some pictures that some family members took. I've a big believer in chronological scrapbooking (thank you Creative Memories for developing the side-loading pages for your albums!) so I feel like I can't really post newer pictures until those ones are up.

--- 5 ---

This weekend is a throw-back to how our lives were last summer/fall when Nate was studying for his PE. After successfully passing (woo hoo!) he signed up to be a grader (?) for the test. Basically he takes the test again and then meets with a group of others who also took the test and they decide what the passing criteria should be for this year's test-takers. What this means for Nate is that he has to study again for the PE. I don't think I was aware of this add-on when I signed on for him taking the PE last year. Isn't there some sort of buy-out clause for this type of thing? :-)

--- 6 ---

A few of my friends are experiencing some baby "problems" for lack of a better word and could use your prayers. In my small circle I know of two miscarriages, one very early preemie, and a baby that's been diagnosed with a life altering disorder. Could you please pray for them and their families that they may find healing and comfort in the days ahead?

--- 7 ---

Finally, as I look outside...sigh....it's 5pm and it's pitch black. How I miss sunshine.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Babysitting Haylee

This past week I babysat my niece, Haylee, as she was out of school for Thanksgiving break, and Abby has absolutely been loving having Haylee over to play with. She follows Haylee wherever she goes and wants to do everything that Haylee is doing. On Thursday I took the girls to the Weee Gym that Bethel Church has, which is basically their gymnasium filled with age appropriate toys for the 0-5 range. It's a fantastic way for the kids to get their wiggles out in a warm environment. At first Haylee and Abby did their own thing with Abby racing towards the bounce house and Haylee wanting me to play catch with her. (It was nice getting some one-on-one time with Haylee as I don't get as much of her as I'd like now that she's in school and doing big girl activities.) But soon the girls gravitated back towards each other and had a blast playing together. It's been so much fun watching them interact with each other. At times the age gap (of four years) is very apparent but at other times they are just the sweetest to watch. Haylee has been so much fun this past week that I'm looking forward to watching her next week as well. I think Abby is looking forward to that, too!

Getting ready to go down the bounce slide together. Haylee made sure to wait for Abby and then asked if Abby wanted to slide down in her lap.

All set and ready to slide!

Whee! Big grins on both girls.

 

This was so funny to watch. Haylee was hoola-hooping pretty good (on both her waist and neck) when Abby went over to try her hand at it. She'd grab a hoola-hoop, get inside it, then start turning around in circles laughing the whole time. :-)

I'll end with this video of the two girls on the sit-n-spin. If this doesn't show how much they love each other, I don't know what will.

My Halloween Butterfly!

This year I hit two birds with one stone with Abby's Halloween costume. I was walking around Costco one day (because, seriously, who goes to Costco to get just what's on their list) and saw the Halloween rack with these festive looking tutus. As Abby has been very into dressing up lately, and loves wearing her cousin Haylee's long ballerina tutu, I thought that getting her her own tutu would be a big hit. Since it was a part of the costume I could spend $20 and got multiple uses out of her Halloween outfit. (And since this post is going up almost three weeks after Halloween I can state that her tutu has been worn almost every day. She's even started twirling in it!).

Since we're blessed to have lots of family in town Halloween was one of those days where we spent lots of time getting in and out of the car going to trick-or-treat with various family members. Our first stop was to the Uptown Center's Trick-or-Treating walk with some of Nate's family members. Have you ever been to one of these walking trick-or-treating locations? This was my first and I'll honestly say that I don't think I'll be going again. People were literally walking in a slow moving line around the outside of the buildings, and the ring of people went almost all the way around the block. People would walk towards a business door where they were passing out candy, hold out their bucket, maybe say "trick or treat" maybe not, and without stopping would continue on to the next door. Literally, no stopping. I'm sorry but candy must be earned! Where's the strategy for finding the neighborhood who gives out the best candy, figuring out how to hit a house twice because they give out King Size candy bars, and running as fast as you can from one house to the next as you don't want to waste precious candy gathering time by meandering. Hmpf. Kids these days.

When we first got to the Uptown Center Abby was a little overwhelmed by all the people there. (You can see a bit of the line behind us.)

Starting our trick-or-treating adventure. Abby felt VERY proud holding her pumpkin.

Then we jumped in line and got a few pieces of candy. Suddenly Abby was very interested in what all those people were doing. She didn't quite get the routine of trick-or-treating, though. As soon as a piece of candy went into her pumpkin she would stop walking and try to get the candy to eat. I kept putting the candy back in her bucket and coaxing her to keep moving. 

However, when she was given a sucker (and since we had six pieces of candy already) I figured she'd earned her first candy of the night. This girl loves her suckers so I knew I wouldn't get too much walking out of her while she knew a sucker was so close at hand.

When we found a quiet spot she immediately snacked up the sucker and started to suck, wrapper and all.

She waited so patiently for me to unwrap the magical sucker of yumminess.

As soon as it was unwrapped she wanted nothing to do with it. :-) Kids!

After a bit she decided that her sucker was acceptable again.

Then another mob of trick-or-treaters descended upon our area and she got a little shy again. Again, notice the line in the back. It was like this (huge group, then a break, then another huge group) around the entire two or three block radius of buildings. 

After leaving Paul, Sharon, and Melany I decided that this would be a good time to visit Nate at work since he was needing to work late that night, plus I wanted him to see her in her costume. It's still weird being able to just walk into Nate's office whenever I feel like it. While Mom worked a few years at Kadlec with an open door policy she and Dad spent the majority of their careers behind locked doors. So unless it was a special "Take Your Kid to Work Day" only those with appropriate badges were allowed to enter the building. So being able to get into Nate's domain whenever I want is still something I'm getting used to.

Once I said we were going to go see Daddy Abby was my happy girl, again.

When we got to Nate's office he grabbed her in one big hug then got a surprise as he discovered how sticky she was from the sucker! In an attempt to keep himself as clean as possible he fed her some M&Ms and got her on an even bigger sugar high.

Abby demonstrates her ability to shove as many M&Ms into her mouth as she can. She's got some "chubby bunny" cheeks.

After we left Nate's office, we joined Grandpa and Grandma Akers for dinner, then started to get in the car to go to Aunt Katie and Uncle Bo's house when Nate surprised us by arriving home early! (I give Nate props for understanding how important even the little family events are, especially when he's got a lot of work that he could be doing.) We got to Katie and Bo's and were joined by Bo's parents, sister, and two nieces. It quickly became apparent that this will be the last Halloween Abby and Haylee do together for a while. :-) Haylee is four years older than Abby (and only a year or so younger than Brooke's daughter Karcyn) so Abby was just too little to keep up with the fast girls. But we enjoyed the little bit of time we had together to trick-or-treat this time. 

Abby as a butterfly and Haylee as a southern belle.

The first house the girls trick-or-treated at had a box of candy on the stoop for them to grab from. Abby kept trying to pick up the box and take handfuls of the candy, but was a very good girl when I told her she could only take two (per the sign).

Then we said our good-byes and headed back home where I took Abby across the street to visit our neighbor friends. She was so cute in that every time we walked up to the door and I told her to say "trick or treat" and hold her pumpkin out so she could get some candy she'd sit down on the ground and pull her candy out of her pumpkin as if to say "I've already got some, Mom!". Finally, we called it a night and went home to simply answer the door for our trick-or-treaters. Abby had a blast with this! Almost more-so than actually trick-or-treating. Every time the door would ring she'd start yelling "treat, treat" and race towards the door. She'd stop by the candy bowl until I'd picked it up and then continued on to the door so that she could pull it open. As soon as the door swung wide she'd yell "Hi" then wait quietly while I passed out the candy. Once the trick-or-treaters had started to walk back down our walkway she'd yell "Bye" and shut the door. Over and over she did this as each trick-or-treating group rung the doorbell. She was so cute to watch!!!

I think next year we'll most likely stay in our neighborhood and trick-or-treat a street or two then call it good. Our neighborhood really participates so even in visiting only a couple street's of houses she'll still get a decent stash of candy, and all the running around we did this year (while fun to visit everyone) was a little exhausting for me. :-) 

A (final) view of our porch Halloween night. I love our little door friend! Pinterest had a link to a door monster but I didn't want to scare the little kids that live on our street so I made sure to make him smile so he looked friendly. :-) Hence, our door friend.

Abby being so sweet in sharing her Jolly Rancher with me. Oh, she's to fantastically awesome I could just eat her up!

Happy (belated) Halloween!

Visiting the Gassend Family: Day 4/5

Our 4th day with the Gassends was a day of rest and relaxation. After two big outings back to back both families were looking forward to a bit more down time (and I'm sure the kids were looking forward to less car traveling time). We decided that our big 'to do' for the day would be to visit the local YMCA to get in a swim. As it's close to $90 PER MONTH for the family to join (my goodness California prices are high!) Blaise and Valerie just pay per visit so we expected to pay about $30 for Nate, Abby, and I to swim for the hour or so that we planned to be there. Fortunately for us the YMCA has a "first visit free" policy so we got a cheap swim out of the deal. :-) It was fun watching Abby blow bubbles, float on the pool floaties, and swish through the water. Nate even threw her into the air and caught her just below she went under a few times which she found to be hilarious. It wasn't too long, though, before we were forcing her to stay in the water when she just wanted to hang out with the toys on the side, so Abby and I got out to get dressed and find another area to play in while Nate stayed behind to chat with Blaise.

My Abby was so funny in the locker room. She's been interested in "going potty" lately, which for her means that she sits fully clothed on the big or little kid's toilet, waits a few seconds, wipes, then declares herself all done while we praise her. Well, while we were in the locker room I got her out of her swimsuit and then, when she danced out of my reach, figured I'd give her some naked time while I got dressed. A few seconds later I hear "potty, potty" and look over to see Abby standing there peeing. In a split second I decided to just mop up the puddle instead of running with her in outstretched arms while she peed trying to find a toilet. After she was finished she walked towards the toilets herself and asked to get on where she then sat and waited a bit, then wiped and declared herself all done. :-) She's a little out of order, but I think our potty training time is fast approaching!

After cleaning the floor up and finishing getting the two of us dressed I had myself a good scare. I was trying to pack up and get my hair in some semblance of order and figured that Abby could walk towards the door of the locker room without me since I knew she'd just turn back around to me. Well, after about 30 seconds had gone by and she still hadn't returned I decided to peek around the corner and make sure she wasn't standing where the door could hit her if it suddenly opened  Imagine my surprise when I didn't see a door but an open exit into the main area of the building!!! I totally forgot that the locker room didn't have a door on it! I made a mad dash out into the hallway and was very happy to see Abby enjoying a climb onto one of the exercise bikes. Whew. Okay, two mom fails in a row. Time to leave!

Just as we were heading out to play Nate found us and we decided to instead go for lunch. Abby was a sweetheart and fell asleep in the five minute or so ride, so Nate and I grabbed lunch at In-n-Out Burgers (Nate had never been!) and found a nearby park where we sat and ate while Abby napped. When we were finished we drove home and then I hung out in the car while Abby continued sleeping and Nate went inside to take a nap himself. Turns out that Valerie and Sophie (who had decided not to join us for swimming) also were napping, so it was an all round very relaxing afternoon. Once the naps were over and the kids were up it was off to a local playground to get out the wiggles.

Their playground equipment had a rock theme to everything. I thought it was a pretty cool way to do stairs that were more than just stairs.

Abby waiting for Sophie to come down the slide.

Took a bit to get the hang of the rock climbing 'wall' but she was pretty proud of herself when she got to the top.

Going down the slide together facing one way...

..and then facing another way.

Interesting twist on the child's swing. They had 'normal' ones that had holes for baby's legs to go through and then this contraption where the bar come down and locked into place. Abby was not a fan. :-)

After the park we basically hung out, ate dinner, put the kids to bed, and then had some adult conversation and game time before it became apparent through the many yawns that it was time to go to bed. This night ended up being a little different than we were used to as when we walked into the bedroom Abby promptly woke up and ended up falling back to sleep in bed with us. (I think we'd gotten the room a little too cold for her.) I don't remember the last time she slept with us, maybe June when we were all in the same room at Nate's parent's house? It was a little sad thinking back to that might because I remember holding her in my arms while she breathed that deep baby breathing and desperately trying to remember the last time we'd fallen asleep like that. It really is true that you need to cherish your memories because you really don't know when THAT moment is the last moment. :-) However, all mushiness aside...I remember now why we put her in her own room when we did. It's hard sleeping with a baby in the bed! I couldn't move when I wanted to and she had me twisted in a semi-uncomfortable position all night long. Ahh, the joys of motherhood. 

Day 5 with the Gassend family was all too soon as that alarm clock went off way earlier than I wanted. Blaise was kind enough to drive us to the airport again and this time the drive was much better with fewer cars and no traffic jams. We soon discovered that flying with a baby has its perks. The security line lady saw us and motioned for us to join her up front. So our intended 20+ minute wait was closer to 2. Yeah, Abby! Within the hour we were on board the plane, Abby was asleep in my arms, Nate was asleep across the aisle (barely half-full plane!), and we were on our way home. 

It was a lovely visit with all the Gassends. It was neat hearing all the college stories (some new, some just as funny on the retelling), fun seeing how Jonathan had changed and meeting Sophie, and a great little family vacation thrown in. Hopefully it won't be two years before we see them again!!!

Visiting the Gassend Family: Day 3

Our third day of vacation started out a little ominous. Our plan was to head to the beach for some playing in the sand but when we left the house that morning it was to overcast skies. As we drove along Highway 1 (I believe) it started to rain and then we hit traffic. What should have been an easy 20 minute drive turned into over an hour. The area that we were going to also happens to have pumpkin patches on either side of the two-lane highway, and since it was close to Halloween these pumpkin patches were having festivals and people were crossing back and forth pretty frequently. A cop was directly traffic but it ended up being that he'd stop every few cars to let a couple people cross the street, allow a few more cars, then stop them again. I kept thinking "this is so not the best way to do this". Let cars pass until there's a good bunch of people waiting, then stop traffic. It would mean waiting a few extra minutes for the people but would significantly improve traffic flow. Oh, well, I wasn't asked. :-)

Anyhoo, upon coming into the valley we decided that we'd stop for lunch, let the kids (and adults!) stretch their legs, and see if the weather would change to sunny by the time we were finished. Thankfully we made this decision instead of heading home or trying the beach first. After a long lunch we came outside to sunny skies and warm temperatures. Yeah! Now it was time to find the right stopping spot to enjoy our beach day. Our first stop had a decent walk to the beach and there were a lot of people around so we decided to try our luck further ahead. The kids, with the help of Nate, made our second stop our final one. The little ones were getting restless being cooped up in the car and Nate, upon walking down a bit of the path, thought the trail would have a small slightly difficult spot, but otherwise be just fine to get down to the beach.

Starting out we seemed to be doing ok. Little ones were carried or kept a firm hand on, but for the most part it wasn't too steep and we were doing pretty well.

Then we got to the ropes section. 

Yes, ropes were needed for the second half of the STEEP trail. Nate laughed as he said he checked out to just a few feet above where the ropes started and had no idea that the climb down took such a quick turn to an incline instead of the decent switchback that he'd been on.

Poor Valerie eventually had to go down on her bottom. Sophie saw her big brother navigating the rope by himself (Jonathan did a great job tackling this part of the climb) and wanted to imitate him. So Valerie had a very wiggly child in her one hand while trying to hold onto the rope with her other and not tumble head over heels as she traversed the path.

Looking back at our hiking trail. The big dirt path in the middle of the picture is what we came down (and would eventually have to go up!). Here's a link to the Google satelite view: Tunitas Creek Beach, Half-Moon Bay.

Once we'd gotten all of us, the kids, and our gear on the beach it was time to let the kids just run and run. We were literally the only people within seeing distance. There was a pair of flip-flops and a pair of shoes perfectly aligned right near a high-tide marker so we knew we'd eventually have company, but not when. Valerie was smart to bring a bunch of beach toys as her kids dived right into building sand castles and digging tunnels. Abby, however, took one look at the water and we were moving to keep up with her.

Abby saw the ocean and took off running towards it.

She saw the tide coming in but didn't hesitate to get her feet wet.

Brr! The water was pretty cold when you first got in but you quickly got used to it. 

Abby loved watching the water whoosh over her feet.

My happy little girl!

After a bit of water play Abby, who is my land lover (seriously, the girl is cool being in the water for like five minutes then she'd rather get out and play on the side (of the pool) or on the beach itself), got intrigued by all the interesting things that were on the beach just waiting to be picked up. Nate found a few cool seashells that were able to be used for digging, so Abby had fun running around and playing with those.

After lathering up on sunscreen we thought she'd be warmer without the soaking wet cotton sun-dress so it was an almost naked baby day! 

Nate took off down the beach for a run so Abby and I slowly followed behind. Here she is loving the sand.

And just like my parent's old horses the girl loves to roll around in the dirt.

Abby saw a flock of seagulls in the distance and had fun trying to run up to catch them. You may also be able to see Nate in the (very) far off distance running back to us.  

I thought this was a really sweet picture. My Abby's little feet walking beside my mommy-sized feet.

Our beach crowd sans Blaise who was taking the picture.

Abby building sand castles.

My handsome husband and delightful daughter.

All too soon we realized that the weather was starting to turn towards windy and cold. We decided we had a few more minutes to enjoy one last must-have beach activity: kite flying!

Blaise drives the kite while Jonathan and Nathan watch.

Abby was really into watching the kite fly around. I suppose from her point of view it was this enormous bird that crashed into the ground every once in awhile.

I LOVE watching these two together. The love Nate has for Abby is just so evident in their interactions together. I could not have asked for a better father for my children. (He's pretty awesome in the husband department, too!)

Finally, the time had come to pack up our gear (I think the sand we took home doubled the weight and number of bags we had to carry) and begin the fun and adventurous trek back up the mountain. Funnily enough as we were playing in the sand earlier in our day a woman, who had come down the path with her husband and three year old son, asked if we had found the stairs down to the beach so that she could go up those instead. Sadly, we had to inform her that the way she came in was the only way out. Her sigh could have been heard two counties away!

One last group picture...and again Blaise is our camera man. I'm going to have to remember to get him in front of the camera next vacation we take together.

And the view going up!

Our beach day was a blast!!! Abby had a great time running around, playing in the sand, watching the waves and the kite flying, and just getting as dirty as she possibly could. The only sore point of this trip was that on the very windy, dark, and fast drive home both Abby and I got car sick. Not the point of throwing up but to the point that we had to stop the car and get out to get some fresh air. Seven people packed into a seven passenger van (including three car seats) makes for a tight fit and unfortunately we felt it on the ride home. But that was our only dark spot of the day so I'm again calling this excursion a success!

Coming up on Day 4 of our trip...nothing! :-) Well, not exactly the case but with two big days behind us (the zoo and the beach) a lower-key day was much appreciated.