bye bye beach

goodbye afternoons on the beach

goodbye...

sharing a day in the sun

putting our toes down into the sand

splashing in the water

tasting salt on my lips

walking for miles in the early morning

watching surfers catch waves

lazing around & taking lots of naps

eating good breakfast burritos

people watching

goodbye to spending a good week with great friends

(obviously the younger set does not pose for photos)

goodbye view from my window, palm trees and all

goodbye to little m charging into the water, fearless & joyful

goodbye to the sound of waves crashing

& the feel of wet sand under my feet

goodbye to the joy of a day with no schedule & no list of to do's

hopefully we can preserve some of the rest of being away 

in a beautiful place with friends we love

(goodbye summer)

stay-day-food-cation

we are very lucky to get 4 entire weeks of vacation a year (well, matt does, and since i am self employed, i can decide my schedule)...so we've taken three weeks this august. the first week of our vacation matt planned the entire thing so i never knew day to day what we were doing. it was kind of a stay-cation, but we took day trips, so then i decided it was a day-cation. throughout the week i realized that since matt was planning our activities it was quite food-centric, so i coined it a food-cation. 

my mom is a teacher, and has off in the summer ("off" being a relative word, since my mom is in constant motion and works on projects at all hours and all times), so she took care of little m for the week more or less. we did stop home to check in with her and had a day where we were with her all day, but she mostly spent the week with grandma.

i've been meaning to post some of the pictures from our foodcation... we started the week in big sur! which is where, 7 years ago, we got engaged. it was fabulous!

the view from our hotel room

so grey and peaceful

time to read & talk & enjoy our fireplace

i was in a happy place...reading magazines in the bath while drinking wine with no little m wanting to hang with her mama

um, hello- how fun is that!?

we ate multiple times in 24 hours at the big sur bakery & restaurant.

amazing. delicious. and worth a drive down (or up) highway 1

more time to sit

(do you like that half of the photos on my blog contain food although it is not a food blog?)

nice to sit in the sunshine & linger over my latte

we kept ordering more treats to share

matt's happy place involves whole milk. 

his tea must have whole milk to be epic, so needless to say...he was content.

on our way home we ate there for breakfast, and then...

stayed long enough to eat lunch!

we migrated inside to one of their long wooden tables (i want one for our backyard) and enjoyed a delicious lunch, complete with creme brulee for dessert.

so.

good.

we bought a cookbook from their restaurant, so if you are too lazy to drive there, 

come over to my house and i'll make you a yummy meal!

final days of summer

(the mid-day beach scene outside our window)

we are enjoying our last week of vacation with friends at a beach house in san diego.

somehow we missed the memo on the prerequisites for staying here:

• for females: lower back tattoo, string bikini, jogging down beach barefoot in aforementioned bikini, surgical enhancement, and a flat tummy that has not seen pregnancy
  
• for males: shirtless, a tribal or barbed wire tattoo along bicep, a large plastic cup of beer accompanying you at all times unless surfing & the evidence of a lot of time spent at the gym

but i digress. 

and the reality is that aside from matt and jeremy's tattoos (which are neither tribal nor barbed in nature), we kind of fail to live up to any of those attributes. 

our condo - 4 adults and 3 kids full - is full of activity, lots of fun and right on the beach.

a few moments from our week so far:

post beach daze

eli concentrates on his puzzle

enjoying the view from our window while i drink morning coffee

race between eli and his mama, kim, to finish their puzzles

(complete with trash talk from a three year old:

"i'm gonna work you!")

iced drinks & sunshine while the husbands stay home with napping children

random trivia: i love straws

random silliness...

and some glorious time playing on the beach

until the sun slipped beneath the water

and the light faded

happy weekend!

well, it was time to leave our cabin by the lake

(just look at that amazing deck)

pack up, and head south to finish up vacation in sunny san diego!

have a great weekend!

ouch

(monday - little m, post clean up and medical attention)

apparently, vacation isn't vacation without a trip to urgent care. 

little m decided it would be fun to land on a stone fireplace. i should clarify- little m's front teeth and lower lip decided it would be fun to land on a stone fireplace. in a split second, after hearing the sound of her teeth hitting stone, it felt like GALLONS of blood came gushing out of her mouth. seriously. matt and i were both freaking out because the gash went all the way through her lip- from the inside to the outside. and, her teeth looked like they had been pushed into her gums. it was all very lovely- mopping up all the blood as she screamed her head off, matt running up the hill to get our car, racing to find the hospital. in the end, we have to clean her up a lot and give her some ointment, and hope that her teeth are ok. meanwhile, my daughter looks like the daughter of angelina jolie - just wipe off the snot and clean her up a bit and her lips look quite voluptuous!

lazy days of summer

we are still enjoying the beauty and peace of lake tahoe! 

alas, tomorrow morning we head home. 

(although i can't complain- we still have one more precious week of vacation left, which we will spend on the other end of the state in san diego)

a few glimpses of our moments here...

in matt's opinion, south lake tahoe trips are not complete without a trip (or two) to red hut

little m was quite happy here. a high school football team was eating behind us, and she was completely enamored by them...something about their t-shirts strategically cut into tank tops showing off their entire midsection must have done it for her? (yikes. really? how are homemade sleeveless tank top situations a good look? very 1986 midwest small town if you ask me....)

(yummy breakfast about to show up on our table)

little m even got her own plate of deliciousness

lake tahoe also = lots of cooking, which also means improvising with a stripped down kitchen

roro and daddy time

meals out on the deck overlooking the lake

reading

matt only brings about 46 books every time we leave the house- and this time was no exception

time to hang out in the sun

(if matt looks pained it's only because he is trying to read in peace while m naps and i keep interrupting him... {shocking})

old mossy stone stairs leading up from our cabin

warm deck

diet coke, writing, catching up, reading to little m

cozy cabin

splashing in the cold water of lake tahoe

i am not a super huge fan of bodies of water, 

but luckily it seems little m has inherited the swimming-is-fun and the fearless genes

snacks in the sunshine

our little sumo wrestler playing with crayons 

it's amazing how being in a specific place brings back memories. this is the same spot where one of my best friend's had her rehearsal dinner, the exact cove where matt and i came for part of our honeymoon, and where we came and stayed in a cabin with dear friends a few summers ago. to be enjoying a week away from the busyness of life, and also to remember a history of enjoying this place is renewing. there are still things on our minds from life at home; all has not stopped just because we are away for a few days, but being in a space outside of oakland has been a gift. remembering special moments in the past has also been a gift. i'm thankful for so much.