Party-Harty

What a fun week we had!!! I wasn't even thinking of how busy our post-vacation week was going to be, but it turned out to be quite eventful! On Monday, Wyatt attended his first "Triple Threat- Pop Fusion" class...singing, acting, dancing. I didn't get to see the "acting" portion of the class, but I did get to see some dancing. In this particular class, he is the smallest and youngest kid in the class, and so he was used in the dance routine for all kinds of cool lifts and such...I can't wait to see this group perform on stages! My favorite of the 3 class portions was the singing...probably because that is something new for him/us. It was so cool to see him in a choir class atmosphere, and doing voice exercises and such, for the next hour after the class, all we heard in our car/house was, "mi, mi, mi, mi, mi, mi, mi, mi, miiiiiiii...

And then on Tuesday, we had our usual day of piano lessons, hip-hop dance class, and swing dance lessons...

On Wednesday, I had turned down an invitation to go to the beach with friends, but after I had completed all of my chores and errands for the day, my girlfriends began texting me and telling me how beautiful it was at the beach. At the first mention of, "The waves are AWESOME! You would be killing it on the boogie board today!" I knew I had to get down there! So this usually-rigid-planner, had everyone put on their swimsuits, I threw a couple of towels and some sunscreen in a bag, and we were beach bound! We had a GREAAAAAAT time!!!

And "let the record show," I did kill it in the water! The waves were incredible, and the boogie-board-whisperer was home. :0) The cool thing about THIS experience though, was that Wyatt was out with me the whole time. He usually is out in the water, just messing around, but my little man caught boogie-boarding-fever, and he had his game face on! We rode 75% of the waves in together...it was AWESOME!!!

On Thursday, we had a pool playdate with 2-B, but unfortunately my hands/arms were otherwise occupied with none-other than 2-B's newborn baby, and there were no photos to be had of this par-tay. :0) On Thursday night, the "birthday crew" reunited to celebrate 2 of our birthdays at Benihana...

This night would go down as my biggest-laugh-of-the-year!!! When your friend comes out of the restroom complaining about just how disgusting the bathroom was, you think it's funny...but when the bartender comes around 20 minutes later to beg you not to hate him for telling you that you have toilet paper attached to your shoe, it is HILARIOUS!!! And not just a square of toilet paper...practically a whole roll!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!

We.were.dyyyyyyying!!! Happy Birthday Katie & Liane!!! :0)

On Friday, my dad and stepmom asked if they could have the kids overnight, and I said, "SURE!" ;0) But, what-to-do?...what-to-do??? I decided to invite my mom out for an Italian picnic dinner on the grass at Seaport Village! Rick asked, "Why would you WANT to do that??", and my mom's husband thought she was literally lying about going to have a picnic dinner...hahahahaha!...THAT is why we have each other, LOL! I love my mama!

We then went and walked around the mall for a couple of hours...browsing...and buying. :0) Saturday, after Bea's dance class, my mom, myself, my sister Jenni, and our 2 littles had the privilege of attending Grammy Pammy's 3rd Annual tea party!!!

But more about that in a separate post! ;0) On Sunday, after a wonderful morning at church, we FINALLY had a Family-Dinner-Reunion!!! With my sister and I vacationing on alternating weeks, it had been 3 straight weeks since we were all in town again on the same weekend! It was so nice to be together on Sunday nights again...

And finally... In the continuing saga of, "As the garden grows," I am THRILLED to report that...I got to have my ($200) Caprese Salad!!!!! Tomatoes from our garden...

Basil from our garden...

And fresh mozzarella cheese...from Trader Joes, lol...

Caprese Salad GOODNESS!!!...

I hate to be a downer, but I feel the need to report the facts...I must admit, the tomatoes were gross, lol! But everything else was GREAT, LOL! So that was our week...see you on the flip-side. :0)

Dear Jennifer Hudson (Weeks 35, 36, 37 & 38)

Dear Jennifer Hudson,

Yikes! Has it REALLY been a month since the last time I wrote to you!?!?

That should tell you where my diet has been...just like my letters to you...non-existent.

Over the last 2 months I have been yo-yo-ing up and down, up and down on the scale. Nothing has really changed changed since the last time I wrote you.

Now that I am post vacation, and back into our school-life routine, I am eager to get back to making good things happen on the scale, and finishing this journey to my goal weight.

Sorry I don't have more exciting news to share...hopefully next week???

Do you want to see the chubbiest thing I ate on vacation!?!?



That would be a mozzarella-stick-grilled-cheese-sandwich!!! :-0

Aaaaah, good times! ;0)

Well, hopefully I will actually write you again next week, lol!

Your biggest fan,

Elizabeth

San Simeon / Santa Barbara / San Diego- Days 6 & 7

When we arrived in San Simeon, it was very apparent that this portion of our trip was going to be BOW-RING! San Simeon is just a teeny-tiny blip on the radar. The ONLY thing this town has going for it, is Hearst Castle...and I'll give it to San Simeon, that's a pretty big "only."

Hearst Castle was the very most exciting thing Beatrice had been looking forward to on our vacation. She was convinced that a real princess lived in this castle, and that she was going to meet her. I attempted to tell her on one occasion that that wasn't the case, but when her imagination got the best of her, I decided to let "truth" take a back seat...she would find out in due time. :0)

We arrived at the Hearst Property first thing on Saturday morning...



We boarded the shuttle bus...





...and headed up the mountain to Hearst Castle! The view of the castle from any angle on the winding road was SOOOO IMPRESSIVE!

Pretty much the first thing we saw when we got off of the tour bus, was the gorgeous outdoor pool...



...and then all of the gardens and views from on top of the mountain...









...and then after passing by one side of the castle...



...we finally made our way to the entrance!!!...



When you book a tour reservation of this castle, you have like 3 options (areas of the house) to choose from...we selected the "Grand Rooms" tour.

We were able to visit the library...



...the dining room...









...a living room...



...the billiards room (not pictured), the home theater...





...and finally, the indoor pool...









The castle was totally beautiful! Rick and I thoroughly enjoyed the tour...I'm really glad we did it...but I don't ever feel the need to go back and see the other parts of the house (bedrooms, kitchen, etc.) As much as I loved the castle, I also loved hearing the stories of William Hearst, his marriage, his girlfriend, his children (he had 5 sons, and between them there were 13 divorces!), and all of his famous guests he would entertain in his home. The Castle tour was definitely a high point on our vacation. :0)

After we made our way down the mountain from the castle, we boarded our own "bus". We were headed for our final vacation destination...Santa Barbara!!!...



On this drive, the kids requested more TV trivia (I think I thought up every question you could possibly ask about the movie Home Alone), and then with Rick's Jedi training, I MASTERED the state capitols!!! :0)

We arrived in Santa Barbara mid-afternoon. A perfect time to hit State Street in downtown Santa Barbara! :0)



State Street is basically just an upscale strip mall, lol. There was shopping...



...shopping...



...and more shopping!

Unfortunately, I was the only one out of the four of us that liked the shopping! Rick was "hot"...Wyatt's "legs were tired"...and Beatrice was "hungry". It was very obvious that our trip was coming to an end...everyone was starting to get a bit cranky, and home was sounding SOOO good!

IF, IF, IF my peeps had been more agreeable on State Street, I think Santa Barbara would have topped Monterey, BUT, since that wasn't the case, Monterey still holds the top (coastal) spot for me.

However, I am eager to give Santa Barbara a 2nd chance with any/all of the wonderful ladies in my life...I imagine that would be a FABULOUS experience! :0)

After State Street, we added insult to injury, and dined at our home away from home...



Ihop is a staple in my immediate, and my extended family! Now we were REALLY missing home, and missing the family we hadn't seen in SO long!!!

We made it an early night...because we wanted to make it an early morning...again, we were so excited to get home!!!

We set our alarm for 5am, although of course, with my kids, that wasn't necessary...they were up before the alarm went off, lol.

We were checked-out of our hotel before 6am, and back at Ihop (LOL!!!) for a quick breakfast before we got on the road. :0)

We were San Diego bound...WOOHOOOOO!!!

The usual 4 hour drive only took us 3 hours, and even those 3 hours passed super fast! We battled it out with more TV trivia (I focused my questions more on Marry Poppins this time), and Rick continued to quiz me on the state capitols, lol!

Before we knew it, we were home again! The trip we had been plotting and planning for almost a year had come and gone. :0/

I had such a wonderful time!

Because of Rick's work/sleep schedule, a lot of the time it feels like the kids and I have a pretty independent life, and I was so curious (fearful?) to see how we would all interact with each other, when we were in such tight quarters, and around each other non-stop without our usual (large) distractions/activities. But it turns out, nothing really changed...we were still kind to one another, we still had fun with one another, we never had a disagreement (okay, there was still the occasional brother-sister squabble, but even those were few and far between), we TRULY enjoyed each others company. :0)

The main standout for me this vacation was my Beatrice! She seemed to have matured so much over this 7 day period. She looked fantastic, because I packed her clothes, lol, and was able to do her hair everyday. She totally abandoned the occasional baby talk she does at home (that I find uber annoying). The whole TV trivia concept that she mastered was SO exciting to be a part of. And most exciting was her progression with swimming!!! We spent SO much time in the pool over the last 7 days! Even after we left Yosemite, the kids were wanting to go swimming at every other hotel we stayed at (the hotel at Santa Cruz was the only one I said "NO!" to!). My daughter is such a scaredy-cat when it comes to the pool. She claims she likes going to the pool, but she always wants to have a floatie on (and the more, the merrier)...and even with her floaties on, she only ever wants to sit on the steps of a pool. Whenever I hold her in the middle of a pool (with her floaties on) it is usually against her will, and she is clinging to me like crazy! I'm usually nonchalant about the whole thing. Other kids try and talk her into doing all kids of fun/normal things in a pool, but my Bea won't budge! After a while, I tell those kids to back off, and that she will get off of the stairs when she is ready. Apparently this was the week she was ready! One day she left the stairs, and crab-walked the whole pool...she was SO PROUD of herself! The next day (with her floatie still on) she pushed off of the side wall and was free-floating in the middle of the pool...that is HUUUUUUGE for her!!!...and again, she was just SOOOO proud of herself! The next day, she saw Wyatt doing forward rolls under the water, and she randomly decided that she wanted to do it too! I told her that she had to take off her floatie in order to do it, and even though I held on to her the whole time, she totally did tricks in the water without her floatie on! By the time we made it to the pool in San Simeon she was asking me to let her go in the middle of the pool without her floatie on. :-0 She totally sank though, LOL! It's only funny because I was next to her the whole time, and would pick her up immediately...her life wasn't in danger. But she finally trusted me that I wouldn't let her drown, and so she kept letting me let her go, and despite her trying to kick/propel-herself, I would keep scooping her up from under the water, lol. I'm so excited for her! I'm so happy that (for this moment??) she is overcoming a fear!!! Go Bea Go!

Well that's about it for our Yosemite vacation! We sure had a great time, and I'm eager to see where our next adventure takes us! :0)