Rocks and puzzles

Today we took a short walk outside of our back yard to go exploring. As most of you know he is crazy about picking up rocks. He found a big one in the field that probably weighed close to what Owen weighs!
Tough guy

Ugh, I have to pick up this rock!

Look what I found Mamma!

So proud!

Off to the park for a change of scenery.

After a walk, the park and then dinner, we sat down and put together a 24 piece puzzle (at least 5 times). He LOVES this thing. Nanna gave it to him about a month ago. We kept it in the cellophane it came in because I thought the pieces would be all over the house in no time. He didn't quite know what a puzzle was all about, so he just loved to carry it around and look at it. It's a bunch of colorful pictures of animals. Well, today we decided to open it up and learn what a puzzle really means. This is definitely his new favorite quiet game (mommy likes this one : )

"More Gape"

Lately, my little boy is obsessed with grapes! From the first thing he says in the morning, to his mantra all day long, we hear "more gape, more gape, more gape." He is relentless. He will not stop until we leave the house, or he gets his grapes.
Today we went to farmers market to pick up some produce (grapes included!) and grab a coffee. Adam bought Owen a balloon hat with a tiger on it that he loved! He wore it proudly through the market as he searched for samples and tried snagging any grape or berry he could get his little hands on! It was pretty funny.

Day at the Park

After Adam left for work tonight I was getting bored and was craving some serious Vitamin D. Owen and I took a short walk to the park and had a great time! He got to swing on the swings, throw a ball for a huge dog, ride a big boy bike with training wheels, go down the slide and build mud pies to share with his neighborhood friend Sam. I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking....

Sam was very generous and let Owen borrow his bike and wear his helmet. He had to "help" Owen by pushing the handle bar the whole time. : )Owen is showing his thanks with a nice mud pie he made for Sam.

Uncle Rob and Braelyn's visit.

This week Adam's brother Rob (Uncle Rob) and his girlfriend Braelyn came to visit from Rhode Island. We had SO much fun while they were here. Owen bonded with them both instantly! He would not stop saying "Uncle Rob" the entire time he was awake! On Monday night we barbecued goat cheese, sundried tomatoes and basil stuffed chicken, corn and roasted some nice apricots for dessert that sat on top of vanilla bean ice cream! We stayed up talking and laughing until 1 AM. Owen of course woke up early the next day excited to see his new friends in the living room!

Fresh local veggies from our farmer's market with homemade basil hummus. I am doing my best to remind Rob and Braelyn how nice it is to live in CA. We get the best veggies year round, and you never have to shovel your driveway. We would love to have them as neighbors!! Wink wink..

Owen was having so much fun playing with his uncle. Tuesday we went wine tasting. We couldn't find a babysitter for Owen, so we crossed our fingers he would nap on the way up there. He fell asleep about 5 minutes before we pulled into the first winery (Sunstone). It wasn't crowded, so we parked in the shade, unrolled all the windows and could see him sleep while we tasted outside on a beautiful day! He slept for about an hour! So nice! He was rested, and we got to have our fun without having to chase him around all day. We were just about done when he woke up. We let him play with the owner's dog (Shelby...so cute) and run around outside for a bit before heading to the next winery.

Here is Owen "tasting" water out out of a wine glass : )

Owen picked some flowers for me (three times) and was so excited to hand them to me. Melts my heart. They were jasmine too....smelled sooo good : )

We finished our long afternoon of wine tasting at the Los Olivos Cafe for a late lunch of artisan pizzas and salad. Next, we drove into Santa Barbara (which Braelyn had yet to see), to hit up the Tuesday Farmer's Market downtown. We picked up some sprouts, cucumbers and avocado so we could go home and make sushi rolls. We barely made it to the harbor to pick up some fresh ahi, yellowtail and salmon before heading home. We put Owen to bed and rolled away! With full bellies we sat around the kitchen table and played a game of Balderdash which lasted again, until 1AM. We laughed so hard that night, it's a great game.

On their last day here, they went to breakfast at the Boathouse on the beach while I went to work : ( By the time I got home, it was nap time for the whole house. It was a good little break to prepare for the long night ahead of us! We hung out at "Nanna's" house for a bit to visit, (she had been gone all week) drink some wine and drop off Owen for the night so we could show Rob and Braelyn a bit more of SB's night life. After spending way too much time in each place drinking, it was time for the ladies (Braelyn and I) to round up our boys and take them home. Once again, it was well after 1 AM when we got home and had to get up before 8AM to take them to the airport in LA. We were all pretty pooped by then, but it was so worth it!

Rob's new shadow is a bit smaller than him.

We can't wait to come and see them again in September!! Only about 3 more weeks to go! We stayed up so late each night and drank way too much (some of us more than others...Adam), we need a good three weeks to recover before we do it all over again in Rhode Island! : )

Garden

As promised, here are some pics of our newly planted garden.

My Growing Boy

It seems like I notice my "baby" growing taller and saying more things every day. I measured him against the wall today, he is only 1/2 and inch away from 3 FEET already! He is more than HALF MY SIZE already and he's not even 2 yet! I think he is definitely going through another growth spurt, as he is constantly eating and still sleeping like a champ.

His latest fascination is with tunnels. He loves them! Even if we go under an overpass on the freeway he yells "TUNNEL! WOO WOO" (like a train). I remember liking them quite a bit as a kid too.

Owen also LOVES animals. He is so enthralled with any living creature. He knows the sound (or at least the sound we create) of so many animals. He just learned the whale sound today. We were at Costco the other day and got him a new book on mammals. It is an adult book over 200 pages long filled with every mammal you can imagine. He has examined every page of this book, even at one sitting! He looks through it at least 10 times a day. It's the best $6 we have spent in a long time on finding something to keep his interest. I am leaning towards the zoo for his birthday party location this year.

Today is Pappy's Birthday! Happy Birthday David! I had to work today, so we celebrated yesterday at our house. I made a nice breakfast of roasted potatoes and asparagus with herbed goat cheese scrambled eggs and a blueberry crumb cake (thanks Barefoot Contessa!). We put a candle in the crumb cake so we could sing Happy Birthday. Since then, Owen calls it "Happy to you cake." He will take what I give him, stuff his cheeks completely full and somehow still manage to get the words "more" out.

One of his favorite foods is feta cheese. All I hear all day is "feta, feta, feta" It's pretty funny, not the food of choice for most toddlers. Maybe he was Greek in a past life!

Yesterday Adam and I spent a good part of the day in the garden. It's looking so good, as long as those pesky trees don't drop any more leaves, bark or acorns! Yeah right. My herb garden is so cute right now. I currently have chives, basil, rosemary, thyme, lemon thyme, sage, pineapple sage, tarragon, lavender and oregano. I cut back our tomato plants that are not looking great anymore, but still producing big red tomatoes. We added red leaf lettuce, Japanese cucumbers, cantaloupe, butternut squash and a row of flowers. We also already have mini orange bell peppers (look good, but don't taste great) and cauliflower (that we got as a seedling from the children's museum). Next time we hit the nursery, broccoli and beets are on the list! I will post pictures tomorrow.

OK, that's my update for now. I know it's pretty random, that's all I got. Tomrrow, Owen's Uncle Rob and his girlfriend Braelyn will be here until Thursday. We are all looking forward to some more fun days next week! Will keep you posted, we have a lot planned!

Viva La Fiesta!

We went to a friend's house for some Fiesta fun today! Owen got to play with some other kids his age which was great! There was a great garden, chickens, dogs, a puppy, grapes and lots of toys to play with that kept Owen very happy! He was contained in the large yard which meant Mommy and Daddy could have a drink or two while having adult conversations with the other guests. Our son consumed more fruit today than I do in a normal week, so I am a little scared of the diaper tomorrow! This morning he had stuffed french toast with bananas, and cherries then later he had a nectarine, a TON of grapes, a couple of strawberries and dried apricots! Well, summer is getting closer to an end, so he better get it all in now while he can. Gotta love the summer fruits!Above: Playing catch with Daddy

Below: Eating more grapes!

Kayaking with a friend in the driveway.

Checking out the chickens. At one point all the chickens were let out of the coop and the kids were chasing them around, it was hilarious! Those chickens are FAST when there is a toddler running after them!

Owen's First Camping Trip

WARNING: This is a long blog posting, so get comfortable! We decided to go camping at Big Sur weeks ago. We were so excited at the thought of swimming in a river, going on lots of long hikes and watching Owen taste his first s'more. Then, 6 days before the trip, I broke my foot. Determined to go anyway, I gingerly started putting pressure on my foot the day before we left so I could help pack. Thankfully my 13 year old nephew Matthew was able to join us on our adventure (for his first camping trip also) and was a HUGE help in watching Owen and setting up the tents, etc...We got a late start on Wednesday morning and didn't get to our camp site until after 3:00. The first day was spent unloading, setting up and cooking dinner. We had a beautiful site nestled in between lots of redwoods. Owen was in little boy heaven! Being able to live, eat, and sleep outside, and not having to take a bath when he was covered in dirt was a dream come true (for him at least)!

Pointing up to the "big trees"Owen kept wanting to blow out the citronella candles as he sang "Happy (birthday) to you" over and over again. It was hard to keep them lit when he was around!It took him a while to get to sleep in the tent, but eventually the sounds of the owls and the crackling fire outside put him out. The rest of us roasted s'mores and played poker until our eyes grew heavy and we turned in. Owen woke up a few times in the night wondering where he was I am sure, but he was excited to start the day in the morning! After breakfast, the boys went for a nice hike and I got to crawl back into the tent, get under the covers and read my book in between dozing off for little naps. Mommy heaven. Once they came back, I cooked up some lunch and put our tired little camper down for a nap. Matt and I read a book while Adam got a chance to catch up on his nap time as well. Once Owen woke up about an hour and a half later, it was time for hike number two and I decided to go as well. This was the hike Matt, Adam and Owen went on. Apparently it was pretty steep, glad I skipped it!

Our next adventure was flat, beautiful and only one mile round trip. I certainly got plenty of stares and "what a trooper" comments on my crutches. It really wasn't that bad, I was just glad to leave the campsite for a little bit and see something I haven't seen before. We went to see an incredible 80 foot waterfall, McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park that cascaded down to the beach where the crystal clear aqua-colored ocean broke on the shore. Owen's favorite part of the trip was not the pristine waterfall, but the 50 foot long tunnel he could run back and forth in. He must have run a total 5 miles non stop in that thing, shouting "Tunnel! Tunnel! Whoo-whoo!" After dinner, we decided to start the s'mores a little early so Owen would get his share. He was not too interested. All he wanted was the graham crackers. Fine with me, I was a little worried about him eating a ton of sugar before bed anyway! I am sure by the time we take our next camping trip he won't pass them up!

The next morning we packed up and headed home (notice the crutches strapped to the top of the truck...one trip I will not forget!). We did make a stop in San Simeon to check out the elephant seals. They were so cool to watch.

We had a great time overall and I am so thankful for all the hard work Matt and Adam did to make the trip possible.

Owen and Matt became good buddies after this trip. Matt was very patient with him and played "patty cake" whenever he asked. : ) They entertained each other the whole way there and back.
He wore himself out on this trip. In fact the day we got home, we put him down by 7:15 PM and he did not wake until 9:50 AM! Woo Hoo! We all needed that extra rest. Thanks Owen! XOX

Broken Foot

As most of you know, I broke my foot last Thursday. I got up to fill Owen's sippy cup and my foot got caught on the strap of a bag in the kitchen. The fall seemed like slow motion at the time, but it happened in a blink. I fell on the kitchen tiles and broke my fifth metatarsal. Fortunately my Mom lives minutes away and was able to come over after we put Owen to bed so I could get to the hospital. The next morning Owen was so sweet and sat in my lap while we watched Sesame Street videos on my computer.

It takes about 6-8 weeks to fully heal, but I am feeling better already. I started putting weight on it last Tuesday because I felt like I had to help Adam get organized for our camping trip to Big Sur on Wednesday. Yes, you read right, I went camping with a broken foot....To be continued...