Summer Fun

This summer is flying by - and we are enjoying our fun filled days.  We've entertained friends, celebrated holidays, gone on trips and planned even more vacations to round out the summer.  In between all the fun, Clare continues to enjoy the new 'hood.  The playground has been a big draw for both the girls - and neither seems to show any fear when they are playing on the swings and slides.  When we don't walk over the the playground, we have found that the lake is a great place to feed the ducks which happens to be one of Clare and Laurel's favorite past times.  

We also decided that we would head to Santa Barbara for some R&R with the girls and our little getaway was just what the Dr. ordered.  We stayed right on the ocean and were fortunate enough to get some unbelievably beautiful weather while we were there.  The pool was more than welcoming, the beach relaxing and the city just as fun and beautiful as always.  We are fortunate enough to go to Santa Barbara often, but each time we go, we seem to find something new and wonderful to appreciate about it.

Coming up are some more fun trips.  We will be leaving the girls with my mom (for the first time ever) and enjoying the sites and sounds of Vancouver next week.  We are excited, but I know I am going to miss these girls more than I can even imagine.  I will be sharing my CRAZY travel adventure after I return - it's too long a story with a TBD ending at this point...

As a family, we'll be heading to La Costa, Portland and San Francisco in the next month and a half, and are excitedly planning a trip to the East Coast with my mom this fall.  We are also in the process of researching some pre-schools for Clare who is MORE than ready for this next step.  We also plan on actually focusing our energy on this house again.  There are some paint projects planned, I am determined to get Jonathan to get all his stuff out of boxes (or at least take his boxes out of the house), I am determined to finish unpacking those last few boxes in the garage and make room for some cars, and we have some great outside improvements planned.  Oh, and all those tools we purchased to help us get the yard spruced up...well, we will actually use them one of these days, too.  Ha!

Basically, this summer has been wonderfully busy and full of fun times with friends and family.  The girls are proving to be enthusiastic travelers just like their parents (or at the very least, very good actresses) and we love the fact that when the travel comes to an end we get to return to our new home, which we love more every day, to rest up.