Santa Barbara - Gram and Papa sleepover

 Josephine and I drove to SB on a Thursday at 4:15 and arrived at 9:15. She didn't sleep at all even though around 7 she said she was tired. We made one quick potty stop in Los Alamos. She's such a great traveler and kept me awake. She was hyped up when we got there and ate a little snack and we went to bed although she still wasn't tired. We were both reading in our own beds and finally at 10:30 I had to turn out the light b/c I was falling asleep. She still wasn't tired but she did fall asleep. Fortunately she slept in until about 9. She played with gram for awhile in the morning and then played with Papa so Gram and I could run an errand.

We went to Katie's school to celebrate summer bdays from her class and then waited for her to finish PE and then all went back to her house so the girls could go in the hot tub. Played on the ropes course while waiting.

 

 

 We went out for dinner at CPK and then back to Gram and Papa's for dessert to celebrate Katie's bday. They'll be on their Chicago/Alaska trip during her bday at the end of the month.

  

Josie loves playing in the hallway. Katie loved that spot too when she was a wee thing. 

 An evening of dancing...

Luke and Katie like to make up routines and they're quite the dancers. Josie wanted in on the fun. She even had her dancing dress on. Katie brought out a bunch of princess dresses when we were at her house and so Josie wanted to wear it out to dinner and the rest of the evening.

 Saturday morning we went to the farmer's market. It was cloudy and a little cool out but the little princess didn't want a sweater and didn't seem to notice the chill in the air. The sun didn't come out on Sat or Sun.

 

 Karen and Luke dropped off Katie around noon for a sleep over with Gram and 

Papa and Josie. They picked me up and we had the rest of the day and night to ourselves. Karen and I went downtown and walked around and shopped but didn't find anything we were looking for. Luke rode his bike downtown and we went to a Mexican restaurant for happy hour. Karen had a school event that night so Luke and I hung out. He pulled out his guitar and song book and we sang every song we knew which brought us back to our old camp days. It was pretty fun and comical singing these songs we grew up singing 30+ years ago. It made us think about Bob Stromberg, songwriter/story teller from our youth so then we spend the next hour watching utube videos of him. Luke and I know how to have a rip roaring evening. Next he connected the computer to his LCD projector and from the hot tub we watched a netflix movie. Karen got home around 9 to join in on the hot tub movie fun. 

In the mean time Katie and Josie were having their own fun. Gram traced their bodies on paper and they painted them. They took a bath and had a spa treatment getting their nails done. They ate pancakes for dinner and ate pop corn while watching their own movie. They went to sleep by 9 and the next morning Josie climbed in bed with Gram. Thanks Gram and Papa for a night off.

 We met up at church the next morning and Josie and I drove home around noon. Happy to be back home with daddy and dinner waiting for us.

Happy Anniversary

Yesterday Gram and Papa celebrated 52 years! Congrats Mom and Dad! Hopefully there will be many years of celebrating to come. 

Father's Day

On Father's Day we went to church

Hiked to a lake to eat our lunch

 

 

 Then we went fishing in La Honda at a trout farm

 

  

Then to the La Honda fair. Everything was planned by Eric but this part was spontaneous. We saw the sign on the way home and stopped to check it out. There was a band, artisan's selling their goods and food. We ran into a few work colleagues which was fun. Josie made a necklace, danced, and jumped in the jumpy.

 

 Cooking up our trout on Monday for dinner - it was delicious!

 

Trout, grilled artichoke, and grilled corn on cob.

San Carlos ballet class

We went to watch Kaira's final ballet. It was really cute and maybe at some point Josie will take a class.

Josie picked out a flower to give to Kaira and she wanted a yellow tulip. It was very sweet when she told Kaira she did a good job and then gave her the flower. Sweet little friends. 

3 years 4 months

Highlights from the past month

This little sweet pea is 3 yrs 4 months today. In between her strong-willed, independent, testing spirit she has a sweet spirit as well. After church today we were eating lunch and I told her we need to start praying regularly for one of her school mates who also goes to our church b/c he's having some health issues. She said, "why don't we pray for him right now?" and so we did. She came home from school last week and had made 3 cards and she said, "this ones for Tim!" A friend that we pray for regularly that has cancer and Josie doesn't even know him. I love her caring heart. She often wants to send cards to people we pray for.

 Look who's new on the block and Josie can't wait to hold and snuggle. I told her she has to wait a little while longer. Baby Ashlyn (Kaira's sister) was born on May 23rd. Cute as a button.

 We had dinner at cousin Stephen, Janet and Evan's last weekend. We're so excited that Evan is going to North Park University this fall. We'll miss having him around.

 

Evan and Josie enjoying a book together.

  

We started going to a tiny library in Redwood City on the way home from Gahaus' house. We usually have 30 minutes and Josie loves to play on the computer and pick out some books. We can't get enough of library books.

 Josie is so proud of herself for dressing all by herself. She doesn't want any help getting undressed or dressed (except for once in a great while if there's a tricky sleeve or it's inside out). She is now into picking out her own outfits. Below are a couple examples. Cute little dress covered by sweater Aunt Mil made for cousin Oliver and cozy hat for walking around down town. We went to our neighbors for dinner and Josie pulled out this sailor dress with matching hat. We do have some struggles over her choices but for the most part she does pretty good.

 She loves doing puzzles and did this one practically by herself. It was my thrift store find for $2 along with Shoots and Ladders for $2. Remember that game? Another one of her outfits. I love that she likes to wear Aunt Mil's sweater passed on from Oliver and Miller.

 One of the author/illustrators that we really like was at the Reading Bug in San Carlos to do a reading. I didn't recognize her name until I saw some of the books she read but had planned to go b/c it's fun to see any children's author. We enjoyed listening to her read and hear a little about how she does her illustrations. She had a craft project for the kids too which Josie enjoyed.

 We spent a couple hours at the pool yesterday and her friends from our Mexico trip, Glory and big sis Tea were there. Josie wanted to wear her two piece (long sleeve top) under a one piece suit. I'm so glad she's feeling more comfortable in the water. It was fun to watch her really play with those two and not just play around on her own or want me to play in the water with her.

Still loving her music and making up songs with made up words. It's usually a "repeating song" so we have to repeat after her. She does ask first if we want the long or short version. The short version is not really short. Not sure how long the long version would go on.

Love her sweet smile

Memorial Day

It was a bit of a gloomy day and the forecast for rain did hold true although only a drizzle and it did dry up and didn't spoil our afternoon at Shirley and Rich's with the family. We had a great BBQ and fun on the lawn and sitting around visiting. Josie and Paige had a great time together. Kaira came over in the morning and played for a bit.