Our little nature girl

It was such a beautiful day today, we had to get in a little park time. We have an amazing park close to us with plenty of places to explore.



Here's Noelani in the brush, collecting rocks and putting leaves in her hair. Our little nature girl.


Not so happy with the constant pictures. "Enough Mama!"

Another October beach day

Round 3

Last time we hit up the pumpkin patch, it was a little
short lived. We had about 7 tickets left, so here we go again. :)



Gettin' her jump on.

"Gonna drive the blue one Mom"

Noelani quote of the day, "Mama...I think I need some candy in my mouth."
Hmmm...wonder where she gets her sweet tooth from?

Halloween preview

My workout class had a mini Halloween parade and trick-or-treating this morning, so Noe sported her turtle costume. After a few minutes, as you can see from the pictures, she was ready to get out of the costume and looking for any escape route she could find. Little stinkbug.

I didn't know turtles could climb.

Beach time in October

Lately we've all been a little in a funk. Be it the weather, missing family, or just feeling under the weather. Today helped us to realize how absolutely lucky we are to live where we do. A beautiful day in Carlsbad, the sun shining on the gorgeous ocean.

Ponto Beach just before sunset.


Little Noelani woke up with a cold and there's no better medicine than fresh ocean air.


Loving the ocean.


The water finally felt warm.



Even Mama got wet.

The best part of all was the phone call from Patrick saying he was already at home waiting for us!! What a great day!

The Cinco Pumpkin Patch

There's just something about Halloween that I absolutely love!
I think it's the no pressure holiday that's all about having fun,
eating candy, and just being silly. I haven't missed a year of dressing
up since I was born. Now I've got Patrick on the Halloween train.
Tee-hee. I think it stems from my parents. They used to have amazing
halloween parties with great costumes. The parties have stopped, but
my Mom's costume archives are known all around the city. She gets
calls from people that she hasn't seen in awhile, because they know she's
got the Halloween goods. And my Dad carves the coolest pumpkins and
makes awesome tombstones and things to decorate the yard.
So needless to say it's in my blood. Since it's hard to throw an adult party
when you have kids, we thought we'd have a pumpkin decorating party.
Still fun, messy and you don't have to find a babysitter!

Noe's creation. Glue, lots of glue, gemstones, feathers, and glitter.


So excited to have a Halloween party! Woo hoo!


Our friend Ross with his son Henry and his creation.



Patrick's best friend Bill with Madeline and her sparkle angel pumpkin.


Sarah and Marybeth loving the glitter and glue combo.

Noe and Mama's final creations.


This morning she wanted to keep the party going.


Pumpkin painting.

Workin' it

Just a little early Saturday morning photo shoot.

Encinitas Explorers

One of the woman in my workout class leads this adventure group called the Encinitas Explorers. Every week it's someplace new and the kids get to explore trails, mountains, etc. Noelani had so much fun today. We were able to climb sandstone "rocks", saw coyote tracks and were able to hear them howling, draw in the dirt, etc. I think I had just as much fun seeing everything through Noe's eyes.


Checking out the coyote tracks.


Climbing the sandstone hill that looked like the land of the lost.


Leading the way.


Dirt drawing.

Noe ~ the artist, dancer and brownie maker

It's been so cold and gloomy here, that comfort food seems to bring the sunshine. :) So Noe and I decided to make some brownies. This is the first time she was allowed to lick the fork and boy did she enjoy it!!





Here's Noelani Multi-tasking. Painting and dancing...that's our girl.

Our rainy day weekend

We had a chilly, rainy day weekend. It was so lovely! We love it when fall arrives. It makes it feel more like Halloween time. So here's what we were up to this weekend.



We dressed all nice and toasty and got VG's donuts. They are by far the best donuts ever!!



Then to work off all that sugar, we needed to go for a beach walk in the rain.



Along the way, we had a potty pitstop. Thank goodness for the handy dandy pink potty. :)



Then it was off to lunch where we found some great puddles for jumping!!



Noe having fun with Daddy's sweatshirt strings. "I'm not letting you go Daddy!"



Anyone what to do some rainy gardening with me??




I love gardening in the rain. Mom says I'm a GREAT helper.

Hope you all had a toasty, warm weekend!

Daddy loves USC

Patrick went to USC and has lots of school pride. Noelani loves anything that Daddy loves, so here's my cute little family and our future powder puff footballer. Don't worry, I still get my little UCSB suggestions in there too! ;)

Pumpkins are here again

Did I tell you that I loooooove Halloween & pumpkins?!

Throw your hands in the air if you are with me!!




Noe had to go down the HUGE slide, and yes that is a
look of terror on her face.




Our daughter licking the steering wheel of the
race car. Hmmm...can you say "yum"?




Loving her hog.

Hanging with the crew...

Building at the Children's Garden.


Playing with the pom-poms during story hour.



Here's Noe hanging with her friends Henry and Alyssa after our workout class.

Playing the uke

Noelani and I had a great walk that ended at the beach. I forgot to bring a bathingsuit, but she didn't care. She jumped and played in the waves in her undies and had the best time. Love that kid!!




Noe wanted to play Daddy's ukulele so bad, but didn't want any pictures from the paparazzi.

Disneyland again!

We went to meet our friends at Disneyland this past Sunday. It was 93 and sooooooooo crowded! I guess there was a huge convention in town. Boo!



Noelani in her "space helmet" getting ready to head out to Disneyland.



Surprise!!!



We were hanging out in Toon Town with our friends and their 5 year old wanted to ride the kid's roller coaster, so we decided to try it with Noe. Patrick was the brave soul that took her. I guess she did fine, but when she came out she told me, "Mama it was fast. It was too scary for me!!" The video doesn't quite capture her face, but I'm sure it was priceless!

The Kook strikes again

The Kook statue in Cardiff goes Pink for Breast Cancer!! Way to go Kookster!

Pumpkin Station in Del Mar

We went to the little Pumpkin Station in Del Mar with our friends.


Noe loving the big pumpkin.



Caught red handed taking all the little ones out.



Waiting oh so patiently for the train ride. Too bad there's no audio with this picture. I have a feeling you would hear some screaming and crying. ;)



Riding the train with her buddy Henry. Ringing the bell.