Santa Barbara

We started our vacation in Santa Barbara as that's where I had work stuff to do (they paid for my trip after all!).  After landing and waiting longer to get a rental car than it did to fly there in the first place, we headed to the beach.  We strolled up and down the boardwalk while Kyle napped.  The peace and quiet was welcomed after our horrendous flight and we enjoyed the shops and sights.

 

 

 

When Kyle awoke, we introduced him to the ocean for the first time.  He was a HUGE fan of the sand.  You couldn't take the smile off his face.  The water was a bit cold but he seemed to enjoy touching it nonetheless.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As he would walk in the sand, he would kick his legs to the sand trying to shake the sand off of his sandals.  It was really cute watching him learn about these new things. He was truly fascinated with the beach-- he must get that from his grandma!  

 

He found a small rock and daddy had to take it from him... in the moment before replacing it with a larger rock, this was his face:

Soon it was all better:

Kyle likes to offer his toys to people now... we made jokes about Kyle bringing a rock to today (work references).  

We finished the evening out by walking up and down State Street in downtown Santa Barbara.  We chose the most crowded restaurant for dinner figuring it'd have the best food.  We weren't disappointed-- Pascucci was delish!

A Rough Flight

I met my two boys at DIA for the start of our Disneyland vacation.  My work flights from Wash DC to Santa Barbara made a pit stop in Denver so we were able to all be on the same flight together.  It worked out nice as we were able to have lunch in the airport together and let Kyle get tuckered out playing in prep for the flight. He even wore himself out enough to fall asleep on the airport floor just before boarding began.  Good sign right?  That's what we thought.  But even with nursing and trying 10 million positions, he just couldn't get comfortable.  He was THAT kid.  He screamed instead.  The entire flight.  Less the 20 minutes where he pseduo-shut his eyelids.  Sigh.  I felt bad for all of the passengers but there just wasn't much we could do being confined to our seats with an overtired toddler.

 

 

 

Washington DC

This past week, I had my first overnight business trip away from Kyle.  Luckily it was only a quick 2 day trip to Washington DC.  I didn't have much time to "play," but I managed to fit in a quick glimpse of Space Shuttle Discovery at the Smithsonian's Air & Space museum as well as some great greek food and I even managed to find some Milwaukee frozen custard.  Yumm.  I'm sure I'll be back and will have more time to explore the Capital.

 

 

 

A Day in Boulder

On our last day of the Memorial Day weekend, we woke up before the sun to head up to watch daddy and grandpa race in the Bolder Boulder 10K.  It's the largest race in the world and had more 55,000 runners.  It finishes inside of Folsom Field on CU's campus.  We made it just in time to watch daddy come in at a 6:40 pace.  We also got to see Grandpa finish with his best pace ever (beating his age in minutes!).  We enjoyed freebies and food afterwards-- it was a great event!
While in Boulder, we drove up to the Indian Peaks wilderness to hike to Lake Isabelle.  Much to our dismay, we found the gate up to Brainerd Lake closed.  Not wanting to waste the drive up there, we decided to hike up to the lake from the gate closure.  We took the Snowshoe Trail as it was labeled Easiest and this was the first hike Grandma and Grandpa had done in decades.  We were shocked when we found ourselves lost several times trying to navigate through all the fallen trees and poorly posted trail markers.  We had fun nonetheless and did eventually make it to Brainerd Lake where we were greeted with gusty winds and a picturesque packdrop of the Indian Peaks.  We decided to take the road back as we knew we would most surely get lost going back down on the same trail we took up.  Of the hundreds of hikes Dave and I have done, we have never seen one so poorly marked and difficult to follow.  I know the hundreds of recently fallen trees (my guess for the road closure) didn't help, but I don't see us doing this hike again.

We ended the day by dining at a restaurant on Pearl Street in Boulder.  While we waited for food, Kyle had a riot playing on a bear sculpture.


 

 

Kyle loved the Chik-fil-A cow (a sign he'll love the disney characters?) 

 

 

 

Look at the size of the trunk of this fallen tree!

The family at the windy Brainerd Lake

I carried Kyle down while Dave ran up to snap this picture of Longs Lake:

 

 

A Day Of Rest?

On the 3rd day, we rested.  Sorta.  We did our usual church and lunch out with grandma and grandpa.  Because our AC is busted and it's rather warm in the house, we spent most of the afternoons/evenings in the basement playing.  Kyle doesn't spend much time down here so it's always a treat for him when we do.  He had a great time playing in the ball pit, using his new golf set, and going up the ladder and down the slide of his new big boy jungle gym.  He's just so much fun!

 

 

 

 

 

First world problems

We've been chilling (literally) in the basement because our AC is busted. On a warm holiday weekend.
On a positive note, Kyle is becoming a pro on his playground. Watch:

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Castlewood Canyon

On day 2 of our 4 day weekend, we spent the afternoon hiking at Castlewood Canyon.  It was extremely windy, so we thought a canyon hike would suit us best.  We have already done most of the hikes on the East side of the park, so we chose a loop hike on the West side.  It took us through a little waterfall, the canyon walls, a historic dam, and up to the top of the canyon walls on the Rimrock trail.  Despite the winds, it was still pretty warm and the girls enjoyed a dip in the creek afterwards.

 

Look closely and you'll see the little waterfall

 

 

 

View of the dam from the top of the rimrock trail

Look how windy it was on top of the canyon (see Dave's hair?)