a day in santa monica.

how long is eden's hair now? i just chopped it too. she is not into pictures these days. oh the two year olds!

my mom at the santa monica plane crash site a few months ago. so incredibly sad.

we got to bring my nephew, braden. isn't he the cutest?

sweet hat hair, molly. hahaha!

the real picture. mmhmm.

waving g'bye to daddy when he got a call

eden climbed to the top of this tower at least a dozen times. my poor mom chasing her. heheha.

this was one of of my husband's last shifts at this particular station, so we took full advantage on sunday & came to be tourists for the day. (he'll still be in santa monica, dont you worry, just moving to a busier station where it won't be as easy to visit.)

the day was full of lunch at urth cafe, a fun ride around the airport in the rig, squirting the fire hose, running a muck all around the station, dressing up in their duds & laughing til we cried, playing at the park, dinner at gilberts, & not hitting any traffic there or back! a bonus, trust me. 

california weather right now is dang gorgeous & we couldn't of picked a better day to soak in the city. 

i still look around when i'm there in awe of all God did to get us there. it was a long hard crazy road for sure, but one that stretched us & shaped us. it is definitely one of my favorite treats in life to watch my husband in his element at the fire station now. i felt pretty cool being next to a local celebrity at the park ;) plus, good lawd is he a looker in that uniform. ye-ow. makes me incredibly grateful that tim gets to work somewhere he loves & enjoys. thank you, Jesus!

until next time, santa monica! stay weird (like me!) & beautiful!

ps. i blogged this from my phone & now the pics are all wonky & driving me crazy pants. ahs well ;)

first grade.

the day before school started we went out on one last adventure.
the girls had been begging to go on a beach bike ride, so away we went.
little did we know we'd ride 5 miles from bolsa chica to huntington beach & 5 miles back.
10 whole miles! what.
the girls did so great. well, other than those 2 people ellie hit going down a hill. bah!
but seriously, great! a dang good day.

and then the day we'd been dreading for months.
we wanted the first grade part, just dreaded the whole waking up early part.
we're doing okay, too! we're alive! and up early! like a whole new worrrrrrld. sing with me... :)

and then that night, we had our annual back to school, fancy, shmancy dinner.
i burned the dinner, but we sure did laugh a lot. and my brownies were delicious. heh.

FIRST GRADE!
how...
why...
who...
hold me.

also, 3 blog posts in a day! a record!
i have so many more.
maybe tomorrow.
maybe not.
xo

the summer fire fighter olympics.

okay, so, i'm way behind on catching up thee ol' blog.

and now that i've lost my phone & a bunch of pics, i do solemnly swear, to post more of our days.

then i'll at least have them here, right?

right.

make me blog, darnit!

let's start with the summer olympics.

every summer, the ca firefighters host a big olympic event with all kinds of sports.

it lasts a whole week & everyone usually stays at the host hotel & has lots of fun together!

this year it was at the harbor in beautiful san diego.

tim played ice hockey (duh), roller hockey (double duh), and filled in for softball here & there.

here's what i want to remember in pics...

santa monica, representin!

our room view! pinch!

audrey lost a tooth. another vacation tooth! makin' that toothfairy work!

a lot of car napping for eden. which meant a lot of car-sitting for momma.

breakfast dates with a&e's favorite friends.

tim's grandpa & mom came to watch one of the games :)

this pic has a story (thank you, audrey, for this lovely candid shot, btw). when tim & i were dating, he wanted to take me on  a whale watching trip. i was so afraid of getting seasick, so he stopped & bought me some dramamine. we had some time to kill before the boat took off, so we walked around balboa park for a bit. well, long story short, we never made it to whale watching. i fell hard asleep under a tree right behind this pic. FOR TWO HOURS. darn dramamine straight knocked me out! haha. he loves to tell me this story. funny, tim.

the girls talked tim into renting one of these bike things. little did we know that IT WAS HARRRRD. holy workout people. but come on with eden in the front! ding!ding!

the prettiest sidewalks you ever did see. magical! i want these in my someday house.

we ended the trip with a day at coronado. perfection.

i honestly still can't believe we're a part of this fire family some days. it's still surreal to me after all the years it took for tim to get here. a lot of tears, and heartache, and waiting what felt like forever makes moments like these insanely humbling. God has blessed tim with this job in incredible ways. he gave tim the desire of his heart & we are forever thankful!

next up, a&e's birthday! (well, what's left on my phone anyway. boohoo.)