Happy New Year (eekkksss....just a little late with that greeting). Life is good here in California, despite the drought and the few minor earthquakes. We are just keeping busy with the girls' school, their activities, Patrick's travel schedule, sweet puppy Hershey and then just daily living stuff. There never seems like a shortage of things to do. I am quite proud of myself that I finally (as of 2 days ago) have all of my photo albums up to date, however I now think it seems redundant to do a Shutterfly hard copy album, as well as the blog, so moving forward I am just going to do the blog. I love that you can get the blogs printed off. I started doing this in 2010 and just finished another one for August 2012-December 2013. As you can see, I am on an organizational mission. This always happens when Patrick travels for any length of time. He has been away for a full week now (China and Japan for work and then the weekend in Cabo for a friend's 40th), so instead of moping about, I get down to business and work on my "to do" list.
People always ask me how I cope with him traveling. After 15 years of being together, I always tell people that you get used to it and it is just our reality. It is what it is and we just all get on with it. In life, I always try to look at the positives/advantages in every situation. When he travels, I don't need to worry about what to make him for dinner, I don't need to coordinate our schedules, I get lots of projects done and I have to/want to be "on" 100 percent (no sharing of parental duties), so have way more quality time with the girls. I know other friends would say, "I get to watch what I want on tv" but I don't watch much tv :). For him, he doesn't have to try to balance home and work and he gets to work out every day.
We started off the new year by driving up to San Luis Obispo to pick up Hershey from the breeder there. He was 11 weeks old when we got him.
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| the girls with their Christmas gifts for him |
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| him with Jaeda at Sienna's basketball practice |
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| the girls downtown Santa Barbara |
It still cracks me up to see Patrick holding Hershey. For those of you who have known him a long time, you will know that he never ever wanted a dog. He used to cross the street if he saw a dog coming. He was knocked over by a sheep dog when he was a toddler and was nervous around dogs ever since. Once the girls started begging for a dog, it didn't take him long before he gave in.
Our first week with Hershey (him loving my Christmas present.....new pots and pans)
Jaeda's 4th grade class presenting at assembly what they love about Crane Country Day School.
Sienna and some of her friends performing "Let It Go" from Frozen at Spotlight at Friday assembly.
Sienna before her swim lesson at Montecito Country Club
Patrick's Uncle Jim and Kelly came to Santa Barbara from Texas and we had a wonderful visit with both of them (thank you so much for coming to see us and hopefully we can see you more often now).
Hershey at 14 weeks
Sienna's class presenting the skyscrapers that they built.
Silly puppy at 14 weeks
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| he LOVES the girls pillows on the floor |
That is a wrap for January.
At the beginning of February, Mom/Nana came to visit. We had a wonderful visit. Fortunately, she happened to be here for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. We were able to get tickets to see Oprah speak and receive an award, as well as Robert Redford on another evening.
Puppy play dates
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| with Boots |
with Oslo
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| with Jesper Our first walk on the beach, since he finally had all of his shots (15 weeks)    |
Girls' Saturday basketball games
Out for a walk with the girls, Hershey and Mom/Nana. Look how tall our babies are getting!!
Jaeda's class went to Storyteller (a Children's Center that provides education for homeless and at risk children) for a couple of hours to help the children make Valentine's cards for their families. We couldn't take any photos when we were inside. Here is a photo of Jaeda with a few of her friends before we went inside.
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| girls carrying fruit for snack |
For each holiday, parents volunteer to provide a class party. Here are some photos from the Valentine's Day class parties.
Jaeda singing in the choir with the local Youth Symphony.
Hershey at 17 weeks
Jaeda dressed up for Rendezvous (a full morning of hands on experiential activities to celebrate the culmination of the Mountain Man studies that they did)
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oh how he loves the girls' rooms |
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| 17 weeks |
The girls ran a 5k. Jaeda ran the whole way and Sienna did a walk/run. It was organized through the owner of the boot camp that I belong to. It was a fundraiser for local schools.
Sienna before her tennis lesson
A few photos from the puppy training school that we did for 6 weeks with Hershey.
Only celebrity news for this time period was:
-seeing Kevin Costner out for lunch, when I was eating lunch with a friend in Montecito (Tre Lune)
-having my hair done next to Chynna Phillips (was a member of Wilson Phillips)
Think that is about it for February.
March absolutely flew by. I just don't know where the month went. We had a super fun filled month. It started off with Patrick's sister, brother-in-law Jay and their 2 children, Finley and Adelle coming to visit us. We picked them up at LAX and we drove to Santa Monica, where we stayed for the weekend. We had an amazing time together!!! Sorry about all of the photos.....I just couldn't myself and these are only a small number of the amount of took :)
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| 19 weeks |
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| Venice beach |
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| view of Santa Monica Pier from Loews Hotel |
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| the Grove |
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| Chinese Theater Hollywood Walk of Fame |
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| Hop on/Hop off bus |
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| Rodeo Drive |
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| Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica |
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| on our walk back to the hotel |
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| heading to the Pier to go on the rides |
Heading back to Santa Barbara on the PCH
In Santa Barbara exploring all of the great things to do...top of the list is McConnells
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| a little volleyball in our backyard |
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| view from the Riviera |
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| view of Leadbetter beach from Shoreline |
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| Finley and Adelle playing in the sand while we eat at Shoreline Cafe |
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| dolphins swimming by while we ate lunch |
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| a dolphin following this paddle boarder |
A few photos below from Butterfly Beach
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Some photos below of our dinner at Padero Beach Grill
Some photos along the beach after we finished dinner.
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| dolphins swimming by |
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| Jaeda teaching Finley how to make a rainbow loom bracelet |
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| nice view from the campus of UCSB |
Fun at our house...climbing trees, swinging on the swings, playing a little basketball
The 4 of us went out for cocktails and then to dinner
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| El Encanto for drinks |
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| San Ysidro for dinner |
Patrick and I went to Las Vegas for a weekend. There was a charity event the first night. Cirque du Soleil does an annual fundraiser to fight poverty worldwide by supporting access to water. Performers from 8 of the Cirque shows come together to put on an incredible production. The second night, we went to see the Michael Jackson ONE Cirque du Soleil show. It was the second time we had seen it and it was just as amazing as the first time. Here are a few of the people that we got to see.
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| the Tenors |
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| Siegfried and Roy |
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| Guy Laliberte (founder of Cirque from Montreal) |
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| Criss Angel and Robin Leach from "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" (his son Gregg was our real estate agent in Santa Barbara) |
Here are a few photos from the after party.
Here are a few photos from our second night there....yes, a little cheesy and a bit posed but thought they were still kinda sweet, especially the one where Patrick is laughing :)
The girls had 2 weeks off for spring break. The first week they went to a gymnastics camp for 4 days. Highlight for them was that Charlie from the tv show, "Good Luck Charlie" was in the camp with them. The rumor is that she is coming to the girls' school in September and that so is, Sawyer's daughter (he was an actor in the tv show "Lost). I will keep you posted in the fall :)
The first weekend of spring break, we took the girls to Rancho Mirage; just outside of Palm Springs. 2 out of 3 of the nights were free because it was a gift voucher we were given last year when I went to the Ellen Show with my 2 Jen friends from Canada. We also got to take Hershey and he did very well.
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| on the way |
On the way home, we conquered our first sand storm
Check out these wind turbines. They convert wind energy into mechanical energy, which is then used to produce electricity. There are 2700.
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| Hershey at 23 weeks |
Thank you for reading. Please be sure to email us your news. I LOVE hearing from all of you about what you are up to. It is what helps us to feel connected still, since we don't get to see you in person very often. Writing the blog always makes me feel happy and grateful for our experiences but it also makes me sad that we aren't living closer to all of you. Much love, Erin and family xoxo
