Aunt Lala and Ski Week!

My Aunt Laura came to visit us last week, all the way from Indiana! It was her first time out to California in about eight years, so it was high time. We were glad to have her and the girls were so excited to have a new playmate. ;-) Ginger named her "Aunt Lala" (or maybe that's just because that's how she pronounces Laura)...anyway, the name stuck!



Baby Violet is now 3 months old and is bursting out of her clothes. This outfit is 3-6 months and it's already too short. Time flies.

This week (on Friday morning), Violet rolled over for the first time! Aunt Lala was here, and we both saw Violet do it. Truthfully, she probably would have rolled sooner, but I rarely lay her down on the floor to try. Whoops! Since Friday, she's rolled a gazillion times. Next stop, crawling. She is already almost there. Sob!

Paprika was out of school all last week. They call it "Ski Week" - which is really just a fancy way of saying that they get the week of President's Day off. I guess so many families took vacations that week that the school decided to close (they miss out on tax dollars for every day students are absent).

We took advantage of the vacation and went up to Santa Barbara for a few days and stayed with Grandma Pat. My computer is broken, so I stole these photos off my Aunt Laura's Facebook page since I can't transfer my photos off my camera to my computer. None of the photos you're seeing on this blog post have been edited at all. (And that is rare for me...haha). Even without the magic of Photoshop, Santa Barbara is gorgeous. Wouldn't you say?



On this day (Thursday), we went to a butterfly sanctuary with thousands of Monarch butterflies. It was amazing! Once I get my computer up and running and can get the photos from my camera, I will have to post the pictures because it was sooooo incredible. It was one of my favorite things I've done this year, and I want to go back again (and again).

After we saw the butterflies, we hiked out to the beach. It was a gorgeous, sunny day.

Ginger was in a mood that day and didn't want to walk, or wear clothes, or shoes. Thankfully, I had the Ergo with me, so I put her on my back and carried her. Of course, I already had Violet on the front in the Baby Bjorn. It was a double baby wearing day! Violet was nursing and napping off and on the whole time, which made things kinda tricky. But it worked out! (P.S. This is not a flattering photo of me, but I had to post it anyway because I was pretty proud of myself for hiking while wearing two kids! Haha)



We had a great trip up in Santa Barbara, and Grandma Pat was a wonderful hostess (thank you, Pat!!!) After a few days, we came back to our house and hit the beach once again. We spent time walking on the Strand and looking at all the beach houses, big and small.

Come to think of it, I think every day that Laura was here, we ended up at the beach. Nothing like having someone from Indiana visit to make you appreciate the beach. I remember how amazing the ocean was to me when I first moved to California (from Indiana, 12 years ago). So, it was awesome to see the beach through Laura's eyes and not take it for granted like: oh, there is my same old stretch of sand. (not that I take it for granted, but you know what I mean...)



And another upside to having Laura here? A built-in photographer. I think I got more pictures this week of the five of us than I have since Baby Violet was born! Aunt Lala went home on Saturday, and we miss her already! Paprika goes back to school tomorrow, so it's back to the routine. But our Ski Week sure was fun!





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