Deer Valley Weekend Extravaganza

Since we've been diligently working on perfecting the art of staycationing this year, we've been uber-clued into watching for good local deals. So when a weekend in Deer Valley popped up on our radar, we jumped on it faster than you can say do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do!

We used CJ's birthday as the perfect excuse, because that's the way we roll. We like to celebrate birthdays for a good week around here. We're fun like that.

Lucky for us, some of our besties jumped on it too and we all got to enjoy a much needed just-close-enough-yet-secluded-enough-to-feel-far-away kind of weekend getaway at the beautiful Chateaux at Silver Lake.

We spent Friday night loving every.single.minute of the delightful VonTrapp Children at the Deer Valley Music festival. I argue that the only possible thing better than feasting on a delicious picnic in a beautiful mountain setting with crisp, clear mountain air and symphony music playing is also being able to sing along to the Sound of Music favorites. A perfect combination really.

staying up waaayyy past bedtime
and loving every bit of it!

She clapped and bounced right along with the music and couldn't have loved it any more.

evidenced by this smile.

...and this one as she's lovin' her some auntie g time!

This picture is a little deceiving as she really only crashed for about 25 minutes only to wake up in a start, wondering what she had missed and ready to go again. As hard as I tried to get her to sleep, she lasted pretty much until the bitter end (and was actually delightfully happy)

We took a beautiful mid-day Saturday drive to Oakley to feast on cheeseburgers, onion rings and milk shakes at the Road Island Diner. It was well worth every single calorie.

After the second mostly failed attempt at baby naptime... we snuck in some afternoon pool time, which pretty much makes a vacation a vacation, atleast in my mind.

There's nothing sweeter than a daddy and his little girl.
Nothing.

We rounded out our nearly perfect Saturday with a beautiful and insanely delicious dinner on the patio at Cena. The setting was breathtaking, the food was delicious and the company couldn't have been better. A nearly perfect evening.

LJ was loving her some of the endless, warm Italian bread. mmm.

And just in case we weren't entertained enough with all of the copious amounts of mouth watering food, Leah kept us all laughing with her newest trick of sticking a lotion bottle (or whatever else) in her mouth and giving us the look of "Hey, do you see this...no hands. Cool, huh?". It's amazing (or embarrassing) how much I swoon over all of her cute, little proud moments... no matter how absolutely ridiculous they may be!

Unfortunately, all good weekends end sooner or later and the only thing that slightly softened the blow was one last pit stop of outdoor dining at Loco Lizard on our way down the canyon...

A pretty great weekend, indeed!

We're getting pretty good at this whole get-away thing with our new little sidekick. She's a fantastic traveller, a good sleeper, a good sport when choosing to bypass her naps and a great go-with the flow travel buddy. If she keeps this up... there may very well be a Hawaiian beach trip on the horizon!

And in the meantime... 2011-Year of the Staycation is treating us pretty alright if I do say so myself!

(and yes.... as clearly evidenced, I easily ate a weeks' worth of calories in about... oh 36 hours)

(and no.... I don't regret one single bit of it)

(and if you want to see more of our fun weekend, you can check it out here)

xox

XXXIX

Birthday Breakfast

Twins

Wheeler Farm

Summer is already half gone. Hard to believe! CJ has been working so much this summer, so when a Saturday rolled around and we had him all to ourselves... we nearly jumped for joy.

After having a lazy morning, we decided to take a field trip to Wheeler Farm and check out all the animals. The zoo so far has been a bit of a bust with Leah, as she is far more entertained by all of the kids and people than the actual animal exhibits. Getting her up close and personal however, turned out to be the difference.

We fed the sheep,

and the ducks!

And oohed and awwed at the adorable baby goats

Leah wasn't quite sure what to think about the crazy loud chickens and roosters

but this baby calf was a hit with all of us.

The cows and horses were a great grand finale...

And mostly....

I just loved having these two J's by my side.

We capped off our family playday with a late afternoon date to the Cheesecake Factory. LJ was a little (ok, alot) grumpy by then but keeping her chowing down on bread and bananas seemed to help and bought us a little time to enjoy a rare meal out. CJ and I devoured our amazing entrees and of course, took a little something sweet home for later!

And THAT my friends, are what Saturdays are supposed to be like!

it's what's for breakfast...

{green smoothies just like mama}

Honestly, I've been suprised at how much she ♥'s them and how fast she will gulp these suckers down.

Carrot Juice, Spinach, Kiwi, Yogurt, Banana & Apple Puree all in one shot.

::the breakfast of baby champions::

nine

Not only did America have a birthday... but so did this littlemiss.

9 months old.

NINE.

a lifetime matched.

I've known her longer on the outside now, than on the inside. It still seems a little surreal that she's here and that I get to be her mom.

Oh how I love her.

9 month stats:

weight - 18 lbs (28th percentile)

height - 28 inches (75th percentile)

head circumference - 45.5cm (85th percentile)

I love seeing and experiencing the world through her eyes.

I love her curiousity.

I love her big smile and her cute little 4 teeth.

I love the way she swirls her feet and waves her arms when she's excited.

I loves that she dances and bounces and wiggles when she hears music she likes.

I love that she sleeps 12 hours at night.

I love that she takes 2 good naps a day.

I love that she's normally always happy and content.

I love that she's social and loves being out and about.

I love the way she says mama and dada and hi.

I love how she claps her hands when I say YAY!

I love how she waves hi and bye-bye.

I love how much she loves her daddy.

I love that she still likes to nurse even though she LOVES food.

I love her natural mowhawk.

I love her big brown eyes.

Truth be known.... there's not much that I don't love about my sweet baby girl.

...even when she shuts me down and says "enough pictures for one day".

Happy 9 months baby girl!

I love you to the moon

...and back.

Proud to be an American

We have come to love the traditions of our great neighborhood. There is no better way to start the 4th of July than with the Annual Breakfast (and party) in the Park. This community tradition has been going for 30+ years and it seems to get bigger and better every year!!

Littlemiss loved playing in the grass and taking in all of the sights and sounds. She loved seeing all of her friends in the park and couldn't seem to get enough of the fun.

Once again, CJ was in charge of the slip and slide and did a bang-up (literally in some cases) job. The Fire Department comes to supply the water add to our patriotism. They were exceptional this year and added to all of the fun!

Even LJ got her first taste of the slip and slide...

I'm not sure she knew what to think!

After her wild ride... she was pretty content to just go back to playing in the grass and watching all the fun!

Once the party in the park was over, we went straight to enjoy a little pool time with the Duncans. The weather wasn't that great so we didn't last long... but per usual LJ loved it!

By the time we left the pool, it was waaayyy past nap time and she was so exhausted. She just couldn't keep her eyes open for the short walk home...

Not even taking her out of the stroller and unloading could rouse her...

So she and Elle went down for a nap... swimsuit and all!

She had a glorious 2+ hour nap, allowing CJ and I some time to finally get our grill put together and fired up. We've been daydreaming about outdoor cooking for a long time and we weren't about to let another day go by without getting it going!

Leah woke up and got some much needed Daddy playtime while mommy worked on our inaugural BBQ...

And it was every.single.bit as delicious as we'd been dreaming about...

And with full bellies, we jammied up, snuggled up and watched the early versions of fireworks on TV and called it a day.

And a pretty good one, if I do say so myself!