Crazy little girl

I remember my sister saying something about being afraid to have a boy because of how crazy boys are. 

My boy is not the problem.

I don't know where this little ball of spunk came from.  Guess it serves us right for naming her after not one, but two, lively grandmothers.

 

A couple days ago I had a headache and was sitting down for a few minutes.  A few minutes is all it takes for a 4 year old to get his mom's hidden stash of m&m's and feed them to his sister. So I do blame that incident on him:)

 

She loves the tub.  If Benny gets a bath and she doesn't, she will shriek and yell.  The other day this 8 month old climbed in when the tub was empty and I caught her just before her head hit the porcelain.

She hates cows.  She will make the saddest face ever if she hears "moo."  We experimented with different animals, and she was fine with all of them except the moo.  Being the mean parents we are we kept moo-ing because it was so darn cute to see her make this face.  But then she did get pretty upset so we had to stop.

 

She makes a really interesting face which we call her "sour puss face."  We aren't sure why she does it but she does it everytime we eat dinner, and sometimes just because.  To add to the funnyness of it she pants loudly through her nose while she does the face, and sometimes "things" fly out of her nose.  I know that's gross but it is the most bizarre thing.  The video is worth watching although not super clear.

 

She truly is a joy to have around.  She is one of the happiest and smiliest babies I have ever seen, when she isn't being dramatic.

Summer catch up part 2

We made it to the Oakland zoo one last time.  We hadn't been to the famous Fenton's ice cream parlor yet, so we hit that on the way home.

 

We bought 3 ice creams, one being child size.  We spent $34.

And Ellie would have rather eaten the table.

Benny and Mayumi with their A's hats from Jennifer (the friend that works for the A's)

My awesome brother in law Chad said he would like to go to a baseball game, so why doesn't he fly out and go to a game then drive our Uhaul to Utah for us?  We said ok!
This was the longest game EVER (for the A's anyway) and finally ended after 5 hours in the 15th inning.  And we were supposed to get up early and make the long drive to Utah with our 3 cars in the morning.  At least we got to be part of history, right?

It's blurry but this sign was just for Benny. It says, "Benny, have fun at the game and GO A's! Love, Jenn"

And this one I was not expecting and almost cried, what with it being our last night in Cali and all.  It says, "Dear Middletons, Good luck with your move to Utah.  We will miss you.  Jenn & Eric"

 

Moving day!  Benny got these socks at the Monday night game from Jennifer and didn't take them off until Wednesday.  Silly boy.

 

We all made good time in our cars and with just a couple small hitches pulled into Chad's driveway about 12:30am Aug 1st.

Summer catch up part 1

The past couple months have been so craaaazy. But we had some good times.  Before we left California, we had our last hurrah.  Or last hurrahs.  We made sure to have fun.

 

 A friend who works for the Oakland A's posted on facebook all the cool signs she made for her friends that attended games.  We jokingly told her Ben wanted one for his birthday but it was too late.  Well she wasn't kidding about getting a sign done, and since our anniversary was in a few days, she did one for that and told us to jump in the car and get to the game. So we did!  Benny and I enjoyed our first pro baseball game, and Ellie did great.

 

We then did a beach trip. We visited Ben's dad and stepmom in Cambria.  Things were crazy there as well since they were in the process of selling their Bakersfield home and making the permanent switch to Cambria.  We were lucky they were willing to have us over:)

 One cool thing I never knew about all these years was the San Simeon elephant seals.  No idea why I never heard they lived right by Hearst Castle.  They were big, loud, and stinky. 

Then we headed to Lompoc so I could go to the Thai Cuisine one last time.  I'm sure we'll go to Lompoc and Cambria again, but it won't be as frequent since now we live 13 our so hours away. I really wanted a good beach day, and the weather magically cooperated.  We went to Regugio a couple times (well, Benny and I did. The fair skinned ones stayed home on day two). Refugio Beach is also where Ben proposed 9 years ago. We enjoyed the freezing water, getting bitten by sand crabs, viewing sea lions and dolphins in the distance, and watching kamikaze divebombing  pelicans.

We celebrated our annversary while we were in Lompoc and had my parents watch the kids while we went to dinner.  Ellie screamed the whole time:( Needless to say we don't go on many dates.

Benny has sure enjoyed his trips to La Purisima Mission and feeding all the animals.  This longhorn's horns span about 9 feet or something.  Am I remembering that correctly?

Then we came back and started packing.  I can't remember where I was but I think I took the kids somewhere so Ben could be productive and pack.  He got a little sidetracked and texted me the below pic while I was out.

And Ben finally made it to the Bay Discovery Museum in Sausalito.  I took Benny several times when we had a pass, and I know Ben thought it sounded cool by how much I raved about it.  Benny loved being able to show his dad everything there. It really is an amazing view of the Golden Gate Bridge.