How I Spent My Blogger Vacation

Do you remember in elementary school when one of the first journal assignments coming back from summer break was to write about what you did over the summer?  {How can you compile three months of freedom in a twenty minute exercise?}  Inevitably there would be at least one student in the class who would exaggerate way beyond belief.  Because, really, who can go to Disney Land, Sea World, Kings' Island, Alaska AND Australia all in one summer?

So, yeah, I took a little blogger vacation.  And it was nice.  No uploading pictures, no "watching" tv with a computer on my lap....just spending time with my family.  And, so now I'll play a little catch-up.

We saw Ray LaMontagne & David Gray at a really cool venue, The Santa Barbara Bowl.  

The guys are so different, but both put on AMAZING shows.

We went to our Labor Day picnic in our neighborhood and Olivia had a blast. 

She went in the bounce house twice and held her own with the other {older} kids.

And she learned to say "Bow Bow Bow" for bounce.

Phew, all that bouncing made her thirsty.

Look at her mixed in with all of those older kids?!  She is such a little social butterfly!

We headed up to Palo Alto on Tuesday evening for a couple of installs.  We have found a great hotel up there with a kitchen, dining room and a separate bedroom for us and it is so much better for Olivia's sleeping!  Our friends Dave & Alissa were just a few blocks away dog-sitting SEVEN dogs and so of course we had to stop by for a visit.

Add Magnum into the mix and that makes EIGHT.  

Talk.about.craziness.

Another few blocks from our hotel is the cutest little park...there is a choo choo train, two sets of swings, a play house, and three climbing structures with slides.  {Cue slide pictures...}

So...

Stinkin'...

CUTE!

I love that he is such a kid with her.

And, speaking of being a kid....one evening we headed over to Malibu Castle for a little putt-putt, batting cages and arcade games.

Almost a hole-in-one.

She loves giving kisses.

He may have beat me in putt-putt, but I kicked his little butt in slow pitch softball.

For real.

Can you even stand it?

While we waited on David to finish up one of the installs, Olivia and I played beauty shop.

First real ponytail!  

{It lasted all of 30 seconds.}

But, first real ponytail!!!

We were heading home on Saturday, but made a quick stop in Mountain View for lunch and stumbled upon a street festival.  We are suckers for those.  Turns out it was the Wine and Art Festival and we had strolled through that one when we were up in Palo Alto a couple weeks before.  This cute little booth wasn't in Palo Alto though!

It was so nice coming home on Saturday and having an extra day at home to just relax.  I think we watched three episodes of Project Runway and didn't do much of anything else.

Sure wish I had gotten one of these in though....

Happy Monday from the Central Coast!