"Aligornia"

Last week, our little family got on a jet plane and headed West, to the great state of California.  Or, "Aligornia" as Addison says.

One of Danny's BFFs lives in Santa Barbara (!!! you thought only celebrities lived there!), and it's been five years since we went to visit him.  We had an amazing time that first trip, but for some reason this time it was plain perfect.  Last time we stayed in a house with something like 16 people, and slept on an air mattress in a teensy bedroom with 4 people crammed in.  Trust me, we had a great time (and still laugh about it!), and that's what young married folks without kids do - sleep wherever and just roll with it.

THIS time though, we have a toddler, so the sleeping arrangements had to be a bit more conventional, and we were on a nap schedule, people.  You would think a 20 month old would be a liability when traveling on a longish flight and changing time zones and all that, but she actually it made the trip about 1,000 times better - it's so fun to share adventures with your kid!

Back up for a second.  So the flights weren't my favorite.  About halfway through the flight over, Danny and I looked at each other with saucer-eyes and didn't have to say a word:  What the heck were we thinking??  Just imagine a 25-pound bony octopus on caffeine pills, flailing unpredictably, jumping directly on your hips and legs and elbowing you in the face.  For five hours.  Oh, and the octopus only wants "Mommy.  Mommy.  Momm-yyyy!!!"  I actually had bruises for about 5 days.

So we made it, and even though the crazed octopus Addison was awake for EIGHTEEN STRAIGHT HOURS and didn't fall asleep on the 4 hour drive to the airport or the 5 hour flight to LA or the 2 hour drive to Santa Barbara, she did fall asleep once we reached our house (at 1:30 am Eastern time...how's that for a Healthy Sleep Habits day??) and from that point on transitioned flawlessly to west coast time.  Starting the next day she napped and went to bed like a champ and slept even more than she does while at home.  Go figure.  (worth noting and being thankful: she stayed pleasant that whole first day, even by the end of the night.  Check this pic from In N Out... about 15 hours into our travels)

Why spend all this time talking about her sleep?  Because if you're a parent, you know it's kinda the new normal to worry about vacations.  What a bummer to WORRY about vacation!  But it's hardly a relaxing getaway if the baby won't sleep because she's in a new place, and you all spend the week like zombies.  Kid low on sleep - no fun for you!  If you're not a parent, just go to your local church nursery at about 12:30pm if the sermon is going late, and you'll see what I'm talkin about.

But I'm thrilled to say we all slept great all week, and that was just part of why we had such a fantastic time.  On to the dream vacation:

We got to stay in a HOUSE.  By ourselves, because the family (who has THREE GIRLS) was out of town.  Three girls!  Imagine the dolls, the girly pink toys!!  Addison was in heaven.  She had her own room with a crib, and every other baby gear thing you could need (BOB stroller, high chair... I really mean everything). 

We adults loved the house too, and marveled over how clean and organized it was.  I'm hoping they just had it nice and tidy for leaving out of town, but something tells me that was pretty standard.  (which in turn catapulted Danny and I to spend our first weekend home tearing apart our own house, and filling bag upon bag of things to donate, and have officially embarked on Project Organize at the White House.  Ugh.)

Our week unfolded as follows...

Evening walks that looked like this:

she pretty much runs everywhere, and likes to do "on your mark, get set, GO!"

Meeting and getting lots of quality time with Cata, Chris's girlfriend, who is my long-lost Latina hermana.  Whenever the boys left we would switch over to conversations in Spanish... ayyyy I'm rusty but it was so good for my heart.  How I wish we lived closer so I could spend more time with this girl!

nice stache, amigo.

Trips to the beach:

 Surfing almost every day for the boys:

 Me facing my fears and surfing for the the first time (and loving it):

More trips to the beach.. have I mentioned how obsessed Addison is with water??

 These two together at the beach is really too much.  I couldn't narrow down this photo sequence any more.  I'm sorry.

We even managed to grab a few family shots:

I think if we could've skipped boarding the flight home, we would've stayed forever.  The family whose house we were in might've though that a little strange, but I'm sure we would've grown on them.

A huge thanks to them for generously opening their home to strangers, Chris and Cata for being great hosts, and to our friends (who I'll keep anonymous so as not to embarrass) who gave us tons of airline mile vouchers to make purchasing our flights possible.  This was a much-needed, fun time away for us, and I'm so grateful for the chance to have gone.

Now, when can we go back???