san diego II

on friday clara and i went to san diego so here is the play-by-play of our vacation. of course it will include plenty of pictures.

day 1: friday, june 1st
we left a little before lunch time and clara wasn't super happy on the trip over. i think since she's started to roll all over the place she doesn't appreciate being confined to her carseat. i try to explain to her that if i could, i would take her out, but i don't think she quite understands. we made pretty good time getting there. this is her 2nd san diego trip and i'm sure there are plenty more ahead. this time we stayed with nikki, one of my best friends from when i lived there. we've been friends since the summer before 3rd grade, so we were 8 years old. i love her and love the fact that we both have little girls. when i first got there, we set clara and brooklynn, nikki's little girl, on the floor. we laughed because all they did was stare at each other and then clara tried to poke her eyes out so we had to monitor their play time. after we visited a bit, had dinner and cleaned up clara's best ever blow out, we went to my friend saleah's parent's house. saleah is my other best friend from san diego and now that she lives in idaho, i have seen her once since she got married. so when i heard she'd be in town, that was my main motive in coming to san diego by myself for the weekend. we had a nice little visit with her, but had to get our kids in bed so back to nikki's we went. i decided i'd stay until tuesday instead of monday.

day 2: saturday, june 2nd
today while i was trying to get ready clara decided she'd start screaming. braun had brooklynn and said, i can handle them both, you just get ready. before i got ready, i had to get a picture. i'd say clara looks a wee bit concerned about what is happening, but hey, i was able to get ready!
today we had lunch and then went shopping. we ate at panera, only my second time there. the first was in kansas city and i'm pretty sure they need one here in arizona. it is excellent food. i learned that nordstrom has a wonderful mother's lounge to feed the babies in. now i need to find out if our nordstroms here have one. we found the cutest little sunglasses for our girls. when i first put them on clara, she tried to take them off but after that, she just let me leave them on and i took picture after picture. brooklynn was not into the glasses, but still looked cute in them.while i was in gap, clara decided to kick her pacifier out of her stroller without me knowing it. she was super fussy, so when i went to give it to her and couldn't find it, i got pretty nervous. her pacifiers are really bouncy so on the floor i got looking under the fixtures. luckily i found it pretty quick. just as we were leaving the mall, both of the babies fell asleep. it is exhausting being a baby, i'm sure of it. after that we went to visit with saleah again. when we got to her house, i went to put some chocolate i bought at see's in my diaper bag and nikki said, "you can tell you are from az b/c you think you can't leave chocolate in the car." i asked, "it won't melt in the car?" nikki told me no so i put it in her console next to her's. when we came out, hmmm, it had melted. but that's not the funny part... after saleah's house, we went to swing by nikki's parent's. we passed them on the road so we both stopped to visit across the road. i told nikki's parents that nikki learned that even though we don't live in arizona, chocolate will still melt if left in a car. as nikki went to laugh, she hit her forehead on her steering wheel. HA! it was really funny and i'm pretty sure it was sore the next day. okay, at saleh's we got some cute pictures of our three little girls together. all three of our girls were born within 6 months. brooklynn was born in september, clara in december and lindynn in march. during our little photo shoot we realized clara is a bit of a bully (an awfully cute one though). first she started out laying on poor little lindynn. then she leaned over and was grabbing brooklynn's clothes, her mouth, you name it. of course she was smiling all the while.
day 3: sunday, june 3rd today was a most typical sunday: church and relaxing. clara's new thing is screeching like a raptor. it is very ear-piercing and sudden and can be pretty entertaining, unless of course it is during sacrament meeting. so today, she was sure to let a few of her screeches out at less-than-the-best times. it is funny because nikki's bishop is my good friend karen's brother. we worked together at cbiz. what a small world (we knew this, but it was fun to finally meet him).

day 4: monday, june 4th
today we went to the beach and had a great time. nikki had this little baby hut thing that we decided to put the girls in so they wouldn't get in the sand and they wouldn't get burned. it worked for about 2 seconds. clara rolled over smashing her face into the side and brooklynn just couldn't figure out what was going on. later nikki decided it would be funny if we got in the tent. i went first, she took some pictures, then she decided that was funny enough and she didn't need to make a fool of herself like i had. it was a little chilly so we didn't stay long, but clara loved it nonetheless. i put her feet in the freezing water and she loved it. then i put her feet on the wet sand and she dug them straight down and then was kicking and loving every second. when i laid her on the towel, she pulled the towel up to her and reached out and when she touched the hand with her sand, she loved feeling it. it was funny.
after the beach and getting showered, i went and met emily and her kids, alexis and justin, at outback. it was fun seeing them, especially since i was able to see them just a few months ago. it's a shame that all my family can't live on the same street. i love my family and don't see my sisters that live out of state enough. all three of them wanted to hold clara so i'm glad clara's cousins and aunts love her!
when i was done with dinner i headed back to nikki's parents where we indulged in a chocolate fountain evening. braun, nikki's husband, is working for sephra. they make chocolate fountains and loan them to employees. i love chocolate fountains and just sat around it and ate for hours. later saleah came over and we got a really cute picture of the three of us but saleah has threatened me if i post it on here. she didn't have make up on, but she still looks beautiful so i'm not sure what she's worried about. maybe i should just put it on here because who knows if she will ever even see this! :) it was really fun because the three of us had a nice little chat and it felt like the good ole' days. we also decided we are going to go to new york next summer without our kids. hopefully it will actually happen and i will get over the guilt i am already feeling of leaving my kid.
we didn't get home until late and then nikki and i stayed up even later chatting until around 230am. let me tell you, that is about the smartest thing you can do when your baby wakes up at 630am. it was fun to talk and we both reminisced about the labor and births of our daughters. i wish i could package those feelings up somehow so i never forget because i have not been able to find words adequate to describe any of it. i also thought a lot about how much i love clara. having a kid to me brought a whole new dimension of the meaning of love in my life. i just can't imagine life without her and feel like i can't waste a minute of enjoying her sweet spirit. it made me want to go get her out of bed and just hold her. time just flies by and i never want to get to a point and feel like i should have held her more when she was small. nikki convinced me to stay another day too... if only we lived closer.


day 5: tuesday, june 5th
we went to a place called shinoda's today. it is like a wholesale warehouse for florists. it was neat. i got lots of ribbon and flowers to make large obnoxious headbands for clara. i've also thought about selling them because they are so freaking cute. anyone that wants to buy one, let me know. they are great gifts and hard to find. after that we went to costco, michael's, wal mart, and joann's. sheesh! that's a lot of shopping with two babies. i started feeling bad that clara had been in her seat for so long and she's be in there all day coming home, so i carried her around in the last three stores, that was fun. something happened in wal mart that had nikki and me laughing our heads off and i realized, that's when you know you have a good friend: when you can have such a fun time simply by going into a wal mart. anyway, it was a fun day. we came home and did dinner, put our kiddos to sleep, i packed a bit and then we made some headbands.

day 6: wednesday, june 6th
parting is such sweet sorrow. i had such a great time seeing my friends and family but it was time to go home. i very much appreciated her and braun's hospitality. nikki said i could stay as long as i wanted but the truth is, we were running out of clothes. nikki said she had a washing machine, but i don't know if i can believe that. :) no, it was time to go home like it or not. there will be plenty more trips and i need to find a way to convince nikki to come out here. it is not that bad of a drive. we'll see if it happens. we stopped in yuma for gas and i decided i had to use the restroom. well, what do you do with a 5 month old when you are traveling alone and you need to use the restroom? you hold her in one hand and do everything else with the other, of course! it's not easy and it takes about twice as long, but at least i didn't have to set her or anything she owned anywhere in a public restroom. up until yuma, clara was being a pretty big turkey and screaming a lot. but i think i realized she likes a blanket. i gave her a blanket and she slept almost the entire three hours after yuma. so we made it home safe and i already miss san diego. i just love the weather.

so there you have, my weekend review. :)