California here we come

We headed out to Santa Barbara on a Saturday afternoon and arrived very early Sunday morning. The drive went pretty well minus an incident in Las Vegas, some throwing up, and almost running out of gas somewhere around Barstow. The first day we took it easy and visited the turtles,

played at a cool park,


played in some cool trees,

and visited some very cool cousins.The next day we went up to Solvang (one of my favorite tourist stops) and hit all the highlights.

Kissing the bear,
sitting in a shoe,
buying Christmas ornaments, and eating pancakes at Paula's.
Later on in the day we went to the Santa Barbara zoo where the favorite attraction was not the otters or giraffe, but sliding down the fake grass on boxes.
We ended the day on the pier eating fish at my favorite restaurant. I just wish the family picture could have had one of us looking at the camera.

Life Goal #2, check.

This post was started by Natalie so it says that she wrote it. That is a slanderous lie. How dare you not allow me to correct this Blogger, how dare you?

I'm a little slow but this must be documented. This girl made her debut on the slopes. Didn't I just write this post about Addie? Yikes.

I don't know if you can tell from her face but she kind of liked it.

We took both girls up to Alta on the last Saturday that it was open so Lizzie could get one day in this season. If we didn't make it up that day she wouldn't have gone until she was three. That is unacceptable. Lizzie loved it as long as we were going fast. Every time we had to stop or go slow she was unhappy. When we sped up she laughed and sang. Her rendition of "Bah Bah Black Sheep" during an extended fast time brought many looks and laughs. I have to say, it really was a good version of the song.

Addie got taken off of the Racer Chaser and skied by herself on the big hill, not the rope-tow, for the first time. She was a little scared and had her share of falls but did really well considering. I did regret teaching her that falling down can slow you down if you are completely out of control. The definition of "completely out of control" is very very relative. Next lesson for Addie will include how to get up by yourself. In all honesty though she did really well and made huge steps toward being able to ski by herself.


Here is the happy family. Notice how Lizzie has one ski on and one boot without a ski. She decided to hit her skis together near the end of the lift ride. That continued until... POP, one ski was suddenly on the ground. Luckily it was right at the top of the lift so we didn't have to walk too far to get it. I don't know how many times I have heard not to do that but I have never seen anyone lose a ski. That trend is now broken.

Honestly, I don't know if many things could make me happier than pictures like these. Why didn't I go up every weekend with the girls? Mental note for next year.

And a farewell picture from the punk of the day. Life is officially good.