Santa Barbara

Jared had a fishing tournament in Santa Barbara this weekend, so we all loaded into the car and drove up the coast for a fun and relaxing weekend! We enjoyed dinner on the pier--accompanied by a beautiful sunset--playtime at some really nice parks, rock-throwing time at the beach, and some delicious food (Indian food for dinner and crepes for breakfast)! Parker and I cruised around town and relaxed in our nice hotel room (thanks Mom and Dad!) while Jared fished on Saturday, then we all spent the rest of the weekend together. It was a perfect mini-getaway for all of us!

First Skateboarding Lesson

Quail Botanical Gardens

Grammy and Grandpa have been in Carlsbad for the last week, and we managed to fit in a visit to the Quail Botanical Gardens today before they head back to Montana! Parker showed us all of the cool things there are to play with in the special Children's Garden, where he and Mimi had played about a week ago. We all really enjoyed the gardens, but it was hot hot HOT today! So we're looking forward to making many trips back in the future...especially on nice cool mornings! Parker played on "drums," climbed up the tree house, built a "store" where he sold food, and dug in the sand with tractors. We also checked out lots of pretty plants, and he was quick to point out the cork trees for us, explaining that that's where corks in wine bottles come from! He's quite the good learner :)

Casting

We went fishing in the Carlsbad lagoon yesterday evening...didn't catch anything, but Parker got some good practice in with casting his new pole!

Just Cuz He's Cool

Jump!

I guess this is what Parker's crib is good for now that he sleeps in his red bed all the time!

P-A-R-K-E-R

One of the "tasks" that Parker had to accomplish in order to earn his new skateboard was to learn how to spell his name. It took about a day, but he got it! Now if only he can learn how to write his name...

Just Cuz He's Cute

He looks so grown up here!

First Skateboard

While driving by a skate park in San Diego this week, Parker said that he hoped some day he might have his own skateboard, too! So Jared made up a list of things that Parker needed to do in order to earn a new skateboard, and pulled some strings at work, and once we had checked off (almost) everything on the list, Parker became the proud owner of his first kid-sized skateboard! He was pretty excited to try it out on the grass (don't worry, we have a helmet for him, too, and he'll just be playing around on it on the grass for a while!)--here are some cool "action" shots of him doing "tricks."