Strawberry Fields Forever

We went to the U-Pick Strawberry Fields in Carlsbad with Grammy, and had so much fun! You pay to pick a bucket full of berries, and then are turned loose in the fields to choose your own berries--we went for the reddest, ripest, plumpest, biggest berries we could find. There were so many amazing berries in the fields that we could have filled up the bucket within the first two feet of our row. None of us could resist sampling a few berries along the way--especially Mr. Parker, who seemed to have yet another strawberry in his mouth (and all over his face, hands, and sweatshirt) every time I turned around! They were truly the best strawberries I have ever tasted--shows what a difference it makes to eat truly ripe, fresh fruit. We totally overloaded our bucket--we just couldn't stop ourselves from picking because there were so many great berries to choose from--and didn't realize that our shoes were absolutely caked in mud and strawberry mush until after we climbed back in our car! But it was totally worth it--so much fun!

Christmas in Sedona

We spent Christmas '09 in Sedona, Arizona with my mom and dad--it was fun to get away to such a beautiful place for a few days, and we managed to bring Christmas along with us! We brought a little fake tree that we decorated when we got to the hotel room, and made sure to have Parker put out milk and cookies for Santa before bedtime on Christmas Eve. We also ran out onto the balcony in the cold, cold darkness to look up into the Sedona sky in search of Santa's sleigh--as soon as we looked up, I saw a shooting star, which I figure must be a sure sign that he was on his way. Parker finally fell asleep around midnight, which meant that Jared could finally get up and put the presents under the tree and in Parker's stocking! I woke up excitedly around 6:30 on Christmas morning, and kept staring at Parker, who was sleeping so soundly, until we finally woke him up and coaxed him into checking to see if Santa had come in the night! It was a fun Christmas this year, since we had been talking up all of the fun Santa things in the last couple of months--Parker is finally old enough to have made it through Christmas without being totally oblivious to all of the excitement. We were happy to be able to spend Christmas with family this year (we were in Mexico the last two Christmases), and are so thankful to both my mom and dad for helping us have such a wonderful holiday! It was a really special time (Sarah Palin book and all...).

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 :)

A Trip to the Aquarium

We had a fun, sunny afternoon a couple weekends ago with Grammy and Grandpa at the Scripps Aquarium in La Jolla! We got there just in time to catch the shark feeding, and saw so many cool and crazy looking fish. Parker wasn't exactly thrilled with being thrown into a giant shark's jaws for a photo-op at first, but we got him to smile in there the second time around...and no, that lobster isn't real! After we had our fill of fish we headed up to the Torrey Pines Gliderport for a yummy lunch and beautiful view of the ocean; the wind wasn't right for gliding that day, so we didn't get to amuse ourselves by watching any insane people throw themselves off of a cliff. Hopefully next time.

Beach Bunnies

Grammy joined us for some relaxing fun in the sun today...it certainly didn't feel like the day before the start of November! We all had fun digging our toes in the sand and enjoying the cold water and sea breeze. Thanks for playing with us today, Grammy!

Bates Nut Farm

We had a fun family day at Bates Nut Farm out near Escondido--they have a crazy pumpkin patch/Halloween carnival there through the whole month of October! Grandma Chris (Grammy) has been here visiting, so she got to join us as we met up with Mimi, Niki, Diana, Grayson, Jim, Kristina, and Lanea! The kids all had so much fun--Parker was happy all day long, right up until bedtime. He was definitely on a little-kid carnival high. He got to pet animals (although he stuck his thumb in his mouth seconds after petting the pig...and yes, those are tears on his face as Grammy tries to explain to him that baby animals are not scary), fly down a giant bouncy slide with Mommy, chow down on carne asada tacos, go for a tractor ride, and feed goats. Whew!