We enjoyed some very summer-like weather out in the sticks this last week. Complete with a dip in the kiddie pool of course.

I know this photo is blurry but I love it so…

Yes, I totally drank my chocolate iced coffee in the kiddie pool. Them’s the perks of being a full-time mom.

My Dad grilled for lunch and dinner… it was so nice. He even let me grill some apricot halves I had a hankering for after reading this post. You should try it. They were DELICIOUS! Just like little bites of apricot cobbler. Mmmmmmmm!!!

Then I kidnapped my niece for a few days of fun at the beach. Nobody appreciates the surf more than a twelve-year-old from the desert. She and her boogie board are best buddies.

And of course Bug was all over the beach days as well…

The water is perfect right now. If I didn’t have a little kid to watch with my eagle eyes, I would swim out past the buoys and just float with the pull of the ocean. I love doing that. One of these days I’ll do that again…when I teach Bug how to swim! Maybe this summer, I hope.

If you’re looking for a place to vacation, I can’t recommend my beach enough. I’ve lived here fifteen years and I still love it. I wish I could offer my house as a bed and breakfast but sadly, that’s not possible. And of course hotels around here are super expensive. But I hear if you’re diligent you can get good deals in Laguna Beach… anyway, here’s to summertime! I hope you enjoy it wherever you are at!

Bug and I are arguing over which picture she wants to show you. I want the funny bunny face one (it’s my blog so I win) and she wanted this one:

So Happy Easter from both of us! And now we must rush off and get ready for church!

We had such a nice Valentine’s Day. We’re not really into chocolate and roses in this family. We don’t even go for jewelry or electronics but we do have one tradition that I love love love. And that is that the girls get to pick out their own flowers from the flower stand that I used to work at so long ago. I love that little flower stand.

Bug knew exactly what she wanted. She bee-lined it for the sunflowers and completely ignored any of my suggestions. She didn’t want pink roses or any fancy lilies that smell good. She wanted a yellow sunflower, a pink gerber daisy and some green button mums. Nothing else would do. (The picture on the right is of her holding a bouquet for her Grandma Pat who we visited the next day.)

Maybe she had been planning out that bouquet for months as we stroller by this particular flower stand quite frequently. I’m always telling her that we can’t buy flowers today but we will on Valentine’s Day so she has been looking forward to this for a very long time.

Valentine’s Day did not disappoint. It is so fun to pick out your own flowers! I’d trade a thousand boring grocery store pre-made bouquets for my own simple handpicked bundle of hydrangeas, peach roses, ranunculus and lavender sprigs. But I think what really made our day was the silly red sequined plastic heart that Toby bought Bug for a $1.75. That silly heart made her so happy.

I thought that was the end of our Valentine festivities but Toby suggested a little family outing after we finished up with the flowers. Flowers and an adventure? Bring it on! We quickly put our flowers in a watering can on our patio and then piled into the van for a little trip to the beach. Not just any beach though. We were off to the beach of BIG WAVES!

Maybe you’ve heard of The Wedge. It’s a pretty famous surf spot where the waves come in and then bounce off the jetty over top the waves that are still coming in. That probably doesn’t make sense but just imagine two waves crossing each other and the mayhem of water and power that that can create. It can get pretty exciting, especially after a storm. People die there all the time surfing in the dangerous conditions.

It turned out that the waves weren’t very big on Valentine’s Day but it was still a fun place to spend some family time. Bug could have cared less about the waves. She just wanted to climb all over the jetty rocks and play in the sand. We could have dropped her off in a sandbox in Anaheim and she probably would have been just as happy. But that’s okay. Family time together is always good no matter where it is and hey, I got to watch the body boarders and skim-boarders. That was fun for me.

Anytime with Toby is special time.

We even squeezed in a sunset. Not a bad Valentine’s Day at all.