Another San Diego Sunday

 I guess I'm making up for some lost time, 3 posts in one week, whew!

This morning we met Pop-Pop and Grandma 'Raine for breakfast.  Although we live close, it feels like we've hardly seen them the last few months.  Breakfast was nice and Elena was super excited to see them.

 After breakfast, we headed out to our favorite beach, La Jolla Shores.  Weather forecast said a storm was coming through but only the ocean waves showed signs of the storm.  It was nice to have a morning at the quite beach.

  Of course, Elena loved taking off her shoes.  Even the parents at Elena's school know her as The Barefoot Elena.  Anytime she can wiggle her socks and shoes off, she will.  Ahh, barefoot toes in the cool sand, it feels so good!  :)

 

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Happy Spring

 We missed the Spring equinox, well I was out of town securing some professional development.  The conference was great, though I would have enjoyed my time more if I had not been sick :(  3.5 days away from home, it was my first trip away from Elena.  She was good for Carl but started acting out when I got home so we have been doing a lot of Elena and Mommy activities including bubbles!

Here are a few pictures of Elena blowing, chasing and catching bubbles.  Of course, she was also popping them.

Hail in San Diego?!

Hail, hail, hail!  Can you believe it??  Yes, our weather has been quite strange this year.  This is our 3rd hail storm in the past few weeks.  The hail wasn't too big (no damage to the cars) but enough accumulated to play in it.

 And that is exactly what Elena wanted to do... 

"Please, please, please! Let's go outside!!"

 Wahoo!  (She's jumping for joy)

 "Look!  I'm holding it!"

 We had a good pile up on the street.  Elena enjoyed picking it up and throwing it in the stream of melting hail.  Look at the size of that snow ball in her hands!

 Elena had so much fun.  She was sad to go inside but finally realized her hands were cold :O

Here is a shot of our backyard covered in hail.  

Hope the garden Carl planted last weekend bounces back.

Since returning from Hawai'i in September, life became a bit more hectic and my work - home life balance has been off.  Work picked up, well that is an understatement, my workload doubled when I came back from vacation.  I also began acupuncture weekly to get my back pain under control.  And to tip the scale, Cooper became seriously ill right before Halloween.  I tried to keep posting but gave up at some point, I'm sorry if you have checked in on a regular basis to see no updates.  Cooper is doing better, my workload is being reduced so now I'm trying to get this blog back up and running.

 Today Carl worked on planting our garden.  We are hoping the weird weather is over--we have had hail twice in the past couple of weeks and one morning it was 28 degrees when we woke up at 6am and was 80 later in the day. Whew!

 While Carl was busy in the garden, Elena played in her "house" and  jumped from the top of the slide.  Sometimes I wish she was a bit more cautious.  Yesterday at a birthday party, a parent said she loved her adventurous spirit and hoped it would rub off on her son.  Maybe the these friends can meet in the middle and learn from each other.

Elena loved playing with the water and she even asked for a bigger "pool."

Time for a Big Bed

 I finally committed to a big bed for Elena, I've only been looking for one since October.  I tried getting something used but it just wasn't working out so I ordered a bed from the same company as her crib.  I love the craftsmanship, quality and lack of chemicals.  Elena loves that I can now snuggle with her in bed.

 Elena's transition to the new bed was quite smooth.  She slept in it last night and I disassembled and removed the crib today.  She absolutely loves the old Pokemon sheets; once Cyrus and Kailah slept on them last weekend, Elena had to have them on her bed.

 

Elena loves to sleep at the edge of the bed, such a silly girl!