Dear Beckett: 2 Years Old

Dear Beckett,  TWO years old?  TWO?  We can't believe it.  It seems as though you have always been a part of our lives - we consider ourselves pretty boring before May 23rd, 2011.  Beckett, you add so much joy and love to our family of three.   Your favorite activities include playing trains (about the only toys you really play with), using play-doh, being outside with dirt/water/cars, looking at books, and watching your favorite T.V. show Chuggington.  Oh, and you LOVE to "help" momma.  You constantly stay busy, busy, busy.  

With the Texas heat upon us, we have spent a lot of time outside with the water hose.  We can hardly even water the plants outside without your "help," which usually means you end up getting soaking wet.  

You are still an AWESOME dinner companion at restaurants - especially Mexican food where you love chips and queso, tortillas, and tacos. Unfortunately, you seem to get pickier and pickier about your foods.  Things that you used to eat like crazy (chicken nuggets, cheese, cottage cheese, a lot of fruits) you hardly touch and will even say "blah" or "gross" about.  Really?  Your diet these days seems to be smoothies, peanut butter toast with honey, cereal, kids cliff bars, and fruit pouches.  If it was up to you I think you would exist on processed carbs alone.  

You are still funny about messes and hate to have a dirty face, hands, or table.  

You are also a very good car traveler (for the most part).  We travel to Oklahoma a lot and even drove to Memphis and you were awesome.  On car rides we talk about the big trucks, look at books, make phone calls to grandparents, and play with momma's phone to pass the time.

You are ALL boy.  100%.  We laugh all the time because your only interests seem to be such BOY things - throwing rocks and balls, playing with things that go, looking for bees (all bugs are bees to you), and seeing animals.  Even your books have to be about things like that!

It doesn't seem that you have an artistic bone in your body - you have zero interest in coloring, paints, or crafts.  You aren't really into music as much either.

You do have a love for animals.  You love to visit the horses, go to the zoo, and walk around the Grapevine Sea Life Aquarium.  Your favorite animals seem to be the "hi-no" (rhino) and "hing ray" (sting ray).  We look at animal and dinosaur books every day.

You are a good sport about getting your picture taken.  I get 99% of my practice and location scouting done with you and I've never heard any complaints or frustration.  Here you are helping momma scout for new locations:

Sometimes I do resort to a little M&M bribery to get the perfect pic :).  Here you are signing for more!

But, not always... most of the time you give me pretty cute smiles all on your own.

Lately Dada has had to travel a TON.  You miss him like crazy and will ask for him all the time.  You guys are such good buddies.

But deep down maybe you are a momma's boy??!?

We love you so much.

California Vacation: Part 2

The final 2 1/2 days of our trip were pretty jam packed.  There is really so much to see in the L.A. area.

Saturday morning we rented bicycles and rode along the beach strip.  It was really one of the highlights of the trip for me (and of course, no pics).  It was just so beautiful, amazing people watching, and I was doing something somewhat athletic with my husband.  Can't beat that!

Afterwards we headed right into L.A. to see the La Brea Tar Pits.  Guy had been dying to see them.  Me?  It was ok, but I could appreciate how excited Guy was.  Basically the tar pits were formed tens of thousands of years ago and over time the bones of animals trapped in them have been preserved.  

Our next stop was definitely more my style... Rodeo Drive.  Ha!  Actually just finding a parking spot was pretty fun - we parked right in the middle of one of the surrounding neighborhoods and walked a few blocks to get to the shopping.  Those houses are insane!  And, of course, so is the shopping.  So out of my price range it isn't even funny.  

We were pretty tired afterwards to we headed back to Redondo Beach for a little R & R.  Right before sunset we walked over to the marina and beach for a gorgeous walk.  

I would live in California in a heartbeat.

Sunday morning we headed to Hollywood.  It sort of reminds me of a scaled down Las Vegas - a very commercialized strip filled with some interesting characters and plenty of tourists.  We did get a private tour of Grauman's Chinese Theatre which was awesome!  It was neat to hear it's history and learn all the insider stories of the big Hollywood Premiers.

Marilyn Monroe's Vanity

Next up we did some celebrity home sightings.  Of course you really can't see much - they have fences and huge bushes to give privacy but it was kind of neat.  Our favorite one was actually the Playboy mansion.  All you could see was the very top of house, but you could hear all of the animal noises.  It sounded just like a zoo!

Our next stop was a tour at Paramount Studios, another highlight for me.  We learned SO much about the movie business, production, and some actor secrets.  While we were there we saw some of the cast of Glee while they were filming.

We then meandered on to 3rd and Fairfax, where the famous Farmer's Market and "Grove" is.  It was definitely foodie heaven!

Finally we ended our day with one of the coolest things I have ever done - a drive through the Hollywood Hills at night.  The infamous Mulholland Drive is absolutely breathtaking!

Did I mention that we had rented a convertible for the trip?  Worth. Every. Penny.  It really added to the trip and was a blast to ride around in. Doesn't Guy look so cute?  :)

I can't even describe to you how beautiful this drive was.  

The next morning it was time to head home.  Before leaving we took one last long walk around the beach and boardwalk areas.  We saw seals swimming along the boats, had a homeless man playing practical jokes on us, and admired the beach for one last time.

Honestly this was one of the best vacations ever.  It was so good for us to get away and spend time JUST US and explore an area that neither one of us and had ever been to.  I am dying to go on another trip!

A Pile of Things to Do

I have a million things I should be doing.  Even on my blog I am wayyy behind.  I need to finish up our California Trip post, write about Easter, Dear Beckett, on and on.  But what am I spending my time doing?  Making videos.  :)  This was my first time to create a "photo video fusion" using just my DSLR.  It was fun.  And now that I have done it, pretty easy!  It took about 2 hours in all, but next time it should take a lot less.  I think the video is too long to post here, but I have put it on youtube.  Let me know if it works!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUixTdCcpJo