Life on Autumn Trail: April 2013

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

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

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

California Vacation... Part 1

Ahhhh, is there anything better than vacation? I LOVE to travel, especially with Guy. And while we both have been very fortunate to make multiple trips each year, we actually haven't had a vacation (that's more than a weekend getaway) that is JUST the two of us in years. Crazy! So we were way overdue. But before I begin I should say that I basically had 3 cameras with me - my big DSLR, the trusty iPhone, and my cheapie point and shoot that I never use. And look what I happened to find on the point and shoot? Beckett on the beach!! I guess I never downloaded them. There weren't too many pictures from our Florida trip last summer, but looking through them on vacation sure made me miss him more! And he has grown SO much. Yikes.

Anyhow, back to vay-cay. We were fortunate to have Gigi and Thunder come to our house and watch B. I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all, so we didn't worry one bit about him!

Guy and I are good vacationers. We headed to the airport and made a b-line for the Blue Mesa bar for pre-flight cocktails.

We made it safe and sound into Santa Ana then drove about an hour or so to Redondo Beach. I couldn't wait to drop off our bags and look around!

Guy was a little more excited about tasting the local seafood (and more beverages!).

Guy's Aunt Cindy and Uncle John live near where we were staying, so we met up for dinner.

And actually we picked out our dinner. It was alive, and then it was not. Really I was not ok with this.

The next morning we woke up bright and early and headed to Venice Beach. We walked the entire beach line to Santa Monica. There's nothing better than having your toes in the sand!

The distance between Santa Monica and Venice Beach isn't that far. It probably took us an hour and a half or so. Here's what the Santa Monica Pier looks like.

We looked around and ate at the Mexican restaurant at the end of the pier. Again, we did our best to be good vacationers and had several afternoon drinks.

The best part of our meal was the people watching. Californians are the best for this. This Dad and "super baby" had me cracking up. Not sure I have seen a baby ride around like this before.

Afterwards we FINALLY took a ride on the ferris wheel.

Poor Guy, it was not his favorite activity. Hahaha, he seriously was queasy and nervous! But check out the view. Heaven for me.

He was pretty happy for that experience to be over. After touching solid ground we slowly walked back towards Venice Beach.

Here is the carousel that was in the Sting with Paul Newman.

Let me just tell you, Venice Beach is nuts. Really. It is just a congregation of the strangest weirdos you have never seen in your life. I pretty much just had my head on a swivel and stared. And stared. Basically it is one long sidewalk that runs the beach and all sorts of people have set up little "shops" for their art, cardboard boxes for the homeless (yes, really), panhandling for drugs (openly), music, and more.

One of the highlights was getting to see the Venice Beach Freakshow (they have a series on AMC). They definitely advertised correctly - it was freaky. Sword swallowing, fire breathing, meat hook through the face, two headed animals, midgets, hairy people - check, check, check.

Our other favorite Venice Beach attraction was muscle beach. They have these swings that people get on and do all sorts of acrobatics. It's like a show in and of itself. Pretty amazing!

Later that afternoon we drove back to the hotel and rested up. I don't have pictures, but we drove out to Sunset Boulevard to watch a comedy show at the Comedy Store. What a fun night! We laughed SO hard. Since then we have even seen quite a few of the comedians on TV. And what's really nuts is that we actually didn't get back to our hotel until 2:00 am, which would be 4:00 am central time. Oh what crazy kids we are!

More details on our vacation are coming soon.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Dear Beckett: 22 Months

Dear Beckett,

It has been way too long since I have written you last. Maybe it's because you are keeping me so busy - laughing, cleaning, feeding, trips to the park, seeing the horses, more cleaning, and lots and lots of laughs. It's the very best kind of busy.

Right now you are talking more and more. Each day you say new words. Yesterday it was house and horses, the other day it was necklace and "nastics" (gymnastics). Your most commonly used words and phrases are "here/there ya go," whoaaaaa, snack, uh oh, help please, thank you, B, oh dada, mama, moose, paci, app app (apple), nigh noh (night night), bye bye, oh no, yeah, yum, nummy, owie, nose, ants, eye, and no. But of course, you say a lot more than this.

You are also excellent at making animal sounds. Your dada and I never tire of hearing your dinosaur roar or chicken "bock bock bock." And you love animals - especially the lizards, horses, dogs, and ants around our neighborhood.

You also love sports and anything that involves a ball. Right now golf seems to be your favorite. You run all over the yard with your plastic golf club and a ball, whacking as hard as you can. You also love to lay down with Dada and watch the tournaments on TV. T-ball seems to be a close 2nd.

You also love your family and friends. You get ecstatic when you see your grandparents or friends. Nearly every day you look at the photos around our house and point to each person so that we can talk about them. You will often kiss the picture too!

The other day we played outside with your new kite. Dada was trying to show off and he ended up getting your kite stuck in the tree. You weren't upset, but you talk about your kite being stuck every.single.day - yes, really. You laugh and say, "ohhhhhh dada." It's a running joke around the house now.

Rock collecting seems to be your new favorite hobby. I can't tell you how many rocks I have stacked in the laundry room because they were in your pants. You collect rocks and put them in your pocket every time you go outside.

We spend hours and hours outside each day. You are always happy to run around outside and it keeps the house just a little bit cleaner! Your favorite outside toys are your little plastic car, balls, the bubble maker, and your playhouse. You talk about bubbles all the time!

We got to the park a lot. Your favorites are the slide (bigger the better) and the swing.

Trains continue to be your very favorite indoor toy. You will play with the magnetic ones for hours on end. You rarely play with other toys. Looking at books is also a favorite.

You are just like your momma when you wake up - lay in bed for awhile, slow to wake up, and a *bit* on the cranky side. You also eat like me too - love carbs, fruit (you love bananas, apples, and berries the most), chocolate and are very finicky about meat.

We both agree Chick-Fil-A picnics are the best.