santa barbara getaway: the aftermath

ok, so this really isn’t about santa barbara anymore, but it’s still about our vacation week so i’m keeping the title as part of the series.  

after our little getaway, we went back to my parents’ place to reunite with the kids.  and it was so goooood to see them again!  as fun as our time away was, we still did miss the munchkins– missed their little stories, missed their little hugs and kisses, missed their little faces.  i’ve never been away from them for more than a few hours at a time before let alone two whole nights away (not counting hospital stays when they were each being born and even then they came to visit multiple times per day) so it definitely felt a little strange to be without them.  anyway, it turns out that while they did have a great time with grandma and grandpa, they missed us too and were happy to have us back as well.  it was great to all be together again.

we spent a couple more fun days with the grandparents and visited the nearby zoo/park one afternoon.  i don’t know why, but we somehow always end up needing pictures of these your-face-here photo ops.  though it does make me cringe to see the dirty smudges around the holes and think of how many faces have been there before. 

the pretty flamingoes.  but by golly, did they ever stink!!

mikey and allie loved watching the monkeys swinging around.

this emu came up to get a better look at us.  i had visions of him trying to peck at us with that crazy beak…

and there wasn’t too much of a barrier between ourselves and this tiger, either.

lauren’s favorite part:  feeding the hungry goats.  although she can do this exact same activity at grandpa’s place without having to pay an entrance fee first.

we had brought little presents back for each of the kids and this little necklace (which came inside a pink butterfly-shaped jewelry box) was for allie.  i wanted a shot of her with it.  oh, and while the kids all had a great time with grandpa, allie did suffer a minor injury when she fell off a bed and managed to get a scrape near her left eye.  we know that allie tends to be kind of tippy and it wasn’t too surprising that she would be the one to get hurt, though my dad felt terrible about it.

ok, so it was a teeny tiny zoo with only about seven animals to see.  so we went around to see them twice (and maximize that entrance fee) before we headed over to the park to play.

mikey still liked to ride in the baby swings (though now he’s switched to the big kid swings) because he loved swinging really high and it felt more secure in there.

lauren enjoys the first couple back-and-forths before she gets scared.

this is her preferred method of thrill-seeking.

allie isn’t too much of a swing fan but really loves playing in the sand.  she’s burying treasure (rocks) here.

then it was time to head back for naps!  lauren loves wearing mikey’s cap for some reason and gets all pleased with herself when we stick it on her head.

while the girls napped, mikey and i hung out before dinner on grandpa’s farm.  picking apples…

feeding goats…

meanwhile, grandpa was grilling our dinner.

mmm, meat.  steak, lamb, potatoes, and roasted corn, to be exact.

lauren knew where to sit to keep the food coming her way.

she stuck with grandpa all night and even got a marshmallow (the kids called them “smushmellows”) for dessert:

after i told phil i had never had a s’more before, he got right on the job of making me one.

aw, what a guy!

the next day, we packed up and hit the road for home.  we stopped in pismo beach to have lunch at the splash cafe.

their clam chowder in a bread bowl was, in a word…

delicious!

after lunch, we checked out the crazy candy in the hotlix shop (my brother’s best friend in high school used to work here in the back, making the insect lollipops.  i remember sitting back there with them while he made them, and ate a few bugs just to gross me out.  the store looks exactly the same as it did back then!)

i see that they’ve branched out now, too.

it was another beautiful day, so we decided to take a walk by the beach before heading out.

this is daddy and allie enjoying the view.  right before i told them they were sitting directly underneath a streetlight with a seagull perched right over their heads.

and this was right after i told them that.

so they found a new spot to enjoy the view, away from both streetlights and seagulls.

my old hometown.  but this sign and mini-pier is new.

nice to be on the road again with happy, quiet kids.

we stopped once more in solvang to get the kids some cookies and let them stretch their legs again.  here’s phil with the crazy angles again.

and my dear phil made one more stop along the way so that i could get one more picture…

and with that, the sun set on yet another lovely family vacation.  thanks for reliving it with me!