getting away

phil took a week off for vacation in early october.  at first we thought we’d stay home and get some stuff done around the house.

but where’s the fun in that?!

so we nixed that idea and headed straight for my dad’s house.  where they immediately shooed us away so that the grandparents could have the grandkids all to themselves.  whatever could we possibly do with a few days away?

thankfully, phil had a plan.  phil always has a plan.  🙂

the sea called.

and we answered.

we found ourselves in monterey where we did things like eat wonderfully grown-up food.  while it was still hot!

 this coconut ice cream was ree-dee-culous.

and we went for a lovely morning stroll to grab some coffee.

along with a stack of blueberry pancakes bigger than your head.  bigger even than goliath’s head.

no roses to smell, but we did take some time to admire the flowers.

and do a little window shopping.

and stumble upon the biggest dang candy store we ever done seen.

still such a kid at heart.

a caboose!

a biblical garden!  (not sure why it was biblical- maybe because it was in the courtyard of a church?  but pretty nonetheless.)

i had to run through a church for this shot.  phil said i merely clipped the corner of the church.  whatever man, i sprinted through that quiet, reverential hallway.

finding quaint stairways with nice pockets of light.

my handsome hubs.

phil was a great sport about letting me take lots and lots of pictures of him for a class i’d been taking.

see this sign?  this sign does bad, bad things to mikey’s tummy.  therefore we can’t really do curvy scenic drives with the kids in tow.  so we took advantage of being kidless to enjoy the drive by ourselves.

beautiful.

love bridges.  though they freak me out when i’m on them.

taking in the sunset.

humoring me some more.  though he was really wondering what in the world i was doing and why it was taking so long.

a quiet morning with the paper.

snagging the last sticky bun in the coffee shop.

so thankful to still be in love with my best friend.

humoring him when he wanted to buy a $7 souvenir can of sardines.

being sorry to see the time go so quickly but being so happy to see this face again.

and feeling good that we were missed.  if only a little bit.

and being so, so thankful for the best grandparents a girl could ask for.