Final Weekend of Summer

For my final weekend of vacation, we went to Monterey for a wedding.

Tim surprised me and rented a convertible. We figured we would drive down the coast with the top down, but unfortunately, it was too cold.

We had a balcony at our hotel room and it faced the ocean. It was a pretty view.

The first night we went to the The Old Fisherman's Wharf to walk around and have dinner.

We settled on eating at the Old Fisherman's Grotto. The food was great and we saw our first "celebrity" of the weekend. I wouldn't have recognized her, but Tim very quickly did. It was Alexis (and her family) from Real Housewives of Orange County. It is kind of sad that my husband knew who it was and I didn't. I would have eventually realized she was a celebrity because she was given special treatment and was signing pictures for the staff there, but I would have never known who it was. I am sure if we would have walked around the city more, we would have seen many more celebrities because it was Concours d'Elegance, a car show/auction with really expensive cars. I should have taken pictures of some of the amazing cars that we saw that weekend.

The wedding was for one of Tim's fraternity brothers. It was my first Jewish wedding that I have ever been to.

The wedding was at the Holly Farm in Carmel and was a very beautiful location.

Tim and many of his frat brothers.

For dinner, we started with a tomato salad. Neither Tim or I eat tomatoes, so we sat there with our salads in front of us for almost an hour while some speeches were made. The father of the bride spoke for 30-45 minutes and we now know the entire history of his family and everybody he has ever met.

Our table was filled with frat brothers and their significant others.

As I said, we saw 2 celebrities this weekend. The second was the uncle of the bride, Jonathan Waxman. He is a famous chef and was recently on TV on Top Chef Masters. Too bad he wasn't the chef for the wedding because the food wasn't all that great. I guess he cooked for the rehearsal dinner, but not for the wedding.

The site and decorations were beautiful.

Hodgson sandwich with some very happy fraternity brothers!

So the only person that I knew at the wedding was Tim and almost all of the other girlfriends/wives all knew each other, except this one, whose name is Chiharu. We spent most of the night together and talked about so much. She was really nice and made it okay that I didn't know anybody.

Final Summer Play Date with Becky and Grant

Since my summer quickly came to an end, last Thursday was the last day during the summer that we were able to get together with Becky and Grant.

We went to the mall and did some shopping. The kids enjoyed the play yard in the mall. I couldn't get a picture of both Rachel's and Grant's faces because she would go down forwards and he would go down backwards.

Rachel really enjoyed the car. It looks like Grant really enjoyed it too...but for about 20 seconds. After that, he wasn't so sure why it was moving and wanted out!

After the play yard, Rachel was worn out...but not Grant. I didn't buckle him in (because Rachel has never tried to climb out of her stroller) and he was quickly standing in his stroller. What a little knucklehead!

Rachel and I had such a good summer hanging out with such good friends! Thanks Becky and Grant for hanging out with us!

Balboa Park/Coronado

Last Sunday, when Tim was on his overnight fishing trip with his fantasy football team, Rachel and I hung out with Tim's family and went to Balboa Park and over to Coronado.On the drive over, Rachel was sporting her sunglasses. They didn't last too long.

We went to the Dahlia show at Gran's request.

We got a coffee so that Rachel could finish her nap. She was awake the whole time and fell asleep 5 minutes before we were going to leave.

We then headed over to Coronado.

Rachel hadn't really had much to eat all day, so I went to Burger King and got her some Mac 'n Cheese, which you can see in these pictures.

It was a good thing that I went to Burger King, because on our long drive back (there was soooo much traffic), the Cat and Dog toys that we got with her meal were the only thing that made her happy.

What a Bunny Says

Rachel has been working really hard at wiggling her nose these past few days and showing us "what a bunny says".

As you can see, she doesn't quite have it down yet.

A Visit to Aguanga

On Saturday, Rachel and I headed up to Aguanga to hang out with my mom.

There was lots of really fun bubble blowing.

Rachel wasn't so sure about my mom's puppies. Hank kept showing off his soccer playing skills for us, but Rachel didn't want to get much closer.

Rachel had some yummy sherbet.

We went over to the neighbors house and visited with their puppies and horses. It took Rachel a little while to see that the dogs were calm and eventually she was going back and forth petting them.

When I was holding her, she really enjoyed the horses. When she was on the ground, this is about how close she would get to them. We stayed at my moms until almost 7, which means we didn't get home until almost 8. Rachel stayed awake the whole ride home and I was so happy about that. If she would have napped, it could have made for a rough night for me because Tim was on an all night fishing/fantasy football draft trip with his buddies. He caught 2 fish that he brought home to eat...we will see how that goes since neither of us really like fish very much.

Taking a Walk

When we went on our walk the other day, we went to the swings and had a good time.

Then we found a kitty that couldn't get enough attention. We were petting her and she was following us around. Too bad we couldn't take her home, she was such a sweetheart.

Summer Teacher Get-Together

Last week we went to my friend Tamara's house in Valley Center and got together with a bunch of women teachers that are all friends.

Rachel thought that Jacob's dancing was the funniest thing she had ever seen. She was dancing too, but not quite like him!

She was pretty tired, but would not go down for a nap. She swam for quite awhile, and eventually went to sleep. She was sitting up in the pack-and-play bobbing her head forward. She eventually bobbed so far forward, she fell over. (I was watching her on the video monitor.) She then stayed asleep for 3 hours and missed most of the rest of the party.

Here are most of the girls.

When she woke up, she came back in the pool for a little while and loved playing with Emma, who spun her around over and over again.

16 Months

Yay for 16 months! Rachel is so independent these days. She always looks around to make sure we are near, but wants to do everything on her own. When she gets frustrated and needs help with something, she yells "Mama". I have been trying to get her to ask for help rather than yell at me when she needs something...but we are still working on it. Even though she is independent, she is a very loving little girl. She is always giving hugs these days. It is so sweet. As she gives hugs, she often goes, "mmmmmm".

She is upset that I wouldn't let her have the camera. What a rough life she has!

I have to talk her into leaving things in her hair. I tell her how pretty she is and then have to show her in the mirror. I asked her to show me the headband and she squatted down to show me.

We took a walk outside and played with her truck. She is very good at chasing it down and bringing it back to me.

I think she is showing her leg to help us get a ride :)

What a cute little pose.

We got Rachel a crab pool for the backyard and it is the perfect size.

I have a bit of OCD and have started to let go a bit as time goes on. This is the messiest I think I have let her get. Oh well, she puts up with me!

Marie Turns 30!

Last weekend, my friend Marie had a big bash to celebrate her 30th birthday.

Here is Rachel all ready to go to the party. The first half of the party was a family friendly BBQ at their house.

Rachel was pretty content to play in the kids kitchen for hours. She would briefly walk away, but was always back within minutes. She had such a good time.

Rachel gave her friend Jillian a hug at the end of the party before she left.

After the BBQ, I dropped Rachel off at Tim's parents for the night, and headed back with Tim to board the Camo Party Bus to take us to Stampede in Temecula.

Emma got on the bus and was ready to dance the night away in her cowboy boots, but was bummed to hear that it was an 18 and up bar.

This is Marie about to get on the bull. She didn't last more than 3 seconds once it started to move.

Marie and I.

Tim and I had a great night out. It was nice to be able to hang out and not worry about Rachel.

I went and got Marie some water, which she desparately needed, but she kept throwing and spitting the ice on Tim. The whole time she didn't try to get anybody but him. I am sure he did something to deserve it.

Marie had made a music party mix to listen to on the bus. The boys were so excited when Bro Hymn came on. To bad Marie had serious ADD when it came to the music and changed every song after about a minute.

Marie was pretty much the only person dancing on the bus. She had a really good time though.

The bus crew. Other people came to Stampede in their own cars, this is just the people who came on the bus.