A little push.

Richard turned a corner last week with only 3 years until he's thirty. We've been discussing how to make our last years in our twenties count. Isn't funny that we become such the cliche when we feel crunched for time only when we realize we have little time left. Ahh, and this is why we can all relate to cliches. We really look forward to planning to explore more with the kids. It's good to feel a little push to plan, sometimes it's a jumping off point simply to do what you've been doing but in a different approach. For us it has encouraged us do more should to shoulder. 

What great picture to display my view. Thanks Alyssa for taking these. 

Celebrating Snuggle Season

Most of you have family members or friends with September birthdays, myself included. It is well known that if you go back ten months people are right in the middle of holiday bliss and new years resolutions.  And with the combination of cold weather and the fuzzy feelings of appreciation for family, you along with many (my husband & I) might have been conceived. Hense the title of the post. This week we celebrated my sweet friend Taylor's birthday as well as mine. It was a lovely week with great weather.

We moved here when I was twenty four and now turning twenty six and know how fortunate I am for the friends we have in Hawaii. My friends made my birthday insanely special and we went to the Cafe to celebrate Friday night and ended it with shopping at the vintage boutique. I love all these women and it was a lovely way to transition to my new year!

Yes he made a C. Cute man, this one.

My family always makes my birthdays special and this year sweet sister came up to represent the group. No Courtney Birthday could be complete without my favorite dessert- carrot cake. Richard made this one with extra pineapple and coconut for a hawaiian style. Delicious! We played games, I read all my sweet cards (and book our son printed and made me) and enjoyed my gifts. I only get 4 days to enjoy being the same age as Richard and this is one of them. He turns twenty seven on Thursday so I'm sending all of you blessings because when you get so much you want to share it.

The shortest photo shoot EVER!

To all who love baby showers and/or Instagram: This one's for you -side note, I do not have an Instagram name so I cut and pasted this from a friends. Me with my lovely two friends Corinne and April, I do love both of these women. All celebrating Mama Maleah's little girl about to grace us with her presence in the next few weeks.

My LoveLees, they are so funny together. They thought it was absurd I asked them to kiss for a picture.  That's not weird of me-is it? Bobby D's quote made me think of this moment and blogging our family. "Take care of all your memories. For you cannot relive them. " -Bob Dylan 

This is nothing shy of a miracle- Richard set up the tripod in our backyard and we managed to take this one and only picture on our first try. We needed a family picture for family board at school so we had three kids who had just taken showers and put on something clean. They had NOT eaten dinner either!!!! Say it with me folks,  Ah-May-Zing! That being said if you receive this picture for the next couple of Christmas cards from us, you know why now. Just kidding... not really. 

No School Bells on Monday

As a kid my grandparents lived three houses away from a church they attended. We would hear the church bells ring from their yard, I can recall how familiar the sound was. His school bells have the  kind that rings a pleasant four part sound.  On a really calm day you can hear it at the beach across the street.  It's lovely how a sound that my children will associate with their own childhoods is so similar to a memory of my own.  Here are the kids this week.

One of many comic books, titled "The Funey froits and vegti bolls" : ) She working on her homework, they draw the food they harvested from school and discuss what they thought of it. This week was Lilikoi. 

Not the trees you'd expect but these trees tell me I'm 20 minutes from home.

Moms love these forced smiles and silly faces... sometimes it's all we can get.

He's already digging soccer and we all know he has the energy for it. He may have found his sport! 

Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone, aloha! 

How We Play-July to August

Lately I have been taking a break from being behind the lens so pardon the delay. We have been able to do so much more this summer as a family for many reasons. The children's ages play a large role to this, now being 7 1/2, 4 1/2 and 2 1/2. Little one doesn't seem so little now that she is able to talk in full sentences as well as being nearly over any bathroom accidents. She also is over her egg allergy so we eat with ease. They are understanding more about how there bodies work and when they need sleep and food. Therefore we all  had more energy during our outings. Which brings us to a trip for October. We are headed to the Big Island of Hawaii for the first time to explore. More to come on that adventure.

                         Quin loves her hair in pigtails or bunny tails so in July on this day I caught the family admiring them as well. While we were at our gorgeous Bishop Museum we explored the many buildings and exhibits.

Love this.

            

                         

The many faces of our LoveLees...

Girls Trip 2012

We began in San Francisco 

      

We saw so many murals around The Mission District. There are over seventy alone in this neighborhood. Above, for our seven year old who loves comics.

                                        

Our family has an ongoing joke about buying fans. (not all that funny but it has become funny) We saw this one and sent it to our Dad. Yes, this is me at the Goodwill in San Francisco, I couldn't help myself. 

Naturally being in the Denim Capital of America and my love for denim we went downtown to the home of Gap. How fitting-pun intended. 

 

We found a local store with delicious Blackberry honey and fresh eggs for the week. The store manager was busy so we hung out with his chickens. Isn't this one beautiful? We loved his feet, ha. 

Having delicious meals wherever we were was the vibe of our trip. We had amazing food, amazing company all at foreign cinema . I was thrilled to meet up with our friend John who I haven't seen in almost 2 years. We were in town at the same time, and we took full advantage of the few hours we had. When we arrived the place was full, almost four hours later we were one of the last tables to leave. 

                                

                               

Crossing over the Golden Gate Bridge and coming up to hills and trees ahead was comforting. After three days of nothing but pavement (though we spent time with the chickens) I am realizing where my comfort is in a simpler place of dwelling. I like things open and easy to focus on, where my mind isn't spinning to focus on the walkers, the traffic lights located in different places than where I'm used to. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or over stimulation just isn't what it used to be.

Visited a new friend's gallery Ea Eckerman Studios while in Santa Cruz. This town is great, it's tucked away which I loved. His artwork and family were wonderful company for the afternoon. After that we drove to meet our friend Taylors parents in Santa Ynez. They were so gracious and gave us a beautiful guest home to stay in on there property. After a fun night out at a Ben Harper concert, this is the view what we woke up to. 

We then packed up and spent our morning in Santa Barbara. We ate, walked through an art festival along the beach, notified the owners of a restaurant about a drunk couple at 10 am, and antique shopped-you know the usual. I was ready to head down to get to Andrew's in Redondo Beach. Before he got home from work we walked across to the beach. It was literally a 3 minute walk, I can see this view from his house, stunning. 

Pretty girl

We had dinner with friends and got to meet Andrew's girlfriend of almost a year. I love meeting my friends other halves. She was adorable of course and we ate another delicious dinner. The next day we had a spa day planned for us. I remember driving around L.A. needing to find somewhere to eat lunch and everywhere being crowded I finally drove all the way back near the hotel when I u-turned and saw a brick building covered in vines with umbrellas out front. We parked and I kept joking I knew it was there with Alyssa, " This is where I eat every time I'm over here." It turned out to be a french restaurant and we enjoyed our little spot before a relaxing afternoon. I got my Trader Joes fix and brought home a pie and a bottle of red for Andrew. I loved spending time with our old friend, we were only missing Richard to make it perfect. We took this picture driving home to Andrew's and he said he heard them talking about it on the radio...Yikes Chevron. 

It was a great trip where I had some much needed time of reflection. I'm very thankful I have a husband who not only took care of our three children with ease and as you can see they hardly missed me. This might mean Girls Trip 2013 can happen, we shall see.