mean Irene

Just in case you hadn't heard we had a little storm roll through. After 3 days we FINALLY have power! I've never been so excited to do laundry or take a hot shower or dry my hair or run the dishwasher or cook in my life. We prepped in true New England fashion but didn't really expect to get hit this hard. All the crazy blizzards and snow we had was nothing compared to this. I can't remember the last time we lost power for more than 1/2 hour but, boy, did we get slammed. There were definitely some scary times but we rode out the storm watching trees bend and branches snap and listening to the wind howl through the windows {new windows have moved to the very top of the house to-do list}. We instantly lost power around 9am on Sunday and just now got it back.

some of our yard

Once the winds stopped we let the kids run loose to "help" pick up the branches.

just a few branches to get rid of

thankfully the only real damage to our property---we were so incredibly lucky! {and so thankful we put money into a new roof last year!}

This random dead stick has been way up in this tree for months and months. We thought for sure it would come down but nope it's still balancing way up there.

So our whole town was pretty much shut down from the storm. Nothing was open, lights weren't working, trees were down etc. It definitely wasn't fun but the kids don't watch a ton of tv anyways and usually spend their time outside so thankfully we had good weather to be out. We also didn't have to worry about freezing from no heat, pipes freezing or being without running water. We also had a chance to clean out the fridge and freezer down to nothing and make it sparkle again. We had fun making shadow puppets, going to bed so early & enjoying candle light every night---so it wasn't all bad. But I'm completely enjoying having power and treated myself to a hot shower and perfectly chilled glass of wine tonight. :)

We still had no power yesterday so I dragged the double jogger through the house {I had no clue how to open our power garage door} and we headed to the playground. We got almost there when we were met with trees toppled on power lines blocking our way. Scary stuff. We turned around and walked the long way home. Just one street over had so much more damage than we did. Definitely put a lot into perspective!

this entire yard was filled with this tree

downed wires---yikes

There are still a lot of people without power so hopefully all will be restored soon!

California:: Chase Palm Park

After visiting the Mission, we all headed back to the condo and crashed. Ava, Cole & I fell right to sleep and felt so much better after our long nap! We decided that the kids needed some major run around time and headed down to Chase Palm Park. They have this restored 1916 carousel which we knew the kids would love. Steve, Mike, the kids & I all headed down to the park which is also right across from the ocean. The kids were so happy to have some park time and were so excited about the carousel!

outside of the carousel

We ended up being the only three on the ride. The kids had such a great time!

After our ride, we continued into the park, saw some fish in the pond and walked over to the playground. It's all set up like a pirate ship and it's parked right on some sand. The kids were going through some serious park withdrawals so they were thrilled to play here.

they had so much fun running all over the park and sliding down the big slide

down the "plank"

Captain Cole

It was starting to get late so we finally dragged the kids away from the park with promise of some dinner. We stopped at Rusty's Pizza Parlor which came highly recommended---and it was delicious. We grabbed some pizza & drinks and headed over to eat on the beach. We stopped to watch the skaters in the skate park for a bit and then enjoyed some dinner.

yum---what's better than pizza on the beach?
It was getting dark so we started our trek home. We had seen so many people with these Hello Kitty cups and decided to give this place a try. That's where we found our true love of California:

Yogurtland!

Ava, Mike & I said we'd go in and grab some ice cream while Steve & Cole waited outside. We had no clue what this place was but when we walked in we were met with about 20 different kinds of frozen yogurt, tons of fresh fruit toppings plus every other crunchy/sweet/sour/syrupy topping you could think of. It was pretty amazing. So that pretty much became our every night tradition for the rest of our time in California.

just a few of the toppings.

Ava was a huge fan of asked for it every night---not that she had to twist my arm to go or anything :)

California:: Mission

On Wednesday, we drove up to the Santa Barbara Mission---another gorgeous landmark in Santa Barbara. The Mission was built in 1786 by Spanish Franciscans & still houses a community of Franciscan friars. It was really fun to see all the historical artifacts that were used in and to build the Mission.

family photo

as expected, the place was just gorgeous

They have some kind of chalk festival so there were all these incredible chalk drawings all over the pavement. It doesn't rain there so they were still there from May! {I think...}

the church

Ava made a rubbing of a Mission tile

an original room at the Mission

kiddies making wishes. Ava wished for cake

Cole in front of the Mission

After the Mission, we headed to Summerland to check out the view and have some lunch. Cole was not interested in sitting at all so Steve & I took shifts walking around with him. When we finally got back to the condo, we all crashed & took some much needed naps!