The Smith Family Adventures: October 2008

Thursday, October 23, 2008

It was a balmy 90 degrees out today here in Santa Rosa, which meant around 68-70 on the coast, so off we went! (I'm trying to pack in as much as possible before the last little bit of my vacation disappears and I have to go back to work!)

I was alot better prepared this time and took jackets and everything, but it was so nice out, we didn't even need them! We stopped at the famous Salt Water Taffy shoppe that I've heard so much about on the way (a pink and white striped shack in the middle of nowhere) and it didn't disappoint - we left with 2 pounds of salt water taffy!!

Rea has been practicing taking pictures lately, so she took the one of me - not too bad, huh!? (Good job, Sweetie!) The one with all of us was complements of a very sweet elderly lady who I grabbed passing by - turns out she'd never used a digital camera before, but she did pretty good, too!

A very fun, special day indeed, as Rea always says!

Ma-lak

Yikes! Only one picture of Ma-lak! (Sorry, Little Man!) So this is the guy who absolutely loved to play in the sand/mud and really get gritty, but the ENTIRE ride home he was all about, "We're getting baths when we get home, right, Mom?" Too funny!

Rea

So this was Rea's first trip out to this beach because she was in Chicago when we went the last time. After a very long discussion in the car about "No, I don't want to go to the BEACH, you said we were going to the OCEAN!!" and trying to explain that they were one in the same, she was pretty excited when we got there. NOT so excited about the dead sea lion that washed up on shore, though...

Ni'ke

I got home and realized I should have tried to zoom in on Ni'ke a little more because these shots are so far away, but ya know, she was really hard to catch! What with her state of utter fearlessness and zero safety awareness and all, she was sorta challenging to keep up with! But wow, does she love the beach!

Ya'shar

Ya'shar seemed to still hate walking in the sand, but once I sat him down with some cups to make sand castles, he was quite content!

"Come Hungry, Leave Happy!"

The lure of crepes took us to IHOP's today for lunch before we picked Ma-lak up from school and headed to the beach. Rea decided we needed to make another video b/c they've had so much fun watching the other one, so I said, "OKAY, let's make a commercial for IHOP's!" (Don't get too excited, it's not a very good one! I doubt the marketing team will be calling anytime soon!)

Monday, October 20, 2008

A "Funner" Kind of Arguing

This is one of my favorite games to play with Ya'shar! I'm not sure how this fun little ongoing argument ever got started, but it's the only kind of arguing we allow around here! It's been known to go on for hours, but I usually let him win...

Saturday, October 18, 2008

I LOVE Garage Sales!!

So Rea says to me this morning, "Mommy, before we go to the park, can we go to the garage sale?" HUH?

"What garage sale?" I said.

"Our neighbors are having a garage sale! I saw them from the big window upstairs!"

Wow. I've created a garage-sale MONSTER! YES!!! If she can sniff them out that fast, then we are definitely on to something!

So besides a new tea kettle for me and 2 perfectly new and perfectly sized pairs of shoes for Ni'ke, we found this way awesome playhouse, which I'm convinced will entertain them well into their teens. OK, maybe not for THAT long, but at least the next few years! Yippee!

Thanks, Lord, for these little things in life!