Brady swinging at the park in Buellton. It was 90 degrees outside.
Trying to smile at the 90 Degree Park. :/
Finding Brady after his first taste of Diet Coke...
After I took the diet coke away. :/

July has been quite the cloudy month in SB but we have still ventured out and done some hikes, insect watching (see potato bug in first photo), swinging (just learned to swing like a big boy) and mud digging (Thanks to big cousin who taught him dirt and water make MUD!).

We are trying to get ready for Baby and tell Brady about what's coming. When he sees little babies now he talks about how mommy has a baby in her belly too. I think he's getting it.

Fun day at the zoo on Thursday! Good Family time. Brayden's favorite animal of the day was the ele-pant!
The next day was another day with out dad...a long one. This crazy kid pushed all my buttons!

Happy Early Birthday Brayden! Scooter from Tata and Papa and an old robe of Uncle Matty's!



Happy Birthday Grandma Tata! You are twice as good as 29!!!

WE MISS DADDY!!! Tomorrow will be day 9 of Eric being gone minus 1 1/2 days where he got to come home. The 1/2 was to sleep and the full day was to play with us. Luckily Aunty Stephy bought him this new train station table that is highly entertaining! :) And today, Papa and Tata arrived to rescue me from my lonliness! YIPPEE!!

As for the fires, they have mellowed. We've had some cool temperatures which have helped. However tomorrow the valley is supposed to get up to the 100's so who knows!

This is the view from my kitchen window...lovely...let me zoom in for you:

I think it's interesting that God made every parent to think that their kid is the absolute coolest, smartest, cutest kid. I mean really. Do you know any parent who wishes they had someone else's kid as their own? I just think it's cool God made us parents that way.

Here is our attempt at staying cool in this heat wave...yes, Eric and I have both gone for a dip! :)

We had ribs for Father's Day dinner!

Who knew that behind this beautiful lake there was a water park? Where Brady could be happy for an endless amount of hours...
The cold water didn't bother him a bit...
And he loved being with his little buddy Chloe Mae...

Who knew there was a water park 45 mintues from our house that is perfect for kids Brady's age? He absolutely loved it. We didn't leave til 3:00 at which point he fell asleep promptly at 3:03 without a wimper.

We took Brady out to a fancy dinner and he did marvelous. He was even still smiling and posing for us at the end.

Life sure has changed in the last few weeks. We officially have a toddler with his own little will! Exhausting...just exhausting! When we ask him what's in mommy's tummy, he always says "zerbert!" but tonight he finally said, "baby". :)

Brady Boo so far does not like the beach. We got to the beach the last two times and he would not stop saying "No Beach! No Beach! Go back to car!" Go figure. He ripped his hat off as soon as we got in the car and half way home I look in the rear view mirror and he has it back on, "down to his ears" as he said.
This was his first ride on a tire swing, which he loved!
(All photos taken with cell phone camera so sorry if bad quality.)

WOOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quite a long day...one as a mom without a husband for 14 hours, that seemed to keep on going and going and going. Not because Brady was hard but because I'm tired and my back was hurting today. Brady was in fact very funny. At 5:00 it was still very warm outside and so I thought we've never had naked time out back. So naked, covered in sunscreen and a hat, we ventured outside to eat a popsicle and slide on the slide into the pool. Very fun! I just kept thinking about how Brady needed a playmate and well I'm working on...in fact we find out if he gets a brother or sister on Friday!!! I think it's a girl, what do you think?

We took a family outing on Tuesday to Lake Cachuma for a picnic and nature walk. It was a nice peaceful day.

"I...I...I...I wookin"