McNottleys in California

At the beginning of April we took a very relaxing vacation to California. Hahaha! Just kidding. We have a toddler. The words "vacation" and "relaxing" just don't go together anymore. But when our Seattle besties decided to leave us last June we were all, "you can run, you can hide, but you can't escape our love". So we coordinated our vacation week to match theirs and followed them to their new home. I'm 90% sure the love is mutual.

We touched down Saturday night and pretty much went straight to bed. Sunday was Easter and also General Conference so we headed to Courtney's parents house for brunch and an Easter egg hunt. We ended up being there for the majority of the day. Anders was in heaven with two giant dogs (which he liked to observe from a distance), a trampoline, waffles and seemingly endless screen time.

Then Brent had to bring out a giant bunny suit and ruin everything. 

The picture on the left already made it onto Courtney's Instagram but I wanted to post it here for those who didn't have the pleasure of seeing it. It was eerily reminiscent of Anders' reaction to Santa Clause 4 months prior. Thankfully, we have a few more years until he needs to learn about the Tooth Fairy.

We headed to Yosemite bright and early on Monday morning because we could see snow looming in the weather forecast and wanted to give ourselves as much time in the park as possible. This turned out to be smart thinking because we ended up getting snowed out of the park on Tuesday and Wednesday. Weeeee! 

On top of Vernal Falls Overlook. The only legitimate hike we ended up doing.

On Tuesday after we gave up on getting into the park, an hours drive from our rental house. 

We took some snow pics on the way back.

....aaaaaand then we got stuck behind a jack knifed RV for 2 hours. The fun never stops!

when Anders took a break from stress eating to take in the sights

at the oh-so-classy children's museum in Oakhurst: Children's Museum of Sierra
alternate name: We Know We're Your Backup Plan

On Wednesday roads into the park were still closed or requiring chains (which we didn't have), so we decided to head to our next destination, Carmel. It was also Courtney's 30th birthday so we did it up right with In 'N Out on the way there.

In my next life I'm going to come back as a Point Lobos seal

Anders looking like he was having an ok time when he was actually having a miserable time. Life's a beach!

my three favorite Californians

We spent the next couple of days hitting up the beach, eating good food, visiting the aquarium, and exploring downtown. So many verbs, so little time. Basically, I love Carmel and when my very rich, very yet unknown to me uncle dies and leaves me his fortune I plan to buy a house there and let Adam play golf at Pebble Beach every day. Until then we'll just pray that the McNaughts end up moving there so we can come visit them often (and Adam can keep walking around the course early in the morning and collecting discarded golf balls).

 looking for "sar-kahs", his new aquarium word

warming up to the beach on day 2

always breakin his muthuh's heart

cute boys playing with beach toys

 

William travels to dinner in style

waiting for dinner (not pictured: ruining dinner 10 minutes later)

cute boys playing with beach toys 2.0: matching shirts!

matching babies and matching moms. stop!

 

I  do need to add, in defense of this trip and as a testament to our friendship with the McNaughts, that even though things didn't always go exactly as planned, we still had a really fabulous time. Like, even when we were stuck in the car with two toddlers for a couple of hours, it actually was fun, kind of. And even though it was cold and hailed giant hail balls on us our second night we just built a fire and talked until way too late after we put the boys down. This past year has been a weird one in Seattle for me and this trip just reminded me of how much I really value this kind of relationship. I'll certainly never take it for granted again and I hope this means our friendship with these guys will last a long, long time. And not just because I'm hoping to stay in their guest bedroom....

*Disclaimer: any good pictures in this post are from Courtney's camera. But any terrible iPhone quality pictures are all mine!

Anders at 1.25

Anders is 15 months old and is in full blown toddler mode. Running around destroying the house, learning new words every day, throwing epic tantrums in public, the whole nine yards. There's so much about this age I don't want to forget (and quite a few things I'd love to), so I wanted to jot down a little bit about Anders right now.

Moving and grooving! He walks all over the place, is starting to run and figure out stairs, pretends to jump, wrestles with Mom, Dad, and Oliver, loooooves being chased around the house, climbs on play structures and can slide by himself. We're having so much fun taking him to parks almost every day but he's also happy to just hang out in the backyard in our little 12'x8' patch of grass. You take what you can get in the city!

Talking up a storm. Probably my favorite thing about this age. He's learning new words every day it seems and it always surprises me the things he picks up on. He has maybe 30 words that he uses on a regular basis and also speaks Hebrew fluently (we think, still waiting to have this confirmed). I can't wait until that magical day when his use of words helps avoid meltdowns. Tell me this happens at 16 months.

Still loves to read. He brings us a constant stream of books throughout the day (and has figured out how to scoot backwards into our laps so we can read them to him) which is mostly awesome but if I'm trying to get something done it can be a little heartbreaking. He's currently loving the Olivia books, Little Critter, and "Toot" which he discovered from his friend William who is obviously a terrible influence.

Loves Dad best. A new development while we were in California. If Adam tries to hand Anders off to me he'll cry and cling to him (Anders clinging to Adam, that is). So strange. I enjoyed it at first because it meant my hands were free but I can't say it doesn't sting a tiny bit every time. I've taken to whispering disparaging things about Adam in Anders' ear whenever we're alone together. #sorrynotsorry

Crazy mood swings! I don't know if we'll ever be blessed with a daughter, but if we are I'm so ready for the teen years. I'm not sure where he got his high stress personality (averts eyes) but Anders seems to go from happy to sad to happy at the drop of a hat. No longer will I secretly judge the parent who goes running from a restaurant/store with a screaming toddler. That has been me more times than I'd like to admit.

 

Sleeping pretty well but goes to bed late (8-8:30) and wakes up early (6-6:30). He still takes two naps and the late bedtime allows us to be out later when we want so I don't complain too much, only every morning at 6 AM. Especially after traveling with our friends whose baby goes to bed at the same time as Anders and then sleeps in 2 hours after him in the morning. Come on, man!

Also loves: group hugs, challah bread, washing machines, his binky ("key-key"), rocks/sticks, trash trucks ("ka kucks"), big kids and babies ("ba-buh"), all animals, balls ("da" for a ball in general or "dada" for a ball with a specific name (basketball, soccer ball, etc), no idea where this came from), the sand box, and food (especially carbs).

In conclusion, Anders is totally nailing the toddler thing. It's like he read the book on being a toddler only it wasn't him, it was me! I read the book and I'm still way out of my league with this firecracker. 15 months is the best and the worst but I wouldn't change a thing about him. Except maybe his umbilical hernia because it's weird and might require surgery.