Hot! Hot! Hot!!!

Gilroy, the town my parents live in, is always super hot. Of course, we ended up being in town for what was likely the hottest day of the summer.  Seriously.  It was 110 degrees in Gilroy at like 6 pm. This was not okay with me. 

Gabriela and Andrew started out the day by "helping" me pick blackberries at my mom's house.  Gabriela proudly presented me with the bowl I was using and exclaimed, "Look, Mommy! I ate them all!"  Whoops.

Later they ran through the sprinklers, swam in the pool, and enjoyed an afternoon ice cream snack. 

Gabriela is like a little fish in the swimming pool.  With the help of her life vest and floaties, she swims from one end of the pool and back over and over again.  She can't get enough.  She definitely enjoys swimming much more than last summer. Thanks Uncle Matthew for swimming so much with our little mermaid!

More Photos from the San Francisco Zoo

 

chimpanzee doing yoga

SF Zoo

Things Gabriela liked at the zoo... in her own words.  mostly.

1.  "I like a zebra braying in my ear" (we've been reading Polar Bear, Polar Bear a lot lately)

2. "I like giraffe eating leaf for a snack. And the momma said, 'here is a leaf, eat it giraffe'" (the momma was actually the zoo keeper)

3. "I like the tunnel" (from the Children's Zoo area)

She also liked...

The baby gorilla - Yes! They have a baby gorilla, just like in DC! This gorilla baby is a boy, and he's about a month older than Kabibi. His name is Hasani, and he's so cute!

The merry go round

The peacocks

 There were several peacocks, five of them if you ask Gabriela, just wandering around the zoo.  Gabriela had a blast spotting and chasing them.

Potty Mouth

Last night, Gabriela stumbled, almost fell down and said, "oh, shit!"

whoopsies.

At least she used it in the right context.

Downtown in Santa Barbara

One day we decided to go visit downtown. We took a trolley to the pier.  Gabriela was so excited to take public transportation. We used to ride the metro and bus all the time in DC. This was probably our first ride since then, and extra fun because Claire and Natalie were along too.

 

This is what we saw when we got there.  Santa Barbara life is really rough.   

 

We all walked to the end of the pier together. 

 

Then we took some pictures at the end of the pier.  We love this sweet Grover family.

 

 

Noal and Ian

 

At the end of the pier, we boarded a little water taxi and rode around in the ocean.  Gabriela was very excited.

 

Here's our little sailor steering the boat.  Gabriela enjoyed it so much she had two turns!!!  

A view of Santa Barbara

 

Noal took this picture, which is why he's not in it.

 

Natalie loves to snuggle up to her Uncle Noal

 After a delicious lunch down on State Street, we went out for ginormous frozen yogurts.  Gabriela couldn't believe how big this bite was! 

When we got home, Lane and Auntie Adie took the girls to visit the neighbor and feed him a little snack.

As if this weren't an eventful enough day, we all went swimming at the pool when we got back.  It was a perfect way to spend our Saturday.

Swimmin in SB

One of the many fabulous things about Ian and Adie's new place in Santa Barbara is their swimming pool!  It's just the perfect temp - really, really warm yet somehow still refreshing.

Gabriela loved, loved, LOVED swimming in the pool!  She learned how to use her hands to move herself along the edge of the pool - monkey climbing. She kept asking to do "monkey, monkey, monkey".  Gabriela also put her face in the water to blow bubbles, hung out in her floatie, kicked her legs, floated on her back (with her life vest) and learned the motor boat song. She couldn't get enough of that pool.  We went swimming every day!

super fun times.  see for yourself!

Introduction to the Ocean

Does it make me a bad parent if my child is two years old and hadn't ever been to the ocean? Now, I did take her to the Dominican Republic, Miami, and even the Outer Banks in North Carolina but she technically wasn't born yet. We remedied this by taking a trip to Santa Barbara to visit Lane's brother Ian and his wonderful family. Our first stop with them was a day at the beach. Gabriela did what any other outgoing two year old would have done when she saw the ocean - introduce herself. 

"Hi, Ocean.  I Gabi-lah-lah"

She got busy right away digging holes, hanging out in them, playing in the sand, chasing birds, putting her toes in the water, relaxing and having snacks, building sand castles (or destroying the ones Mommy built for her) and just having a wonderful time.

We were lucky too, it was sunny and warm at the beach.

Things I forgot to take pictures of

We went up to Sacramento last weekend to visit some friends from college.  Gabriela met her little friend Aidan finally and they had so much fun playing together.  It was nice to visit with Ben and Sarah after so much time!  We hope the come down to visit us in Oakland sometime. Of course I didn't take any pictures of those two cutie pies together playing trucks, jumping on the trampoline, or in the wagon together.

We discovered this really cool park in Oakland.  There are two playgrounds separated by a nice walking path.  We played in the sand, Gabriela went on the big-girl swing, made friends with a little girl, and LOVED the tunnel slide.  Sorry, no photos of those fun things either.

And then we went to the zoo again with Beau.  There were tons of cool things to photograph -  ginormous bats, brightly colored frogs, a lizard eating a cricket, Gabriela and Beau brushing the goats, the insect house, and more.  But did I think to bring the camera??

I'll try to do better so you don't miss out on any more supreme cuteness :)

Chaney Goes to Camp By Gabriela

"Chaney go to camp, but he'll come back.  That's life!"

Conversations with Gabriela

After taking her temperature and finding a fever...

Mommy: Gabriela, you are sick, baby.

Gabriela (very adamantly): I not six! Beau six! I two!!

Gabriela reads you The Way I Feel

I have to apologize in advance for the wacky angles at which this video was shot.  I was laying in bed with Gabriela and reading a goodnight story to her when I decided to document her reading. Plus, she was kind of antsy and moving all around as you will see.  Gabriela got this awesome book called The Way I Feel from Nana and Papa for her birthday, and she loves reading it. I have to warn you - since she's reading a whole book for you, the video is kind of long. 

Some of my favorite parts are when she asks how the kids in the pictures feel, how she says "pointed-dis" for disappointed, and "toyeh" for toy.  As you will be able to see from the video, Gabriela's favorite emotion in the book is angry.

Fairyland

 

We joined the summer reading program this year and one of the prizes was free admission to Fairyland! Fairyland is a fairy tale theme park that's been around even longer than Disneyland.  

So we went with Auntie Liss, Chaney and Beau on Tuesday.  Gabriela had a great time. Auntie Liss was excited to show us Fairyland since she would come here when she was just a little girl.

 

She went on the mini ferris wheel with Chaney, and wasn't even scared or nervous.  During the ride she even exclaimed, "it fun!"

 

We caught most of a puppet show. I'm excited to come back and watch a whole one from start to finish!

 

And we couldn't pass up some Dorothy and Scarecrow photo-ops :)  

We went through the Rabbit Hole from Alice and Wonderland and then got lost in a card maze.

 

After a ride on the Jolly Trolly Train, we went to the Cowboys and Indians area, where the kids ran around like crazy, played in a prison area, and Gabriela went down the slide over and over and over again.

 

The boys were really looking forward to playing on the pirate ship. We spent a lot of time here. Gabriela got right to work climbing the ropes, as you can see.  She made me a little nervous, but she didn't seem to be at all.  What a big girl!

 

The funhouse mirrors in the Rabbit  Hole were a big hit for everyone. 

Hugging Snow White goodbye.  

Fairyland is such a sweet magical kid park.  We will definitely be coming back!