Santa Barbara

Gabriela has been asking to visit her cousins Claire and Natalie since about the moment we left their house from our after-Christmas visit.  Every day she'd ask me to tell her a story about Claire and Natalie and draw pictures of Claire and Natalie and ask to go to their house. Every time she broke down and cried about something, she'd also cry that she can't see Claire and Natalie.  Finally we arranged to visit in March.  After that Gabriela started asking if it was March yet every day.  

Here's a little clip when she asked (on our drive down) if it was March yet.  

Gabriela couldn't contain her excitement all day about the trip.  Gabriela was such a great little traveler. The drive was nearly six hours, and she was awake the whole time.  We sang songs, read books, she played with her dollies, ate snacks, pointed out all the tractors and cows and horses along the way.  We stopped for potty breaks when she'd announce that she had to go pee pee.  Daddy stopped to get her a chocolate milkshake along the way, and we stopped to run around and get out the crazies. 

. 

The weather on Friday was amazing.  I still can't believe it was the first week of March and we were playing on the beach without sweaters. Lane even got a tiny sunburn.  Gabriela had special time with Natalie at the beach while Claire sold Girl Scout Cookies.  They built sand castles, played in the water, and found a giant pile of seashells.

 

As you can see in the next video, Gabriela was very concerned about Natalie getting wet in the ocean.

Claire and Gabriela had special time together later that afternoon while Natalie sold Girl Scout Cookies.  They played with baby dolls, on Claire's iTouch, and also played Go Fish.  

I love her Go Fish game. Since then, Gabriela has been pointing out everything that is the color chartreuse, eggplant, or apricot.  She had a yellow m&m the other day and announced that it was the color buttercup.

On Sunday we went out for a boat ride with some friends of the SB Grovers. It was opening day of the yacht club season so we were in a boat parade.  A fun adventure for the girls!  As usual, we ate good food, had lots of laughs, and the boys ensured there was delicious dessert every night. mmm. 

I didn't take any photos since our camera display still isn't working. So bummed we don't have pics of our boat ride on the ocean. boo.