Words

Tonight Brody said "apple sauce" about as clear as anything. Watching him go from a baby to a little boy has been such an amazing blessing. He is wonderful in the true sense of the word. Wonderful. Marvelous. Astonishing. Miraculous. He also says "home depot" when asked what his favorite store is (thanks, Daddy). Smart baby. Beautiful baby.

Santa Barbara Saturdays: Farmers Market

Santa Barbara has the best Farmer's Markets in the world. My favorites are the Saturday morning event on Cota St. & Santa Barbara St. and the Tuesday one on lower State Street. There are most amazingly gorgeous organic fruit and veggies; flowers and extra fun goodies like flavored nuts, oils, breads and juices! It's the perfect way to start your weekend on Saturdays and a great way to end your day on Tuesdays. Just a blast!


You can go to a FM every day of the week except Sunday. To check out the schedule: Click here to download SBCFMA weekly schedule

So fun!!

Funny Picture

And speaking of the carousel - we all got a good laugh at this shot! Clearly, Kevin had no idea where his hand was resting. Hee Hee!

Santa Barbara Saturday: Merry-Go-Round

This gorgeous carousel is located at Chase Palm Park on Cabrillo Blvd. Do you know that I've lived in Santa Barbara for 5 years now - what?!?! - and had never been to the M-G-R area of Chase Palm Park. And now, I'm hooked! Brody had so much fun going round & round. It was, in fact, magical. He wasn't ready to mount the horsie just yet but he had a blast sitting on one of the mermaid benches! :)

I'm so excited about taking any and all of our future kid (and adults) visitors to the park! In fact, how fun would this be for an upcoming BDay party!?!

Location: 223 E Cabrillo BlvdSanta Barbara, CA 93101805 963-9463 Hours of Operation: 11am - 6pm (winter)

Also, nearby is the amazing Shipwreck Playground! Kids and adults can't resist jumping aboard! Hope you can make it to the park. You will not be disappointed. Oh - and the pier is right across the street!!

Photog 101

Last night I went to my first photography class. The professor is a 60 year old hippy who pronounces it 'fertogrefy'. It's two hours and what I hate about it will eventually be the best part. He's really into the science of photography. As in why and how the light of the world reflects off of x number of glass pieces in the lens and at what distance they can be calculated. We only picked up our cameras once. I for sure was bored but I learned stuff so that's good. It was also a good time for me to read the owner's manual of the camera! I'd never done that before and it was extremely informative. Between the two, I think I might just learn a thing or two about fertografy yet.

Santa Barbara Saturday: Alameda Park

I absolutely love this town. It is my dream town. The place I always wanted to live but never knew about. I seroiusly thought that the soap opera Santa Barbara was the name of a ficticious beach town in California. Isn't that crazy? I feel like SB is in the media all the time now. Maybe it's because I live here and so I notice it more but I really believe it has become more popular in recent years. I mean, Oprah lives here!


The truth is, I don't know how long we'll be here. As much as we love it we just don't know how long we can decide to pay the price (literally) to be here. I say 'decide' because it really is a choice. And a hard one.


So, once a week I want to highlight a place in Santa Barbara that I love. I call it Santa Barbara Saturday because they will mostly be family-friendly places that can be enjoyed on Saturday. I don't promise that they will be 'little-known' spots. In fact, they might be down-right famous. But they're places I love and would recommend anyone checking out if visiting our beautiful little town.



ALAMEDA PARK and ALICE KECK GARDENS
1400 Santa Barbara and across the street

These parks are amazing. Alameda park is a wonderland for kids. We were there this afternoon and Brody attacks it every time like it's the first time. There are always kids there and it's in a really safe part of town - huge open land surrounds the park. There is a toddler section but most of it is for older kids. There are several places to picnic, throw a disc, practice yoga or take a nap (a regular sight)! It's just a really fabulous park and I'm considering it for Brody's 2nd birthday. No reservations required but you also have no guaruntees on spaces.

Alice Keck is an amazing memorial of gorgeous low-water plants (you find flowers here). The trails and the plants are great but the real center-pieces of this park is the koi pond. The kids love this - HUGE fish, millions of turles flapping around and usually a duck or two can be found. This is also a great place for a private picnic or date night (I've heard of a Valentine date where a girl set up a table with linens and heat lamp and brought in catering and everything. Tre romantic!). There are a lot of weddings here as well but it's also a place that doesn't take reservations.

These places rank so highly on my favorites list that they were part of my last birthday which I consider to be my best birthday yet! So check it out. You will love it!!

Happy NEW YEAR!!!

I've decided to make some things important in 2007. Along with my goal to look 'presentable' when veturing outside of the confines of my homestead, I'm adding a few more personal goals and blog features including:

* Challenge Wednesday will be in full effect - you might remember it from several posts ago. An abitious goal I made just before traveling for 3 weeks and the end-of-year festivities. In the new year, this will become a regular feature.

* Santa Barbara Saturdays. This will be a post highlighting our favorite Santa Barbara activities or places or people even. Look for restaurant reviews, family-friendly adventures, little-known spots of interest, and much much more! To be clear, they will not always be things done on Saturdays - that is just when I'll make a habit of posting.

* Elenore Roosevelt famously said "Do one thing every day that scares you." In theory, this is great but I'm not sure I can fully grasp it on a daily basis. Not immediately anyway. However, I love the idea of pushing myself to do things that I don't think I can normally do! Therefore, once a month, I and a few others (I hope) will write about what they have done "today" that scares them. I'm so amped on this idea!

* My Cup is Empty. In his Rich Dad series, Robert Kiyosaki talks about entrepreneurs needing to be eager to learn. Always learning. They need to never be a specialist but remain a generalists (like my Sweetie). He said that people who 'know everything' have a full cup and the goal is to keep your cup empty. My goal is to learn more...from the mudane (did some research on Kwanzaa recently and was blown away by what I found) to the major (global warming, anyone?). These posts might be lame to you geniuses but it'll keep me learning. And might even make me more interesting too!

Whew. I've got lots of business to get to! Really looking forward to the new year and what God has in store for us. Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas, Brody Bear

Look how big you are! This Christmas was so much fun. You still don't get it really - getting you to open gifts was like pulling teeth. You were totally uninterested. But you were so great through it all. You sat thru church like such a big boy. You came down stairs Christmas morning and walked around from toy to toy like, "hey, a piano", "hey, a guitar", "hey, a shopping cart". So precious.

Unfortunately, you got pretty sick at Mor Mor and PaPa's house in Phoenix over New Year's but amazingly you were still sweet, fun and funny. Saying "No, thank you" and "Peeeez (please)". And all sorts of other big 21-month-old words. Even holiday words like Santa, Snow Man, Ho Ho Ho. What will the next 12 months bring? New words...new tricks and talents...new excitment over things like trains, dump trucks and air planes, oh my! I can't wait, Buddy. You are such a wonderful, amazing, little man.