Some fun in October!

Pete's parents were in town visiting for a couple weeks at the end of October and we had a great time!

We took Layla to the Long Beach Boardwalk and she got to ride in a car with Kermit the Frog. She loved it! However, she hated being taken out of it. Opa made up for it with some crazy maneuvers in the stroller, though. =)

We took her wine tasting to Santa Barbara and Solvang. She has already been wine tasting four times in her short nine months of life. Does that make me a bad mother?!?! I just want her to have an appreciation for one of Mommy's favorite things. =)

At the Santa Barbara Zoo, Layla got to go for a Jeep ride, this time with a gorilla, an elephant and a giraffe. This one was a bit jerkier than the Kermit ride, so she was a bit more accepting of getting off when the ride was over.

She absolutely loved feeding the giraffes!!! She was giggling and smiling the whole time. Just like she does at home with her giant giraffe!

Man do those girls have some long tongues!

Getting a ride from Daddy while we checked out the exotic birds exhibit.

This one was so cool, and rather tame.

Watching the snow leopard.

We had a quick, impromptu stop at a local pumpkin patch on the way to Santa Barbara called Pete's Pumpkin Patch. I'm really glad that we stopped. We don't have many family photos, and Layla is looking adorable, even though we had to wake her up for the photos. =)

Now I am not much for Halloween. In fact, I pretty much hate the holiday, at least most of it. Everyone kept asking me what I was going to dress Layla up as. I didn't really care much, so last minute Sheryl and I came up with the idea of dressing her as G.I. Jane. Though she was not in a picture taking mood that day, she looks pretty cute. I do love her in her fatigues.

Father's Day

For Father's Day, Pete, Layla, and I went to the Los Angeles Zoo. We had such a good time and the weather was perfect. Layla was in such a great mood the whole time, although she looks so serious in the pictures. That is pretty much her face when she is intrigued by something. I think she liked looking at the people more than the animals. There were a lot of them and they are much more interesting than sleeping animals are. We did get lucky though and most of the animals were out for us to see. It was the perfect way to spend Father's Day: Delicious home cooked breakfast, afternoon at the zoo, and some yummy bar-b-qued tri tip for dinner.

The Family


Watching the giraffes. Mommy's favorite!

Getting a lift from Daddy.

Kangaroo chillin' in the shade.

The horns on these goats are amazing!

Loves her daddy!

And her mommy!

All the cats were so beautiful. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the snow leopard or the lions, but the tiger, jaguar, and ocelot were so beautiful. I am such a sucker for the big cats!

The pacing tiger.

This jaguar was carrying a giant bone.

The ocelot has the most beautiful markings ever! I want one!!!

Anniversary Weekend

I know that our anniversary isn't necessarily about baby, but I guess it is kind of indirectly, so I am going to share anyway. After posing the two ideas of the Santa Barbara Zoo and the Long Beach Aquarium for our anniversary to Pete, he responded saying, "Animals are cool, fish suck." So the Santa Barbara Zoo it is! We has such a good time there. Pretty much every animal they had was out and we seemed to hit them all when they were somewhat active. Well except the lions, they are sure sleepy. We went by them twice about two hours apart and they hadn't even moved, well the female had closed her legs from the spread eagle position, but other than that, still sleeping.

I was worried going out there cause my new thing is getting this weird echo in my ears then getting really light headed and blacking out if I stand too long. It is lovely, and I am sure it is from my lack of proper nutrition. So on the drive out there I ate and drank everything and anything that I could manage. Starbucks breakfast sandwich, a bunch of dried apricots, a strawberry lemonade, and some water. This helped a ton. Had no problems until my ears started echoing again, then I knew it was time for lunch.

I took over 300 pictures while we were there, so going threw them and narrowing them down was somewhat difficult, but I wanted to include some of our favorite animals from the visit. One of my most favorites, and the inspiration for the baby's nursery is, of course, the giraffe. I just love them. They are so beautiful and graceful, and all the giraffe baby stuff they have out right now is so freakin' adorable.

Right next to the giraffes are the meerkats. They are just about the cutest thing ever. They have so much personality. I told Pete I want one. Then again I told Pete that I wanted a giraffe, an elephant, a snow leopard, and a sea otter too. I have a feeling Audrey and Jack will have to suffice though.

After that was Pete's favorite, the gorillas. There were two beautiful silver backed gorillas and the zoo staff was there giving them food so they were a bit more active. I can't believe how much personality they have. And for such huge animals they are really quite dainty with how they eat. This guy was waiting for his banana leaf to be thrown to him.

The elephants are another animal that is going to be part of the baby's room motif. They had two of them there, and even though they are such huge animals there is something so sweet and gentle about them. They were having a good time giving themselves dirt baths while we were there, which was hilarious to watch.

I have to say that the most gorgeous animal they have there is definitely the snow leopard. It was just breath-taking. I have always been a cat lover, and the snow leopard is one of my favorites. I so just wanted to go in and pet him or her.

The sea otters were awesome. The first time we walked by them they were sleeping, and are they ever adorable. Then when we went back by after lunch they were all kinds of active. The little guy was playing with his food and I loved this shot because in his flailing about he looks like he is praying.

So those were some of my favorite animals from the Santa Barbara Zoo visit. Though it is a small zoo it has a lot of cool animals and it is in such a beautiful area. I can't wait to go there with the little bean once it is old enough.