Banana Slug Pals

Living in the Santa Cruz mountains, we see TONS of Banana slugs. So far this summer it's been about 3 a day when we leave in the morning to go to the pool. Today, our friend the banana slug stuck around until the afternoon. We were walking back up to the house from swim lessons and the girls hung out with their pal on our walkway for a bit. It allowed me to go inside, grab the camera and capture this precious time....

T-Shirt Quilts

When we had baby showers for the girls, we had an AWESOME idea to make personalized onesies with puffy paint... It was GREAT, and everyone participated.

Here are some from Cami's baby shower:

And this is the table with us working at Dahlia's:

It was super fun, and the girls had unique clothes to take home and wear:

Since they were so personal, it would have been weird to give them away, and kinda useless to keep old small onesies folded away in the closet. So, I decided to make a quilt for each for the girls out of their old shirts.

These were my first quilt attempts ever, I didn't know really where to start. I had ideas in my head about what I wanted. I found a SUPER easy quilting tutorial here: Quilt-in-a-Day. I found some fun fabric, a SUPER soft backing, and got started. I cut out all of the onesies, cut out squares in the colored fabric, sewed the t-shirts onto the squares, then quilted all of those together. (I really followed the tutorial, except I didn't sew the last step along the horizontal rows, I just sewed bullets in each four corner intersection of the squares).

And here are the finished projects:

Cami's:

Dahlia's:

The girls are actually napping with them right now. They are super cozy and heavy. It was fun.

Bucket Baby

A couple of weeks ago, on one of those hot days, we had a bucket of water/soap on the back deck to play with, while I did some dishes. Dahlia LOVES water. She decided she needed to get in. Diaper and all. It was hilarious.

BOB Ironman Duallie Stroller

We recently purchased (with A LOT of financial gift help from the grandparents as a Mothers Day/Cami's birthday combo gift) a much needed double jogging stroller. One of the best. The BOB Ironman Duallie We love it, well the girls LOVE it. Whenever it is unfolded and ready to go, the girls climb in as fast as they can with excited noises. I repeat, they LOVE it.

One of the main motivators for this stroller has been to scheduling difficulties we have been running into with me trying to train for half marathons (or get out and run in general) and Ian's work schedule/availability to watch the kids. We have had a couple days where some unexpected scheduling things come up for Ian's work, or weather, or something where my planned running had to be put on hold. Anyway, we are SUPER excited now to have mobility for the girls and I during all hours of the day.

We have also been able to run as a family. This last Saturday we ran about 4 miles with the stroller. (In our Five Fingers of course) It was so great, Ian and I were able to have some quality time while working out, and getting the kids outside. I also walked the girls down the the grocery store and got some dinner items. We are SO happy to have this new piece of equipment. It even folds up enough to fit in our little Honda Civic trunk. YAY!

Hobie Polarized

About a month and a half ago, I received in the mail a new pair of Hobie Polarized Sunglasses. Now there is a bigger story here than just that fact. While Lifeguarding for USOS for 6 years, I really came to understand the fundamental fact that good eyewear is one of the most critical purchases you can ever make (if you have an active/outdoor lifestyle) We use our eyes SO much, and they need to be protected. Having Hobie as a sponsor for USOS, allowed me to purchase some amazing sunglasses (pictured below)

Now these glasses stuck with me and endured some tough times for 8 years, ocean, sand, river, snow, Central America, marriage, babies, hospitals, swim lesson instruction, countless hours in the car, and more. They have protected my eyes from all the stress I put them under. Eventually the glasses broke. I was devastated. They came with me everywhere, and they were broken.

I contacted Hobie and they mentioned the manufacturers, so I contacted them as well. Since this model was pretty old, and I had forgotten the name of it, they were able to offer me a new pair of my choosing at half price. On a trip back to OC, I went into the store to try on some new glasses and found a few that I liked. We ended up purchasing a pair of 'El Capitans', and though I really loved the 'Topanga' style, they didn't have the lens/frame combo I was looking for. Anyway, we were fine with the El Caps, and they actually fit Ian a bit better. So he started using them, and really commented on how amazing a great pair of sunglasses changes things.

Well, about a month and a half ago I started following @HobiePolarized on Twitter. They had a contest for their first followers. I won a pair of Sunglasses through this contest. I was pretty sure the contest glasses would just be a model that they pick, but just on a whim, I mentioned how I liked the Topanga model when I was giving them my address. Two days after my birthday, I went to get the mail, and they were there. I opened the packaging, and saw 'Topanga' written on the box. My heart literally leapt with JOY! The Topangas are pictured below, and I have been SO blessed to once again have some quality glasses that I love. I just thought I would share. Hobie is a great company, and they make QUALITY products, so if you're ever in the market for surf/boat/kayak/eyewear/SUP, I highly recommend my friends at Hobie.