Sean's Birthday Trip to SLO

San Luis Obispo....one of our favorite places to visit! This past weekend was a surprise birthday trip for Sean to SLO, he loves surprises so occasionally throughout the last 4 years of marriage I have managed to keep some surprises a surprise which makes it fun and keeps him on his toes! (I can't let him always have the upper hand)

We packed up the car last Friday morning with snacks, Barney videos for Madison and rockin' play list and drove 5 hours north! We stayed in Pismo Beach at the Cliffs Resort which was so beautiful, we had an ocean view and pool view so we enjoyed some fun times on the balcony with nice scenery and live bands during the day. I attempted to take Madison swimming in the pool but soon realized that it was way to cold and the weather wasn't going to warm up once we got out of the pool, but I realized this after we were in our swim suits dipping our toes in! I should have realized it wasn't going to be pleasant when there was only 2 people swimming but I thought I could tough it out! Not so much!

Here's Madison in her new swim suit, she didn't really like getting it on, the straps may have been too tight. 

Our first meal on our vacation was at the famous Splash Cafe in Pismo, the best clam chowder I think I have ever tasted! I love the chowder in San Fransisco but this was very, very good. The line to get in the restaurant was out the door!

We stopped at an outdoor concert in San Luis Obispo, they were singing Gospel rap, it was really fun to hang out in the park for a bit and snap some photos!

We also spent Saturday shopping and then lunch at Firestone Grill, we had yummy tri-tip sandwiches and Cobb salad with steak...Sean loves meat so this was the perfect lunch spot and we have good memories here from the 7 or 8 times we have eaten there.

and..this is really gross but I had to get a shot of it, these 2 walls are covered and I mean covered in chewing gum that people have chewed and stuck on the walls, nasty! I don't know how this habit was started but I guess its better here then on someones shoe ??

Sean's Birthday dinner at Cafe Roma!

This is also the restaurant that catered our rehearsal dinner meal 4 years ago! 

The squash ravioli in sage butter sauce was so yummy!!!!

If you look closely you will see that Madison is watching Barney on YouTube on Sean's phone, we tried to be discreet about it, but I guess we didn't realize that the restaurant was a fancier, white tablecloth kind of place so we needed her to be very quiet, she was the only child in the restaurant but she did great and we enjoyed our meal on the lovely patio! 

Happy 34th Birthday to my wonderful husband! 

A little hotel room wrestling!

Wonderful Easter!

We had the opportunity to go to Grace Church in San Luis Obispo for Easter service on Sunday. Its a small little church and so friendly. We had visited this church 2 times before Madison was born. Pastor Tim gave an excellent message from 1Peter 1:3-9, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 

The choir was wonderful as well, great time of worship and praise. 

Madison loved the nursery and it was so great to have her cared for by such wonderful people in the congregation that we had never met before and could leave her with while we enjoyed BIG church!

Here is Madison's little Easter egg hunt!

I'm also including the eggs we colored before we left for the weekend :)

Cutie pie lil Kalub

Madison's 18 month photo shoot this week, she did great! no tears this time :) She really looks like a toddler in these photos.

Yes, she is wearing Christmas Jammies...but they just now fit her! Loves the pampers box!

Daddy put in her piggy tails! I was very impressed, this was the morning I got to sleep in so Daddy got to have a little Madison play time!

Sea World with Grandma!

Our family had a very eventful week last week. Last Monday, Madison came down with the stomach flu at 1am and proceeded to get sick on the hour until 7am, poor baby, along with a fever and other fun things that go along with the flu but I won't go into detail. The worst part was that Madison so generously passed her flu germs on to her Uncle Brent who she calls "Unkee" and her Daddy, they both had it pretty bad by last Thursday, Brent and Sean both missed work. The worst, worst part was that we only have 1 bathroom!!! Yikes! Last week was an experience we all would rather not repeat but everyone is now healthy, and I did not get the flu which I am thrilled about since I nursed everyone else back to health ...so I love the flu shot, yes, it really, really works and I highly recommend Mommy's getting one along with their child :) I don't know why Madison got the flu though..its a mystery!
On to more fun things...My mother in law flew down to visit us also last week and managed to avoid the flu, yeah! We had a wonderful time with her at Sea World on Saturday, the weather was wonderful and Madison loved it! It was a good time for the 4 of us to enjoy each other and see all the awesome fish and animals.

I had no idea Burt and Ernie were at Sea World!! So Fun!! I don't think Madison was too excited to see Burt and Ernie, she wouldn't even look at Ernie when we posed for this photo, she loves them on Sesame Street but real life...not so much! 

Sea World has a great Sesame Street play area for kids that was huge and amazing!

Madison's first ride :) Our cart wasn't supposed to spin but did, Sean was still recovering from the flu and Madison was just warming up to the idea of it moving let alone spinning.. I was laughing my head off because we tried to get it to stop spinning by turning the wheel in the middle the opposite way of the spin, but Sean just put sunscreen on and it was too slippery for his hands to get a good grip! 

Whooohooo!!!!!!!!!!!

I love this photo, Shamu in mid-air!

Shamu show!

Thank you Mom for watching Madison while we drove to San Clemente to house hunt this past Sunday!

We put an offer in on a house and are prayerfully waiting to see if its excepted soon! We have been here in San Diego 7 months now and and are eager to get settled into a place back in Orange County, its exciting to start the home buying process but also a little scary as well! We know God has the right house and timing for us so even if the process takes longer we know that is the best plan and something better is out there for us!