"In My Whole Life!"

This post will be a bunch of random stories & pictures.

One morning Jaxon, Reese & I were sitting in the airondack chairs enjoying the sunshine, view and a book. All of a sudden Jaxon starts SCREAMING! "Ow ow! I got stung by a bee! A bee stung me!" Um. Yeah. Right. I see no bees. But whatever I'll play along. He was pretty adament. So I got him some ice for his finger. As he's icing it and crying, he says, "In my WHOLE life I've never been stung by a bee!"  OMG. I about fell over. I don't know why, but this cracked me up. Maybe because his whole life spans all of four years. Or maybe it was his dramatic delivery. Or maybe it was because I didn't really believe he got stung by a bee. I mean, my son does have a flair for the dramatic. But I laughed my butt off. A few second later he reproduces a stinger. Yup. Dude got stung by a bee and had the stinger to prove it. Oops. I felt kinda bad for not believing him and for laughing. Well, not really for laughing, it was pretty funny.

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On another morning, we open the door and find this little visitor on our porch.

 Jaxon immediately squeals, "Blackie from Rio Rancho walked to California to visit me!"
"Blackie" was a neighborhood cat that Jaxon thought was his since he spent a lot of time in our garage and front yard. Jaxon and 'Blackie' took a liking to each other. For the record, his real name wasn't 'Blackie' Jaxon named him that.

The California 'Blackie' had a friend, but this friend was bolder than 'Blackie'. He let himself right into our little cottage.

Running out

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Reese enjoying some prunes. She made quite the mess.

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Brian enjoying the sunset

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Carlsbad has an outlet mall that Brian & I love to visit. It just so happens that our cottage was less than 10 minutes away!

She loves herself some shopping...
As long as she kept moving. 

I know it's odd that Jax is in the big stroller,
 but it wasn't like this the entire time.

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Reese hangin' in the hammock with me.

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Some more beach pictures

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The best part of being on vacation is that ice cream calories don't count!

Jaxon & I visited Cold Stone Creamery a few times after dinner.

Chocolate with M&Ms for him.

Vanilla with Oreos for me.

The first night we went I got him a kid's size. Little did I know that they don't mix in the M&Ms in a kid's, they just sprinkle them on top.

The second time we went Jaxon told me, "Make sure to tell the lady to mix in my M&Ms. I don't like them just sprinkled." Kid knows what he likes.

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We found this sign very odd. 

Methadone Clinic?

I mean are people on their way to Target, see this sign and say, "Oh yeah. I've been wanting to go to a methadone clinic. Let me stop me." ?

Weird.

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Brian & I have a special place. 11(?) years ago he took me to this meditation garden. It is absolutely beautiful and obviously very peaceful. It's the place we knew the other was 'the one' and where he proposed. We go every single time we are in San Diego and take a picture in the spot Brian proposed.

I sat in that spot when Brian got down on one knee.

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Our last day at the beach...

This may turn into a new family tradition.

This was absolutely the best family vacation we have ever had. It was just what the doctor ordered for our little family. The past year has been an absolute crazy, stressful whirlwind and we haven't had much family time. We especially haven't had any uninterrupted family time since Reese was born. We are always in a 'divide and conquer' mode and Brian has been traveling so much the kids have not had much Daddy time. Brian made it a point to turn off his phone and email so there truly was no work. It was perfect.
I don't even know how many times Brian & I said, "This is perfect. I'm having such a good time." Even Jaxon declared he never wanted to leave California.

We will always cherish this week together.