PAID HOLIDAY

orlando is now a full-time employee at jp morgan chase {hooray!} which means he gets paid holidays! and to celebrate his first, we played all day on monday. orlando, who knows the way to my heart, suggested breakfast at butters {only the best breakfast EVER!} followed by a day at the zoo. it was warm and sunny and perfect! luc loved the zoo, lia loved being outside all day, and i love love loved breakfast. an all-around fantastic holiday with my family!

{strawberry cheesecake french toast. you can't see it, but in between each slice of perfectly fluffy bread is a layer of strawberry cheesecake. oh. my. heaven.}

WE'VE MISSED THIS!

it's been a long hot summer without our regular trips to the train park and we have missed it! this weekend was blessedly cool and overcast so we jumped at the chance to spend the day OUTSIDE together as a family. and it was so much fun! i love that no matter what we do, a day with these three people is always my favorite. luc loved it, as usual, and lia was enthralled with all the people watching. she is almost 9 months old, which is my all-time favorite age and she is so much fun! we all adore our chunka-chunk! and we are super excited for winter, so we can go to the park everyday!

SCOTTSDALE STAYCATION

you guys, my husband is amazing. seriously. he is working so hard and has done an awesome job of balancing two jobs + making sure we all get enough of his time and attention. i love him so much for the constant effort he gives to provide for us AND spend quality time with us.

he definitely deserves a vacation, but we have some big goals we are trying to reach and things are just too busy right now. so we decided to really take advantage of labor day and take a fun staycation and enjoy some quality family time this weekend. we stayed at the hyatt regency resort in scottsdale and had SO MUCH FUN, i'm so glad we did it! it was a blast! we spent two days splashing and swimming in the huge swimming pools, and building sand castles on the sand beach. the kiddos were in heaven. lia loved eating the sand and sitting in the shallow water {this girl is quite the people watcher}, and luc raced and jumped and swam to his heart's content. he was in his element- running with papa, making friends to race around in the sand with, and jumping off the side a thousand times. {and he only had to be rescued once, haha!} plus, he was over the moon about the vintage go karts they had for kids to play on. we had such a good time watching him and playing with them both and being together.

i loved being with my three favorite people, and it was so nice to get away for a bit. our room was sooooo nice and the perfect place to relax. there's just something nice about leaving the dishes and laundry at home for a few days and enjoying a gigantic king bed and incredible {and so clean!} spa-esque bathroom. it was the perfect weekend! staycationing might be my new favorite!

GOLD MEDAL

pretty sure we've earned the gold medal in road tripping. we went to san diego again this weekend, and though i did have to sit in the backseat for half the drive home {terrorist toddler negotiations went south} all in all, it went great- again! we sure did luck out with these two kiddos.

we had lots of fun celebrating my mother-in-law's graduation, hanging out with family, and going to the zoo. the beach was too cold for swimming but we went there on a walk and luc swam anyways, haha. thanks to celene and ferni for hosting us, as always we felt right at home.

{we got lia a panda at the zoo and she LOVES it!}

SAN DIEGO WEEKEND

orlando's cousin got married on march 7th, so we decided to be brave and take our first road trip as a family of four. honestly, i was prepared for a rough drive wherein the kiddos took turns being awake and grumpy, but it turns out, the drive there was idyllic. seriously we got so lucky! and we have the best kids ever. they both slept for four straight hours, then we stopped to eat and nurse lia, and the last hour and a half, luc watched a movie and lia slept some more. we arrived two hours sooner than we'd planned, and no one cried at all. orlando and i got to talk to each other uninterrupted for hours, which was almost my favorite part of the whole trip haha, it was so fun!

we arrived right before bedtime so these cute cousins didn't get much playing time, but the next morning luc woke up and shouted 'i'm still at max's house, HOORAY!' and they played alllll morning together.

orlando's cousin's wedding was lovely, and keeping luc out of the dirt and quiet for the entire ceremony was an olympic feat. my favorite part was seeing this handsome man i'm married to sway with our beautiful daughter on the dance floor. those two have a special bond and i love it.

it was a quick trip, but we managed to squeeze in a few hours at the beach, per luc's sole request. he was in heaven, and played for almost four hours, despite the water being freezing {the ocean in march is SO COLD!!!}. while he played, lia napped {she's a mouth breather,  haha}, and it was a perfectly relaxing sunny day spent with our family. san diego is always good to us!

 the drive home wasn't as idyllic- luc didn't nap AT ALL, so he was pretty grumpy the last hour and a half, but thankfully lia slept almost the whole time and our awesome friends let us borrow their portable dvd player, so that kept luc pretty happy the rest of the time. now i feel super-human, we conquered our first road trip with two kids, we can do ANYTHING!

CABIN GETAWAY

a few months ago, we were daydreaming about a weekend getaway with a few friends here in az, and the idea of a cabin in the mountains {about an hour and twenty minutes north of us} was brought up. of course we all wanted to go, but it seemed like it was going to be one of those things you talk about but never actually put into action. until orlando decided to make it happen! he got everyone together, found an epically awesome cabin to rent online, and before i knew it, it was planned and paid for and we were really going! goodness, i love that man. he is the best!

bonus: it was planned for the weekend of my birthday, and it turned out to be one of the funnest birthdays i've ever had. 

we drove up- the drive was stunning- and our cabin was SO NICE. tons of room for the kids to run around, outdoor fire pit and games, and the weather was crisp perfection. just cool enough to feel fall-y, not too cold to actually freeze you. the husbands hiked with the kids while us mamas relaxed, the food was delicious, and the kids loved playing together for two straight days. both nights we stayed up super late playing games after the kids were asleep, and i laughed so hard i cried. i haven't laughed that hard in forever, it felt so good. i'm so glad we all pitched in to go together, it was awesome and so fun to get away for a few days. we are already talking about doing it again next year!

i wish i'd taken more pictures, but honestly, we were having way too much fun to remember!