Summer part 1

I am a professional at summer vacation. I am kinder, productive, cleaner, and more relaxed. Even my husband loves me more:) It's only been about a week and a half of vacation yet I feel like so much has happened! The best part of break is hanging out with Noah everyday. We wake up together, eat breakfast, watch the today show, go to the farmers market, play at the park, go to toddler pop stars dance class, share Popsicles, kiss, and hug a lot.

I love my little Noah!

Last week was busy! On Wednesday we went with Grandma to a special event at the Wild Animal Park. It was awesome! It was a private event for donors-I will never go to that Wild Animal Park any other way. We got to ride the carousel for free-AND ride the African Safari for free too! Plus there were no lines-and we ate a yummy dinner! It was a magical evening!

Noah playing in the bird's nest.

Noah and Grandma getting ready to go on the safari!

Mommy and Noah as bats!

The second part of the week was crazy because I had my tap recital and my mom came to visit. For those of you that know my mom know that our relationship could be compared to a root canal, an enema, a mammogram, chemo/radiation, or a straight up punch in the face. Things that are a pain in the butt, but inevitably have to happen. However, this trip was actually enjoyable. We had fun, relaxed, and genuinely enjoyed each other. It was so weird.

Last Saturday night was my tap recital in Balboa Park. After a year and half of tap classes it was time to shine on stage. It was hilarious. I cannot wait to post the professional photos that we took! I even ordered a coffee mug with our fancy photo on it. (Someday that is going to be an amazing goodwill find for someone!)  Our class was such a motley crew! It was really fun to go through this experience with my girl friends-Sarah, Nancy and Janine. We laughed so hard-and our husbands got some great ammunition after seeing us in our slutty ganster costumes. We looked ridiculous, but we tapped our little hearts out! One of the funniest moments was actually walking to the theater from the holding room because we literally had to walk through a wedding! Yes-20 slutty gangster -loud tap shoe wearing adults. It was hysterical! Then in the middle of our dance Mary (age 65) slipped and fell, and I had to help her up.  Insanity! I cannot wait for fall semester. Learning a new skill has been a lot of fun. And all this transpired because I was watching SYTYCD and thought "that doesn't look hard-I can do that." Boy-am I an idiot! I love tapping, and the sound it makes on the floor-kind of like how I love the sound of a casino.

Sarah is the bestest friend of all time! This pic was taken at our dress rehearsal.

Sarah, Nancy, Janine, and me getting ready to "tap our troubles away." Don't be jealous of our neckties:)

So back to my mom. She came out for my recital, and stayed for four days. It was really sweet of her to fly out here just for my recital, and it meant a lot. We stayed at the Hotel Del Coronado for four days and it was amazing. We leisurely lunched, went to the spa, shopped, had cocktails, swam, and genuinely embraced our time together. Noah loves seeing Nana-and now believes that the Del is "Nana's Castle." He has so much fun with Nana. She introduced him to shrimp cocktail, and he introduced her to his train collection.

Mom and I on the beach after brunch.

Watch out ladies-He is all mine!

Our happy little family.

Nana made Noah laugh:)

Sunday Brunch at the Del.

Noah and Nana kisses.

We made Noah go shopping all day on Friday so we made good on our promise to go swimming. However, it was literally 64 degrees out, and so we had to get his suit off right after we got out. We couldn't resist taking a picture of his chunky butt!

 Needless to say it has been a wonderful start to the summer, and I cannot wait for the rest of the summer. I am looking forward to Noah's dance recital, a girlfriends getaway, train rides, the pool, and sleeping.  In the words of Noah-see ya soon!