Christmas Lights

A few weeks back ( I am really behind on blogging) We headed over to the lights we started going to last year. This happened to be the second crazy wind storm we got so it wasn't as bad but it was super windy!! We had some IN-N-Out before heading out to the lights!

Cayden was ready to see the lights with Santa!!

Here we all are! My parents, and Mike's as well as my sister and Scott were able to join us!

The very long walk back to the car was pretty crazy, the wind was blowing right at us and the whole walk back was uphill. We took Cayden out of the stroller so all of the dirt etc. would not get into his eyes but boy was it a workout carrying him uphill in the strong winds! Luckily my dad and I took turns..

Besides the crazy wind we had a blast and hopefully will be able to make it out again next year!!

First "hike"

Mike took the day off after we got back from our trip to Santa Barbara so we thought it would be fun to take Cayden on a little hike in the morning. Cayden was purposely slipping on the rocks and thought it was halarious so Daddy thought it would be a good idea to hold on..

Mike ended up just carrying him most of the way (we had forgotten just how much "up hill" it was!) Cayden insisted on wearing his beanie which I made and don't like =)

Once we got to a flat surface we decided to take a break..it was a beautiful day outside!

5 years!

It had been a couple years since Mike and I did anything special for our Anniversary and we really wern't planning on doing anything this year, but with it being our 5 year and all we decided to book a last minute trip to Santa Barbara the first weekend in December. And I mean last minute as like 3 days before we planned to leave. I typically like to have everything planned out on trips and be all organized but with this being such short notice I did some quick research on places to eat and that was it, and I have to admit it made it more fun being spontaneous! On our way to Santa Barbara we were talking about how we were going to be driving right past Carpinteria. I of course brought up my two favorite things there, the candy and the spot..so we ended up having lunch in Carpinteria and picked up more candy then we should have but decided to get my mom some Turtles that she loves as a thank you for staying with Cayden =) When we arrived in Santa Barbara we decided to just walk around and check out the pier, there was a huge Christmas tree which was fun..The weather was PERFECT the two days we were there! It was cold but the sun was out..we loved it!

Mike saw an area over by the harbor that you can walk out on and wanted to go check it out..when we went over to it I saw nice little wooden posts to walk on but I braved it and went out with him..it took forever because I was slow and all we got to see were a bunch of huge dead seagulls at the end..it was nasty.

After doing a ton of walking and site seeing we headed out onto the pier to have dinner. We decided to try out the Shellfish Co. which ended up being a delicious place! We happened to get there right as the sun was setting so we had to sit outside!

Mike got a 3 pound crab that he devoured..nothing like eating seafood literally on the ocean with the sunset =)

After dinner we headed downtown to catch a movie..it was a great first day of our trip!

The next morning we decided to go to Solvang which is only about 45 min away for a delicious breakfast! I had been there when I was really young so I don't remember it and Mike had never been so we were excited to check it out, but mainly get some Abbleskeivers!

They were soo good, this particular restaurant has a homemade jam that my Nana gets every time her and my far far are in Solvang..we love it!

After breakfast we went into a bakery to get some Danishes and pastries which were also just as good! Then we decided to try and walk some of it off..

After hanging out in Solvang for the morning we headed back to Santa Barbara and ate lunch at the cold creek Tavern.This place has been on TV several times so I was anxious to try it. It was in a really cool remote place in the mountains and it was full of historical stuff!

A lot of the stuff is in its original form, it used to be a halfway stop for people were traveling back in the 1800s..this was the jail..

It was a lot colder in the mountains so we were really excited to see a spot open right next to a fire place..nice and romantic too =)

We both decided to get the famous bbq sandwich and it was really good but really huge! It didn't help that we had stuffed our bellies full of Abbleskeivers and danishes a few hours before but we really liked it!

After lunch we headed back to Santa Barbara and rented a bike to go ride around in..it ended up being free too because their machine was working =)

After working our butts off on the bike we headed to the little aquarium on the pier..

When we got to the first area there was a lady there who was talking to us so I assumed she worked there even though she had her kids with her. She told my to pick up one of the sharks and she would get a picture, I of course was all game, the one Mike was trying to hold did not want to be in the picture and ended up just getting him nice and wet. Well after the picture a guy came over and told us that we were not allowed to pick up the sharks and only touch them..I started getting confused if this lady actually worked there or if she just wanted to get us in trouble but it turns out she really did work there, she was just new =)

The starfish was stuck to my hand Here is a real dolphin with all of it's insides, and her baby =(

After the aquarium we headed out to dinner at the harbor and had one of our favorites, fish and chips then it was time to head home. It was such a needed vacation and well worth it. It was really hard being away from my little sidekick for two days and my mom could tell he was looking for us but he too had a great time being spoiled by grammie!

Santa visited the Library!

Our city hosted a Santa party at the Library on the 3rd . I wanted to take Cayden mainly because they were doing photos with Santa and we really had no idea what to expect so we thought we would give it a try. Of course like many places that has photos with Santa..clarify, free photos with Santa there is usually always guaranteed a long line. It was long, I stayed positive and told Mike it would prob only be like 15 minutes because the line was moving fast but it ended up taking 45 mins of holding Cayden..Luckily Cayden was a sweetheart and was probably only letting us hold him the entire time because he was at the start of having a really bad cold (which he is finally now over) so he was more tired than usual but thank goodness he did..

I was really anxious/ nervous to see how he was going to be with Santa since he has completely changed his ways to not liking being held by unfamiliar faces with lots of facial hair and of course the minute I started to hand him off to Santa he held on to me for dear life and started to shake and turn red..luckily he did'nt scream and cry =) So I ended up on Santa's lap and Mike got in to make a family photo with Santa instead!

The guy who was kind enough to take the pictures with out camera didn't really do a good job and these were the only two that were not really blurry..

Cayden was sure happy to get his candy cane after the traumatic experience though..

Shooting!

The day after Thanksgiving, Mike, Cayden and I went out with Julie and Scott to Paris to go shooting! I have only shot a gun once before in my life and it was several years ago when Mike and I were dating..don't worry, we were at a shooting range =) I was not excited about taking Cayden knowing he probably would not wear the ear muffs and sure enough he would fling them off the minute we tried them on and then for some reason became deathly afraid of them so Julie ended up staying in the car with him the whole time. Luckily, Julie and Cayden still had fun!

Here are the boys getting ready..

I'm not going to lie, I was afraid, and this gun I am shooting wasn't loud and hardly had a backfire. It was another particular gun Scott had that I wanted to stay away from..

After warming up to it and learning how to aim and hold it...I was having a lot of fun!

Remember the gun I wanted to stay away from? Yea, that is me with it below. I was so nervous to shoot it and it took me what felt like forever to actually do it but even though it was definitely a loud gun and all..I liked it and took a few more shots =)

Scott had a fun idea to bring pumpkins to also aim at besides the other targets out there and this was what the end result looked like..supposedly I hit it once but I doubt that. Mike and Scott were having a little competition to see who could shoot the stem off first..I don't know how they managed to do it when it was hundreds of feet away but they did!

Auntie Julie and Cayden hanging out in the car..

Thanksgiving Day

Well here I am posting about Thanksgiving when Christmas is right around the corner, these holidays come and go way too quickly for my liking. This Thanksgiving was our first attempt at doing the complete traditional dinner and luckily with just a few bumps it turned out really well! The ladies getting ready to start cooking..Uncle Scott kept Cayden entertained by chasing him around the house which is in fact one of Caydens favorite things to do!Our turkey did not defrost in the time that it said it would, it seriously felt like it had still been sitting in the freezer, luckily we got it to defrost quickly, just didn't have a kitchen sink to use for a while...we also wer'nt prepared for all of the utensils needed for all of the cooking, with that said, when the last thing took cook came along which was the gravy, we were out of whisks until we found this little itty bitty one..I got a kick out of watching Mike use it =)

Mike and I were proud of our Turkey..

No one jumped at the chance to cut it so I thought I would give it a try...by the way I have to mention that meat cutter I am using is from when my parents were first married..which is almost 30 years ago and it worked great..but we did enjoy teasing my mom about it of course!

Cutting it was a lot easier than I thought..after the first few slices I thought I would let Mike handle the rest =)

Our family starts up the Christmas music earlier and earlier every year(we just can't wait for it!) so of course we had it playing while cooking our little hearts out.. Auntie Julie and Cayden decided to take a dance break and Cayden loved it..

Cayden was sticking olives on his fingers..

I know, I know, why don't I have a bib?? Or at least put something else on him..needless to say, Cayden was a huge mess! Of course his favorite thing was the Jello which was not something easy to wipe off but he enjoyed the dinner just as much as we all did!

The family minus Brian and Ally who we missed, I have no idea why Cayden is glowing but it's pretty funny..

We had such a great Thanksgiving, I am soo grateful for my family!