Yesterday we took Sayer and Finn out to the pier and they got to ride on a "real pirate boat". They thought it was so cool. As you can see, it was a bit of a far cry from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Sayer was so happy though. He would crack up every time the driver would say "Arrrr!"

Finn and Granny waved (pageant style) at the folks on the pier

Both kids got to steer the boat and wear a hat too. Finn was more concerned with how to get his "pirate's treasure" (a lollipop) open and in his mouth.

After the boat we went to dinner at a little cafe on State Street. Finn had a good time finishing off the chocolate gelato.

Today we went down to the beach for a quick walk before eating lunch at the most perfect kid friendly spot that I have ever found. The beach is near a street called Padaro Lane, which has some of the most amazing houses along it. It was foggy today so you can't see them but this is the stretch of coast where they are (down where you see trees and past the people). One house here is for sale for 22 million. Supposedly Kevin Costner has a place down this street.

Sayer watched the surfers. He told them that he was going to "take a surfing lesson when he was all growned up". The guy said that he'd probably be a pro someday and Sayer just nodded and said "yeah, probably". LOL!

So, the restaurant is called The Beach Grille at Padaro. If you are ever in the area you should stop and eat. Your kids will love it! They have great kid food and good adult food too. They have corn dogs, kid cups and lemonade. They also have iced herbal teas, gourmet pizzas and salads. It sits alongside the coast but has a fence all around it so your kids can run free but stay inside. They have the biggest sandbox I have ever seen!

and the tables are just set along the grass. The kids all run around without their shoes. Sayer met a little guy his age and they ran each other ragged all through the place. They have dogs everywhere and the weather is perfect. Today you could have used a light sweater. By the time we left is was packed with families.

Now the house is quiet and everyone but me is napping. I think this must be my cue to put down the laptop and go join them.

This morning was lazy for the most part (as lazy as it can be with 2 little kids). Sayer and Finn pretended to be boats out on the sea. Daddy was the shark!

Finn had a co-pilot in his basket

After the sea adventures, Finn and I had some one-on-one time at the Montecito farmer's market. This market is small but beautiful! They have orchids, all sorts of flowers just overflowing out of buckets, lavender, and tons of fruit and vegetables. The lavendar had bees all buzzing around it. The strawberries here are amazing- so sweet! After shopping, Finn and I sat on the sidewalk and ate a bunch of our strawberries.

After strawberries, we had gelato! This lady makes fresh gelato using the local farmer's market produce. It was terrific. Finn ate his and then most of mine.

We kind of did this whole thing out of order. Next we had lunch at a local sidewalk cafe. It was a perfect little place with gourmet pizzas. Finn decided to have some Sprite, which we call "tickle" because it tickles his mouth.

All in all it has been a great day so far. My Dad just got here (for the weekend) so I better scoot!

Today Sayer and I went on a whale watching boat trip. It was fun but a bit difficult. The water was choppy and the ride was long. It was challenging for us both at various times. Sayer got a little bored waiting for the whales. He kept asking, "are we still in the ocean?" and "I don't think we'll ever see whales". The journey started at 10 am as we set out from the Santa Barbara harbor and headed towards the Channel Islands.

We saw tons of dolphins and that was really fun. They were playul and loved swimming along with the front of the boat. the kids all loved it.

We finally got out in the channel and saw some blue whales. They were huge! It impressive to think of the annual journey they make. The naturalist told us how they migrate up and down the coast 5,000 miles each way. The watching was hard for Sayer though because he couldn't see well and I had to hold him the whole time in order to get him up higher (which is why there are no pics of whales sorry to say). The whales just surface for moments and then dive down for upwards of 5-10 minutes. So, it was difficult to keep Sayer interested. It was awesome though when you did see them and he loved seeing the plumes of water from the blowholes. We also saw a bunch of sea lions all along the way.

After the whale watching, we went to one of the Channel Islands (Santa Cruz, I think) and saw a water cave called The Painted Cave, which they said was the world's largest sea cave. It was very cool. Our boat was too big to really go very far inside. It was beautiful though.

He started to get tired of the whole trip at this point (so did I). You can imagine what he's saying right? "no more pictures Mommy" LOL

We rallied though and enjoyed just playing and hanging out together on the ride back to the dock. His shoes got all wet so we found a sunny spot and played and snuggled while his shoes dried off. He cuddled up next to me and we enacted these little ocean battles between his plastic stingray and saw shark. Life is like that- little golden moments handed to you at unexpected moments.

We have a new cat that visits us from a neighboring house. She's pretty bold and walks right into the house. She lets the kids handle her and everything. They love it. When she shows up they start squealing "neighbor kitty!". Neighbor kitty even lounged on the bed tonight while we read stories. She's a pretty cool cat.

Yesterday we were driving home and saw a firetruck parked outside the neighborhood fire house. So, I pulled over and the boys were all excited looking at it. As a bonus, the firemen came out and let the kids get inside and have them stickers and hats. Sayer was really excited. I was really impressed by how cool they were to the kids. Bravo SB Fire dept!

The other high point of the day has been the new toy...It's a monster truck that has a big (gross) tongue. The kids love it. Boys...

Here's Finn with the truck. I love how he is opening his mouth in anticipation of the truck opening its mouth

A friend of mine, Danny Clark, told me that his (almost) 3 yr old son eats standing up. He's not alone. I can't even imagine being 2. You have so much bottled up energy that you can't even sit down to eat. Like the pumpkin hat?

my sweet, sweet (crazy) boy

While Finn naps, Sayer and I spend some quality time drawing. We also painted polka dots and stripes on his nails, which you can see if you look close.

I managed to get some time away today. I hired a sitter and went off to State St. for some shopping and I ran into a free hugs guy! I had heard about the free hugs thing so it was kind of cool to watch it in person and yes, I got a free hug!

Sayer has become fascinated with convertible cars. I guess we don't have that many converibles in Houston?? Anyway, everytime we drive anywhere, he keeps shouting out "Look Mommy, I see a convertible!". He then follows with the details about color and whether or not the top is down. All I can say about that is that it seems like there are a LOT of convertibles in California. Finnian has taken to repeating him but his sounds more like "Cobertible" or "Cobertibletible", which is just about as cute as it gets. So it sounds something like "Yook Sayo, red cobertibletible!". Sayer has also decided that his favorite car is a red convertible VW bug. Finn just says "Buggy BUG Sayo!".

The kids are having fun. They are driving each other crazy though. Today Sayer told me that he was going to be so sad when we had to go back home and go back to school. He said that he was going miss me so much that he was going to cry. He said he just wanted to be with me all day and stay on vacation forever. Sweet, sweet boy...