The worst appears to have passed. Maybe I shouldn't type that...oh well, Finn's tantrums have subsided for the most part and Sayer's fever is gone. Yesterday we went to the botanic gardens and built chair forts and today we played with Chloe the bunny. Chloe is one of the pets of the house. She is a really sweet rabbit. We feed her fresh lettuce and carrots and keep her hutch clean and let her out for some playtime.

The fog has passed and the last 2 days have been really clear. You can see out to the Channel Islands. If you look hard in this picture, you can see them on the right in the distance. This pic is a thumbnail so click on it for a larger view.

click for a larger view

Yesterday the kids built chair forts out of the kitchen barstools. I can remember making forts out of sheets and chairs when I was little and just loving it.

The Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens are awesome! Poison Oak was everywhere though so I had to keep reminding them to stay on the path. That turned into a discussion that lasted the entire time we were there where Sayer kept asking me "why does the oil give you a rash?" and "how does the plant make oil?" and "what is oil used for?" and "why are the leaves all red?" and so on (and on and on). It started with me trying to explain poison oak so I said that it has oil on the leaves that gives you a rash (and for all I know it doesn't even have oil). I was just trying to come up with a simple explanation of why we need to not touch it. So much for the simple explanation idea! Here are some highlights from the gardens-

the quintessential toddler pic: one looking goofy and the other one saying "me get down" and leaving

Sayer learning about woodpeckers

the coolest tree that I have ever seen

the view of the meadow, isn't the fog over the mountain amazing?

this is a bridge over an old aquaduct that was built in the 1800's and the view from the other side of the bridge.

last but not least, a few random views from the yard. The little flower arrangement is my masterpiece made up of the various things growing right here in our backyard. Like I said, it's paradise here!

Often times I find myself thinking that I live with crazy people. Anyone who has lived with toddlers knows that what will fly one minute may be the end of the world 2 seconds later. It usually goes something like this, "would you like some juice?" "NO!" "Ok, no juice then" "YES JUICE! AHHHHHHH!" Take that example and apply it to any situation and you have a window into life with my 2.5 year old. I mean how is anyone supposed to be able to navigate that craziness without going partially crazy as well? Today I took some little portraits of my crazy makers...

So, this morning Sayer and I set out to LA to see a friend of mine who I have not seen in at least 5-6 years. Her name is Sheryl Nields. She is an amazing photographer doing really cool portraits of people in the entertainment business. She's very, very fabulous and talented and has taken pics of all kinds of prominent celebs, artists and musicians. Sayer decided to make her even more fabulous by calling her Crystal all day. So, we met "Crystal" for lunch and hung out at her studio for a bit. Sayer got all excited about these little toy things that she had. Sayer was an awesome road companion and it was a great day. Thanks Sheryl!

Here we all are-

The light here in the evening is really soft and nice. I love hanging out in the evening watching the kids play in the yard. I think if I lived here I would shoot outside so much more. The pictures don't even really do it justice.

Not to beat a dead horse or anything BUT I love this place. I love the colors and the way the plants go with the architecture and how it is all complimented by the ocean. here's a little taste-

Today we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo. Finn has picked our vacation as the perfect time to have some sort of deep emotional crisis (perhaps the "terrible 2's?). Either that or he is tired, sick or just deliberately trying to drive me insane. I haven't figured out which it is yet. I did make an effort to put him to bed earlier in the hopes that maybe it is something as simple as exhaustion. Back to the zoo...Finn made the day pretty unbearable with his tantrums BUT we did manage to see some cool stuff.

The swans-

fun at the zoo playground-

the best part had to be the lazy gorilla just lounging right next to the viewing glass. It was hard to believe that we were that close to a real gorilla!

So, what were all the tantrums about? Well a few were over this little truck. I can't begin to tell you why this thing has become such a hot commodity in this house but it has. You may want to reconsider buying one for yourself. It's far more powerful than it looks.

We spent the afternoon at the beach and that was better. Now, I am sitting next to Sayer who has a wicked hot fever. He's asleep next to me in my bed shivering. Like any good Mom I am waiting for the ibuprofen to take down the fever before I can sleep well myself. Wish us all luck because it seems like we could use some.

Today we took the kids out to the beach. It was cold and foggy (my favorite way to enjoy the beach). The kids were all excited to collect shells

Finn found a cool rock to play on

silly kid

Sayer told me he was going to "dig a hole so deep that you could see Asia"

They both got a big kick out of me drawing their name in the sand

Finn walked for a ways with Daddy, so cute!

Sayer showed me some love

Hello everyone! Here are some pictures of day one of our Santa Barbara trip. The weather is amazing and the view is awesome! Here's the view from our bedroom-

The kids are having a lot of fun playing outside because it isn't hot and there aren't any mosquitos. It's a welcome relief for us all. Here's a few random pics of the day-

The best part of the weather is having dinner outside! Finn loves popping the edamame beans out of the pods.