For those of you who don't know this little tid-bit about me, I am a Francophile. I love France! We spent part of the summer there last year and were all in heaven. I speak pretty good French too (when I am practicing and not being shy). So, I was excited when I saw a poster for a French Festival here in Santa Barbara. Come to find out it is one of the largest in the country!
The kids played in "pump it ups!" (inflatable bounce house thingies), ate baguettes, had their faces painted, ate frozen lemonade and celebrated the finale by watching the poodle parade.
The face painting looked amazing but Sayer decided that he didn't like his at all. To be exact, he "hated it" and we had to wash it off as soon as we got home. He had a specific idea what he wanted and was trying to explain it to the lady. He wanted the dragon to start on one side and go around the other eye and have flames going down his nose. She just said "oh, yeah, dragon, ok, I love dragons" and started painting away. Poor Sayer...I tried to tell him how cool it looked but he wasn't buying it. On the flip side, Finn loved his and wanted to sleep in it.
As is the case at all festivals, there is always (at least one) festival weirdo. You know, the person wandering around almost naked or staggering around drunk. At this festival, we had the one I will title the interpretive dancer. The kids just sat there staring not knowing what to make of it.
You know, I have never really understood the anti-French sentiment that I hear. The French have throughout history been great supporters of us and loyal allies. We give them so much grief though and I just don't get it. I saw a guy in Houston shortly before we left wearing a t-shirt that said "Texas, it's better than France". I mean, really? Has he ever even been there? I don't know, I just don't get it. No matter how I might feel about another country I can't imagine purchasing a shirt that had a message like that printed on it and then actually wearing it in public. I can assure you that all of the times that I have visited France, I have never seen a similar t-shirt there. Okay, no more soap box...
The final of the day was the poodle parade. The kids thought it was hilarious. Here are a few of my favorite poodles and poodle wanna-bes.
Au revoir!
Michelle Mustari says:
Amazing pictures - which lens did you use? They are so clear I love your sons' face paintings too - amazing clarity.
(09.05.09 @ 09:48 PM)
In my previous life, before Steven and before my children, I lived in LA and worked in the movie industry. I did all sorts of set jobs from being the underpaid PA (production assistant) to a scenic painter, sign writer, muralist, art director, set decorator, props assistant, and so on. One of the first people that I met when I moved to LA was Rob. We ended up becoming roommates. I hadn't seen Rob since I moved away from LA, which was about 10 years ago!
For our little reunion, we met down at the beach and the kids played like crazy! They got along so well and we had the best time. When they finally left the next day the boys were all so sad. We had to promise them that they would see each other again soon. The best part for me was standing back and watching us both as parents. We kinda looked at each other laughing about how much life has changed. I remembered driving down the freeway in LA singing ABBA songs out the car window with a megaphone (where did we get the megaphone anyway?). He laughed and reminded me about how I used to sleep in a tent in my room. Now here we are 10 years later navigating tantrums and car seats. It's awesome.
Sayer was so funny, he was standing at the water's edge and, all of a sudden, said "Mommy, you want to see something so weird?! My feet are disappearing!". Ah, simple discoveries...
Other than the joy of seeing an old friend there was a little extra magic added to our day. All morning pods of dolphins kept swimming by just beyond the breaking waves. It was so beautiful! I wish I had a longer lens so I could do it a little more justice.
Thanks Rob and Ryan! It was a blast. Can't wait to come see you guys in LA!
We're gonna rock, we're gonna roll, we're gonna bop, we're gonna bowl! Yes, Grease 2, that's exactly the kind of geek that I am. And now that I have outed myself, if I can find a way to work Cool Rider into a post later on you know that I will!
The lighting in the bowling alley was terrible and I didn't have a flash so I just took a few snaps. The main thing that everyone needs to know is that I wiped the floor clean with all 3 of the guys and emerged victorious!!
The lighting in the bowling alley was terrible and I didn't have a flash so I just took a few snaps. The main thing that everyone needs to know is that I wiped the floor clean with all 3 of the guys and emerged victorious!!
and at the end of our lovely days here, we see this from our living room. This is one of those moments when I wish I had a tripod.
It's official, July has begun and we're on vacation! I would have
blogged sooner but I have been busy decompressing...and it has been
great! I always work like a fiend in June getting myself ready to leave
for the month of July and this past June was no exception. So, here we
are on July 6th and I just now took my camera out of the bag.
We are spending the month of July in central California near Santa Barbara. The weather is amazing and I can see the Pacific Ocean out of all of the windows of the house. Today we spent the morning at Santa Barbara's botanical gardens. We were here the summer before last and loved it.
We weren't sure what to expect after the fires that ravaged the area recently (claimed 80 houses!). Nature is amazing though, everywhere where we saw fire damage we also saw new life sprouting up.
On some of the trees you could see where the fire just singed the edges.
I loved this little cactus. It looked like a little man with a hat on.
As
we were heading out, Finnian found a little snail crawling across the
path. I told him that he should rescue him and take him over by the
pond. He carried him carefully in his hands and then watched him for
about a half an hour, even kissing him goodbye when it was time to
leave.
For dinner we decided to put together a little picnic and head down to
the beach. Steven and Sayer boogie boarded and jumped the waves.
Finnian isn't so sure of the waves so he hung back with me. He wouldn't
even let go of my hand for the first half hour but slowly started to
ease in and warm up to it all. I showed him that we were on dry sand
and that meant that the waves weren't coming close. We were far away
from the waves really but he will still freaked. Before we left though
he was running around and even went into the water with Steven.
It was a great evening. The kids buried Steven in the sand, Sayer
buried Finn in the sand and they built a beach city out of driftwood.
The kids indulged me and let me take crazy pictures of them.
This is one of my favorite pictures of the day.
and then it got even better...
and then, as it always goes with these kinds of moments, it quickly
deteriorated into wrestling. What is it with boys and wrestling?!
happy family
Today we're headed to the playground and then bowling! Vacation rocks.
We are spending the month of July in central California near Santa Barbara. The weather is amazing and I can see the Pacific Ocean out of all of the windows of the house. Today we spent the morning at Santa Barbara's botanical gardens. We were here the summer before last and loved it.
We weren't sure what to expect after the fires that ravaged the area recently (claimed 80 houses!). Nature is amazing though, everywhere where we saw fire damage we also saw new life sprouting up.
On some of the trees you could see where the fire just singed the edges.I loved this little cactus. It looked like a little man with a hat on.As
we were heading out, Finnian found a little snail crawling across the
path. I told him that he should rescue him and take him over by the
pond. He carried him carefully in his hands and then watched him for
about a half an hour, even kissing him goodbye when it was time to
leave.
For dinner we decided to put together a little picnic and head down to
the beach. Steven and Sayer boogie boarded and jumped the waves.
Finnian isn't so sure of the waves so he hung back with me. He wouldn't
even let go of my hand for the first half hour but slowly started to
ease in and warm up to it all. I showed him that we were on dry sand
and that meant that the waves weren't coming close. We were far away
from the waves really but he will still freaked. Before we left though
he was running around and even went into the water with Steven.
It was a great evening. The kids buried Steven in the sand, Sayer
buried Finn in the sand and they built a beach city out of driftwood.
The kids indulged me and let me take crazy pictures of them.
This is one of my favorite pictures of the day.
and then it got even better...
and then, as it always goes with these kinds of moments, it quickly
deteriorated into wrestling. What is it with boys and wrestling?!
happy family
Julie says:
It looks like you guys are having fun. You take the best vaca pictures
(07.07.09 @ 12:29 PM)
Late last year Steven surprised me with a little mini vacation to San Francisco, which is one of my all time favorite cities. I blogged a few pictures of the trip while we were there. Once we got back into town I got caught up in the holiday rush madness and never managed to blog the others. So, today, we'll take a walk down memory lane to December of 2008...
We had an amazing view. It looked great both during the day and at night and was especially amazing this one afternoon after a rain. Isn't that rainbow incredible?
We spent most of our time walking. I love walking cities probably because Houston is NOT a walking city at all. In Houston, we spend all of our time in cars so strolling the streets of SF is a real treat. We did a bunch of shopping too. One of my favorite little shopping finds was in a little doggie boutique in the marina. Do you think I should have gotten these for our dogs, Phoebe and Milo? We could have even have a ceremony!
On our last day in town we took the trolley down to the marina and walked around. I was so excited to round a corner and find...an In N Out Burger!! I always look for In N Out burger when we go west and make a point to eat there at least once. I used to live in San Francisco and, when I lived there, they didn't have one. So, I made Steven stop and eat a double-double with me at 10:45 am. Yum!
You might think that we'd be alone at that hour at In N Out but no! Have you ever heard of Santa Con? It is one of the most hilarious and creative gatherings that I have heard of. There is also one called Santarchy. Just the word, Santarchy, makes me laugh out loud. The basic idea is that thousands of people gather together, dressed in their various interpretations of Santa-esque things, and walk through the city partying and drinking. They start early in the morning and end up all at one central spot where they party until the wee hours. Check out the links and you can witness the madness.
So, that fine morning in SF, the Santacon crew (or one group of them) had gathered at the In N Out for some sustenance to go with their "spirits". These guys were the "agents". I guess they helped keep everyone in line?
More Santacon highlights...
I'm hoping that Santacon has a gathering in Houston this year. If so, I'll be there with, um, I guess sleighbells on!