A cousin and grandma visit / babymoon trip all in one

T's mom and niece came to visit for a week!  

We started out by swimming in the pool (no photos - T's mom and I were both always had a kid hanging on to us and T was at work).  Then we drew on the glass balcony doors with dry erase markers - one of Pippa's favorite pastimes. 

We played so many rounds of hide and seek this week.

Coloring after bath time.  Pippa really loved doing everything A was doing.

The next day while T was at work we went to Pier 39 in San Francisco.  Pippa still loved looking at the sea lions and barking at them.  But she didn't call them dogs this time.

It was crazy windy while we were there.

You can kind of tell those are sea lions behind us...

The girls had a fun time playing on these cleat statues (cleats are those things on the dock that you tie your boat to).

We watched a really lame magic show that lasted forever and only had three tricks.  Then we took some photo booth photos that didn't turn out because the machine was broken and the photos were way underexposed.  But then we rode the carousel, which, of course, was a huge hit.

I love how much Pippa loves rides.  I really wish we lived closer to Happy Hollow (a kiddie amusement park) so we could get season passes for her to enjoy the rides all the time!

Grandma was so nice and bought "My Little Pony" horses for the girls at The Pier.

Bath time!

The next day we went swimming again (a little boy taught A to hold her breath under water) and hit the park - I think we did the park everyday.

The reason T's mom came to visit was so she could watch Pippa while T and I went on our babymoon (yes, it's a thing - it's the last vacation together before baby arrives).  For our babymoon just before Pippa was born, we went to London.  This time around we stayed local and went to Santa Cruz.  We were there for four days and Grandma, A, and Pippa joined us for the last 1.5 days.

We left some distractions for Pippa while T and I were gone - individual bubble blowers for both girls (the fan kind with a button so you don't get light headed from blowing) and a new play kitchen and food that we put out literally two minutes before T and I left.  According to Grandma, all went well while we were gone.

On our way to Santa Cruz, T and I stopped at "The Mystery Spot."  It's a place in the Redwoods where gravity / physics seems to be off.

Here's an example.  The floor and walls are flat but T is way slanted forward.

Really, shouldn't I be tipped over by now, especially with a pregnant belly?

It was kind of trippy and made us both feel a little sick.  But worth it - just $6.

My aunt and uncle own a beach house in Santa Cruz and they were SOO nice to let us stay there.  It was gorgeous.  This is the view from the back.  Are you even kidding me?!  We spent a lot of time just hanging out on the deck.  It was wonderful.

A panoramic from the backyard.

To the right of the house was a little cove - totally inaccessible, but awesome for hearing the waves crash.

The Santa Cruz beaches are beautiful and the water is so clear and clean!  Especially compared to beaches in the LA area.  (This is a different beach than the one the house is on.)

I really love this picture of us, even though the wind is doing crazy things with my hair.

That night we went to a SmashMouth concert on the boardwalk.  It was a totally fun, almost movie cliche summer thing to do.  And it was awesome.

One thing I love about Santa Cruz is all the huge murals painted everywhere.  This one was on a random auto shop wall.

The next day grandma, A, and Pippa joined us in Santa Cruz.  Of course we had to hit the beach by the beach house.  It was Pippa's first time in the freezing Pacific, and A's first time in the ocean.

We saw dolphins and otters once while we were on the beach and otters and dolphins twice from the deck of the house.

Pippa would have ran all the way in over her head if we weren't holding on so tight.

Both A and Pippa absolutely LOVED the ocean.

Love Grandma's face here as the freezing Pacific surprises her from behind.  A's surprised face is pretty good here, too.

I wanted to get a photo of A alone with the ocean behind her, but she would not let go of Grandma's hand.  Which was probably good, because those waves were pretty strong.

We tried to pull Pippa out so we could get a family photo with the ocean, but she wasn't having any of it.  

 She kept squirming and shouting, "water! water!" So, like any good parents, we gave up on the photo.

Eventually we did pull Pippa out of the water, despite her protests, because she was shivering and her teeth were chattering.  A stayed in much longer.

T warming Pippa up.

Of course we played in the sand.

No photo, but while we were there we saw a couple get married on the beach.  So sweet.

The girls entertained each other in the back seat with funny faces and funny sounds.  

 I loved watching the moon rise at the beach house.

The moon was so bright on that one stretch of water and it was so dark everywhere else.  I felt like there should have been a boat smuggling something across the cove - it was so much like a movie.

The morning we left to come home.  The ocean is behind us, but it's all blown out.  But it's there.  The most surprising thing is that this photo (with everyone looking at the camera!) was the first and only shot we took.

This photo shows how awkward it is getting to hug T with a belly in the way (I'm 30 weeks here).  Clearly, I have no idea how to pose while pregnant even though this is my second go around.  

Just like we did for Pippa in London, we bought Baby #2 (blog name TBD) a Christmas ornament in Santa Cruz.

After church (Happy Father's Day!), dinner, and baths, Pippa was just about done for the day. Doesn't that look so uncomfortable?

The morning Grandma and A left to go home.

We had such a wonderful time with Grandma and A.  And T and I had a wonderful time, just the two of us, for those two short days and nights.  I'm a big believer in babymoons :)

There were a few bouts where A crying started Pippa crying.  And a few fights over the aquadoodle.  And a few times when Pippa was too close to A and A accidentally pushed her over.  But really, the girls got along really well.  A was so good about sharing with Pippa.  Several times A requested to have Grandma curl her hair so it would be curly like Pippa's (it didn't happen, but it wasn't for the lack of asking!).  I was so surprised at how reverent A was during sacrament meeting - she's only 4 and she sat there so quietly without complaining or even having anything to play with other than the hymn book.  Also, A must be having a growth spurt.  No exaggeration, she ate as much as me at every meal and sometimes (at breakfast) more!

I almost forgot!  The first night Grandma and A slept here the apartment complex's fire alarm sounded at 5:30 a.m.  We all had to evacuate the building in our jammies.  We looked really classy as we walked up the block to the gas station to get away from the loud alarm that was bothering A.  And to get some breakfast.  By the time we got back to the apartment, we were allowed back in, but the only person who fell back asleep was A.  Every morning A woke up after that she would cover her ears in fear that the alarm would start again.