Cement Slides= Seriously Awesome Fun!

When we booked our tickets for San Francisco I knew I wanted to do as many fun toddler things as possible.  Luckily for us, all the fun toddler things were fun for adults too.  When I saw this link on A Cup of Jo I put cement slides at the top of our vacation plans.

They were AWESOME!!!!  Apparently they are all over the city but we just went to two different parks to check them out.




Joel and the Jbear trekking up to the top and sliding down verrrrry fast.


I just realized the scared look on his fast but trust me he LOVED it.  The second we got to the bottom he was ready to go back up again.

I also loved how there were signs that read: Adults must be accompanied by a Child!  Woot woot... so happy we had one of those with us!

an afternoon at the aquarium

We drove down to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium at the beginning of our trip.  I was SO excited to go because it's been ages since I've been to an aquarium and I was pumped about checking out the jellyfish!!  Since our friends, Dan and Kathryn, had off they came with us.


An hour into the drive I look back and see this scene.






Nothing is in focus here but I still love Jbear's look of curiosity!










We had some fun with poorly composed silhouette shots against the jellyfish tanks.


My son and I with our matching lower lips.


I won't ever tire of taking photos of Kathryn and Dan




Stopping for lunch in Monterrey.  Seriously, my kid loves lemons! (well actually here it looks like he hates them but I promise you he continued eating that slice)

Procrastination is TOTALLY my middle name

I really should be packing....

                                                  image by Jodi Mckee

Because we are getting ready for a trip to San Francisco!!  Joel and I LOVE San Francisco although our love for the city happened separately (he used to go a lot with his dad and I have gone to visit family).  Four years ago we took a cross country road trip for our honeymoon and spent 3 glorious days in San Francisco showing each other the pieces we fell in love with.  And now we're bringing the Jbear and I am super excited.  At first I thought Joel and I should just go by ourselves for a long weekend but at the time we purchased our tickets I had not been away from my son for more than 21 hours and 3 days seemed like a lifetime.  After reading these posts on A Cup of Jo I became so much more comfortable with bringing Jonah with us.  So now we're going for a week and get to spend much needed time with our wonderful friends who moved there last year.

San Francisco is the type of city that could make any visitor fall in love with it.  It's so fun finding bloggers that have visited San Francisco- I love seeing how they chose to spend their time and what they chose to eat!  Here are some posts that have gotten me extremely giddy for my upcoming trip:

Jodi from Jodi McKee Photography  Jodi even wrote a guest post about her ideal day in San Francisco.

James from Bleubird Vintage  The photos from her lunch alone make me want to hop on a plane.

Cara from i dabble  Each photo is like a singular love letter to a very photogenic city. 

And these tips from A Cup of Jo have been deemed priceless as I prepared for our trip.

I will hopefully be back on, once I'm done packing, to post a bunch of photos that I've taken in the past week.

and... I'm home!

It's super easy to get used to beautiful beaches, aquamarine water, pina coladas and deciding between the pool or snorkeling. Taking a cruise down to Bermuda is by far the most relaxing vacation I have ever been on even though I got the least amount of sleep (Jonah noisily tosses and turns SO much when he sleeps). I don't really have that many photos because my dslr camera is so big and my point and shoot is totally crappy (it kicked the bucket when it slipped out of my pocket and down to a lower deck on the cruise ship). I have no rights calling myself a blogger- maybe I'll steal some photos from my sister in law. Here are some of the photos that were actually taken in between eating, getting "tan", going to the beach, drinking frozen drinks, eating some more and deciding how embarrassed I should be going back for my 3rd ice cream cone of the afternoon.

I loved how dark it was in our room and them when Joel opened the curtains the most amazing light poured into our cabin.

The Jbear checking out all the "agua".

I packed a light as I could for a 7 day cruise and I still didn't wear everything I brought. My bathing suits got the most use! I did wear this shirt & skirt twice though but not together.

That light again!

Jonah's first trip to a beach was a salt water taffy run to Atlantic City but we didn't stay long or go in the ocean. Lucky kid to have his first dip in the ocean in Bermuda.

his swimwear matched the water perfectly.

This cell phone is our secret weapon. As much as my kid LOVES books he loves his cell phone, but we only busted it out when we really needed it (squeezing in a few more minutes at the beach, finishing up dinner, packing up, etc).

On a ferry to Hamilton, which is considered the city in Bermuda. This was our actual anniversary and we were going out for a delicious dinner. I just have a sour face on because I didn't leave myself enough time to get all pretty for our special night out.

5:20am sunrise pulling into the port in NJ.

P.S. THANK YOU so much to Jodi, Elizabeth, and Rebecca for keeping my blog company while I was away.

Bon Voyage!

We're heading out on a cruise ship! I wish I could say that I will come back with a killer tan, but really I'll just get red and then go back to being pale pale pale. My freckles will be fiercer than ever though! Have a great week. I have some friends stopping by while I am gone. See you all soon!!

Philly in Spring!

We spent a great weekend in Philly going around to some of our favorite spots!

Famous 4th Deli is probably our most favorite spot in Philly. We lunched on pickles, mashed potatoes, a turkey rueben, and latkes. Oh and cookies... those delicious 4th street cookies. Joel and I split the sandwich but I got my own order of latkes.

I would make a trip down to Philly just to go to Repo. Anything to support independent music stores! This time we picked up Foo Fighters Wasting Light and No Color by the Dodos.

Mocha cupcake from Homemade Goodies by Roz.

Oysters from The Oyster House and Nachos from Royal Tavern.

Yarn bombing to the extreme! Parking meters get a little more colorful.

Going to Yogorino was a must stop. Frozen delicious yogurt with pistachio sauce and fresh blueberries.

My loves strolling through the Cherry Blossoms.

An Austin Photo Dump... y'all! Again!!

Joel's chipotle bloody mary at 24 Diner.

Although I didn't buy a pair I still had fun trying on different styles at Allen's Boots.

Walking around South Congress.

Cupcakes from Sugar Mama's. You can't have just 6!

I love jelly belly jelly beans... but only a few flavors. So imagine my happiness when I found millions of Jelly Belly single flavor containers. I think my crazy face explains it all.

Joel took this from the backseat of the car. Those horns were intense especially in person!

I'm ready to go back!!