Santa Barbara Weekend

We spent this past weekend up in Santa Barbara for Ryan's biology department annual retreat. We stayed at the Hotel Mar Monte, across the street from the ocean and walking distance to State Street.

My sister, Nicole, and her two boys came down to visit us on Saturday for the afternoon. So while Ryan practiced his talk, we went for a walk with the boys along the beach. It was really fun for Dylan to see his cousins and I enjoyed visiting with my sister.

Then this morning before we headed back home, we took Dylan to ride on the antique carousel - an original built back in circa 1915-1917!

On Saturday while walking along State Street, we came across this anti-war protest/demonstration. And in a state of silliness, I decided to pretend to be a part of the group, but without the flowers in my hair and flowing skirt, I just couldn't pull it off.
Don't you like the woman with her mouth covered by peace and heart stickers?

Birthday at the zoo

For my 29th birthday...

We went up to the Santa Barbara Zoo yesterday.
We met my parents and my sister's family there, and enjoyed the day all together.

Our little family.
The boys (Dylan and his cousin Andrew, who happens to have the same birthday as me) were so cute together, holding hands as they toddled around the zoo together, looking at the penguins, lions, and giraffes.

Going down the slides together.
This past month at daycare, they had a zoo theme in Dylan's Busy Bees room. So it was pretty timely that we went to the zoo on the last day of the month. Dylan even made his first 'animal sounds' while we were at the zoo. When I asked him what sound a lion makes, he replied "rawrrr!"
After a few hours at the zoo, we all went to dinner at the Fess Parker Doubletree Hotel.

Love (my family) Thursday

Happy Love Thursday everyone!
This was taken a couple weekends ago when we were driving back to LA from Lompoc after my reunion weekend. We stopped in Santa Barbara for a few hours because traffic was so awful. We had traveled only 1 mile after 20 minutes of crawling along the parking lot (uh, I mean freeway). Anyhow, this was the silver lining in that VERY long drive home.
We otherwise would never have stopped to enjoy the sunset and beach. Nothing like this to know you are blessed and that things happen for a reason.
And Ryan took some great pictures of Dylan running around in the grass as the sun set, playing together as a family...

And I (Ryan) have to say that his is one of my favorite pictures out of the the thousands we've taken. I was so upset about the horrific traffic, cursing all the Los Angelians that were on the road and bemoaning the fact that we live there. But if the road was clear we would have sailed by and never made these memories. Briana and Dylan, I love you so much!