The Angels

Labor Day weekend found us enjoying the golden rays of Los Angeles with dear friends.

BEACH
Saturday, was, of course, spent at the beach. Luke and Chrissy have a little angel of their own, Naomi, who is just a little younger than Jonah. So between the two families, we had more than an adequate number of beach toys; but no amount of toys could help me build a sandcastle. My efforts were completely fruitless--each perfect rampart that emerged from my overturned bucket was immediately crushed by Jonahzilla. He did not seem to derive any pleasure from this activity, he just coldly and methodically decimated my every creative attempt. Eventually, I left him to his own devices, and he spent the next ten minutes moving water from one bucket to the other and back using a plastic shovel. He would have gone on longer in this very important endeavor had James not dragged him along to play in the surf.

This was when Jonah found out he loves the ocean. The water there was warmer than it is here in the North, additionally the weather was warmer, thus making the cool water a relief instead of a torture. He giggled and squealed, etc.. It was very cute.


TUB
Back at the house, Chrissy and I decided we were honor-bound to begin the motherly duty of creating and compiling embarrassing blackmail material on our offspring. So up to the tub with babies and cameras we headed.

Jonah was immediately enthralled by the wealth of bath toys (we didn't bring any with us to California, since he is usually quite content to just play with a cup), and promptly turned his back on Naomi. Naomi, however, was dismayed, nonplussed, aghast that there was an intruder in her tub, and that he seemed to be equipped with different parts, as it were. She spent the entire bathtime quietly observing Jonah and looking at us like, "What is this?"


ACCESSORIES
One evening Uncle Luke brought out a riding horse toy for Jonah to try out. Our little monkey hopped right on and thought that life just couldn't get any better. Then Luke plopped a cowboy hat on his head and it did. Jonah loves to wear things: hats, jackets, hoods, the kukui nut lei that James received from co-workers in Hawaii, and those brightly primary-colored plastic stacking rings always end up on his arms. When I told Luke this, he went and got an Angel's wrist sweatband and put on Jonah's arm. It didn't come off. Later, as we were preparing to return home, Uncle Luke said Jonah could keep it. It was the perfect end to our angel weekend.

The Life Aquatic...

September Summering

Vacationing in September rocks. My entire life (minus two years for my mission and last year) has been dictated by the schoolyear, so this fall has been particularly pleasant. Saturday was my birthday, so we went north to Santa Cruz.




MYSTERIOUS
Our first stop was at the Mystery Spot where we got sufficiently dizzified by optical illusions (Michael). Our tour guide was glib, adolescent, and wielded a handy pocket level, which she loaned to Jonah towards the end of the tour because he was so cute (but really so he'd shut up so she could finish her spiel). After our mysterious experience we loitered a while, finishing up lunch and letting Jonah scamper about the gift shop and surrounding areas. The forest was lovely, the hot dogs were tasty, and the bathrooms smelled of freshly-cut lumber.

SANTA CRUZ BEACH BOARDWALK
The beach boardwalk of Santa Cruz was our main attraction for the day. First we found an adequately sunny spot upon which to lay our beach mats and set up camp. The ensuing activities allowed sufficient quantities of sand to ingratiate themselves in unmentionable places, which is where they stayed for the duration of the day due to a lack of adequately private showering facilities. BEACH! Jonah, of course, loves sand and water and rocks and before long had become the baby/sand equivalent of a snickerdoodle. Why bother with sunscreen when the child builds up such a protective coat on his own? He even had sand in his eyelashes.

As evening approached, it became necessary to search out victuals. So we packed up and moved out to scope the options along the boardwalk. After ascertaining there were no proper restaurants to be had, we settled upon an establishment that proffered BBQ chicken sandwich, hamburger, and corndog. So that's what we got, along with a side of fries.

After dinner we turned our attention to the various rides and immediately ruled out every one we actually wanted to go on due to the monkey on our backs (and sometimes in the stroller). We settled upon a dragon ride which inspired vehement vocalizations from said monkey. It was a go-in-a-circle-and-pull-the-lever-to-move-up-and-down ride that one of us could accompany him on. So James set off to procure tickets and returned having scored a deal off a departing patron of the park who was trying to unload his surplus. Sweet. I took Jonah, then we all went on the ferris wheel, and due to a lack of rides that all of us could enjoy together, James took Jonah on the aforementioned dragon ride once more.

To top off the evening, we stood in line for approximately 57 minutes to buy my birthday cake of the funnel variety. We ate the crispy outside nodes, and when James had the unhappy experience of biting into one that exploded fry oil all in his mouth and down his throat, we wrapped up and tossed the remains.

Back to the car and a sandy ride home brought our day to a close.

Where the air is clear

An official diagnosis is pending, but all symptoms point to chronic wanderlust.

After a mere four months spent getting settled in SLC, mid-August found the James Core contingent packed into a few suitcases and on the road yet again--and this time we didn't stop until we hit ocean. Well, we did stop once.

PAGING OFFICER DANGLE
We knew it to be impossible to reach our ultimate destination in one trip due to the one-year-old-monkey-in-the-car-seat-behind-me factor. So we scheduled a sleepover in Reno.

Due to some pretty fancy footwork, I scored us a sweet deal for a room on the 19th floor of the Silver Legacy Hotel & Casino with a pretty decent view--not that it really mattered, since we were there primarily to sleep. It was a small victory in my deal-scoring portfolio, though, and we felt properly savvy and smug. Despite the late hour, we dumped our luggage in the room, and after a brief scare wherein we thought we'd lost our computer bag, hit the casino floor to stretch our legs and scope out breakfast options for the next day. The lights were twinkling, the music was bouncing, and the air pulsed with the hopes of big wins and the stink of cheap air fresheners. Oh the stink. Is that honestly supposed to be better than stale smoke?

After we had adequately explored, we returned to the room for sleeptime. Silly Mom and Dad. Who wants to sleep when there's such an awesome view? And don't even think that closing the curtains will make me forget that it's there. What's that? I don't care if there are people trying to sleep next door! I want to see the lights outside! I'm not tired! I'm not tired! I'm not tired! Repeat. For two hours. Remember how the view wasn't supposed to matter and we were just supposed to sleep? *sigh*

So it was a rough night, but the breakfast buffet next morning was AWESOME and we were able to rip some tired balloons off of an unmanned timeshare trap to keep Jonah happy in the car. They did the job and stayed there for the next two weeks.

As we drove out of town, we passed approximately seventeen Reno PD cars surrounding one rusty Camero. It did look like a dangerous Camero, though.


ON THE ROAD AGAIN
The drive from Reno on was beautiful. From the quintessential vacationing of Lake Tahoe to the golden hills of Sacramento, and the lush vineyards of wine country. Northern California is stunning. We also passed a tractor-trailer engulfed in a roiling inferno on the side of the road. It was pretty intense.

Our first In-N-Out burgers of the trip were purchased and consumed in Salinas. Ah, the tasty.


STEINBECK COUNTRY
We hit Monterey Friday afternoon, picked up the keys to our rental, and headed over to Pacific Grove to unpack and get settled in for six weeks of California dreamin' while James takes a few classes at the Monterey Institute.

It's been great being back on the peninsula--we were here two years ago and adored our wintery summer. This time 'round, we're looking forward to summery days of fall.