watering the lawn.

phil is on his very LAST call as a resident tonight.  four days remain until he's done with residency.  forever.  i can hardly believe it.  but as phil pointed out, it's not quite as exciting as we had thought it would be since now another year of fellowship training has been tacked on.  but still.  the end is near!  more on that later.

phil already had his graduation celebration last weekend.  that was great, but also kind of a downer since he had to go back for ten more days of work before actually being done.  anyway, more on the graduation later.

for now, my life is still all packed up in boxes and i'm very tempted to just leave them be since we'll be loading them up again in one year.  needless to say, motivation is very low.  but, we are in the new house and like it very much.  more on that later.

ok, so i'm kinda behind on the blog too.  but i'm gonna take a break from looking at our chaos of boxes in order to post some pics from last month.  these were taken at the old house when i was in the midst of packing (have i mentioned before that i hate packing?  yes?  then you should also know that i hate UNpacking just as much, if not more.  just sayin'.), and decided that i'd better start watering our dead lawn before we moved out.

and cuz i'm a big believer in multi-tasking, i also decided to give the kids something to do at the same time.  cuz that's just the kind of mom i am.  :)

"hey kids, when mommy was little, i used to play in the sprinklers when it was hot outside.  wanna try it?"

"no allie, it's not a drinking fountain."

"okay well, be my guest if you're really that thirsty."

"now how about actually playing in the water?"

"boy, it's only water and you're wearing a swimsuit.  you've got the okay to get wet!"

okay, so my kids aren't big fans of getting water on their faces.

and okay, so they didn't actually run through the sprinkler like i thought they would.  but they did find alternative ways to play with the water.

and weren't even deterred when getting blasted in the face.

"allie look, you can turn the water the other way with this little knob.  now we won't get hit in the face anymore!"

"ooh, i see a rainbow!"

"thanks mommy for letting us play in the sprinkler!"  (he really said that.)

"mommy, now i love the sprinkler!  but i still don't like getting my face wet."

finding yet another way to play with the sprinkler instead of actually jumping through it like i requested.

and when one has a toy, the other must have one too.

water the lawn: check.  entertain the kids: check.  fun afternoon:  check.

and in case you were wondering, here's lauren seconds after i first turned on the sprinkler.  once the water started falling on her head, she hightailed it outta there and attached herself to my leg and there she stayed for the rest of the sprinkler time.  which is odd because she's the only one of our kids who doesn't mind when we dump water on her head during bathtime.  a bucket of water on her face, no problem.  little bitty water droplets on her head, no deal.  go figure.

summer is here, friends!  :)

the bee.

moving day is almost upon us.  i've done nothing but pack for the past several days.  it's driving me crazy and i dearly miss doing just normal stuff with my kiddos.  and taking pictures of them.  and since packing requires one to stay home, that's where we've been for most of this month.  the kids have been roaming around finding things to keep themselves entertained.  thankfully, they're pretty content to play at home and usually find plenty to keep themselves occupied.  but that's not to say that i haven't noticed an increase in whining, complaining, tattling, and other unsavory behavior.  apparently, they still need someone to parent them every now and then...

allie lately has been making this face if asked to hold still for more than one picture.  so no, it's not always sweetness and light around here.

happily though, she changes emotions pretty quickly.  especially when i tell her that there's a bee in her ear.

mikey came running over to see what the commotion was about.  so i told him there was a bee in his ear, too.

buzzzzzz!

my boy is usually my go-to guy for picture-taking because he's always been the most patient and willing to hold still.  within reason.

we've spent quite a lot of time in the garage and driveway lately in order for me to pack as well as to allow the kids to do something other than watch tv all day.  they wanted to paint on this particular day.

painting a star wars ship.  with plenty of shooters all around it.

you might be wondering why this small girl deemed it necessary to wear her brother's old bike helmet.

it's not cuz she wanted to strike out on the open road on her bike.

rather, she wanted to take cookie monster out in the stroller.  it is a rough and tumble world out there, after all.

but apparently, the helmet is overkill when going for a trike ride.  especially when being pushed by mommy.

sorry for this scatter-brained post.  it's kinda reflective of where i am right now.  : p

the getaway.

the grandparents even shooed us away while we were there so they could have the kids to themselves for a little while.  it didn't take too much convincing (ok, ok, it didn't take hardly any!) before phil and i hit the road toward pismo beach for a short little getaway.  in a word, it was AWESOME.  pure and simple.

we took our time getting to pismo beach, stopping first in san luis obispo to wander around, do a little shopping, and have lunch.

always gotta check yelp first to make an informed decision before ordering...

first came the jalapeno cornbread muffins.  yum.  also loved the deep blue plate i got.

we shared the vegetable spring rolls, which we thought were just so-so.  woulda been much better with shrimp.  but then, it wouldn't be vegetable only anymore.  phil and i have accepted that we will never be vegetarians.  we'd always miss the MEAT that oughtta be in there.  : p

phil ordered "a really tasty turkey burger".  that was the name on the menu.  turns out, they weren't lying as phil said he was pleasantly surprised by how moist and flavorful it was.  the sweet potato fries were also good, but woulda been better if they were more thinly cut (and therefore, crispier and less mealy).

even the ketchup was organic!  very san luis obispo-y.

i went with the soup and salad-- warm bacon, lettuce, and tomato chopped salad and a corn and white potato soup.

after a lovely, leisurely lunch with my best friend, we made our way to pismo beach.

and checked in to the pismo lighthouse suites.  and discovered a very pleasant room with cute little lighthouse lamps.

the view outside our room wasn't too shabby, either.

there was a little gate in the patio to our room that led straight out to this walkway along the cliffs.  we decided to go for a walk down to the beach before dinner.

beautiful spot on a beautiful day.  how come i never noticed how nice this area was back when i was growing up here?

our hotel sat right across from the brown building in the top right corner of this picture.  i had wanted to come back at later in the evening to take pictures at this same spot since the sun would be setting near that gazebo on the cliff.

in the meantime, we fully enjoyed our walk which included navigating these old rickety, crooked, wooden steps that led down to the beach.

the effort was well worth it.

phil found a crazy thick shell in the sand and set to work scratching something on this white rock.

it was this.  aw...  :)

so after our nice long walk, we went out to do some outlet shopping before returning to our room to get ready for dinner.  unfortunately, we took a lil' too long and the sun had already set!  i was pretty bummed that we missed it but still managed to get a couple shots before all the nice light was gone.

that same gazebo from earlier in the day.

still my favorite person to be with.

rather unsuccessful picture of us.  there just wasn't a good, level place to put the camera and no, i didn't bring a tripod with us.  and that's me cracking up cuz i knew it'd be a funky picture.

then it was on to the serious business of dinner!  we decided to try out marisol and started off with oysters on the half shell.  we agreed that it tasted fresh and nice with the lemon.  but had an unmistakable snot-like texture.  sorry for the tmi.

we also shared the six-pack of crab cakes.  i coulda licked this plate clean!  and kinda did.  don't tell anyone.

phil had the pan-roasted local halibut.  sadly, it was a little too dry.  but those red dots of sauce were delicious!  i love that he automatically pushes the plate towards me and moves some of the other stuff on the table cuz he knows i gotta take a picture of it before he digs in, which he then appreciates looking at long after the meal is over.  we're a good team like that.

i had the "duo of the sea"- grilled scallops and prawn served over linguine.  mmm.  but was a little too full to enjoy much of it.

the two of us.  had to resort to using the dreaded flash.  and we had wanted our entrees included in the pic but forgot to mention that to the server taking it.  aw well.

the next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel then took another long walk along the beach looking for sand dollars and found five unbroken ones.  then we browsed in the various trinket shops (you seriously don't understand how much phil enjoys this particular pastime.  he's definitely the shopper in our family!).  and ended up at the splash cafe for their clam chowder bread bowls.  my favorite!  this time we got two so we didn't have to share.  yeah baby!  and we tried it with the seafood topping as well.  two thumbs way up!  since the restaurant was so crowded, we took our lunch to go and went back to the car where we could eat and enjoy the ocean view for a little longer before heading back to our munchkins.

time for just the two of us, relaxing, eating wonderful food, doing nothing in particular...  just exactly my idea of vacation.  :)