Work from home day

On Wednesday our daycare provider was called to jury duty so I got the rare privilege of staying with Carter while working from home. 

It wasn’t ideal to actually try and work from home since I couldn’t give all of my attention to Carter and I also couldn’t really accomplish too much while wrangling my busy baby, but it was still more time than I usually get with him so I was glad to have it.

While I was working on my laptop Carter was playing on his own just talking away and banging things together. When he wasn't paying attention to me I caught a little of his play time on video - until I was caught!

I was so glad for a day with my little love! I hope we can do it again soon...

Weekend trip to Santa Cruz

This past weekend we took a little family trip to Santa Cruz just to get away for a little while. It was nice to step out of our routine and spend some fun time together!

We headed out Saturday after lunch and started the fun at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. We walked around for a little bit to get the lay of the land and Carter enjoyed cruising in his stroller while sipping on a bottle - arguably the coolest baby ever.

Dave and I decided to take turns going on the roller coaster (The Giant Dipper) since we couldn’t take Carter on the ride. Amusement parks are certainly a little different now that we have a little one! While Dave was taking his turn on the roller coaster Carter and I (OK, just me) sampled some fried Oreos and enjoyed a beautiful ocean view. I have never had a fried Oreo before so I wasn’t sure what to expect - but it was tasty!

After the roller coaster rides we headed over to the carousel to share Carter’s very first carousel ride with him. The fun began even before the ride did! After I put Carter on a horse he just started squealing! It was so funny and we caught some of it on video:

And THEN the ride started. He wasn’t really sure what to think at first and I wasn’t sure if he was excited, scared, or ready to throw up.

We made it through the ride with no crying or throw up so I call it a success! It is such a joy to be able to share Carter’s firsts with him!

On Sunday we went to the Mystery Spot which is a gravitational anomaly where this cabin slid down a hill and because of its placement there are a lot of optical illusions where you experience variations of gravity, perspective, and height.

They claim the area “defies physics” but the optical physicist I brought with me has a different opinion ;-) At any rate, we had a fun time and took some interesting photos.

For the record, it was hard to keep my balance walking on a sloped floor and it was even harder doing it with a 20+ pound baby strapped to my chest!

 

After our Mystery Spot tour we headed to Capitola for lunch and some sightseeing. Carter enjoyed a bottle on the pier while Dave took a few fun photos.

This photo cracks me up. It’s like the seagull is daring anyone to clean their fish. Ha!

It was time to head home and back to reality but not before Dave was able to show Carter the ocean.

We had a wonderful weekend away and we were sad to see it end. But we are definitely looking forward to when we can get away again soon!

He's standing! (with a little help)

The other night Carter pulled himself up to a standing position while holding onto my hands. It was so cute because he was SO proud of himself! He was just beaming and couldn't stop laughing and smiling and Dave was quick to capture it on video. Enjoy!

Baby babble

Carter has been “talking” to us more and more lately and it is soooo cute! He can say dada (well, make the sound but not associate it with Dave yet) but hasn’t quite got the mama sound down despite my constant subtle pushing encouraging. The other night I caught him on video babbling away as he was trying to climb all over us. Enjoy!

Halloween

Happy Halloween! We had a great time celebrating Carter’s 1st Halloween with him! We started off the week carving a pumpkin for our front porch. Carter wasn’t too sure what to think about it, but I’m pretty sure he had fun watching Daddy.

For the last few years I have helped to plan the Fall Festival at our church and so I was already committed to working the event on Halloween night. Luckily I got an hour off of my duty time so I could spend time with Carter and Dave at the event. I also had to dress as a busy bee so I would match the other committee members and Carter and Dave had a cute costume theme going without me. They were pretty cute, no?

It’s not every day you see a banana holding a monkey!

Carter was too little to really play any of the carnival games but we had him try to fish for candy, go through the maze, and enter the costume contest with Dave. It was so much fun!

Next year I will not be helping with the Fall Festival so I can spend more time with Carter and I look forward to that! We hope you had a great Halloween!