She's Seriously Walking Now

Though this post is long overdue (almost a month!), here's a short video of when she first started REALLY walking. It's been non-stop since, let me tell ya! She went from a step or two here and there to full fledged sprinting! Toddler-hood, we have arrived!

Day Trip to Catalina Island

Thanks to Rosh Hashana, I had a random Thursday off of work the week of our anniversary so I convinced Brad to play hookie and spend a fun day together - just the two of us. My mom was nice enough to watch Libby all day, so we took full advantage and headed to Catalina Island. One of my former YW works for the ferry and got us free passes (normally $70 each!), so we couldn't pass it up! It was just what we needed! ;)

We left a very overcast and cold Newport Beach...
...and arrived about an hour and a half later in the city of Avalon. Wow! What a gorgeous day!

This is one of the many adorable little hotels they have in the city.

We rented some mountain bikes and spent all day cruising around the adorable little town.

We rode our bikes up to the Wrigley Memorial monument - a harder ride than we anticipated, but what a blessing gears are! We are so used to our own little beach cruisers with only three gears, that the concept of anything more than three was mind-blowing!

Brad the lion-lover.

We had lunch overlooking the harbor and it was fantastic! Good food, amazing view, and unbeatable company!

We rode over to Descanso Beach for a bit and actually got to fall asleep on the shore for a little while. Can't even remember the last time I got to go to the beach and didn't have to be on constant baby-alert. It was soooooo relaxing and wonderful!

Once we rode up to the Memorial, we decided to hike the rest of the way up to the top of the island. We reached the peak where we could see the water on both sides and enjoyed some little snacks we had packed.

This is the "far side" of the island. Pictures don't do it justice, but the water color was absolutely gorgeous down there!

From the top looking down on Avalon.

We finished off the afternoon enjoying some ice cream on the pier.

Regretably, we had to load back on the ferry at 4:30 and our day in paradise came to an abrupt end. It was the perfect day - if only it had lasted longer! We fell in love with Catalina and can't wait to go back and maybe stay a bit longer next time.

An Angels Anniversary...Again!

If you end up doing something two years in a row, does that make it a tradition? If so, we've started a new one. We took Libby to the Angel game for our anniversary. Very romantic, I know! But we did something romantic a few days later (I'll post soon, don't worry!). Romantic or not, it sure was fun!

Is she cute, or what?!
We arrived almost an hour late, paid for the cheapest seats possible (and with a buy one get one free coupon), and then headed straight to the field level good seats. What a way to do it! This is a shot of our pretty great seats - not bad if you ask me!

Two of the Angels' greatest fans.

Once the crowds started clearing out, Libby took over the place. She loved cruising our row and finding all sorts of treasures!

What a great night at Angel Stadium!

That's our cutie!

Baby Hawk

Though all the students at my school like to refer to the Freshman as "Baby Hawks", Libby showed up to show them the real deal. She's a little Hawk through and through!

Here we are at the first football game of the season. She was staring at "Johnny Hawk" during this picture...see below to understand the face.
My good friend, Annie is the Cheer advisor and decided to give Libby a personal introduction to Johnny Hawk. As you can see, it did NOT go well!

After some coaxing, and from behind his back, Libby finally "made contact" with Johnny. Even that was pushing it.

Once we were up in the stands, she relaxed a bit, but still insisted on serious faces for pictures. That little bum!

She sure loves her daddy, loves the great outdoors, and loves the crowds. She thought all those wild teenagers were sure interesting! We'll be back for more, I'm sure.

Some New Libby Favorites

Just a few random pictures of the cutest girl alive! No bias, of course!

Priceless!
We've been trying out some new hairdos now that she's a "toddler". Not much of a ponytail, but we're trying!

Libby loves the kitchen!

This is one of our favorite things she does now - it's her very own drive-thru. The kitchen gadget drawer is always her #1 choice, and now she's managed to combine it with her riding toy. Two favorites in one - what could be better?!?

Opening her birthday card from Lowell. What a cutie!

Bachelorette Party Weekend in Santa Cruz

One of my best friends all growing up, Emily is getting married in a month so a bunch of her HS and college friends got together for a weekend in Santa Cruz to celebrate. We rented a house just two blocks from the beach and had a blast. It was my first time leaving Libby overnight, so I was a bit nervous, but it was so fun and I'm so glad I went!

This was the EKO Bachelorette Party group. (It was "early" in the morning on our way for a little walk to the beach where we got to experience first hand the "Ukelele Club of Santa Cruz" - apparently the biggest one in the world!)
A picture of our darling little house! It was soooo cute! Quirky, but definitely cute.

My cute bed - my roommate, Celia and I had a great time together.

After getting cleaned up, we all decided to walk to the Greek Festival that was going on downtown. This is the LH contingent - friends since Elementary School - how fun to be together again!

I even managed to sneak in some one-on-one time with the guest of honor! I attribute it solely to the convertible my mom let me borrow (thanks, Mom!). We went for a little drive along the coast and cruised the boardwalk for a bit. I love Em and I am so glad I got to spend time with her!

Emily was totally embarrassed by my tourist-ness, but honestly, how could I pass this up?!?

When we got back from our little adventure, the troops were ready for the festivities!

While the rest of the group was hitting it hard (ok, not really, but compared to me), Joanna made me my own "mocktail" that was fantastic! Everyone was eager to try a sample and all thought I got a pretty good drink out of the whole experience. Thanks, Baby Jo - cocktail waitress extraordinaire!

The next morning we lounged around for awhile before I decided I'd better hit the road when everyone else went shopping. Julie joined me for one last cruise along the coast before I had to go. It was GORGEOUS weather and I totally fell in love with Santa Cruz!

I missed Brad and my baby girl a ton, but I can't wait to bring them back and show them around. It was super fun to catch up with old friends, meet some new ones, and enjoy some "girl time" that was totally different from my regular life. Can't wait for the wedding! :)

Libby's Actual Birthday

On September 8, 2011 (at precisely 3:41 pm), Libby officially turned one! CRAZY! I guess what they say is true - time flies when you're having fun! ;) In her short little life Libby has managed to develop a knack for the extreme when it comes to holidays. Her birthday was no different. At about 3:30pm the power went out all way from Mexico to Arizona to (wouldn't you know it?!?) Laguna Niguel, CA. We were without power for over 11 hours and it certainly made for a VERY memorable birthday!

The power outage didn't put too much of a crimp into our afternoon plans since we were already planning on spending some time at the pool.
It was a great reprieve from the heat and we had a wonderful time - Grammy even joined us for the fun!

Some post-pool lounging before heading home for a nice long nap before dinner.

We had originally planned on going out to celebrate and didn't think much of it. Well, it turned out that the power went out up through our city, but not the neighboring ones, so we headed to Aliso Viejo for dinner....So did everybody else. My mom was smart enough to call ahead, but we still had to wait 20 min to get in (a heck of a lot better than the hour and half most people were waiting!). Yeah, you could say they were severely understaffed for the onslaught of craziness.

After dinner we headed back to my parents' place for present opening. We got out just about every candle in the house for the big event!

Here she is surrounded by loot and light - she was loving it!

It was pretty hard to see things well, so as soon as she'd open a present we'd take a picture and then look at the camera to see what it really looked like. It was certainly a fun way to do presents. Like I said, she's got a knack for unique! ;) Happy birthday, my Angel!