My Weekend With Mr. H!

Now that Mr. H and I have two very busy little girls, alone time is something that we most often dream about.  But this last weekend was a dream come true for us when my parents said that they would have the girls overnight so that we could re-charge.  It was just what we needed and we had such a great time!

We had plans to drop the girls off with my parents at 1pm on Saturday.  The weather was kinda overcast and dare I say cooler compared to the normal July days.  So I was super excited that wearing jeans and a military jacket wasn't a completely ridiculous idea.  :)

 A couple weeks ago I blogged about how I had balayage done to my hair.  I loved it, but I wanted it to look a little bit more dramatic.  ;)  So I brought home the supplies I needed from work and Friday night before I did this...

 It's a lot lighter on the ends now, and I was excited to try something new.  (I wouldn't recommend doing this on your own though friends.  This was actually my second attempt at home.  And remember I'm a stylist so I'm supposed to know what I'm doing.  ;)  My hair was pretty dark so my first time the ends were a bit too orange for my liking.  So this time I actually toned the mid section with two colors first, and then I re bleached my ends until they looked light enough, and until I was too scared to let bleach continue to sit on my ends.)

Summery don't ya think?

So after we dropped the girls off at my parents house we had lunch at The Islands.

Then we headed out to Fullerton to check out a brewery that my cousin told us about.

I text Chad on our way and asked him to meet us there.

 The brewery Bottle Logic, has only been around for a year, and it was seriously the neatest place.  
Really cool decor, and even better, really really awesome beer.  
We had fun getting to visit with my cousin and I told them that I wondered if our old neighbor had heard of this place because he and Mr. H used to always love swapping craft beers.  And not 5 minutes later, he came walking up to the brewery with his girlfriend!  It was too funny.  We miss living across the street from him and it was fun to sit down and catch up!

After a while we said our goodbyes and our next stop was the Angel game.

 Mr. H is a huge Mariners fan, and my Uncle Dave gave us his tickets for the night!  So nice of him and Mr. H was thrilled to be at this game to see King Felix pitch.  It was a good time, but I won't lie, I was more excited for our next day to begin because we were headed to the beach all by ourselves!!!

Do you know how easy it is to just go to the beach and only worry about yourself?  I do now!  
It's like a MILLION times easier than taking your kids.  (That's fun too, but a different kind of fun.) 

We slept in until 7:30, leisurely drank two cups of coffee, actually got to watch the news instead of My Little Ponies!  Then we threw our suits on and took off.

 I went with a friend last week to a new spot in Laguna and couldn't wait to take Mr. H.  
This cove is just so neat and the water is so clear and so beautiful!

 It was a gorgeous day.
And we just soaked it all in.
We love Laguna.
We love the beach.
And we love that we are lucky enough to be able to hop in our car and drive there within an hour.

We laid in the sun.
Read our books.
Ate some snacks.
Explored the tide pools on both sides of the beach.
Saw bright orange ghirabaldi fish (the state fish we learned), and lots of crabs, and birds, and seals.
And just when I was thinking that we had gotten to see a lot of wildlife that day, we were out in the water up to our necks for a dip to cool off when...

 a SHARK swims RIGHT BY US!!!!!
That's right a shark!
A real one!

Alright, fine, it was a 3 foot leopard shark which is full grown and apparently harmless, BUT STILL!!!!!
A SHARK!!!!!

I think I got up on top of the water and ran to the beach so fast!!
And so did everyone else around me!
It caused quite the stir on the beach though.

We asked the lifegaurd about it and he sort of laughed at how harmless they are.
But I couldn't help but feeling like Vince Vaughn in the movie Couple's Retreat when he gets stuck in the water surrounded by sharks.  We had a good laugh about it.

 And truth be told it was a beautiful shark. 
It's leopard spots were very visible and it was pretty to look at.
Pretty after the fact that my legs were no longer within grazing distance of it's jaws that is.  ;)

 After our near death experience shark encounter, we dried off and left the beach around 4pm to go have an early dinner before heading home.
I love all of the shops in Laguna, and we popped into one of our favorites Art For The Soul.
I've lusted after these handmade lazy susans for so long now and I took pictures of my favorite ones this time...

I want one for our kitchen table soooooooo bad.

The one above reminded me of our girls and things we are trying to teach them.

And the next one I loved the saying around the outside and the colors, and I loved that the pictures reminded us of our new backyard.

 These pieces are so unique and truly works of art.  
Some day.

We had dinner at one of our favorites.  Big Fish.  Sitting on the patio overlooking the ocean with the breeze blowing in.

It was the perfect day.

We got to my parents around 7pm, and came home by 8.

And at 1am Claire yelled down the hall that she had just thrown up.

Womp womp womp.

Our getaway weekend was officially over.

Claire was tired today but never threw up again.

I spent my Monday cleaning and laundering and lysol'ing everything.

I'm hoping no one wakes up sick tonight.

Instead I'll cling to memories of the salty ocean air.

Hope your weekend was good too.

I was super excited to receive my first package from Stitch Fix today!!!!  Look for that post with the details later this week.  :)

Our 4th

Happy 5th everybody!
How was your 4th?
Ours was great.

 Mr. H had to work but he was able to leave by 1.

 The girls and I were ready at home and waiting for him.

 And as soon as he got home, we packed up the car, and took off towards the beach.


Meet my Uncle Dave and my Aunt Glenda...

Aren't they cute?

My Uncle Dave has a fishing boat in Newport and I sort of invited ourselves down for the day.  ;)

My Uncle Dave's kids are my cousins Chad and Donavon.  It's always a good time when we get to see them.  Chad was there, and Don and Kaylen drove down from the Bay area to be there too.  My Grandma also came down, with my cousin Dee and a friend of hers.  And my sister and her fiance and friends were camping at The Dunes so we got to see them too.   My parents were up in Big Bear and we missed having them there too.

 It was a great day filled with lots of fun, food, and good times.

Thanks for the hospitality Captain Fin!!!!

My phone died later in the evening and I didn't get any fireworks pics.  But we had a prime spot to sit and watch the show from the boat.  
We waited a bit to let traffic die down before we headed home.
We got back close to midnight and discovered that poor Abbey must have gotten scared from the fireworks and peed in the house and then tracked it all over the place during her nervous pacing.
It's hot and humid here today and we are just lounging around.
Hope your 4th was a fun and safe one!  

Hi

Hi.

It's me.

Remember me?

I'm the one who writes this old blog.

It's been a while.

Sorry about that.

Life just seems to be throwing this old blog into the backseat.

But I'm trying to keep it up.

I'm trying to keep up with it all.

I've been saying to Mr. Hass a lot lately things like,

"Hey remember when the girls were babies and we thought life was so hard? And so busy? And we were so tired? And I couldn't wait until they were a little bit older so that they could do things like wipe their own butts, and use their words to tell me what they wanted, and things like that?  And now they are older, and they can do those things, but somehow life has become even busier and crazier."

Yup, funny how that works I guess.

Here's just a tidbit of what has been going on around here...

 The weather has been warming up, and we've been spending more and more time outside.
(I also have not picked up my big camera lately so once again, it's a post full of iphone pics.)
Sorry about that too.

 Both girls are enjoying soccer quite a bit.
I realized that I went to high school with Hannah's coach.
Small world isn't it.

 I saw The Duggar Family on Dr. Oz recently and they were sharing some of their financial secrets.  Of course they make quite a bit of their own foods and household goods like wet wipes.  I have been so sad to realize all the extra crap that is put into pickles recently, so I knew I wanted to try their pickle recipe.  It was so easy and they really are so good!! Way better than store bought pickles!! Just get over the fact that they do still look a bit more like cucumbers than the type of "pickles" that you might be used to.  But we all loved em.  Will be making those all summer for sure.  In fact we want to plant cucumbers in our garden this weekend and then all we have to do is pick em and pickle em!

 Here's a crappy screen shot of the Duggar Family recipe.  It says:
2 cups of vinegar
4 cups of water
4 cucumbers
salt and spices to taste
(I cut the recipe in half.  And used not quite 1 tsp of salt, and about 2 tsp of dried dill)
Let sit for three days.  Then eat!!!  (I also stuck mine in fridge on day three.)

 A favorite snack lately; sliced banana, almond butter, coconut, and some granola.  

 Mr. H watching the NCAA tournament while at soccer one night this last week.  Thank goodness for iphones right?  ;)

Cabernet Monday happened again.  ;)

I sat outside reading my new book while Mr. H grilled some mahi marinated in soyaki for us. 

It was so good.  With asparagus from the Farmer's Market, and this quinoa recipe that was delicious!

 Last Saturday in between the girls soccer games we ran to the market.
I love all the spring produce that we are starting to see.
After Hannah's game my mom and dad told me they were going out to Dana Point to see my Uncle David's new boat and did I want to go...
I was so happy for my Uncle and we said of course we want to go!

 This next pic is not a favorite, but I'm sharing it anyway.  Like my Dad always says "this is what we look like people"... :)

 It was a gorgeous day for a harbor cruise.

 Just gorgeous.

 My Dad and Uncle Dave.  

 The girls had to have their sperrys aka "boat shoes", on the boat!

 Mr. H had to work that day and missed the soccer games, but he got off a little early and met us at the beach.

 For dinner we wound up at Harpoon Henry's.
We realized after we were seated, that we were in the exact same booth, in the same restaurant that Mr. H and I had dinner in one night when we spent our babymoon in Dana Point, almost 7 years ago, right before Hannah Faith was born.
It was pretty crazy to realize that and be sitting in the same place with our now family of four.

It was a fun time.

That night Mr. H and I were supposed to be picking up a sitter to catch a movie date, but we had a feeling we'd be home late from the beach, so we rescheduled our movie date for the next night on Sunday.
We had intentions to go see Olympus Has Fallen,
but I was seriously so tired,
didn't even want to leave the house,
and then by 7pm I realized I was starving,
so we found ourselves at this neat little Gastropub by our house instead.

It was just what we needed.

And we loved it.

It's a husband and wife that own and operate, and their daughter works the bar.

He came over and chatted with us for a bit, and then he sent over a free slider for us to try.

It was so fun. 

I think this might be our new favorite date night spot.

Here's what we ate...

I had an organic extra pale ale, and Mr. H started with a flight of beers to sample.  We loooooved the Bootlegger's Knucklesandwhich IPA.  Sooooo good.  Then for food we had the olive medley, a roasted veggie salad with cous cous, pork belly tacos with a chipotle lime sauce, flatbread with goat cheese and grilled onion and basil, and flatbread with sliced pear, balsamic and gruyere.  We really wanted to try the "Sticky Pig" for dessert but they were out.  It is a maple bar with a bevarian cream filling and bacon!  Next time for sure.  Neat place.  Fun night.

This week the girls are on Spring Break.

And man have I needed it!!!

Since they are off school, and Mr. H is off work on Wednesdays, 

I took yesterday off work and we had a fun day adventuring at the beach. 

It was just what we all needed.
A little sun, surf, and sand sure does do the body good.

Tonight we are having family over for dinner to celebrate my Mom's birthday which is actually tomorrow.
I better go prepare!

Peace Out...

Day 3 ... A Trip to Sea World

 A little peek at where the Hass fam slept on vacay.  It was tight but we were thankful to have a room and a bed! And we have learned to always bring a fan when we travel for white noise in the room.  Sure helps the kids fall asleep and helps us sleep and not be awoken by every snore or cough happening in the room.  ;)

 Of course while staying in San Diego we had to make a trip to Sea World.  Everyone had been before except for my sister in law Karen.  

Grandma Preston, Tania, and Nick (Mick)

 I do not love that above picture of me, but it was cute of everybody else, so I am taking one for the team.  

 Here I am before the Shamu show began creating our next plan of action and filling everyone in on our itinerary.  Did you know my Dad calls me "Cap'n (captain Genny"? He says because I always step up and create a plan.  Really I just hate wasting time and appreciate good organization and time management.  But maybe some would just call me bossy?  I'm not sure.  ;)

 I really loved this picture of Grandma Preston watching the whales with such wonder and joy on her face.  

After the Shamu show we saw this fun little game.  The object was to climb up the rope ladder and touch the top without falling.  Sounds easy enough right? The prize was one of those ridiculously giant stuffed animals.  The girls wanted one, and I told em I would get them one.

 $10 bought ya two tries.  So we stood for a while watching people climb... and fall... and climb... and fall...  And then the employees would hop up there to show ya how it's done and breeze right to the top like it was nothin'.  So I figured, if they could do it... then I could do it!

Right?

 Wrong!  
I really thought we had a good strategy worked out.
But it was tougher than it looks.
Next time I go to Sea World, I'm gonna master than darn rope ladder!

 Tania, Diane, Dusty, and Mr. Hass.  Oh, and of course Crazy Claire.

 And Crazy Claire with her tongue out.  Lovely.

 The crew waiting for the Pet Show to begin.

 It was a fun and busy day and we managed to pack a lot in.

 After we left we were starving, and what better way to end the day than with a little In-N-Out?

We got back to the beach house, showered up, and ran out to catch the sunset along the boardwalk.

 Sunsets on the beach never get old.

 I love the spot on the water where the last of the sun's rays are shining down.

 I was loving that last shot that I took, and then this lone surfer came along, and made my next shot even better.  
Man I love the beach.

This next pic I put on instagram and we all had such a good laugh about it.
After the kids went to bed, we all settled on the couch enjoying different beverages and watching The Olympics, and catching up on our social networks and such.  I was on my phone sitting on the couch, and I looked up and had to laugh because every single one of us had our noses in our iphones and ipads.

Quality family time right?

Even funnier is most of us were playing each other on Words with Friends, or texting each other pics from the day, and liking each others instagram shots.

Funny stuff. 

Sorry if you are getting sick of the beach pics! I'm halfway done. :)

Peace out peeps.