Hello out there!

*sound the crickets*

Yes, I know it's been quiet around here.  I do this sometimes - take random leaves of absence from my blog and from the blogs I love.  Sometimes blogging gets to be a chore.  And I don't like chores.  Everything I do, I do because I want to.  And the minute it becomes less than that, I'm outie!  So, sorry for the undeclared hiatus.  I trust I still have friends out there in blogland?   I'm making my way back around to say good morning to all of you! ;)

We just returned from a 2 week vacation in San Diego and Salt Lake City.  Two cities I adore.  Beaches and mountains - does it get any better than that?!?!  We swam, we played in the sand, we visited tide pools and seals, we collected sea shells, I read 4 (count them, 4!!!) books, I shopped (of course), I photographed (oh how I photographed), and we ate all our favorite foods.  From Trader Joes in CA to Crown Burger in SLC, the eatin' was great!  Brought home 5 lbs. of cinnamon bears, too.

Now we are home at last, home at last.  3400 car miles later.  Don't pity us, we love road trips!  How do you think I got all those books read?  Or cinnamon bears consumed?  Lol.

Here are all my favorite highlights from our trip!

From Coronado Beach:

my niece tess

my sister-in-law and her nephew

my daughter sasha

andrew's cousin morgan

andrew's brother and wife, emily

sasha again

andrew's cousin daas and his darling daughter, isabella

sasha looking for me

guess who?  she's so photogenic :)

At La Jolla Tide Pools:

my son jonah and his aunt amy, andrew's sister

my handsome husband andrew and son drew

the only shot of me from our whole 2 week trip!  with daughters adriana and sasha

buca di peppo!  the whole clan

rock on!

my son jonah - this is his shy face

my little drew and his baby blues

tess again!  little stinker :)

side of road in southern utah - beautimous!

arches - southern utah

dang i love that hair.  as you can see, it runs in the family!

andrew's mom's garden

You know what I love most about vacations?  It forces you to focus on your family.  There's less email, phone calls, cleaning, extracurricular activities and such to distract you, so you have time to play basketball with your kids.  Or just sit and watch them.  I loved a lot of these photos because I captured some really precious moments/expressions that in my usual hurry I might have missed.  It also allowed me the time to take some photos of our beautiful scenery.  I rarely carve out the time for that!  And was happy that Andrew allowed me to screech "Pull over now!"  whenever I wanted. :)

It's good to be home and back in a routine.  Stay tuned for Sasha's 4th birthday party!  Hint:  We had a fancy time!