Ladybugs

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Mdfrisco

Being a stay at home mom means I am always trying to find new things to do with Jake. We are lucky to live where we can be outside 95% of the time so the beach, zoo, parks and the pool are easy favorites. But we are always interested in doing something different. A while ago a friend of mine sent out an email with a fun idea of doing a ladybug release with the kids. So a group of us met at a park and let the kiddos run around for a while

and then we gathered them all together in the shade (because in the shade the ladybugs will stick around, once it gets hot in the sunlight they fly away) and opened up a carton that contained 1500 ladybugs!

There were ladybugs everywhere! All over our hands and arms…

Our legs…

and especially our feet.

They tickled! And I kept feeling like I had ants crawling all over me.

And occasionally one would accidentally get squashed…

It really was a fun idea and the kids loved it!

After the excitement of the ladybugs wore off, it was back to the playground and chasing after good old fashioned bubbles.

Anybody else have any different, creative ideas of things to do with the kiddos?

4th of July “Send Off” Party

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Mdfrisco

This year we celebrated the 4th of July at our friends house in Anaheim Hills. It was not just a celebration of our nation’s independence, it was also a celebration and send off party for our friends the Henry family. Keith, who is a fellow Palm Desert native, and SDSU buddy and his wife Kristen, another SDSU friend and their two children made the move to England. Keith’s company provided him with a great job opportunity and they decided it was the right decision to make. I know as hard as it must be to leave close friends and family back in the states, their family is on an amazing adventure and I can’t wait to hear those little kids grow up with a British accent!

When asked if I would take some pictures at the party, I had big intentions. I had planned to take a picture of each family that came as well as maybe attempting to get a group shot, to send off with the Henry’s so they have some good pictures of the people who love them and are missing them. Unfortunately, Jacob was being a little clingy that day and wouldn’t let me out of his sight and anytime I tried to take some pictures he would get upset and want me to hold him. And there were so many people and everyone was all over the place so getting individual family pictures was proving to be kind of impossible. So…I didn’t get the great pictures I wanted to, but I did get a few.

It was a warm day so the dad’s and kids took over the pool

Family and friends from different areas of their life all came together

We will miss the Henry’s dearly, but can’t wait to hear about all their adventures in Europe!

And Happy 4th of July!

The Wedding

Posted on August 2, 2014 by Mdfrisco

After the two fun days exploring and learning more about the area of Sonoma County we came to the reason for our trip, the wedding! The morning of the wedding we visited some of the vineyards close to the house. The first one had some of my dad and Jacob’s favorite things, dogs and tractors. So they spent most of the time playing outside.

Then we went to Martin Ray vineyards where they had a pretty garden area so we could do our tasting outside.

Then it was time for Jake’s nap and time for us to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was a beautiful ceremony in a church in Occidental and the reception was at the Vine Hill House which was a gorgeous venue.

The lighting coming through the trees was so pretty and I was wishing I had my camera with me, but I think this is a pretty good shot for an iPhone!

The day after the wedding, we went on an adventure that none of us had ever done before…Zip Lining! The Sonoma Canopy Tours zip lining adventure through the Redwoods is one of the top ten in the nation and we had so much fun!

Afterwards we celebrated with a drink!

That evening we went over to our friends house for a relaxing BBQ dinner. The house they rented is on a golf course and had a huge deck where we sat around and visited and chased Jacob around,

We had a delicious dinner!

And then just like that, our vacation was over. The next day we all went our separate ways to make the journey home. It was really a nice getaway and to spend it with friends and family made it even better!

While unloading Jake’s car seat and all our luggage at the airport, Justin thought it would be easier to leave Jake strapped in so we didn’t have the chase after him while getting all our things. Wonder what the other people thought when they saw this on the side of the street 🙂

Wine Country

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Mdfrisco

July was a pretty busy, but fun, month for us. I’ve been taking pictures along the way, but haven’t had time to go through them and post them. Partly because Jake is now down to one nap a day so my “free time” during the day is even less, and partly because we have been so busy I am exhausted at night and working on the computer is the last thing I want to do, and to be honest… a big reason is because Justin and I are now on Season 3 of Game of Thrones and it is safe to say we are addicted and can’t wait to watch an episode (or usually two) every night after Jake goes to bed. So, little by little I will get them all done.

For now, I am going to start with our recent trip to Sonoma County. The main purpose of the trip was to go to a wedding for a good family friend, but of course we made a vacation out of it! So Justin, Jake and I packed up and flew to Santa Rosa to meet up with both my parents and Justin’s parents for a little vacation in the wine country.

We spent our first day at DeLoach vineyards. One of the guys Justin works with has a friend who works there so we got a wonderful private tour and tasting.

The grounds and gardens were beautiful! But I think my favorite part was when we got to the barn where they keep the sheep and the chickens.

Jake was absolutely captivated by these animals and did not want to leave

We had already moved onto another part of the grounds and Jake was still watching those animals.

My parents got Jake a Radio Flyer wagon, it was the perfect way to tote him (and all of our stuff) around when he was getting tired and even when he wasn’t tired he loved riding in it, eating his lunch in it, playing with his toys in it and getting out and pulling it around himself.

It was a fun day!

That evening we drove to Bodega Bay in search of some good seafood for dinner. First we wandered around and looked out over the bay.

Then after a few stops and some driving around we finally found a place to eat. Jake doesn’t sit still for long at all these days, so Justin and I traded off and once I finished my dinner I took him outside where he kept busy organizing the oars outside the surf shop next to the restaurant.

After Jake went to bed that night, my parents went to visit with my mom’s friend (the parents of the bride) who were staying in a house just a couple of miles away from us. So the rest of us took advantage of the game room! Now before I share these pictures…I feel that I need to do a bit of explaining about the place we stayed at. It was called “The Castle”. I intended to take a picture of the house, but never did…the outside was all stone and there were little towers which made it look like a castle. The story goes that the original owner was a big Harley Davidson biker guy who was also a big party animal. Picture the 1970’s with 200+ Harley Davidson’s parked outside, a disco ball with a dance floor, the back yard was carpeted, the inside was all black lacquered walls and red carpet, etc…Well the current owners remodeled the place and turned it into a nice little retreat in the redwoods. They did leave a few of the original touches, like the secret tunnel that goes from the house to another building, which was the game room. And the game room still had some of the black and red theme as well as the original bar and jail and a burned Harley Davidson mounted on the wall.

It was wild, fun and kind of creepy at the same time! We played pool and the winners of each game had their pictures taken by the Harley with some crowns that we found in the bar.

It was definitely a place to remember!

The next day we had a wonderful day with Karen & Charlie (Joyce’s niece and her husband) and family on their vineyard. Charlie’s family has been on their land for over 100 years! He gave us the VIP tour of the grounds in his 1946 Jeep.

After the tour, Karen had made a delicious lunch. We really enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at their house and Jake loved running around with their kids and checking out all the different toys they had.

That evening Justin and I went with my parents to Starks in Santa Rosa for the “after party” after the rehearsal dinner to see our friends before the big day. Sorry, didn’t take any pictures that night. We got there a little early so we sat at the bar and ordered some appetizers and wine. The food was amazing and I highly recommend this place if you are ever in the area!

I think this post is getting long enough and my eyes are getting blurry, so I’ll stop here and post the rest of our trip soon. Good night!

The Fab Fair

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Mdfrisco

Summer is in full swing and we have really been taking advantage of all the fun things San Diego has to offer. And one of those things is the county fair! I’ll never forget during my senior year of college, Justin and I played hooky one day and decided to go to the fair on a Monday hoping to avoid the crazy weekend crowds. We drove all the way to Del Mar and kept commenting on how the traffic was not bad at all and how it seemed we were going to have the place to ourselves. Well, we kind of did since the fair is closed on Mondays…oops! It wasn’t until about 4 years ago that we finally did go, on a day that they were actually open. We didn’t play hooky that time, but we had tickets to one of the concerts so we went a few hours early and enjoyed the fair before the concert. Now with a toddler in tow we thought it would make for a fun family day. So we packed up Jake and gave him his first county fair experience!

First up, we looked at the animals. The baby goats were so cute and a favorite for Jacob.

Then we got to the cows.

This was Jacob’s face when I told him that is where his milk comes from 🙂

Every year the fair has a theme and this years theme is the Fab Fair to celebrate the 50 year anniversary that the The Beatles (the Fab Four) first visited the United States. They had a large area that had tons of pictures, posters, headphones to listen to their music, videos playing, records and pretty much everything involving the history of The Beatles. We gave Jacob a break from the stroller and let him explore a bit.

We even got to walk Abbey Road!

By then we had an appetite and started exploring the countless food vendors until we found just what we wanted. Yum!

Then it was off for more exploring which included Jacob’s first carousel ride, which he loved and kept signing more, more, more when it was over.

Then daddy played some games to win some stuffed animals for Jacob.

When I saw this guy it made me think of the movie Mary Poppins, and I’ve been wanting to watch it ever since.

Then we went to the family adventure part of the park, where they had more areas to let Jacob out of the stroller to play and explore.

We went into the butterfly emporium and had a very up close experience with thousands of butterflies, which was really cool! I think Jacob’s favorite part was this wrought iron musical contraption thing. He spent quite some time banging around on it.

I’d say it was a very successful trip to the fair and Jacob is enjoying his loot!

Father’s Day Weekend

Posted on June 29, 2014 by Mdfrisco

On the Saturday of Father’s Day weekend, we went to a farmers market at Old Poway Park. This is such a great park and we have spent lots of time here. They have a large grassy area where you can picnic or just let your kids run around, they have old trains to climb on and they have working trains that take kids for a ride around the park. There are so many great photo opportunities and I’ve done a few photo shoots there. Their farmers market is great as well! When we finished our shopping Jake wandered around the barn area for a while.

And he watched the trains go by

Next time we go I have a feeling we will be buying a ticket to ride the train instead of watching it…

On Sunday after church Papa J, Nonnie and GiGi came for Father’s Day. We went out to eat at a great restaurant and enjoyed our time celebrating the wonderful dads!

Hope you had a great Father’s Day!

Fun with Uncle Terry

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Mdfrisco

Every year around the end of May, Justin’s Uncle Terry comes to California to visit from Kentucky. So we spend a few days at Justin’s parents house so we can visit with him. The guys always have a great time golfing for a few days, and then we pretty much spend the rest of our time in the pool.

Lots of family came over, including Justin’s cousin Lisa (Terry’s daughter) and her family.

Lisa’s boys were great with Jacob and played with him all day long

Papa J and Nonnie got Jacob a cute little chair and table for outside. It was perfect for dining poolside!

I love this picture of Apollo who looks like he has had a few…and is about to fall into the pool!

Not to worry though, he is saved by the raft

Told ya the boys were great with Jacob!

Jacob had fun playing in the misting fans

The Frisco men, BBQing ribs for dinner! Not sure why Jacob doesn’t look too happy…maybe because he had to stop playing in the misting fan to take the picture?

The next morning I had to take pictures of Jacob with his balloon. We had celebrated Lisa’s husbands birthday the night before and Jacob attached himself to one of his birthday balloons. He just loved dragging it with him everywhere he went.

He also loves his popping walker that he got for Christmas from some cousins

But rather than walking with it, he prefers to spend his time trying to figure out how to get the balls out of it.

And even though Apollo didn’t fall into the pool, he did fall into the fountain which resulted in giving him a bath in the middle of all the craziness.

It was a fun time with family and we always enjoy seeing Uncle Terry!

The Mission

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Mdfrisco

Last September I did a post about our visit to the Mt Soledad Veterans Memorial, which we checked off on our How San Diegan Are You? list. Another thing on the list that we have not done yet was visit the Mission San Luis Rey De Francia in Oceanside. On the Saturday before Mother’s Day we didn’t have any plans and didn’t want to spend the beautiful day indoors, so we took a day trip to the mission.

When we arrived, the guide in the museum gave us the layout of the grounds and told us where we could go and the things we could see. We started out walking through the museum. Jake didn’t really seem impressed…

We ended up in a courtyard behind the museum and let Jake roam around. That was much more interesting to him!

Sometimes the simplicity of a bench or chair is my favorite kind of photo opportunity.

Jake is in a phase where he wants to touch everything, and I mean everything! He is always sticking his finger out and reaching to touch something. On our walks he likes to touch the different plants and all the poles for the street signs or street lights. Even when driving in the car if he sees a stop sign, he will frantically point his finger like he expects me to pull over so he can touch the pole. And the big bell hanging in the courtyard is no exception.

I always take my camera with us when we go on these adventures, but don’t always take pictures. Sometimes, I just want to just relax and enjoy the moment. But sometimes, like this day, there are just too many good photo opportunities to pass up it ends up becoming a mini photo session! Especially when Jake is having such a great time exploring the area.

When I was completing an online profile a while back for a MOMs group I am a part of it required a photo of me and Jake. And I thought, pshhh no problem, I have plenty of pictures! After spending several minutes going though my photo archives, I realized that I do have plenty of pictures of Jake, and Jake with daddy, but I have very few of us and the ones I have are older pictures, nothing recent. It is hard when you are always behind the camera to force yourself to hand it to someone else so you can get in front of it. And I am working on that…So when we went down these old steps that led down to the pools where women used to wash clothes and bathe, I handed the camera to Justin and played with Jake on the steps for a few minutes.

And I had to crop that last one to get a closer version of me and my bat boy.

We wandered through the cemetery

And stopped by the church on our way out

It was a fun family day and I am looking forward to our next adventure to check off the list!

More Randomness

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Mdfrisco

One of the authors of a blog I love to read does a Ten on Tuesday post every Tuesday. And she lists 10 things: news to share, a funny story, a link to a cool video/recipe/story, an opinion on something, an idea, thoughts, anything really… I feel like I need to start something like that because sometimes I want to post things, but it’s not really enough for it’s own blog post and sometimes I feel like I have a bunch of unrelated things to say in one post, hence this title and my last post title of randomness. So I need a clever name, any ideas?

Now on to my random ramblings…

As I said in my last post, we had a busy week last week and I fully intended to post all about it last weekend or even last Monday. But somehow it became Thursday and Jacob, Justin and Apollo are snoring away, the dishwasher is running, the house is (mostly) picked up, I finally got my shower in and I am determined to get this done before I go to bed.

Last week we had an action packed week planned. Over the weekend we had a Frisco family fun day playing tourist at the Mission in Oceanside and we met Justin’s parents and grandma in Temecula for Mother’s Day brunch (I have stories to tell and pictures to share about those coming soon). On Monday, Jacob and I met up with our good friends at Torrey Pines State Beach for our weekly beach fix.

On Tuesday we started swimming lessons! Jacob loves water in all forms, the bath, ocean waves, pool, and washing his hands in the sink. We love the beach and the pool and go as often as we can so I really want Jacob to have some good swimming foundation down as early as possible. So now we go to swimming class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So far Jacob loves it!

On the way home from swimming lessons that day I noticed a big plume of black smoke when I got off our exit from the freeway.

I knew right away there was a fire and the area behind our neighborhood is full of canyons and wildlife preserves and lots of vegetation to burn. I was not sure if it was a wildfire or some kind of controlled fire. Just a few minutes after getting home I got a text from Justin checking up on us since he heard about the fire. Once I got Jake down for his nap I turned on the news and sure enough a few miles away a wildfire had started. We were not in any immediate danger, but it was a very unsettling feeling since we have had to evacuate before for the 2007 fires and I knew there was a chance we might need to leave again since the winds were blowing west, towards us. That afternoon we went to the library to meet up with a group of our friends for our weekly storytime gathering and playgroup afterwards.

On Wednesday, my Aunt took her second grade class on a field trip to the Safari Park in Escondido. So Jacob and I joined them. It was one of the hottest days of the week with temperatures reaching 102 degrees plus we had the hot Santa Ana winds blowing. The park was pretty empty and I kind of felt like we had the place to ourselves! Jacob had a great time in the petting zoo with my aunt and uncle.

He thinks anything that has hair and walks on 4 legs is a “Doggie!!!”

He was having a great time chasing them all over the place. And it looks like the goat is charging him in this picture, but I assure you it is not.

We stopped for lunch in the shade and then saw the elephants, gorillas, and all kinds of birds before heading home. On the way home I kept seeing more plumes of black smoke and knew something was going on. Several wildfires had broken out all over San Diego.

Again we were not in any immediate danger, but man, it was so scary to see all this on the news. My heart went out to all our firefighters who were working around the clock for several days fighting these fires in the heat and with the winds working against them. They totally kicked ass (excuse my language) and put these fires out over the next several days and saved so many homes and buildings from being destroyed. A few homes/buildings were lost, but for the number and scale of these fires if it was not for our amazing firefighters it could have been a lot worse.

On Thursday, we had swimming lessons again, and it was a huge welcome since it was the hottest day of the week and even a 92 degree pool felt glorious! On Friday we didn’t have any big outing planned, so we went to the playground and spent the afternoon in our pool cooling off. Between the beach and the pool we are pretty much going to be living in our bathing suits this summer and Jacob is already rocking a pretty serious farmers tan!

This week has been a stark contrast as far as the weather goes. We went from 100+ degrees to 66 degrees. It has been pretty chilly getting out of the warm pool after lessons this week! But it feels so good, I really prefer the cool beach weather. On Wednesday we had a playgroup date at the park and tomorrow we are meeting some more friends for a picnic lunch and park date. Oh and one last thing, we turned Jacob’s car seat around so now he is a forward facing big boy now! Technically (according to the American Academy of Pediatrics), we are not supposed to do that until he is 2 years old, but I’m saying mom and dad know best in this scenario. He is a much happier boy now that he can see what is going on while we are driving!

It has been a really fun few weeks (except for the fires), I’ve barely had time to keep up with the laundry and grocery shopping and pretty much collapse every night which is why I haven’t been here. But as I said I was determined tonight and it is now 11:41 pm and I better hit the sack.

I’ll be back with more on our trip to the Mission and Mother’s Day and everything else inbetween, and don’t forget I am taking suggestions on a title for my randomness posts!

Full

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Mdfrisco

Lately I feel like I’ve become a marathon runner. Life has been kind of crazy busy these last couple of months. I keep saying it’s partly because it’s summer, partly because we are not the type to just sit around, and partly because we now have a 3rd little guy (and sometimes a dog) that tags along with us wherever we go.

But when I stop and think about it, I know it is not going to change. Summer will turn into fall and then winter where we will be busy with the holidays, then it will be a new year and we will be celebrating birthdays and then spring will turn into summer again and the cycle keeps going. We will always be planning something. And Jacob (and Apollo) are not going anywhere anytime soon (not that I want them to).

But then I really stop and think about it and if I had a choice…I wouldn’t change a thing. It is all good stuff. Sure it is a lot of work, but it is fun. Our lives have been filled to the brim with mini vacations, long vacations, having people over, going to friends houses, birthdays, pool dates with neighbors, photography sessions, BBQ’s, catching up with old friends who are in town, being with family, zoo dates, church, work, girls night, beach days, parties, baby play dates, golf tournaments, and on and on and on……

I find myself often saying I just want a day to relax and not have to worry about going somewhere or getting ready for anything, or packing and unpacking and doing laundry after a trip, but at the same time, I find myself filling up the empty days in my calendar with things to do. I remember a time when I was feeling a hole in my life, I was feeling like I was stuck in a rut and didn’t see any way out of it. We were just as busy then as we are now, but a (big) part of me was just not happy, I knew I wanted more. Now that I have our precious little boy, I find that I often remind myself of that time whenever I am feeling overwhelmed or stressed out or feeling like I want to lock myself up in my house and turn off my cell phone and computer for a few days.

It is all good stuff. I am full. Sure, I am tired, I am sick of doing laundry, and I would love a massage or just an afternoon of sipping a girly drink with an umbrella while floating on a raft in the pool (which I actually got to do for about 5 minutes two weekends ago before Jacob woke up from his nap, it was a glorious 5 minutes!) But again, I wouldn’t change a thing. Life is good, it’s crazy, sometimes I have to remind myself to breathe when looking at my calendar, but it is filled with life. I am full. And I wouldn’t change a thing.

Because of all our fullness, I am behind on posting Jacob’s weekly photos, so here they are.

32 weeks

33 weeks

and this week he is 8 months old!

A few things about Jacob over this past month…

When Justin comes home from work, he has started “jumping” out of my arms and reaching for Justin. The first time he did that, both our hearts just melted!
He is giving kisses now, granted, they are wet, slobbery, open mouthed, but they are kisses 🙂
He is finally getting a tooth in! I can feel the sharpness of it in his gums, but it hasn’t actually popped up yet, I’m sure it will soon.
Last week we brought him to my office and weighed him and he is now a little over 18 lbs. We are convinced he grew an inch in the last few weeks too, since we noticed his legs are definitely longer.

The Frisco Project

Adventures in life, pregnancy, friendships, family & a little photography

Category Archives: Summer