The Adventures of Jake and Allie: August 2013

Happy July! We headed out on the 4th in our red, white and blue (and Allie's green crocs that I can't get her to take off) to watch the annual neighborhood parade.

First parade and first lollipop!

Allie wanted to march with the bunny rabbits!

Sweet big brother!

That afternoon while Allie napped, Jake and I had a movie date. We saw "Despicable Me 2" and Jake laughed through every scene with the little yellow guys. He's the sweetest.

Saturday morning we headed out for a little overnight trip to San Antonio and the Hyatt Hill Country Resort and Spa with the Riemers. We started with an impromptu trip to Target (we probably could have vacationed there we were having so much fun) and then on to the Snake Farm.

Our attempt at a group photo (sans the mama photogs)

The snake farm was a strange place with an even stranger mix of animals! Post Snake Farm fun and lunch we headed to the resort. We quickly headed to the pool and the lazy river. It was a great day we floated, swam, and relaxed the day away! We didn't really take any photos except a few of Max and Allie while the big boys were swimming.

That night after dinner we explored the resort and found an outdoor movie. So cute!

We had a trip a successful trip to the dentist for Jake and Allie. We of course proceeded to celebrate with ice cream. I'm sure the dentist would have loved that.

Jake has taken swimming lessons for the past couple of summers but it hasn't really taken. Finally with time and a great teacher it is all coming together!

He even jumped in!

Hanging out during the weekend. Allie models her Humble Beagle t-shirt from Mimi and a little goofing around before heading out for the afternoon.

Allie's vocab has exploded and she's talking in two and three word sentences. It's amazing although most everything begins with "My".

Lunch at Whole Foods

The next day we had Gordon & Melissa over for brunch and then Jake had a birthday party. That afternoon we headed out to try out Jake's new scooter.

We started out with Jake on the scooter and Allie pushing her baby stroller but pretty quickly turned around to get the stroller to push my baby!

I'm glad our weekends are so fun but why so fast?

I was in San Antonio for work much of the next week but daddy had things covered at home no problem but I think they were happy to see me when I came home on Friday afternoon especially since we had ice cream after pick-up!

Friday night we had dinner with some of our favorite friends, Ben & Suzi Menfi. Suzi and I realized that neither of us had anything to do with the kids on Saturday so we arranged a last minute playdate. We were so happy to have John, Ava and Dean come and play!

Snack time!

Everyone loves the timers!

All smiles!

That night we had dinner at our local family friendly spot, Austin Terrier. The kiddos love the chalk wall and the books.

Sunday Alex had the chance to go on a movie date with our favorite little critic with a viewing of "Turbo."

Later that afternoon we all headed out to Jake's friend Griffin's birthday pool party. Jake was super brave and went down the big spiral slide into the pool not only once but four times! Allie's favorite part was cupcakes with Max!

Our last adventure in July is a trip to San Francisco to belatedly celebrate Bubba's 70th birthday. Scheduling has clearly been an issue since his birthday was in April! So when the four Diller's found a date that worked we jumped on it even though it meant that we didn't have Alex and Warren with us.

We headed out early Friday morning very excited about going on the aah-plane. I was very excited about the weather, truthfully anything under 100 degrees would have been welcome!

We made it to SFO and were met by Mimi and Bubba. We headed to Berkeley for a little breakfast and to gather our gear before heading to the beach. We had a nice but quick visit with our cousin/auntie Carol who came with all kinds of gifts for Jake and Allie that kept them busy all weekend!

We headed up the coast towards a little town called Inverness where my dad had rented a house for the weekend. We stopped along the way for some treats at the Cowgirl Creamery. Jake fell asleep in the car so Mimi stayed with him but Allie took full advantage of the stop!

Next stop was our home for the weekend, a beautiful house that my dad found for us!

View from the porch of the bay!

No clue what was wrong with Jake, he was having a fantastic time!

Loved the rocking chairs!

Celebrating (belatedly) Bubba's 70th Birthday!

Sibling love!

Allie introduces Auntie Rachel to Daniel Tiger

Ready for a day out!

Our first stop of the day was the Point Reyes Lighthouse! Allie fell asleep on the way so I hung with her while Jake, Mimi, Bubba, and Auntie Rachel headed out. Shortly after Allie woke up (of course) and we headed to catch up!

Maybe 1/3 of the way down

Quite a view!

After a long walk we made it to the stairs, 300 to be exact. Allie and I only did about 150 before we saw our crew heading back up. Actually Allie spotted Jake first and called to him for at least 50 steps.

Next stop was the beach and what we've been talking about for the last month!

Taking my girl to the beach for the first time!

Sand cakes for bubba's birthday complete with candles!

Jake and Mimi braved the water and had a blast playing together!

He couldn't have been happier!

One more trip to the water and then time to go home!

That night we had a very fun dinner at the house with our cousin Amie and her husband Mark.

Jake LOVED his binoculars from Amie & Mark

Auntie Rachel, Allie and the new Pony from Mark & Amie read a bedtime book!

Sunday morning was lazy before we cleaned up and headed back to the city!

Nice bedhead!

Allie wants to take part in our newest obsession, Rummikub!

We stopped at the Bay Area Discovery Museum which was an awesome place to go with the kiddos.

There were so many different (age-appropriate spaces) that we split up for part of the time and Allie went with Mimi and Bubba and Jake came with me and Auntie Rachel.

Auntie Rachel-Lisa & Jake-Lisa

Make your own art gallery!

A walk across the Golden Gate Bridge

Making friends with the locals!

After the museum we headed to Rachel's house and met up with our cousin Emily for dinner and then said goodbye to Mimi and Bubba. We got to spend a little time with Uncle Warren before we all passed out! Allie climbed right into bed, to bad this wasn't her bed.

She won in the end and did end up in the bed in the morning, and I'm glad she did!

The next morning we met up with Jake's godmommy and one of my favorite people, Libby! We met for breakfast and then we got lucky enough to get her for a few extra hours and we went to the playground at Golden Gate Park.