Recap of July Part 3: McKeown's visit the Fernandez Family in WA

Hi again,

Alrighty... the fingers are burning.. 3 blog posts in one week... it's a record. We need a less fascinating life so there will be less to post! Joking. After San Fran, we visited the Fernandez family. It was so nice to see everyone, and have some downtime to be out in the woods. Jocelyn is a huge fan of Tio Eric and Tia Didi's farm house. Most of these photos are courtesy of Didi, so thank you!

We headed to the beach :) This area is called West Port. All up and down this coast it's a mix of rocky beach with beautiful stormy motifs. It depends upon the day though because the weather can change quickly into a bright sunny day. We had to effectively cross over some elevation, so weather changes quickly. The sand is a darker color, since it's a mix of the rocks, sand dollars, mollusks etc. Drift wood is very popular out here. Ryan even went on an epic "man adventure" to collect some, pry it from a huge log that drifted ashore, and make this neat 'welcome' sign with J's hand prints for Abuelo.

 Note: J has an incredible imagination and sense for aesthetics. She loves to dress herself, and believe me they get creative :) Love her.

 

The ladies enjoying the cool day. 

Abuelo and I. It was really good to come back to the beach. I grew up on these shores.

These pups are Little Foot (left) and Chunky (right) with Daddy Eric and Mama Didi.

Exhibit the log! We had some fun on this thing.

One of my favorite things is to take a candid pic of J observing the ocean. She is just so fascinated with it. It's so neat to see her slow down and rest in front of the water.

The Men :)

Sand castles!! Of course :)

I think she did the splits on accident here. She quickly ran off after. Note, the elusive Ryan off in the distance on his search for the perfect drift wood.

He has been spotted!!!

It was a lovely morning!!

We then traveled back to the Fernandez Farm :) The vegetation is out of this world. This is a river/creek in my brother's back yard. Depending upon the time of year, there are salmon, crawfish, frogs, beavers and a whole other host of critters. It's truly magical.


Here J and Tio Eric are watching the river go by.

 Later Abuelo decided to go fishing in the river :) Must gear up!

 Success! We ended up putting the fishy in the pond right up the river. He is now trout #2 in the pond. They are swimming buddies now.

The animals were J's ultimate favorite. She loves feeding the goats and being one with nature. Eric and Didi have a pretty sweet pad. So let's meet the animals! I'm missing a picture of the turkeys, but in the farm there are 2 goats, 2 turkeys, a host of meat and egg laying chickens, and 2 ducks.

And no weekend is complete without a little yoga on the farm. :) J has the sweetest moves. J loves her fam :) The omnigym is really fun. Highly recommend it!!

Later on we got to see my friend Kristi and her daughter Rowyn on the way to see Abuela Violet. Rowyn and J are like spirits, and it's a bit hard to get a good picture because they LOVE playing together. Here are some shots. 

Of course dressing up as Elsa and singing lots :)

Need I say more :)

Abuela Violet is Abuelo's mom. I love how much J and her look alike here. It's really cute!! And, J has those awesome McKeown curls too. I wonder how Bebe #2 is going to come out :) ?

 We wish we had more time to see more family and friends, but alas we had to hop on the plane back. Jocelyn had a wonderful time. Thanks everyone for all the love and time. It means to the world to us.

Love, 

A+R+J+B

Recap of July Part 2: McKeowns go to the West Coast!

Why hello there!

Part 2 of our wild July adventures involved a lovely trip to the West Coast. Ryan's work brought us out to the San Francisco area, and we had a good time seeing the city. There is so much to see that we didn't get to see all of it, but our favorite places were the beach areas here and there, Ghirardelli factory, getting amazing food everywhere we went, and taking a boat trip to see the Golden Gate Bridge.

The area is really neat because you see a beautiful mix of the different cultures that over time have carved out little mini-areas within the city, and the architecture reflects this subtle Spanish flair with blooming flowers everywhere. The weather was pretty amazing as well. It was windy, but sunny every day with a bright, sparkling ocean. Pretty awesome!

My beauty Lady J and her bunny. I am not sure if you all know this, but Jocelyn loves bunnies. She has close to... well I won't say :) But butterflies, caterpillars and bunnies are her utmost favorite. Of course, so are pugs!

Sitting in mama's seat before take off. Note: Elsa dress travels EVERYWHERE. And, she has been telling everyone the baby's name will be either Ariel or Queen Elsa. 

Daddy and his wee lady at a little beach in front of the golden gate bridge. We walked here from out hotel. It's a very relaxing area. Ryan's shoes were harmed in the making of this photo... but we made up for it later. 

Here is baby #2, aka The Second, J and mama.

Cruising down the beach we ran around and did a little yoga :)

We came upon this center for the arts that was right up the street from the beach. Really gorgeous. 

And I did a little yoga stretch :) How can one not with these amazing pillars!?

Dad went off to strut his stuff at a conference, so J and I went down to the Pier. She was a bit sad. 

But the lobster hat sure did cheer her up!!! 

Some of the days the Bay Area was pretty chilly, so we warmed up with these massive coffees. 

J was a happy camper that morning. Somehow I managed to zip up that hoodie without squishing The Second baby.

Had to add the many faces of J.

Over a few days, she finally warmed up to the hammock. Maybe we will have to get one of these some day. 

As a last hoorah, we saw the Golden Gate Bridge. It's really incredibly sailing out and being right up next to it. We highly recommend it if you ever get the chance. You may notice that some of the photos show a bright and sunny San Fran, and then when you go a bit in one direction the weather completely changes! It's a well-mixed environment out there :)

We got all cozy for a selfie with the bridge.

Good bye bridge!

Meanwhile in J land... she slept through the whole thing in Daddy's arms.

Hello again Pier!

Just a ways up was the Ghirardelli factory, so we got some chocolate and enjoyed this view.

And made some sand memories. It says, "Jocelyn + Bebe".

Ah, here J is practicing her Kung Fu in horse stance. She loves Kung Fu Panda.

Ta ta for now! It has been pretty amazing seeing places as a family, especially places I went to as a young girl. It's really neat to show your little girl these places and experience the same location in a whole new light. And, when in doubt of a sad, boring day, Jocelyn recommends cream cheese. It's a serious affair eating cream cheese. So serious, she said, "no more cameras" and kicked me out :) 

Love, 

Alisha, Ryan, J and Bebe #2

Recap of July Part 1: Jocelyn and Baby #2 go to the Shore (Ocean City, NJ) with the McKeown/Szathmary's!

Hi!


Well July was a happenin' month :) So where to begin...

Well, fireworks were not Jocelyn's favorite. But that's ok. We had a fun play date with her friend Julianna and discovered more areas of Maryland.

Mid-July we headed to the shore. We had an amazing time. The ocean so soothing and the kiddos had a blast. Benny and J have a cute chemistry together, and thank you so much Aunt Marian for letting us crash your pad. Here are some fun highlights of the trip:

Prepping for the trip!

One of the favorite things the kiddos did with the family was ride the carousel :) Here are some shots. 

 The beach was mermaid Jocelyn's favorite!

Benny had a great first time and we miss the little guy a lot!

I wish I had more photos with everyone, but I wasn't the best at taking them on this trip. We had an amazing time making memories and love the tradition of heading to the shore. Jocelyn misses everyone a lot, and thank you for all the fun beach lunches, night time stories, songs, and sand castles McSzathmary family :)