10 So Cal Thoughts...

...In order from the pictures I've taken since we've moved here

1) Tyler's aunt and uncle have been so generous and helpful with everything surrounding our move. They have taken us under their wings as if we were their own kids. Aunt Mary showed up with a huge basket of fresh fruit and some essentials to fill our fridge within minutes after we got in town. They've had us over for dinner and have been helping us get to know the area by showing us some fun places. Here's Aunt Mary with 3 of her kids (the other 3 are boys):

They took us up "Sand Hill."

(A quick explanation of the collage above: Cole got hit by a wave--hence his pants were missing, Linda was pretending to be tired, and I'm assuming Whitney was perfecting her Miss America pose: big smile, shoulders back, knee pop. Love that girl.)

2) There is farmland all over the place. Any So Cal stereotypes I had before coming here have practically been erased with this city where we live. Someone told me this is a unique city because you'll see someone driving their tractor during the day and then their Ferrari at night.

On our way to breakfast one morning, Tyler made us all stop and get out of the car to smell the cilantro fields he had jogged by earlier. I don't think the kids appreciated it as much as we did, but they loved the spontaneous track and field race Tyler challenged them to.

I really love the openness that I feel here with all the farmland. Yet I also love the "mountains" (if you can call them that?) we have here too.

3) There's a bit of humidity in the air that I'm getting used to. It's nothing like the heavy heat + humidity of Texas where I grew up. Here we have that light coastal humidity in the air. You can almost smell the beach.

4) We've met some really friendly people. Great neighbors in the 'hood and friends at church.

5) Our neighborhood has two pools that we really enjoy.

6) It took me a couple weeks to get my sense of direction around here. Tyler tells people that I have an internal GPS, but something was totally malfunctioning those first 2 weeks. When I was heading on the northbound freeway, I felt I like I was heading west, and while driving south on another street, I would swear I was going east. Grrr.... It has definitely taken some re-programming, but I'm starting to get it.

7) Tyler is a MAJOR beach bum. I'm done with the beach after about an hour. But he could stay ALL day long. The beach has a tendency to stress me out. Think about what we're dealing with: --a baby crawling all over the sand with a dragging binky:

--Kids reaching their sandy hands/arms in the cooler for snacks and contaminating all the food in the process (can you see Whitney's ear on the left? UGH!)

-This little guy who could live in the water:

-And a dad who wants to boogie board/hunt for sand crabs/bury kids in the sand/swim out to the platform in the middle of the ocean.

It's just a lot to juggle! But I guess it's worth it when the kids have success on the boogie board, make sand crabs their pets for an hour, or invent a "sand community"--maybe the sand castle idea was too daunting.

8) One afternoon we took the kids over to some tide pools, and I loved seeing the excitement on their faces as we saw sea slugs, hermit crabs, and more sand crabs.

9) My cousin and her husband moved down here!! He just started law school at UCLA, and they are so darling.

So fun spending time with them and claiming that I have family in the area. :)

And last but not least.....

10) We are loving having Tyler around more!!! We even got to meet up with him for lunch the other day.

9 years ago I swore I'd never live here. But here we are--enjoying our new life. We feel blessed.