Debbie and her family (she was my master teacher once upon a time!)

My niece, her husband, and sweet little girl!

My sis's boss and lovely wife!

Dad making his rounds.

Cupcakes!

Gotcha!

Little nephew and bro-in-law.

Mom and RT with drink in hand!

Three generations!

And now the 4th generation has arrived! Looking great Granny!

Aw! Siblings can't get enough of each other!

Guests enjoying the montage of the birthday girl!

Miss P with her Aunt Ne-Ne!

My brother-in-law threw a surprise birthday for my sister the weekend before her 40th birthday. Man, was this ever so complicated to try to keep this from her! The hard part was to not tell her that we were coming into town. We were a little nervous that she was going to stop by my parents' house even though we told her that my parents were coming over to Morro Bay with her oldest son. The second hardest part was trying to convince my dad and nephew as well. Dad was confused, wondering why he and Mom were going to Morro Bay (the plan we told my sister), and my nephew is whining that he didn't want to go to Morro Bay. Hello! People, that's the fake plan! Sheesh!

RT and I had about 2 days to throw together a video montage of her first 40 years. It was fun gathering all the photos from throughout the years. We were able to segment the footage into decades and RT chose some great music representing each decade. He did such a great job and in such a short time! We hope she liked it as much as we did putting it together.

The funniest part about this whole surprise was when all of us were waiting at the restaurant and she calls and says, we're here (at a different restaurant) eating some chips and salsa. We all looked at each other and said, "What?????" We thought maybe she did know about this surprise and was fooling us all!

We had a great time. I hope when I turn 40, I'll look as good as my Sis! (Yes, it's just around the corner for me!)

While visiting RT's family, we went on an afternoon outing after to Elkhorn Slough Ecological Preserve, in Moss Landing--one  of our favorite haunts. We didn't see too much by way of wildlife since we were out later in the day, but it's always a worthwhile place to see. This was P's first time there, and she had such a good time especially being entertained by her cousin Joe.

Some of my former teacher friends came and visited and two of them met Miss P for the first time. While there have been many different teachers on my third grade level team, these three are the ones that I have been with the longest. We used to do a lot of really fun things together outside of work to commiserate, joke around, play games, and just de-stress. If there ever were a bunch of competitive, loud (me not so much), attention-deficit-disorderly women, that would be us!

Of all the things I miss about teaching, it was the close friendships that I have made. It was really good to see my "grade level" again and catch up on everyone's lives. It was just a short trip because I had other obligations that day which was too bad. Miss P had a fun time meeting "Mommy's friends"! Thanks for making the trip over to visit. Come back soon!

The gang with Miss P (too bad her finger's up her nose).

Miss Preas...on that phone again!

Mrs. McConnell bearing gifts (as usual)!

My parents came to visit and escape the valley heat. We decided to take a short hike to Harmony Headlands State Park. It's just a 5 minute drive north of Cayucos, and just south of the little town called Harmony. We had never been there before, even though it's pretty close to us.

Luckily the sun wasn't out too much and weather was fairly cool. The trail is actually pretty exposed with no real shade.

It was a beautiful day to go to the beach. This day we decided to go to Cayucos since it has been a while since we ventured to one of their beaches. We packed up the dog, Miss P and some of her beach toys that we've been holding out since her first birthday.

I think RT and I were anticipating playing with the sand toys more than she was! I think we both had visions of building sand castles and playing in the sand, even though we both know that she's probably too young yet.

We sat down, and it started going pretty well until she started putting the sand in her mouth. She's at the stage where she has been more discerning about what she's putting in her mouth, so we didn't really think that sand would be up her alley.

Boy were we wrong! She was eating the sand like it was candy--like gobs of it! Gross! So, we distracted her and headed to the water. The waves were actually scaring her, and the water probably too cold. We didn't last too long out there, but enough to give her another meaningful beach experience. We'll build those sand castles, yet!



Goats are a great way to clear an area free of unwanted brush, weeds, or non-native invasive plants. In the organization that I work for, we've actually hired these goats to do just that at a couple of our sites. So, low and behold as we were driving home on highway 1 and looked over at the Cloisters park, we saw a bunch of goats! Naturally, we had to scope out the goats for ourselves and let Miss P have an up and close view of them.

That night we set out to visit them. The goats were very friendly and wanted to get an close-up of us as well! Too bad the electric fence separated us!

I texted P's friend Bode and let his mom know that she had to see the goats, too. The next morning we went back again for another visit.

See, who needs the Mid-State Fair (happening at this time)? We've got our own petting zoo right in our backyard!

Caution: electric fence!

Not sure exactly what kind of animals these are...

Lovin' the goatee!

Sharing our newly found discovery with friends!

We've been talking about putting a deck into the backyard since early this year. Of course, the most important part of constructing anything is the PLANNING AND PREPPING phase. Boy, does that part take forever!!! So, I was excited when Phase 1 of Project Backyard Deck was underway.

I really shouldn't say "we" because I had no physical contribution to the construction! Miss P's Mak and Poppa came over for a long weekend. He helped RT out all weekend while Mak helped me out in the front yard. Needless to say, we got a lot done. Thank you so much for visiting and lending some very helping hands!

Our deck looks beautiful! It is not completely finished, as RT is finishing up with the little things like the faceboard, the steps, and eventually Phase 2 which will be the pergola (my vision!).

The work begins.

Special delivery!

Getting it all level.

Poppa working the perimeter.

The first of many holes and nails to drill.

 

Looking like a deck!

Precise planning pays off!

Add caption



Laying the pieces down.



Oh boy, the inspector has arrived.

Ahh, I'm assuming your permits are in order?

Looks like you've got the right protection gear.

After a hard day's work, we test our agility skills.

More jigsaw pieces.

Congrats, the last screw was drilled into place. Whew!

After a nice coat of stain and sealer.  Very nicely done!

For now, we plan on enjoying it and having lots of grillin' time for the remainder of the summer and beyond. Thanks RT for starting the project and finishing it in my envisioned timeline. A BBQ dinner in your honor is "on deck" real soon!