Valentine's Day surprise getaway

Dave surprised me with a much needed getaway up to Santa Barbara for Valentine's Day! Such a sweetheart. Neither of us has spent any time in SB (which is only 2 hours North from our house) but we had heard such awesome things about it. He told me what to pack but had no clue where we were headed. Dave's parents stayed with Chase for the night - yahoo free babysitting for once! Our night consisted of shopping, happy hour, dinner at a very cool, Seattle'esk restaurant and dancing the night away at a few different clubs downtown.

The next morning we ate breakfast and walked along the boardwalk. It was a refreshing 24 hour break for the two of us.

Weekend fun with Grandma & Grandpa Dawson

When Chase was given this one piece spandex suit with a built-in life jacket I thought, "love the concept but Dave would never allow me to embarrass our son in something like this." Well I did. Call me selfish but the built in life vest makes it possible to have a conversation longer than 3 seconds before running to the water in panic that he's drowning.

Trying to decide if he wants to eat the cookie or throw it to the birds again.

Poor kid was so perplexed (and extra cautious) trying to figure out how 1) why he was sinking and 2) how he was going to shimmy his stuck feet out of the heavy sand.

G & G Dawson came into town from WA for the weekend. They were in heaven with our 80 degree weather!

We took Grandma out to a nice dinner in Newport for her birthday. To keep an active child occupied through dinner...overstimulate the crap out of them (crayons, cars, sweet'in'low packets, cups, straws, airplanes, coloring books, cell phone, camera, etc.) and keep shoving food in front of them. Poor Chase probably had a gut ache after he downed mac and cheese, corn, salad, bread, mango, pineapple, sweet potato fries, and a package of teddy grahams. I think I spent more time under the table picking crap up than I did engaging in the conversation.

Don and the birthday girl! Can you tell Don LOVES Washington Huskies and University of Tennessee?!?

Mexican Fiesta!

Marco (12) and Sofy's (6) birthday fiesta was on Sat and I've got to admit, it was the BEST kid's birthday party we've been to yet. Set up in their backyard they had massive amounts of Pollo de Tinga, bologna and cheese sandwiches (white Wonderbread, crust cut off in triangles of course), beans, beer and cake. A bounce house, 2 pinatas, musical chairs and a DJ singing Mexican Umpa music into the night followed by dancing. We were the only white people there and were welcomed with open arms. Chase had a blast! As we were leaving we were pulled aside and asked to come to a surprise baby shower for Lilly and Mani next weekend. Looks like we passed

the test and made it onto the short list!

Gotta have music so why not hire "La Sombra Del Chapo!"

Chase was a fan.

The pretty BIRTHDAY GIRL!

Digging for a Corona

Chase and Lilly

Love her!

The only way to do a pinata - have two guys stand on the roof and
pull it up and down as they swing at it. It's an absolute riot!

Waiting patiently for cake

Sofy's birthday surprise!

My heart melts when I think of the Gallardo family. I wish I could describe to you the deep connection I've had over the last 6 months with them but I can't. Lilly, Manuel, Marco and Sofy - they are our Mexican familia and I would go to the ends of the earth for them. We were blessed to meet Lilly when Chase was 6 months old at Bally's gym. Day and night Lilly watches over Chase as if he was her own. She brings him (and no other children) snacks. She makes us food every Friday. She text me when she's sad and misses Chase. She invites us into her home with all her friends. I give them old clothes, shower them with simple gifts and food and help her with whatever she needs. They have taught us so much about being content and appreciative of the little things. They don't have much but are always glowing with excitement. Manuel is out of work and Lilly works long hours at the gym to make their rental payment. Even when Lilly should be resting (she is 8 months pregnant) and taking care of herself, she is caring for the herds of wild children that go in and out of the childcare daily. They live in a very small home with 3 adults and and soon to be 4 children. But they are thankful. Thankful for the roof over their head. Thankful for good health. Thankful for the people in her life. Last week this is a text I received from Lilly that brought tears to my eyes...

"You're special for us. I love forever. I'm special because I have the best friends and that's blessings in my life. You're my friends. Lots of kissed for MY Chase!"

Chase with Lilly and his posse at the gym. Gotta love the diversity he's surrounded by.

Chase and Sofy on their way to McDonalds

On Tuesday it was Sofy's 6th birthday so I decided I wanted to do something memorable for her. I kept asking Lilly what Sofy wanted for her birthday and she kept telling me, "nothing...she is just happy to have you come to her party." I wanted it to be simple so we picked her up after school and took her to her lunch of choice - McDonalds! I will never forget how excited she was as she ran down the driveway, arms open wide already thanking me for "making her so happy!" We ordered Happy Meals and she helped Chase around the jungle gym. It was precious to see. As Manuel greeted us in the driveaway upon our return, he hugged me and said, "I will never forget this day and what you have done for my daughter."

Imprinted Sportswear Show

A few weekends ago my parents and brother fly into town for the Imprinted Sportswear Show in Long Beach. This show means absolutely nothing to anyone not in the appearal business but for my family, it's something you go to every year. Dave was traveling all week so I lined up a sitter, picked them up at the airport and spent the evening with them and my dad's best friend from childhood and his wife who now live in San Pedro. On Saturday they stayed with us and we had a great time drinking far too many mai-tai's and restaurant hopping in Newport Beach. Of course as they unloaded the car at the airport I cried behind my sunglasses and secretly wished they could stay for eternity but that's not God's plan...at this moment....ok ok, probably never. :(

The past 3 months...

Well here I am again. 3 months later after I set y'all up thinking I was back. That lasted a day. What a disappointment I am. So Cal has been having the biggest rain storm for the past week so I'm feeling inspired to blog as I sit in here wrapped in my blanket, heat cranked up to 75 (shhh don't tell Dave), hot tea in hand while Chase naps. But oh man, sooooo much has happened between the last post until now that I am feeling overwhelmed (this blog tends to make me feel like that more often than not) and already defeated. There is no way I can get you up to speed on what's happened in the last 3 months like I would have liked BUT I'll just have to let it go (Which by the way is one of 2010 Resolutions - let go of all the little things I stress about and accept that I can't be super wife, super mom, super friend, super daughter, super clean, super fashionable, super skinny....that's a whole nother story) Back to what's more important and that's getting you caught up on what's been going on in the Dawson household after going MIA. I will recap below but I'm sure after looking through old pictures I'll have to randomly post good times that happened in between all this madness.

Dave called one night while he was on a biz trip (go figure) and said he was going to have to go to Beijing, China for a week. Being the creative manipulator that I am, I pleaded a case of why I should get to go with him. And it worked! Pre-China travel was not ideal for me but it was the price I was willing to pay to see Beijing. I flew Chase up to WA to stay with my parents. God bless their sweet souls for willingly taking my non-stop child for 10 days. After a quick drop off at the airport and a few tears, I boarded the next plane back to CA. After an exhausting flight trying to tame my live alligator and 2 delays, I was ready to crawl into a hole. But no. I arrived back into Newport at 10:30 PM, packed up a weeks worth of clothes and woke at 5 AM to catch a cab to LA for our 16 hr. flight. Sweet. Unfortunately I couldn't sleep a wink on the flight. Although I was stoked to be going to China, I'm not gonna lie...I was even more excited that I was going to be kidless for 10 days!!!

We had a weekend to do touristy things before Dave had to teach the training so we checked off a life list adventure by climbing the Great Wall of China. Absolutely amazing. I'll have to post another blog specific to China. What great memories.

On Oct. 3rd my little sis Katie tied the knot!! She was a gorgeous bride! It was a bitter-sweet day for me as my title of "Wedding Planner" came to an end but I was so excited for this new chapter in her and Danny's life to start.

They are a match made in heaven. So perfect for eachother. We are so blessed to have Danny and his family part of ours.

What a F.U.N. day!!! This was the rowdy wedding party waiting to get announced into the reception after a wild and heavily liquored limo ride. I'll have to post a blog specific to the wedding as well. Too many pictures not too share.

We went up to watch University of Washington pounce on USC!!!!!

Dave's two buddies - Jeff and Allen, both sucker USC fans - came up with us for the big game.

Who let the Dawgs out!?!??!!? So fun to be there. The stadium was shaking!

Pumpkin Patch - Nothing like a 90 degree day in late Oct!

If you're wondering what is on my hand - I broke my knuckle (Boxer's Fracture) on the hotel door knob in WA stupid so this was pre-cast. I'll add that to my stupid list.

Kim's birthday party also coupled as a Halloween costume party so we were stoked we had an excuse to dress up. The Dawson's LOVE to dress up. Dave was a Navy pilot and I was Sally Jesse Rafael, the Talk Show Host from the 80's.

Chaser was a spider although a track runner would have been a more fitting costume for him. All I do is try to keep up with this active ball of fire.

We spent Halloween with the Thurmans. Chase's buddy, Hank, was hating every second of it.

We flew back up to WA for Thanksgiving. Nothing like being home for the holidays with family. Chase loves his Nonee!

While in WA for Thanksgiving, our close friends Ryan and Rachel got married! We were thrilled to be part of their special day.

For Christmas we were back up in WA AGAIN. Ok that's my excuse for not blogging. I was traveling too much. :)

This was Christmas Eve before our annual dinner/game night. Helluva night.

Christmas morning at Nonee and Poppi's. Santa tends to go overboard during Christmas but Chase didn't mind.

I'm back!

Well after 2 months of not blogging, I'm back!! I think I've said this before but I always have good intentions to blog but somehow it's the one thing that keeps getting pushed from to do list to eventually not even making the list. In all honesty though it's the last thing on my mind after being in WA for two long visits, having a husband that travels non-stop, raising a turbo 15 month old who now is running everywhere, planning my sister's wedding, having a casted broken hand (don't ask) and now starting a business (Yes another one. Stay tuned for more from Piper Designs). I am sure some of my religious followers have lost faith in me but for those of you that haven't, I promise you...ok I can't promise...that I will make blogging a weekly priority. And this is especially for you Greg Carothers!!! Wink wink. :) Although I am not close to being caught up, I just devoted some serious time for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!!

First Jetski ride

As you can tell 1) it was cold out and 2) we obviously really trusted Bryan that he wouldn't dump Chase into the water. Hence why he's fully clothed.

Chase was so serious....

Soon after, we could hear him yelling with joy from the shore!!