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?!?