{ summer: gone so soon? }

Summer loses a lot of its meaning when it no longer represents a long hiatus from school. It feels even less distinct when you live in San Francisco and miss out on that characteristic surge of hot weather and ice cream cravings. As a result, it doesn't really feel like I had a summer at all. Maybe that's because I didn't spend any of it in New York, walking around the sweltering streets of the city in search of another street fair, lounging by the pool, or ATVing through the trails at home in search of wild berries to snack on. Regardless, I'm mourning the loss of the summer I never had. It's hard growing up! As James has been saying, you know you're really mature when summer is the same as all the other seasons and you opt for a thick layer of sunscreen instead of a tan (depressing?). Oh well, life is still good. But hey, just because we didn't get to spend 3 months straight on vacation doesn't mean we didn't get to enjoy a little summer fun!

Two and a half weeks after Will was born, we headed down south for the Pace family reunion in Newport Beach. Somehow we survived the trip with a fresh newborn and even managed to have fun! I'm so glad we seized our one opportunity to see the whole family together for at least 2 years. Although I will admit, the beach is not nearly as fun with a tiny baby you have to protect from sun/sand/heat...

baby's first plane ride

we did a lot of this in newport

first trip to the beach!

the soothing sound of waves meant extra naps for this guy

like i said, we did a lot of this

We took advantage of everyone being together to bless Will, so we rounded out the week with his baby blessing. My dad flew all the way out to LA so he could meet the little man and participate in the blessing, and I'm so glad! It was fun to see him. What an awesome grandpa this boy has. The blessing was so amazing, and it made me feel so blessed that my son has such amazing examples of righteous men who love him.

their first meeting

A week later, we celebrated my birthday. Birthdays with a newborn are a little different, but we still had a great day! We walked to Japantown to enjoy our favorite crepes, got burgers at Roam (if you haven't been there, you're missing out--best burgers I've ever had! unfortunately for my wallet, we live half a block away...), and then grabbed a late dinner at a delicious Peruvian restaurant up the street. Call me pathetic, but I decided to make my own birthday cake this year...James offered, but I actually love baking and decorating, and I wanted to do it. But he helped! We made a triple layer pink lemonade cake that was perfectly moist and delicious (if I do say so myself), and we loved/hated devouring it for the next week. For breakfast on my actual birthday (the next day), we made challah french toast with fresh strawberries (mmmm). I told James that in my book, a good birthday simply involves delicious food, and I'd say we nailed it. 

unfortunately this is the only picture i have...

Two days later, my little man turned 1 month old! What the, where is the time going?! He's getting so, sooo big. At his appointment that day, we found out he was in the 90th percentile for weight and the 75th for height. He also got a shot, and the cry that followed pretty much broke my heart...

someone tell him to stop growing!

A week and a half after that, we headed back down to James's hometown of Newbury Park to welcome his brother home from his mission and bid farewell to his youngest brother, who is about to leave on his mission. It was bittersweet. 

that right there is a frogley smile!

Summer didn't end there! Our whirlwind adventure continued a week later with another trip, this time to Florida for my family's reunion. William got a whole lotta lovin' this past month from his aunts and uncles and grandparents, and it definitely continued when we arrived.

Kate didn't know how to deal with the new creature stealing mommy's attention...

cute little Mount Dora

Once everyone had arrived, we all headed to Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure, where we enjoyed some awesome roller coasters and, of course, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Part 1). Once again, touring anywhere with a wee babe is no walk in the park, but I can attest to the fact that Universal Studios in 95-degree weather with a less-than-two-month-old baby is just hard. But we did it! (HP Land makes everything worth it hehe)

Honeydukes

Hogsmeade

And of course, butterbeer! It was even yummier than I remembered.

haha--apparently we were unfazed by the hogwarts castle ride...

Day 2 was a trip to the beach. Perhaps there can't be much said for the waves on the east coast, but my oh my, was that water warm. It felt like we were taking a bath in the ocean, and that's just how I like it! We went to a beach called New Smyrna, which for some reason sounded familiar to me, but I wasn't sure why...the sand was soft and white, the water was warm, and the waves actually weren't too bad, so I jumped in the water and played! James taught some of my family members how to surf, and I even got a tiny bit of color on my pasty white skin. Successful trip! Toward the end of the day, I was sensing there was something my family wasn't telling me, so I finally forced my sister to spill it. Well, it turns out, New Smyrna is the #1 beach for shark attacks in the world. 300 attacks in the last 10 years! And my parents' friends, who had been there the week before, had seen a shark while they were there. My family, aware of my deathly, irrational fear of sharks, decided to make that fact a little family secret (sans Lauren). So without knowing it, I conquered my fears (does that still count?) and played at the beach with the highest incidence of shark attacks in the world. Yikes.

Day 3, we went to the other half of Universal Studios. I was mostly just excited to experience the new Diagon Alley part of Harry Potter World (okay, excited doesn't quite cover it...). Let's just say it was the most magical place in the world! The pictures don't come close to doing it justice, but I took lots anyway. I need to go back there ASAP, because just a few hours at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, Gringott's, Florean Fortescue's, Grimmauld Place, the Knight Bus, and Knockturn Alley (to name a few) were not nearly enough for me. 

even better than i imagined it would be

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes 

that dragon was legit...it spit fire and everything! 

proof that little Will has been there too

James was pumped to find some more butterbeer :)

the knight bus! schnickles and i have had this scene from the movie memorized for at least 8 years, so we were pretty excited about this one

number 12 grimmauld place

We spent our last full day together at a water park (Wet 'n Wild), which I don't have any pictures from, but it was super fun. I'm proud to say we survived the heat, avoided any major thunderstorms, didn't get eaten by the ENORMOUS fuzzy brown jumping spider we found in our car (that was the second one, I might add--thank goodness marriage provides you with an automatic spider-killer...seriously that thing was huge), enjoyed some delicious meals courtesy of my dad, and all in all had a great week together. I hate being so far away from my family...one gathering a year simply isn't enough for me! Luckily we'll all be together again for Christmas this year :)

Kate was SO funny with her new cousin--this is her putting his binky in his nose

she wouldn't give anyone kisses but the baby

aaaaand this kills me

so squishy

he sure loves his dad!

So in spite of the lack of 3 months of constant vacation, we definitely made the most of it. Besides, I'm ready to start putting pumpkin or apple in everything I bake (is it too early to be thinking about the peppermint though?). Here's to hoping next summer is just as good!