{I caught an early flight out of Seattle on Thursday morning and headed to OC (Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach) to meet up with my family for my sister Anya’s college graduation. I was up at 4 am, in an Uber by 5 am, at the airport by 6 am, but I was flying solo & got to drink my latte hot so it was pretty amazing!}

{Meanwhile, Daphne and Aaron hung out at U Village while Eloise was at school. Apparently she was listening to some beats while also drinking a hot coffee.}

{Packing light! Such a dream for airplane travel.}

{And the girls went on a bike ride in the afternoon. Eloise’s face in this picture kills me.}

{We spent most of Thursday afternoon walking around campus and getting some pictures of the soon-to-be grad!}

{I definitely teared up when I heard “Pomp and Circumstance” though I felt really old when I thought about how long ago my college graduation was. Spoiler alert: it was 11 years ago!}

{We found Daphne’s California Greek restaurant and lunch was a must!}

{My absolute favorite interior designer, Shea McGee of Studio McGee, just opened a shop in Costa Mesa and I knew the stars were aligning for me to go there. So my mom and I popped down there on Friday afternoon and the store was as perfect and charming as I expected. Plus, Shea was doing a meet & greet at the same time we were at the store (which I didn’t realize until after-the-fact) and she was the sweetest person!}

{A celebratory dinner for Anya on a beautifully warm evening out on the patio.}

{We FaceTimed a lot this weekend and it was always SO good to see all of my favorite faces. Except when Daphne started to cry during the end of this call and I lost it too.}

{The BEACH! It was a little cold and overcast but that didn’t stop us from heading down Beach Street to the PCH – Pacific Coast Highway – to get our toes into the sand.}

{And I got to spend the long weekend with this lovely lady who just also happens to be my oldest sister Keri (or Dollie as we lovingly refer to her).}

{To Eloise, Love Grammie.}

{And a play date with the neighbors on Saturday morning.}

{I headed home on Saturday evening and enjoyed watching the sun setting over the mountains while I read my book. It was slightly magical.}

{Opening gifts and cards for Papa’s Day this morning. Eloise has been asking all week if Aaron would open her presents she made for him at school.}

{I wish I loved yogurt this much!}

{She knows the keys go in the door but she’s not quite tall enough.}

{Aaron wanted to go on a family hike for Father’s Day so I thought it would be fun to head over to Magnolia to the Discovery Park Loop. Amazingly in all of the years we have lived here, neither of us had ever been out there! And this picture may be my new favorite one. Eloise’s smile is everything.}

{The morning was just beautiful. Look at that water and the mountains!}

{These girlies. I missed them.}

{We jumped on the chance to get a family picture since the park was buzzing with people.}

{By the time we got here Eloise was getting tired and we headed back to the car, but next time we are making it down to explore the beach!}

{I got my workout in on the way back out of the park!}

{And we discovered the playground!}

{Eloise’s interview about her Papa. It is pretty accurate, minus the age!}

{Daphne LOVES hats!}

It was CRAZY to be away from Aaron and the girls this weekend but we all did well. It was the first time I have ever been away more than 4 hours from Daphne and two years since I have been away from Eloise overnight, so it was much needed! Plus, I got to hang out with (most of) my family which was also really fun.

We are gearing up for the last week of preschool and counting down the days until summer. Eek!

Happy Father’s Day to all of the Papas, Grandpas, Papaws, and Pagas out there! We love you more than you will ever know.

How was your weekend>

M

{We headed to music class on Friday morning as a make-up for one that we missed on our usual Tuesday, and Eloise got to join us! Of course, post-class we had to have a snack before heading home to have lunch. #toddlers And I couldn’t get both of the girls to smile in the same picture, hence two of them!}

{As we are approaching the end of Eloise’s school year (2 more weeks!) I thought I probably needed to get some thank you notes written for her teachers. She has the BEST teachers and we will miss them terribly next year.}

{Eloise has been loving her Magnaformers recently and made this house (her “creation”). She was so proud!}

{Daphne is in that fun toddler phase where she cries when you tell her she can’t do something. In this case I told her that she couldn’t tip her cup over and spill water all over the carpet… #toddlers But look at those molars!}

{This morning we headed to a PEPS play date and once Aaron got Daphne dressed, Eloise decided she wanted to wear the exact same thing. And then Aaron wanted them to have matching pigtails, so Daphne got her first piggies! Also, there’s a sneak peek of the entryway bench Aaron built. I will share once we finish it up!}

{I couldn’t get a good picture of Daphne, but we memorialized these piggies at least!}

{These girls are so sweet and are pretty good at playing together. Sometimes.}

{Rather than my usual Pure Barre class this afternoon, I opted for a long(ish) solo walk down to Greenlake and around the neighborhood to catch up on a podcast (my current fav is More Perfect by Radiolab). And I happened to catch a break in the weather since we had a lot of clouds and rain this weekend, and Greenlake was SO beautiful! I was feeling very lucky that we call this place home!}

{Sisters. Love them.}

We originally had a crazy-packed weekend which suddenly became much less packed with just one cancelled event. At first I was sad, but it was actually really nice to have some time to get some work done around the house, including yard work and lots of painting by yours truly (that entryway bench is nearly complete).

We are gearing up for the week and I am looking forward to a short solo vacation away at the end of the week!

How was your weekend?

M

P.S. I updated Daphne’s 15 month stats, but if you don’t want to go re-read that post, here you go!

Updated: Daphne had a great wellness check-up with her doctor and she is growing into a happy and healthy little toddler! Also, when her doctor came in, Daphne walked over and gave him a big hug. She’s the sweetest!

Weight: 27 lbs, 3 oz (98%)

Length: 30.75 inches (50%)

Head circumference: 47.5 cm (75%)

As I mentioned in Daphne’s 15 month update, she and I headed out on Friday morning (at o’dark thirty, seriously a 5:30 AM flight!) for the midwest. Specifically Champaign, IL for a family wedding. Okay, not technically family, but one of my family’s closest family friends. We grew up together in Boise and it felt like a family reunion!

I hardly took any pictures because I was trying to unplug this weekend and really be in the moment. Plus, any time I took out my phone, Daphne was there to grab it and would then throw a fit when I tried to take it away… but it was a fun weekend nonetheless!

{We had to wake Daphne up around 3:30 AM to get to the airport to make our flight, so I was hoping she would be super sleepy on the first leg to Dallas. She slept for 40 minutes… and then ran around the Dallas airport during our layover.}

{Daphne LOVED the guitarist at the wedding ceremony and danced to the music. Seriously the cutest thing ever. Not so cute was when she tried to make a run for the alter…}

{Celebrating LOVE with a really beautiful ceremony.}

{Grammie reading to Daphne at the church. This lasted for about a hot second before she wanted to be up and down on the pew, and headed out the back doors. She and I spent the second half of the ceremony walking laps just outside in the common area.}

{Wedding selfie.}

{And eating dinner at the reception. Yep, that is two spoons that she is holding.}

{The bride and groom. I grew up with Kyle and he feels like a brother to me since he and his sister moved across the street from us when I was five. And there were so much crying every time I saw him!}

{A family picture. This was the best we got!}

{I wish you could see this as a live picture because you would see her dancing and it is the cutest thing ever. Pretty much every guest at the reception wanted to dance with Daphne!}

{Playing with Grammie on Sunday morning.}

{We headed back to our Airbnb house on Sunday afternoon for Daphne’s naptime and I got to catch up on the royal family while I ate lunch. Not too shabby.}

{And we all FaceTimed with Aaron and Eloise all weekend long.}

{Waiting at the Champaign airport for our super short flight to Chicago. Daphne was trying to get her paci in her mouth sideways. Oh geez.}

{And taking off from Chicago! Daphne loved watching all of the activity outside the plane and kept waving to the baggage handlers and ground crew.}

This wasn’t the first airplane trip for Daphne and she actually did really well considering, but this is the first time I had flown by myself with a toddler. And oh my gosh, I probably won’t sign up for it again until she can sit still for some time and do an activity. It was up and down and up and down, and basically no sleeping. She slept for 40 minutes from Seattle to Dallas. And on the way home she slept for 20 minutes as we were approaching Chicago (it was a 45 minute flight). On our last flight into Seattle, which was 4 hours, she didn’t sleep at all! And we had finally transitioned to Central Time after having stayed on Pacific Time nearly the entire weekend (which worked perfectly for the wedding!) so by the time we landed in Seattle at almost 9 PM, she was running on pure adrenaline. Luckily the woman sitting next to us was SO sweet and let Daphne sit in her lap and play, so I got a little bit of a break (though then it was back and forth and back and forth between the seats). Aaron and Eloise parked and surprised us at baggage claim with a flower bouquet (!) which was amazing since I was completely exhausted by then. And Daphne was asleep as soon as she was in her car seat and slept thru the transition from the car to a diaper change to her crib.

Meanwhile in Seattle, Eloise and Aaron had some adventures too!

{On Friday afternoon, Eloise hung out with Uncle Ben and they headed to Gasworks Park!}

{Eloise is super into gibberish recently. It’s cute, but when will she be done with this phase??}

{And there were s’mores at a friends’ house too. Eloise explained to me how to make s’mores when we FaceTimed. Maybe she thought I didn’t know how to make them since she’s never had them before? Haha.}

It felt a little overwhelming to hit the ground running today and realize that somehow my Monday was already gone and that it was Tuesday! Thank goodness for preschool this morning so that I could run to the store and get most of the laundry done. I think by tomorrow I will feel back on track for the (short) week! How was your weekend?

M

{Couch repair on Friday morning. And now it’s almost as good as new! Thank goodness because we LOVE this couch.}

{We celebrated Aaron’s birthday on Thursday (his real birthday) and Friday with a blueberry pie, made with lots of love by Eloise and me.}

{I worked on the entryway bench this weekend with wood filler and primer. So excited to be closer to finishing.}

{We went to our friends’ house on Saturday for a BBQ and this beagle was Daphne’s best friend. It reminded me of the beagles I grew up with.}

{And Eloise had so much fun playing with all of the kids (the other 7 not pictured)!}

{YES, a family picture!}

{Sunday was pretty much spent outside all day and Aaron and Eloise worked in the yard.}

{Planting the new raised bed. And look at that freshly mowed and edged lawn!}

{Daphne’s new word is WHOA!}

{There was so much water table time this weekend.}

{Eloise wanted to help me with laundry and folded her own. Guys. And then she organized her drawers.}

{We headed to our local playground this afternoon and Daphne LOVED the slide!}

{And Eloise was so proud that she could climb this wall all by herself.}

{Our family walk this evening turned into Aaron carrying both of the girls home after we visited with neighbors!}

We had such a fun long weekend celebrating, what feels like, the beginning of summer! Lots of time spent out on our bigger deck (we will share soon) and out in the yard. We are gearing up for a busy week!

How was your long weekend?

M

{Waiting for swim lessons on Friday morning. She asked every morning this week when she got to go!}

{We hit up the playground before dinner on Friday afternoon. Both of the girls were obsessed with this little bench.}

{Aaron was busy this entire weekend working on building a bench in our entryway. And it provided so much entertainment for the girls too!}

{Aaron brought home the most beautiful peonies this weekend.}

{We had family dinner this weekend with our friends and after the kids went to bed, we celebrated Aaron’s birthday early with cheesecake. Happy 3-5 babe!}

{And then we had to end the night with a game of Catan.}

{Daphne woke up feeling pretty sad this morning. She was running warm and just didn’t seem like her happy self. But she was so cuddly.}

{Getting a jumpstart on the week by picking up my groceries this afternoon.}

{And we headed to Bartell’s and ended up with free ice cream, but not what we went there for!}

{Daphne was not feeling well most of the day and ended up snoozing late this afternoon, after nap time. She insisted on being held so I wore her in the carrier until she fell asleep. She is cutting her fourth molar (in two weeks) which I am thinking is the underlying issue. She has really never been sick before and it is the saddest thing ever.}

We had a pretty low-key weekend so that Aaron had time to build out our entryway. The basics are all framed out, but there is still finishing work to be done. I am so excited to share it as soon as it’s done!

How was your weekend? And can you believe next weekend is Memorial Day?

M