Keeping Up With Kate: Our "staycation"

Note: I found this post lurking around in the "drafts" section of Kate's blog. Apparently I forgot to publish it after I wrote it. So it is actually from mid to late July. Oh well, here it is!

So Brett has had (most) of this week off of work. Tuesday was his first full day off and we were supposed to go to my midwife appointment, but my midwife had someone in labor and so she canceled last minute. But I was already wearing makeup before 10am - I was not about to waste all the effort it took me to stand in front of my mirror for five minutes. We decided we would take Kate and Deacon on a little "walk" to get out of the house. A walk turned into a 3.5 mile hike. But hey, at least I was wearing makeup for the excursion! It was a fun start to the week.

The next day we went to Santa Cruz to go on another hike around the cliffs of the ocean. It was so breezy and beautiful. Kate fell asleep in her stroller for maybe the second time in her life.

Today we meant to go to the Gilroy Garlic Festival. However at about midnight last night Brett and I did some research and discovered that the festival includes a lot of dirt, heat, long lines, crowds, and traffic. I don't like dirt and heat. Brett can't stand long lines or big crowds. Kate prefers exploring to being strapped into a stroller. And nobody likes traffic. So we decided this was probably not a good fit for our family and instead took Kate to Happy Hollow Zoo. So fun! Kate loved seeing all the animals, getting to run around, and going on her first "rides". I'm glad we decided to stay local today.

And tomorrow we are off to El Dorado Hills to visit family there and to let Kate hang out with her cousins Gemma and Marek before they move to Texas. Kate is very excited about this and keeps on saying, "See Kira! See Kira!". Kira is Grandma's dog. I think she might be Kate's favorite relative (just don't tell Grandma that).

Another note: These first three pictures of Kate on the boat are from around July 4th, not during our "staycation". But I think they are cute :)