I just wanted to post this photo from last night...I try to get Emily to have something in her hair while she eats so she doesn't get her hair all in her food. This is Emily's own job of putting in one of her headbands! If you're wondering what she's eating, that's mac n' cheese with ketchup - something I learned as a little girl from my dad.
Last weekend we took a day trip to San Luis Obispo to visit Marianne and let Kevin go surfing (he didn't end up getting in the water, but that was one of the reasons to go...). Emily was the most excited little girl to go see her favorite aunt, and we had a blast hanging out at the beach and the little beach "downtown" areas. We started off with lunch compliments of Marianne at her sandwich shop. Some of the best sandwiches out there, in my opinion. Emily had a plate of olives, pickles, cheese and turkey. She ate all the olives and some of the other stuff. Then we headed out to Morro Bay to check out the surf, only to discover that they were having a surf contest so nobody else could surf. It ended up being okay because it was freezing and super windy so Kevin didn't really want to go anyway. We let Emily play in the sand for a while and had a few "sandcastles" toppled over by the waves.
Then we went down the street where they have all the little shops and visited this really cool taffy store that Marianne had found previously. They had probably over 50 flavors of saltwater taffy in big bins, then you got to take a big black cauldron and fill it with whatever you wanted. They had flavors like apricot, caramel apple, pumpkin pie, eggnog and pineapple, plus all the regular taffy flavors. We got a good assortment and my, were they delicious. I actually have only eaten about four of them, but the ones I had were REALLY GOOD. The flavors seemed more intense than your typical taffy. And Emily got a balloon, so she was happy. Then outside of the store we found...Sahara!
Please see the Fresno Fair post if you don't know what that is. Emily and another little girl who happened to be there had a nice little horse ride. Notice the bag in Emily's arms - full of taffy! I don't think Emily could have had more things that she loved in one day (well, maybe if grandma and grandpa were there and she got to wear her princess dress all day, but that's probably it).
Once we were all loaded up with candy we headed back to Marianne's for a little rest, then went the other direction to Pismo, although we never did make it all the way down there. We went to Spyglass (to check out the surf again) and they had a playground right there by the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean so Emily got to play. The surf there wasn't good enough for Kevin to get in, so we played at the playground and then went down to the water and looked in the little tide pools and watched the sunset. Emily found a perfect stick for poking sea anemones to make them close up. The sunset was gorgeous, too.
Last but not least, a trip to the famous Splash Cafe for some clam chowder in a bread bowl. It was sooo yummy! After I scraped out every last bit from my bowl I finished off Marianne's, too. Yeah, I'm a hungry pregnant lady, okay?! It just tasted so delicious and I had been craving that ever since we even decided to go to SLO. So I had my fill. For now. We took Marianne home and got Emily in her pajamas for the ride home, but then she got in Marianne's bed and said she wanted to stay there. We thought surely if we acted like we were just going to leave her she'd follow us out the door, but no, she was perfectly happy to stay with Marianne for the rest of her life, probably. It took many minutes of coaxing and finally Marianne carrying her out to the car to get her to go. Emily is just so enamored with her darling auntie. It was a fun trip!
We went to the Big Fresno Fair last week. We parked in the infield of the racetrack to we got to see one of the horse races right as we came in. Unfortunately it was the one race where a horse fell down at the very end and had to be euthanized afterwards, but the race was still fun to see. Emily gets so excited to see the animals so it was a thrill for her sitting atop Kevin's shoulders and watching those horses race in to the finish line. After the race we went over to the area where they show off the horses before they race and she was looking for "Sahara," which is the horse on a new Jasmine movie she has been watching every day for the past week. We had told her before that we would be seeing the horses at the fair, so that was the first thing she thought of. So we're looking at the horses walking around in a circle and Emily's asking where Sahara is...well Sahara in her movie is a white horse, and of course all the race horses are black or brown...then all of a sudden she says "Mom! I see Sahara!" Sure enough, there was a white horse waiting on the side. Not a race horse, but a utility horse. So Emily got to see her Sahara after all. It's amazing how things can become so real for little kids!
We went to see all the 4-H animals (cows and sheep while we were there) and the birthing center where they had little piglets, lambs, goats (kids?), chicks and calves. Emily's favorite were the little piglets - maybe she takes after Grandma! There were like 13 of them in the pen with their big momma, all huddled up together. Very cute.
The highlight of the day for Emily was the cotton candy. We passed a booth selling some on our way to the children's area and of course Emily had to have some "big ice cream." I told her "maybe later" thinking "maybe later she'll forget about it and we won't have to buy it" but her doting daddy couldn't resist. So we went in to watch the magic show and Kevin took off to buy the cotton candy. He brought it back and set it in her empty stroller and we waited until she looked over and saw it. She didn't notice for a long time! She was so distracted with everything going on around her, so finally we told her to look and her eyes got all big...so for the next hour and a half she ate cotton candy. The funny part was that she'd take bites and then like every 30 seconds she'd look at me and say "Mom, I REALLY like cotton candy!" Yes, our little darling does love sugar. But the good thing is, I checked the label and for 2/3 of a really big bag (think, 5 big colored puffs), it was only 100 calories and like 34 grams of sugar. So yeah it's still a lot of sugar, but not nearly as bad as I thought. Not much more than a glass of fruit juice but apparently MUCH more enjoyable and long-lasting! I wish I had taken a picture of her just eating her cotton candy, but alas, no.
The other fun thing, which I did get pictures of, was the magic show. This was a different magic show than the one where she got the cotton candy, and Emily had already eaten a bunch of it by then so she was starting to get all excited (this was when her exclamations of how much she liked cotton candy were very constant). The magician would do his tricks and we'd all clap and Emily had the best time clapping and laughing. She has this laugh that's like a fake laugh but really loud when she thinks she is supposed to laugh or something is just so silly. We were on the front row and the magician kept having volunteers go up and do things, and each time Emily would just about jump out of her chair to go up there. So towards the end of the show he called her up and had her do a trick with him. I thought surely she'd be too shy and not want to actually go up, but she just jumped right up out of her seat and trotted across the grass to him.
She even spoke loudly and clearly into the microphone when he asked her name and had her say some magic words, something I have never seen her do with a stranger. She got to help rip up some tissue paper and then part of it turned into a little hat which she got to keep. She was an adorable little helper!
After the magic show we went to the kids play area where they have a huge pirate ship, tree house and the newly added "catfish falls." They actually put catfish into the water and the little kids can fish. We got Emily a pole and tried for about 1/2 an hour but didn't catch anything. We saw two other people catch some fish (which they put back into the water), and Emily just had fun holding the little bamboo fishing pole. (And check out my fat belly in this photo!)
We had a great time and thankfully avoided the carnival area. Kevin's dad picked up Emily at about 6pm and then Kevin and I stayed for the Daughtry (Chris Daughtry, from American Idol...) concert that night. The weather was perfect so being at an outdoor concert was no problem. Our seats were even pretty close so we could see really well. The concert was shorter than I expected (about an hour), but as Kevin pointed out, that's what happens when you only have one album!
So that was our trip to the fair! They definitely do a good job here of having lots of stuff for kids, plus all the regular exhibits and entertainment and stuff. So that's it until next year...
Emily is soooo in love with all things princess, especially any recognizable Disney princess character. We gave in and bought another princess costume for Halloween and have been hiding it from her because the first words out of her mouth when she wakes up in the morning or when she comes home are "can I wear my princess dress?" We've been letting her wear her pink dress from last year whenever she wants (at home) and it is a LOT. She imagines up her little fairy tale land and will choose to be Aurora or Jasmine for the day and we MUST call her by that name. Daddy has been renamed Aladdin for the last week or two, and I sometimes get to be Cinderella or Belle. After I pick her up and drive home, if Kevin is standing out in front of the house when we get home she will excitedly yell "Aladdin!"
In this photo Emily is reading stories to all of her stuffed friends. You can't tell really well from the photo, but the purple blanket is the top of a stack of about 8 other blankets we spread out on top of the bed to make it "really pretty". The princess border on the wall was used as a bribe to get her to go to bed by herself in her own bed. She had to do it for three nights in a row to get to put it up on the wall, which she did. We hoped that it would teach her that she indeed could go to bed on her own and it wasn't scary or dangerous, but alas, after the border went up, the old habits continued. So much for bribery.
