Flashback Friday...Princess in Training style

Everyone knows a princess has to have a pretty dress! Who's pretty dress does she have on???

 

Why..Mommy's of course!! Seeing the look on her face was priceless. She was so excited and tried to twirl wearing the dress. One day..my baby is going to be a bride..until then she can dream all she wants and try on my dress.

   

Have a great weekend!!

Annual Cardona Camping Trip

Each year for the past 3 years we have tried to get our family together and go somewhere and camp. The past two years we went to Lake Lopez...check out last years pictures here.  This year we were able to reserve a group site at El Capitan state beach in Santa Barabara, Ca.  The scenery was beautiful..don't you think??

 

 

What we loved most about this camp ground and our site was the beach was just 50 yard walk down some stairs. Each day we enjoyed the warm sun on the sand while the kids played and played. The water was a bit chilly but some brave souls venture in it..including Alison. 

  

    

  

We rode our bikes down the the tide pools and walked on the rocks during the sunset. It was so beautiful. While we were taking this pictures a group of dolphins kept surfacing right in front of us. It was soo neat to see them in the wild. 

   

You can see the dolphin's fin out in the distance

 Nissa and Shooggy..such a good pup!

 

This was everyone that went. 25 of us to be exact!! This was the most members we have ever had. All we are missing is one cousin and her family..we are coming after you Missy!! We had soo much fun! We over ate at every meal, spent quality time sitting around the campfire, played some games of horseshoe, went on bike rides, walks, and just spent some wonderful quality time together! I can't wait to see where we go next year..I am sure it will be great, but hopefully it's scenery is as beautiful as this one was!

Natural History Musuem

Each time we go and visit Aunt Linda and Uncle Will, Aunt Linda has always found something cool and educational for Alison to do. Remember the butterfly garden and the zoo. We have also been to the dinosaur exhibit, the sea life aquarium, and ridden a trolley ride. We love going places with Aunt Linda. This time we went to Santa Barbara's Natural History Musuem to explore the robot bug exhibit. It was very interesting as you got to experience many of the things that bugs do. Alison loved pushing the buttons on all the robots. 

 

 Alison using blocks that stick like a fly's foot

 

Making their own platapyus

 

 We had a great time..and can't wait till see where Aunt Linda takes us next!!

Ringling Bros

We were very fortunate to receive some extra special love from a long time friend in the form of some tickets. She asked to remain nameless...so I will such that! Of course once my family heard we were going they jumped on ticketmaster and bought general seating tickets. We were so glad they were there, but wished we could have all sat together.

 

We never went to the circus growing up, and I have developed an uneducated perception that ALL animals were mistreated. My "so loving" friend did some investigation, and because of her job status got to see first hand how the circus animals especially the elephants were treated. She told me that she would never take her kids if she didn't think the show was humane. So Greg and I went there with an uneasy feeling as we were just unsure of what to expect. To our surprise...it was completely different than we ever thought and Ringling Bros put on a great show!! It was amazing to see how the circus has transformed into a more "Cirqu de Soliel" type show with a splash of the traditional sights and sounds we remember as a kids.

 

The three of us in our cozy "suite"

 

Here are the elephants standing on their stools. The animals only made very short and minimal appeareances. They were Alison's favorite part.

                

Baby Barack making his circus debut...He was soo cute!

 

We can't wait for the circus to come back into town!

Solvang

Two weeks ago, we loaded up the trailer and headed out for the week. Our destination... The Cardona Annual camping trip at El Capitan in Santa Barbara. We had a few extra days before we were all supposed to meet so we step up camp at Cachuma Lake in Santa Barbara a few days prior. While camping, we took a drive to visit Solvang which is just a few minutes down the road. My dad hasn't been there in years, and Greg just loves the atmosphere it provides. We had a great time just hanging out and window browsing.

This sweet old man was playing his accordian

Good thing she is such a good mommy...holding her baby close and tight

You can't go to Solvang without getting a danish from Mortensen's Bakery.. so many choices...

G-Pa's choice

Guess who's choice this was...Yep..Alison's

Daddy's choice

Mommy's choice

 I would say she enjoyed her choice!
It was a great day!