bye bye cali.

so i was totally called out in the comments on the high probability that i would not be posting pics of the updated laundry room anytime soon. 

"before christmas" being the proposed deadline. 

totally had me laughing over here.

you guys have my number fo sho. 

and the fact you still come here with all the blogs out there that obviously have their stuff together, and deeply respect readers attachments to order and time.. well it makes a girl feel warm and fuzzy.

y'all are like a good pair of muk-luks.

speaking of warm--- lets go to califonia.

one.last.time.

sausolito was pretty neato.

i may or may not have read too much dr. seuss as of late.

be forewarned. :)

ice cream crepes. ice cream wrapped in crepe and eaten with a fork. we were lured in by their seductive descriptions.. this one was called "the alcatraz". it was impossible to escape the deliciousness.

nice princesses you have their miss ari. 

can we just take a minute to talk about grayson's mood that day? it landed square between terrible and atrocious. this would be me trying to corral his outburst before one untimely body fling landed him in front of a bus.

i had visions.
i had visions of strolling.. adorable seaside town. maybe some coffee, children walking nicely, pop into a few shops... to support such a vision i wore a dress and showered that morning. you have noticed the standard RV head wrap right? not just for looks...although i know that's hard to believe. ;)
i had beautiful, peaceful, sausalito visions.
i also apparently was on crack because the reality was all of that except the opposite.

i look at this picture and it just makes me laugh. i think i just told grayson if he couldn't take one nice picture with me then he was never eating ice cream again. that boy was OVER IT.  expectations and pre-conceived notions are the first to die out there in the parenting wilds... but at least i got my coffee.. even if it was bought and consumed under duress.

it wasn't sausolito's fault... she was stunning.

as we were out walking the docks, we asked the kids which boat was their favorite?

grayson chose 'defiance'. and the universe made sense once again.

i personally like the happy one who chose to believe that living in a marina does not mean you can't decorate for fall.

so funny story.. nate was holding the camera.. taking 'action shots'. when i got my camera back it was filled with pictures of my rear end. he went for quantity and close ups. all undercover. he said he was trying to make me laugh-- and i did.
when we got home my mom was looking through our vacation pics before i downloaded them. it became semi awkward on the 5th close up of my tushie. nate blushed. he prefers to be an undercover kind of funny. :)

arianna and i became entranced by a certain butterfly magnet bush. 

while we were busy being entranced... grayson was giving up on the hope that his mother was ever coming back. he said, "are we just supposed to liiiiive here now?" and then basically fell asleep on the sidewalk.

we pulled back in to the johnson driveway for our last night and completed our california circle. jess and dave surprised us with a double date out and guess who they got as babysitters? cuppakim and jamestown-- 
blog readers who i got to meet and go to church with the week before...they are also jess's real life friends. so no i didn't let random blog readers watch my kids. but it was a moment of  weirdness and awesomeness combusting to form a perfect blend of oddity. but thankfully they were perfectly wonderful and we were receiving hilarious instagram pictures of the fun being had all night. 
those girls are sweetness. and now i have officially met 3 blog friends... and they have all been lovely... and so i will take that as proof. having internet friends is not weird. it's.not.weird. okay it's still a little weird... but not weird enough for me to stop. :)

jess and dave treated us to some delish italian food... 

dessert was monumental... clearly. please take notice of jess's face and the eery blue light of dave's addiction. good stuff. 

kayla started calling ari, RV (arvi). it stuck and now kayla and arvi are pen pals. 

luci mooched one last bowl of cereal while no one was looking.

and we tore ourselves away. we miss those guys. thank you johnsons for being the best thing we found in san francisco. :)


waiting for our taxi from the RV office. it was strange.. i really anticipated the renting and returning of an RV to be drama filled and angst ridden. nope. easy peasy... besides the whole bring your license please thing.

four hours in the airport went surprisingly smooth. thanks to the little mermaid...

and my close proximity to overpriced airport coffee.

magnet doll puzzles came in handy for a baby that had had her fill of confinement.

we had to sprint to make our second flight. literally run for 15 minutes over 4 moving sidewalks and 3 different terminals, pulling suitcases and pushing strollers. ari kept saying her legs were on fire and crying she couldn't make it. she has inherited my deep and abiding love of running.
sweaty tired craziness. 

and just like that we were home. 

best vacation ever.

the best. :)

hey guess what it's december. 

advent starts today. 

we are on our way to get our tree this morning, decorate and get our christmas on over here. 

there are whispers we might see snow today. 

my front porch swing is banging against the house in the wind announcing the official start to the 'lauren never wants to leave the house' season.

happy december. :)