Garden of Eden

Every time we visit my Godfather Charly and his partner Tracy in their beautiful beach house in Santa Cruz, I feel like I'm visiting a modern day Garden of Eden. The world stands still for those days, and I leave with the sense that I have just been at an incredibly natural and holistic retreat. The sense of community, health, well being, family and just pure enjoyment and celebration of life washes over me like sunshine. The community of Santa Cruz is very progressive marked by social activism, is at the center of the organic agriculture movement, and it's citizens enjoy a wide range of local recreation (surfing, biking, hiking). To me its the perfect community, incorporating all the ways I want to live and all the things I love. I honestly would LOVE to live there... if we had any job prospects, were able to stomach the cost of living (seeing as how its one of the FEW places that's more expensive than San Diego), would not have to leave all of our friends and family behind... well anyway, we immensely enjoy visiting Santa Cruz when we can. Charly and Tracy expose us to the latest and greatest in all things healthy for the mind, body and spirit, and spoil us silly.

We gave up our long Easter weekend in San Diego and took an extra day to spend two days on the road and two days visiting. Here were the highlights:

• We can safely say that Abby is out of the "I-wont-spend-more-than-2-hours-in-the-car-unless-I'm-sleeping" phase. Thank God. The girls did great on the drive up and down, thanks to the entire series collection of He-man.
• It was great to see my Godmother Mary (who also lives in Santa Cruz) who has lost 100 lbs due to going off of prednisone and gone through the ringer with serious cancer since the last time we saw her. She looks fantastic and has a new lease on life. She went a little crazy on the girls Easter baskets (it is pretty hard to exercise restraint) and we now are in possession of a year's supply of candy for a family of 20.
• In making my famous fish tacos for dinner one night in a gluten free household, I discovered a tweak to my recipe that will make a crispier batter. I will from here on out be using part flour and part corn starch. I was also happy to pass on a gluten free pancake recipe, which has been my new favorite easy breakfast for the girls. 1 banana + 2 eggs blended. (Not a trick, although it seems like it would be). Naturally sweet and great with peanut butter. I also have an appreciation for wheat bread. Gluten free bread crumbles as if it was made of sand.
• We got to have a craft day of making stepping stones for each of us. Mary helped Rory with a butterfly design, I did a heart, not really sure what Abby's is and Ryan's is a geometric white and blue concoction. Now where to put them?
• I had discovered that my childhood friend Rose lived in Santa Cruz with her son Julian and they came to visit while we were there. It was great to see her again after at least 10 years. Even if we all had trouble placing her in which of my mom's Campo friends groups she was from and remembering who her mother was. (Barbara, not Hopie, for the record.) My mom set the record straight before Rose began to question her maternity.
• Abby had a few really rough nights of teething that even though acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and orajel couldn't help. They numbed the pain but only cuddles with mom and dad in bed with the pacifier sealed the deal.
• I remembered I REALLY don't like Ryan driving. With my messed up knee (which got messed up from a shin splint which was the result of a pulled groin muscle) I drove very little on the trip. This wont be happening again anytime soon. He takes driving too seriously, and stresses me out with all of the jobs and exceptions of the "co-pilot" so that he can focus 100% of his attention on driving safely.
• We stopped in Huntington Beach on the way home to wait out some traffic hoping to visit my Aunt Tina, but they were not home so we went to the REI there which we have always wanted to check out, and sat down for dinner. (This we will not be doing again anytime soon either. Kids are just too much work at a restaurant). But I happened to find an awesome solution to my purse which I have hated for a very long time. Its an REI Agility Sling Bag, and I'm calling it my murse. I have a lot of stuff to carry in my purse, and it was just too heavy. I was having shoulder problems, and neck aches. And besides the physical abuse, it wouldn't stay put with me bending down for toddlers all day long. It would either stay put and everything would dump out as it turned sideways, or it would fall right off my shoulder. It wasn't "hands free" since I was always having to use my arm/hand to hold it in place! Well I'm so happy with my solution. I don't care how dorky I look.