Dad's 60th, the Beach, and extra thoughts

My dad had his 60th birthday last week and was surprised with a dinner at Ruth Chris with family and some friends and a getaway at the Montage with my mom. We all had a great time recognizing my dad for the awesome person he is. I know that all of you who know him would agree with me on that.

The siblings... Tanner flew in for the occasion as an extra surprise!
We took advantage of Uncle Tanner being in town and went to the beach to watch him surf. Both my brothers are determined to make my boys beach goers. Since it is honestly too much for me to tackle on my own - it's nice when someone else thinks it's their responsibility to take these boys. It was the perfect overcast day. Not hot, not cold.

Luke ate more sand than imaginable - even preferring the sand covered goldfish to the clean ones. He was surprisingly happy the whole time... way to go Luke!Uncle Tanner gave Joshua a matching hat and put zinc on his nose. Tanners style - at least his waterside style is exactly the same as it was in 1988.This is as wet as Luke got, though he did have fun with the waves washing up on him. He only went in the water this far so I could wash the sand off his hands, feet, and face. I want to get some things down so that I don't forget them.... Luke is currently obsessed with the animal sound "Baaa". We went to the zoo a few days ago, and though he's been before, this was the first time he was really old enough to be aware of everything. He loved the goats and didn't stop saying "baaa" the whole time we watched them. When I finally dragged him away he was throwing a hissy fit. The rest of the afternoon at the zoo, every animal from cow to monkey to bird all said "baaa" according to Luke. Now, a few days later, he'll say 'moo' for cow, or 'hsss' for snake, or 'the elephant sound' for an elephant, but every other animal is still 'baaa'.

John and I have been slowly starting to plan our trip to Italy. It's coming up soon and we are so excited. The other morning I dropped Joshua off at preschool and headed off to the Ralphs around the corner. As I stood outside the doors, the smell that was all around me was 100% Italy. It smelt and felt exactly like I was standing in the middle of an Italian city. Analysing what it was that gave that Italian aroma - I looked around and saw 5 people standing outside smoking. Ahhh cigarette smoke and humid air - the smell of Italy.