Santa Barbara Memorial Day

After so much sickness and solo parenting, the four of us joined my parents and sister’s fam for a much needed vacation.

We missed my youngest sissie mucho, but she is days/weeks away from having a baby so it was a little too risky for her to come.

We hit a lot of traffic on the way down, which added an hour or two to our car time, but the kids didn’t care one bit because now that we have the DVD player we could drive to Maine and they’d be unaffected so long as we had the movies to get there.

My sister and I tracked each other on the way…

I enjoyed the map image of her lunch stop 😛

We arrived half an hour apart and hung out for a bit before taking a beach stroll.

The place we rented in Montecito was AMAAAAZING. It was super close to the beach, but alas, we did not run into Oprah.

The cousin love on this trip was beyond heart melting. I couldn’t even handle the cuteness.

For dinner we went to Goat Tree on State street.

We had no plan as we headed off, which was for the best considering the area was mobbed with people. We basically parked and walked to whatever was closest.

And in this case, Goat Tree happened to be perfect! For the record, this is extremely unlike me. I usually scope out restaurants way ahead of time, scouring all the menus to try to maximize the deliciousness of all my vacation eats. But my plan with this weekend was to go with the flow and just enjoy not cooking and eat what I felt like of the options before me.

This is a much nicer way to go through life, and it worked out so well, I’m going to make an effort to remember it going forward.

I got lamb meatballs to start, with hummus and tzatziki and pickled red onions.

As well as the Caesar salad, to which I added salmon.

I wasn’t even that hungry, so this was way too much food, but I wanted six different things on the menu, so really, just ordering two was a compromise!

The Caesar sounded so unique with rye crisps and butternut squash and a home-made dressing. And I’m so happy I got it, because it was seriously one of the best salads I’ve gotten from a restaurant in a very very long time. The home made Caesar was incredible. And the rye cracker things were awesome.

The kids split the cheeseburger sliders with fries, which thrilled them to no end.

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Kyle got the BLT + E (which was humongous) and a side of goat fries. We both ended up having leftovers that we brought home for brekkie and lunch the next day.

Sharing a room turned out to be a little insane for these two, but they got better at it over the rest of the weekend…kinda.

One of the highlights from the next day included the farmer’s market.

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Where the kids sampled ALL THE FRUIT…but still somehow had room for lunch.

There is a Natural Cafe in the plaza where the farmer’s market is, so that’s where we ended up. I’ve been to several different Natural Cafe locations before, so I knew what to expect. They have vegan, vegetarian, and gluten free options aplenty. And there’s really no bad choice!

I got them an avocado sandwich to split, which had well over half an avo in it!!

They loved the whole meal, including the chips and the side of steamed veggies that I got them too. Never mind that they’d already had cherries, apricots, plums, and I don’t even know what else.

I got the arugula salad, plus salmon. Are you noticing a theme here? I’m in a moooooood for salmon. But really, I was just trying to pick something that went with the tahini dressing, because that’s what caught my eye first. Tahini dressing FTW. The portion was insane, even for me!! Loved it.

Kyle, the one who picked the restaurant in the first place because he “wasn’t hungry and wanted something light like a salad”, opted for the quesadilla. So light. 😉

We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging around the house. They backyard had a koi pond and hot tub, and the living room had a pool/ping pong table. So there was plenty to keep us occupied.

For dinner, we went to Cava, which we had all been to before for my sister’s graduation dinner.

V was barely hanging in there (no nap! eek!) but you’d never know it from this great photo of me and my man.

Mr. P enjoyed drawing an entire zoo on the tablecloth, and playing peek a boo with Brooke.

I don’t know who is more in love with who between these cousins. They are all OBSESSED with each other.

I placed the kids’ order (chicken skewers with rice and fruit times two) long before the waiter came back for the rest of us because they were practically falling apart before our eyes, so that ended up saving us.

Meanwhile, we got an order of guacamole and ceviche for the table to share, which were great albeit a bit heavy on the onions.

Kyle got the paella and couldn’t stop raving about it. It definitely looked outstanding.

I chose the ribs, which was unexpected given that the menu had all kinds of delicious dishes on it, but the waiter mentioned it as one of his favorites and after describing the sweet but spicy guava sauce I couldn’t get it out of my head.

It came with a side of slaw and chipotle mashed potatoes, but I just asked for a double serving of cabbage. The waiter had his suspicions, but I’ve never met a plate of cruciferous veggies I couldn’t handle.

Both the slaw and the ribs had a little kick to them! I’m a wuss, so it would probably be NBD to most everyone else, but my lips were tingling half way through and it definitely slowed me down.

So basically we all had leftovers, which made lunch the next day a breeze.

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On Monday, we went to breakfast at Jeannine’s in Montecito.

It’s a cute cozy cafe, and even though they don’t have a ton of seating, we had no prob fitting together some tables to accommodate our group of eight.

I got the classic Benedict, but instead of an english muffin, I had them put it on a piece of GF cornbread.

Here’s a side shot of the cornbread.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t really that amazing of a dish. The Canadian bacon was weird so I gave it to Pacman (a very happy recipient) and the hollandaise tasted off somehow. The other main issue was that the eggs were set and the yolks didn’t run out when cut into them. Bummer. So basically the one pro (cornbread) was massively outweighed by the rest of the cons of the dish…you can’t win em all!?

You know who was not remotely disappointed? This guy. He got the kid’s american breakfast and V got the kid’s pancake breakfast.

So cute, right?

We went straight from breakfast to downtown to walk and window shop along State street.

Too much tag before we started walking resulted in piggy back rides back to the car.

We chilled out and let the kids recharge for a bit before eating lunch (leftovers) and then walking down to the beach.

This was the best part of the weekend.

These little beach babes were in pure bliss.

I don’t know how long we were there, but the kids probably would have stayed until sundown.

And then there was this sweetie. Doing tummy time on the sand.

We should have realized that skipping naps and spending hours running from the waves would add up to a small disaster by 6 pm, but we were in vacation mode and just ignored all the warning signs.

Instead, we played in the hot tub and lounged the evening away, and next thing we knew they were zonked and dinner was barely under way.

Weirdos.

For dinner we cooked up some of our farmer’s market goodies – including cauli and broccoli. My dad also grilled salmon. And then there was the first avo and melon salad of the year! I’m so excited for warm weather. This salad is such a favorite.

They each had a few more servings of everything. My bottomless pits of children…eating the most expensive quality food they can.

Happy birthday mom!! We love you!

And now I’m back home solo parenting again for the week (Kyle stayed behind for work) reliving the good times from the weekend through these photos.