bloggaholic week.

hey howdy hey (toy story style)!

i have sooooo much to blog about. life has gotten nuts around here. like crazy pistachio, macadamia, cashew, peanuts nuts. i have lots of crazy stories, new stages of life we've stumbled upon, and fun stuff we've been up to in between. so! i'm going to try to post something every day this week. yes, i'm going to be a bloggaholic. i'll get a therapist later.

topics to be covered:

beach trip on my birthday
Alice turning one
Alice's circus party
new church callings
our yard
Alice walking (as of like 6 weeks ago- wait, that may explain a lot of the chaos these days...)
a crazy finger injury
my family's visit
our attempts at having FHE- including a visit to the Pumpkin Patch
Ellie being SO three, it's killing me (and giving me more grey hairs than i can count)

wow. lots. where do i even start?

how bout i start with the beach trip on my birthday.

as noted in my previous post, i had a fabulous birthday.
birthdays are wonderful, aren't they?
holidays are fun because you know lots of people around the globe are celebrating on the same day for the same reason (generally speaking) as you. i like thinking of families everywhere gathered around the Christmas tree, opening Christmas presents together. i like thinking of the world running around dressed up in monkey suits, freaky masks, and princess tiaras, all in the name of candy + Halloween. holidays are exciting and fun.
birthdays, though.... birthdays are the best because it's a special day. it's a day where YOUR birth is celebrated. it's a day where we celebrate everyone's unique awesomeness. it's a day where you feel uniquely appreciated and loved. it's a day where you hear from family members and friends that you haven't heard from in a while. it's a day where you do fun things and make new memories. and all of that is why i love birthdays.

i also mentioned that in the evening of my birthday, M planned to take us girls to his favorite beach spot up here in the Bay Area. of course the girls + i love the beach...who doesn't, right? we got there in the early afternoon, and i was stoked to take bunches of pictures- especially in time for Alice's birthday. so we had been there for like 10 seconds and there i was, gettin' all snap-happy. my back was toward the tide as Alice was running toward me-- all giggles and squeals like she is these days. M was snapping some pictures of Alice / Ellie with his iPhone.

and then.

BAM.

i was soaked. water from my ghetto-fabulous booty back-side, all the way down to my (thankfully shoe-less) toes. the tide had raced passed me-- and all of a sudden the colors around me dimmed, everything around me went into slow-motion, and there was Alice- knocked down by the force of the tide. she rolled right onto her back- and without thinking (or was it while a million thoughts were running through my mind?) i dropped my camera (which was thankfully strapped around my neck), fought against the water, and swooped Alice up right as the water went over her face. minus her skin saran-wrapped in sand, her teeth-chattering, and goosebumps, she was OK.

have you ever felt the Northern California Ocean?

it's basically ice.

so M grabbed Alice from me, and we stripped her down as quickly as possible and wrapped her in a blanket.

and then i finally exhaled. and inhaled.
i felt like i had been holding my breath that whole time.

M and i just both stared at each other.
whoa.
did that really just happen?
how did that just happen?
how did we all make it out of that ok?

we hugged each other extra tight.
thanked our Heavenly Father for blessing us with safety.
and gathered everything up real quick to head home.

(much to Ellie's dismay. she realllllllly wanted to keep digging. three-year-olds are pretty clueless when it comes to life-threatening situations. sometimes i wish i could still be that care-free and naive).

life is crazy!
and while we'll always remember that crazy birthday eve, i'm so glad that we'll remember that we were all safe and watched over, in spite of the craziest fast-raising tide i've ever seen.

yes, we're blessed.
stay tuned for many more crazinesses (and much happier ones) from this aspiring bloggaholic!

xoxo