A California Afternoon

My husband and I celebrated the 13th anniversary of our 1st date recently, so we decided a "date day" was in order.  My lovely in-laws took care of Peanut and we had ourselves a regular old afternoon together.

Our quiet time took us to the Benicia Waterfront for the afternoon. Way back when, Benicia used to be the state capital of California - who knew!

They have a lovely pier and there were all sorts of people there fishing. We are having a bit of an Indian Summer here and temperatures were in the mid-70's on Sunday.  I feel somewhat guilty enjoying this beautiful weather in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.  I understand another 'Nor Easter is on it's way to those poor folks.

Meanwhile, back in California, we are really enjoying this beautiful weather.



Take time today, wherever you are, to say a prayer or send good thoughts to our fellow citizens who have been affected by these storms and be grateful for all of the sunshine in your life, even if it's just a friend's smile rather than the actual sun. :)

'Til next time...

Tractors + Pumpkins + Children = FALL!

It starts to feel like fall when the pumpkins are on the ground at Smith Family Farm. We took our annual trip over the weekend and we had so much fun! Our boy is growing like a weed and is finally able to really run around the farm and enjoy his surroundings. He was picking up some pretty heavy pumpkins all by himself.

There were so many cool sights to see.  There were old tractors on display that, much to my surprise, were actually fully-functional and used on the farm. How cool is that?

The produce stand was overflowing with the late bounty of this Indian Summer, and this basket of gourds was lit in an extraordinary fashion by the light coming in from the window.

When Bobby came across the group of giant pumpkins, he instantly fell in love.  And that, my friends, was a perfect ending to a perfect day at the pumpkin patch.

Fadalah & The Littlest Cowboy

We are so fortunate that our son has a Grandma who loves horses enough to have one of her own. She took us out to meet Fadalah on Sunday afternoon, and I couldn't think of a better way to spend the evening. Fadalah was such a gentleman.


He was absolutely lovely to be around and was so gentle. He didn't get even the slightest bit spooked by my boy, who was definitely hesitant at first.



Fadalah was a great model - he stood still and just let the evening sunlight reflect off of him and it was a perfect afternoon.


The littlest cowboy was definitely adorable in his miniature Wrangler jeans. I couldn't have been more pleased with the way our first encounter went. I'm sure it will lead to many, many more.


What better way could you think of to spend a fall afternoon?