Spontaneous Visit from the Girls’ #1 Fans!

On Thursday, I got a call from my mom with some unexpected good news. “We’re coooommmming!” she announced. I guess Grandma and Grandpa couldn’t stand being away from the girls for one more minute (can’t say I blame them), so they decided to make an impromptu weekend road trip from Utah to California. They woke up early on Friday, drove straight through (with a stop at In N Out, per tradition) and made it here Friday afternoon. I don’t know who was happier to see who– the girls seeing Grandma and Grandpa, Grandma and Grandpa seeing the girls, or Jake and I knowing that we’d get a mini vay-cay this weekend!

I’m pretty sure neither twin was ever put down for a full 72 hours.

Friday night, Jake and I took advantage of the free babysitting and went to my date venue of choice, Michael’s Crafts. Browsing spools of ribbon and cupcake liners was very romantic! Our next stop was the uber-enchanting car wash, and then home. Yeah, we’re pretty lame. It was nice getting out and going somewhere without having to lug the stroller, even though being away from the girls for a few hours was really hard…talk to me in a year, and I’m sure that will have changed!

Saturday night, we went out with our friends to a restaurant, Bru, and chatted about all things baby. Phil and Diana are expecting a baby girl in October and wanted to take us out to discuss everything from umbilical cord care to baby products. It was weird thinking that we were in their shoes just about a year ago…terrified, excited, and with no clue about what was about to hit us. I told them that when I was pregnant, I got really sick of people telling me how much my life was going to change. It’s something you can’t really understand until you go through it yourself, but it’s true. Our lives really have changed and there’s no going back!

Samantha and Amelia loved showing Grandma and Grandpa how much they have learned since they last saw them and were totally spoiled all weekend long.

Samantha shows Grandpa and Grandma how she rolls on her ball.

It’s tough being beautiful.

My favorite moment from this weekend. I walked into the nursery while Amelia was napping and found her like this. No idea how her monkey Wubbanub ended up attacking her head like that! All of us nearly died trying to suppress our laughter so that she wouldn’t wake up.

In addition to Grandma and Grandpa showering them with cuddles, our long-time family friends, Dan and Barb Panzica stopped by to see my parents and the girls. “Go ahead. We don’t mind being adored,” said Samantha and Amelia.

Sunday, we met up with Auntie Lynn and Uncle Steve for a quick walk down Strands beach in Dana Point.

Since we didn’t want to haul the stroller down the stairs, we took the funicular, which was like a greenhouse inside…ugh the humidity. Amelia didn’t seem to mind and thought it was all terribly exciting.

With my dad there to keep Jake and the girls occupied for a few hours, my mom and I stole Jake’s key card and trashed his office with balloons. While looking for some Expo markers, we found many random items in Jake’s desk, which served as inspiration for our balloon decor. Aloe vera, a jar of peanut butter, Reeses Pieces, Fig Newtons, and a bottle of Ranch dressing were just a few of the items Jake found scattered around his office when he walked in Monday morning, in addition to the 72 balloons we had blown up and strategically placed. It was definitely worth the blisters on my fingers and almost passing out to blow up all those balloons in order to surprise Jake. I hope it helped him feel a little bit special for the day due to the fact that no one really cares about him anymore ever since the girls arrived. Just kidding. I’m sure there’s lots of people that care. It’s just that the girls are so much cuter!

I also left him this little candy poster that the girls made.

Later, we met up at Auntie Lynn’s for a barbecue ~~in celebration of Jake’s birthday~~ to show off the girls again. More adoration occurred (of the girls, not Jake. Apparently, once you have kids, your birthday doesn’t matter anymore).

I just love these summery watermelon and sunflower dresses I found with my mom at Children’s Orchard!

NOT Samantha and Amelia’s one year birthday cake, for future reference.

I don’t EVER want to know how many calories were in this Cinnamon Productions carrot cake.

All four of us were practically chaining ourselves to Grandma and Grandpa’s car in order to stop them from leaving for Utah on Monday morning, but were grateful they had decided to come out. It’s amazing how much more energy I have during the day when there’s multiple people there to hold the girls and help. It was definitely a nice little re-charge to our daily grind.

Samantha and Amelia really threw a fit after Grandma and Grandpa left and cried non-stop from 4 p.m. until Jake got home around 6…reality check after a blissfully easy weekend! The girls had planned a little birthday scavenger hunt for Daddy, but were too upset to hide the clues, so I told them we’d have to do it later this week when they were in better moods.

They did manage to stop fussing long enough for me to snap a birthday message. Happy birthday to the best Daddy ever!