Party in the Park & Santa Cruz

The day after Josh and Louisa's wedding was Ruby's 2nd birthday. The newlyweds planned a little breakfast in the park to celebrate Ruby's birthday before everyone parted ways to head home. They ordered a yummy blueberry coffee cake so that we could sing to the birthday girl and she could blow out a candle. Thank you Uncle Josh and Auntie Lulu - we had a fun morning and it was a great end to your wedding weekend!

Rubes LOVES her Uncle Joshie and Auntie Lulu!

Barely 2 years old and she already can't be bothered to take a picture with Mom and Dad....

Final hugs for Nana and Papa

After the park we packed up and headed for our final destination on our road trip - Santa Cruz. Yes, that's right. Chris wasn't going to let me off the hook - he insisted that while we had the motor home we must go camping (we stayed in a hotel in Oakland). So, being the great wife that I am I agreed to go "camping" for one night and one night only. I left our destination entirely up to Chris my only request being that it was somewhere on the way home - we were not allowed to drive further away from home. The final choice - the Santa Cruz mountains because Chris wanted to show Ruby the "really tall redwood trees."

The timing was just right for the drive - nap time!

Ruby did this the entire way to Santa Cruz from Oakland

Some pictures from the camping trip.

Why the picture of the bear you ask? Ha...

Well, let's just say I wish I had read this pamphlet before we decided to

leave our makings for s'mores out on our picnic table.

Yes, after Ruby was safely sleeping in the RV Chris and I sat

by the fire for a couple hours that is,

until we were visited by an unidentified, somewhat large animal. It was a total scene.....

All ended well but not before yelling "I AM NEVER CAMPING AGAIN!!"

A (sort of) funny story now but most definitely NOT funny at the time.

Although I was a bit skeptical on how much I'd enjoy our camping trip I really must say that the redwoods were quite beautiful. They were SO tall and really pretty impressive.

After dinner we sang yet again to the birthday girl.

This time it was with a s'mores treat (her first). What a special and VERY enjoyed treat!

Since she enjoyed her first s'more we decided to make a few more. YUM!

I was worried Ruby may never fall asleep after all the sugar she had for dessert!

The next day we spent the morning enjoying more of the great outdoors before driving the long drive home.

And now we can chalk "seeing the really tall redwood trees" off the list....