San Diego: Part I

Well, we are here again!  Good 'ol San Diego! 

Ernesto flew out earlier than Paloma and me.  (I had a jewelry show!) I packed some snacks and fun things to do on the plane in their backpacks.  Lo and behold, Papi had also thought of fun things for them to do as well.....so I get this picture from the airport

I may have capital- letter texted  "THOSE BETTER NOT BE IPADS!!" (as mine sits cracked in a basket!)

Let's just say they were pretty excited and were entertained well beyond the 4 hour plane ride with their new little Samsung tablets. 

We didn't let them sit there too long though,  Too much to do!  

PRIMOS PRIMOS PRIMOS!!

Under the Coronado bridge there was some barnacle hunting, (and one cut toe-see pic above) while waiting for cousins to arrive.  We hit the playground then RAN down the Silver Strand for ice cream. 

Also took a photo that day that turned into our anniversary shot. What whaaaaat? 16 years!!!

Just like every other trip to San Diego, we hiked to the top of Cowles Mountain.  

The boys used to slow us down, but this year, they are "up to speed." 30 minutes flat. 

Jalyn, the next door neighbor, tagged a long and probably was the motivation for them to keep up the pace! Mateo is pretty fond of the 9 year old and wants to hang out with him any chance he gets. Sometimes he didn't want to leave the house so he could play with him.  ha!

Ernesto planned to go to a Padres baseball game with the neighbors/kids.  He bought them new SD hats and I love how cute they look.

Unfortunately they were a waste of money, because they were worn for the game and not put on since.  The crew before leaving! 

What else??  BEACH BEACH BEACH!  Duh, it's Summer in San Diego! 

I posted this adorable picture of Paloma on Instagram

The caption read: "2 things we never do in Atlanta:  Doritos and beach." lol

The beach is always great, but hanging out at abuelas back yard is pretty awesome as well.  

...And that is what we do A LOT of the time. 

 

Listening for that "Espinoza Ice Cream" truck (that is actually the name!) to pass buy in the afternoon.  Boy, did we give him some business!! 

Not that we needed extra sweets.  Abuela is sure to keep the freezer stocked at all times.  

I *may* have had to say this a few times: "No Marcelo, popsicles are NOT for breakfast"

 

Yes, that is "little" baby Elias in the pack-n-play...just chillin' with sus primos.  I say little but he is almost as big as Paloma.  He definitely weighs more.

This chunker is going to pass her up, no doubt about it.

After playing hard, many afternoons looked like this

and also this

michelada anyone? (beer, Clamato, lime juice and hot sauce- yum!)

or maybe some grilled pulpooooooo (octopus)


I can't go on without mentioning the great fathers in my life.  I could not ask for a better dad. Funny, loving and always there for me. His frequent visits and shuttle runs mean EVERYTHING to me!  As far as father-in-laws go, I won the lottery with mine!

These babies love their papi, no doubt about that.  I love him too.  There is no one else I can imagine doing this whole parenting thing with....Does he do things "a little different" than I would??  LOL Hell to the yeah! But I can honestly say he is a great papi!! He is very affectionate to his kids [and me too], playful, plans family activities and is always up for an adventure!!

I love all of Ernesto's cousins.  Whenever we are in town, we make sure to see as many as possible. 

One cousin is a regular gambler in Barona.  (an Indian reservation just one hour outside of San Diego)

She is a mother of four and actually has her 'girls night out' weekly at a casino.  How genius is that?? Mingling and free drinks!!  Anyhoo, due to her faithfulness at the casino, she gets free stays at the beautiful hotel there and offered us a little getaway [from our vacation LOL]. So sweet! 

The drive was gorgeous with all of the mountains of boulders, and the grounds weren't too shabby to look at either. 

Yes, they came with us. LOL.  There was a pool and the gelato is only .50 !!  It was fun!

We didn't have the pleasure of gambling, but still enjoyed the beautiful location and pool!

A short but sweet trip! 

Of course we headed south of the border.  Unfortunately it was with a sad stop.  Ernesto's tia Alicia, one of the nicest ladies you would ever meet, was dying of cancer.  I am a so glad we were able to see her once more before she passed away [that following week]. 

Since everything revolves around food we stopped for a HUGE grilled fish! 

Again with the bad circumstances, but we had another get together with all the cousins for a fund raiser for tia Alicia. (RIP) My brother-in-law organized it to help out with medical bills which I thought was super sweet.  

We hit a couple breweries in North Park sans kids and man was that fun!  (note to self: go out sans kids more often!)

We will probably be staying a couple more weeks.  The Summer fun keeps coming! 

TWENTY MONTHS {Paloma's Monthly Photo}

HOW HOOOOOOOW are you twenty months?  That is almost TWO years old and I havent't even posted your birth story.  Ay yayay.

Oh my sweet baby girl. You are a girl who knows what she wants, that's for sure! 

You have BLOWN UP in the talking department.  Look at all those words you say...and I'm already remembering some that I missed:  Juice, yes (pronounced sheesh), bus, big, mailman, tu (you), Elmo, play, push, help.....

You call BOTH of your brothers "MANA."  At first we were stumped as to why, but finally we figured it out.  Every night when you go to sleep we tell Mateo y Marcelo "ok, dale un beso a tu hermana"   So now....tus HERMANOS son MANAS!  haha

You also have been calling a lot of people that play with you "mom" Guys and girls???  A term of endearment I suppose. 

Hands down, our favorite thing to do is listen and DANCE to music.  You know how to open Spotify on my phone and flip through the songs.  You leave each song on just enough to do a little dance move then you swipe to the next.  When you get to Master of Puppets, you break out your air guitar.    

Wheels on the bus is a favorite as well, I still need to capture you doing the motions on video.

So. Cute.

So. Beautiful.

So. Loving.

So. Smart.

So. Sweet.

So. TOUGH!!!  (this is what having two brothers will do!)

The Mid-Century Modern Deck House

It's funny, when we first looked at our house with our realtor, Ernesto was totally underwhelmed. What is going on with this place?  Little windows on the front, traditional kitchen remodel, original bathrooms with "upgraded" granite and horrible light fixtures.  All those things stuck out to me as well, but my mind started racing immediately to all of the things we could do to improve the mix matched style.

We decided to go for it though because it was UNIQUE and although not exactly what we THOUGHT we wanted, it was a good size house, in the location we were after AND fit the "mid century modern" criteria we had been hunting for. (built in 1963)

It wasn't until MONTHS after we moved into the house that we discovered what style it was.  We knew it was a POST AND BEAM...because, that was obvious from the ...wait for it...post and beams.

BUT! I literally stumbled upon a house that looked like ours while searching Google images and found out it is called a DECK HOUSE which was designed and built by a company called....wait for it again...Deck House, Inc.

A ‘Deck House’ is a pre-fabricated Mid-Century house developed in 1959 by two architects who studied under Walter Gropius (founder of the Bauhaus) at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. They formed the Deck House Company in Acton, Massachusetts, where it still operates, now called the Acorn Deck House Company.

Deck Houses were/are widely popular, but more so in the northeast, not Georgia.   The architectural basis for a Deck House is post and beam construction, which uses large and solid timbers to hold up the roof. These eliminate the need for supporting walls and allows for an almost unlimited amount of glass.  How cool is that?  Renovations should be easy then right?

Ceilings are exposed Douglas fir beams and tongue-and-groove vaulted ceilings.  (Sadly ours were painted) 
The exterior could've been stained at one point as well....which I LOVE! 

Many of the deck houses I have seen have a front carport or a side deck off the kitchen/dining area.

Like most mid-century modern homes,  the goal of the deck house is essentially combining form and function.  With all the glass, deck houses are almost always used in a natural setting.

It feels very exciting to now know what our house could (and SHOULD) look like.   I even found a FB page called "Deck House Owners" and they have let me in even though it's quite possible that our house was not actually BUILT by Deck House Inc.  (I called the company, and they could not verify by our address but said "that doesn't mean we didn't build it because there were many houses built in the 60's that we don't have records for.")

 A "deck house" has become an all encompassing name for this style of house (like kleenex for tissues) Our house is definitely in this style, though, and honestly I don't care WHO built it, I am just happy to have been enlightened about our homes' history.

My mind is in overdrive after looking at other Deck Houses (inside and out).  But that is the case with me and houses.  Inspiration and ideas are always flowing.

More importantly, Ernesto's inspiration has been sparked and he is excited to make changes and possibly sit back and enjoy this house for longer than he initially thought.  ("2 years and we sell" is what he was saying when we moved in)

As you can see with the other houses pictured here, the windows are not aluminum single pane. (notice the dark ones above)  And hopefully sometime this Summer, ours will not be either.  I love how many of the houses have different sized windows on one side of the front door than the other (I have always loved asymmetrical design.)

Also note they all have transom windows above the doors.  Yep. We are going to follow suit with that too.  I can't wait.  How awesome is this entry??

So much to share with you in the upcoming months/years.

New exterior paint color choices are being mulled over.  We were considering these two colors and I posted on Insta for opinions.  It was about half for Tricorn Black and half for Urbane Bronze.

We have pulled some other samples since this photo and are leaning towards SW Sealskin which looks like black/the darkest brown.

Also, a front patio is in the beginning stages...I'll have a separate post with our "plan" soon.

One of the front landscaping beds is ALMOST complete.

All this (and more!) coming to you right here on VivaCindy.....right after we spend a month in San Diego this June!!!! Woot woot! 

See you back here soon!!