It has been nearly two weeks since we have checked in here on the ‘ol blog. No excuses, just been busy – and I mean, CRAZY busy. The girls start school tomorrow, as unbelievable as that is, so I guess in all reality…summer is ovah!

So how did we spend the last few weeks of summer? Let’s back up a bit, shall we?

Mama left her little birdies and Daddy for five.whole.days! Me and my best girls headed up to Santa Barbara for a yoga retreat. We stayed at the St. Mary’s retreat house that has been turned into a monastery.

A gorgeous, serene place with an incredible mountain view.

We did yoga inside, outside, on the beach.

An incredible week full of yoga, hikes, meditation, and peace – and we all came home Zen Mamas.

We celebrated an anniversary quick like, and then the Voris family went on a little roadtrip to Monterey. Despite forgetting J’s suitcase we managed to have a wonderful weekend together.

No, we didn’t leave J. behind, he was just taking the photo, so Mommy would show up in a photo or two for a change. See here he is…when we hit the Aquarium.

And Gracie tried her hand at scuba diving. I wasn’t entirely sure she was going to do it. It sounded like a great idea at 10am when she was watching the other group, but as the day wore on she got more and more nervous.

But she didn’t back down.

She got all suited up. They got to wear dry suits – I was so jealous!

She did great. It was funny to watch them because their guide would pull stuff up and talk to them about it, and our sweet little brown-noser would pull her regulator out every time to be the first to answer questions.

Her first words when she came out of the ocean, “It was AHHHHHWWWESOME!” I think she is hooked.

Addie in the meantime made it her mission to hunt down some otters. She claims them “just as cute as kitties!” Thankfully we got to see a lot of them.

One of the nights we went out for seafood and had this lovely view.

And the otters visited us.

It was a perfect little way to say goodbye to summer.