Ok, so the first week in California was a dream. It was full of foothill gazing, swimming, blue skies, carnivals, surprise rose gardens, ice cream cones, boutique shopping and yes, the beach. It was pretty awesome. You are all probably ready to go gag right now and stop reading this blog. Of course, by week two and three, reality hit and when John headed to his first day of work, the emotions of all the change started to come to the surface. (Not unlike how hot molten lava erupts from a volcano.) I never knew what homesickness would look like for my kids, but we suddenly had tantrums over little things, had a hard time going to bed at night (mostly Joss) and just plain being grouchy and short fused. (My kids aren’t tantrum throwers, so this was new for us.) For me, homesickness just looks like me napping, being snappy and wanting to just watch Grey’s Anatomy reruns. (Yes, I’m STILL watching that show on Netflix. It just keeps going and going!) So in case you were all wondering if I’ve been painting only the good parts of our move to California, trust me, we’ll get to the lows. I’m just still covering the highs of when we first got here. (Things are still pretty great, it’s just at some point reality of normal life hits and it’s not all just one big party any more.) I will say that the kids are adjusting great, better then me, actually. I’m currently going through the stress of trying to get California residency as fast as we can to get Miles registered in the Los Gatos public school. The amount of proof we need to give the school is pretty intense and of course, everything (especially the process of getting a CA state drivers licence) moves very slowly.

Enough of all that nonsense. Throw your pug in the car and let’s go to the beach!

I had to share our first time going to Half Moon bay with the kids and our pug, Stamp. We have never taken Stamp off the leash in public before, so I was pretty freaked out at how she would do. She did AMAZING! She played with other dogs, loved on all sorts of people (including a grouchy family who kept getting mad that she was kicking sand on their blanket by saying hi) and had a blast. My mind was BLOWN that our little 12 year old pug was frolicking on the beach like she had been there her whole life! BEST DAY EVER!!!

We started out grabbing some clam chowder for lunch and then headed to the beach.

We popped into the downtown for a cookie at the Half Moon Bay bakery and I couldn’t believe these succulents. California’s succulent plants have been blowing my mind. I can’t wait to get some for our home when we move in.

We were ALL exhausted on the way home. Even Stamp was conked out in John’s lap driving home. I can’t wait to go back! However, Stamp actually caught kennel cough from hanging out with other dogs on the beach and our apartment complex. If you’ve never experienced Kennel Cough, it’s pretty much like living with an old fashioned bike horn honking three or four times in a row every twenty minutes or so. It’s the worst sounding honking, barking cough since our kids had the croup. I guess it’s normal for dogs to get a cold when moving to a new area. So that’s been fun. Thank goodness for Yelp so I could find a vet on a whim. I can’t wait for her to get better so we can head to the beach all over again. Hopefully she’s building up her immunity to all these California dog germs.

ADVICE PLEASE: Our kids loved the beach UNTIL they got knocked over and fell in the cold water. (Notice the three outfit changes that Joss made in this one post.) So we need to get some wet suits. Should we get the full long suits or just shortie wet suits? The kids who were at the beach all seem to have the long ones. Thanks for your advice!

PS Photos are all iPhone pics.