Beach baby!

Mia (which is my mom's grandma name!) came out for Alana's first birthday.  She stayed with us for a few days and then I went down to San Diego with her.  Justin had to stay home and work. : (  But we took Alana to the beach.  She absolutely loved it!  She loved the waves and the sand.  The water was warm for a California beach (compared to Hawaii) so we had a great time.  It took her about 30 minutes before she ate sand.  I wiped her mouth off with sea water and then she stuck her tongue out as far as she could to like the salty water!  We live about 37 miles from Santa Monica so we will be going real soon as a family!  (I will post pictures of Alana devouring her cake in a few days!)

Wildlife

We have quite a few little creature around here.  We had heard about the wild parrots that live in the Pasadena area a few weeks ago.  Low and behold a few days later we had 4 wild green parrots perch on the power lines that run across our back fence.  We also have squirrels run across from time to time.  Also there are possums that come around.  We had them show up a few weeks ago but Candy our beloved neighbor dog that I just wrote about scared them away!  I much prefer this wildlife to the pigeon infestation we had at the last house!  Although I have noticed that there are a lot more flies and bugs here.  I'm sure it has to do with all the mature vegitation!

Our nosey neighbor!

Candy is the dog that lives over the back fence.  She actually used to to live in our house but when the people moved they couldn't take her.  Therefore she  likes to be nosey and has figured out how to jump up and rest on the top of the block wall which is only about 5 feet tall.  As you can imagine this has been interesting with our 2 little yappers.  They are getting used to each other now but we have to spray Candy with the hose when she growls at Gidget.  This has cut down quite a bit on her peeping over!  

Our official welcoming to beautiful SoCal!

WOW!  Or should I saw WHOAAAAAA!  I just experienced my first earthquake!  I was changing Alana's diaper and all of a sudden the ground started moving and I heard a rumbling.  At first I thought it was the biggest jet flying over the house. I ran out to the living room to see what the heck was going on.  I saw the measuring cups that are hanging by the stove swaying and the pantry door swung open.  I very quickly realized that it was an earthquake.  It was pretty scary!  Of course the phone lines are all tied up so I can't get in touch with Justin.  Good thing the 11 am news is on and I went to it just to make sure that I'm not crazy!  Turns out it was a 5.4 magnitude.  There have been 3 aftershocks so far but I haven't felt any of them.