Weekend Trip: Malibu

Lucas just celebrated the big 3-0, so we had to do something big. Even though I'm not quite back to work yet (1 month left in my mat leave!), I had a work conference in Anaheim, so it was the perfect excuse to spend Lucas's birthday weekend in LA. The conference wrapped up on Thursday afternoon, so Nico and Lucas flew down to meet me in LA.

We had dinner reservations at Felix, which I've been dying to try, but their flight was delayed into LAX and it felt too late to have Nico out, so we flexed and picked up Sugarfish to go instead. Maybe we were just hungry, but it was some of the best sushi I've ever had, so alls well that ends well. We'll have to try Felix next time we're in LA - such is life with a baby, I guess. :)

Lucas loves to surf, so I planned a chill surf weekend for him. We stayed at The Surfrider Malibu, which is a new hotel I discovered through Instagram and design blogs. It's so cute that I assumed it wouldn't be baby or kid friendly (ha) but when I called to inquire about it, they told me they loved babies and would put a rollaway crib in our room. It made things super easy.

On Friday morning, Lucas had an early surf session (dawn patrol, as we like to call it) and then I took a pilates class at this studio (side note: it was the hardest pilates class of my life!). We had a well deserved brunch at Ollo and then we hit the beach. We brought along Nico's trusty beach tent and he napped and lounged for most of the afternoon.

Friday night we went to the hotel's rooftop bar / restaurant for appetizers and drinks, and we had the best mezcal cocktails. We snuck away to the room to get Nico ready for bed, and once we got him down successfully, we popped back up to the roof and had dinner. We checked in on him every 30 minutes or so, but he was a total champion sleeper.

On Saturday, we basically repeated everything we did on Friday. Lucas went surfing at 6:00 AM, I took a SoulCycle class, and then we spent the day on the beach with Nico. The waves were particularly good on Saturday, and Lucas still talks about how it was one of the best surfing days he's ever had. I'm glad the surf gods were looking out for him on his 30th.

On Sunday, Lucas went surfing again bright and early, and then we headed to Venice for brunch and shopping before our flight. We grabbed Blue Bottle (you can take us out of SF but we will still drink SF coffee), had brunch at Great White, and introduced Nico to the world of Abbott Kinney shopping. We went to the airport extra early and flew home.

We always toy with the idea of moving to LA because we love the beach and the weather so much. It seems like such a fun place to raise a family. We already booked our next trip to The Surfrider in August. It's seriously such a family-friendly and beautiful hotel. Can't wait!

4 months old!

I'm over a week late in posting this, but our little Nico turned 4 months old. We had a big month!

We left Nico for 3 nights to celebrate my birthday in Valle de Guadalupe, and he partied hard with my parents in SF. They wore him out with visits to Muir Woods, the botanical gardens, and local restaurants. I'm not sure who enjoyed the time more: me and Lucas, Nico, or my parents. Even though we're across the country, Nico is lucky to have such amazing grandparents who will drop everything to come see him.

The next weekend, we traveled to Atlanta for a visit, and Nico flew on an airplane for the first time. We took a picture of him with the pilots in the cockpit and they gave him some teeny wings (oh, my heart!). He didn't cry once on either leg of the trip, but he also didn't nap so he was overtired when we arrived. My Granny Bird loved meeting her first "great grand" and Nico also met my older bro and sis-in-law for the first time. It was just the best weekend.

We rounded out the month in Malibu celebrating Lucas's 30th birthday (more on that trip soon). That round of flying didn't go quite as smoothly, but luckily the flights were super short and the other passengers were (mostly) understanding.

Nico is becoming more and more alert. He loves playing with toys (this toy and this rattle are his current faves), reading books (Pete the Cat ftw), and singing songs ("The Wheels on the Bus" makes his entire face light up). He's still a great sleeper for the first part and he wakes up happy every morning and from every nap. When we poke our heads over his crib to say hi, he coos and laughs and kicks his feet up in the air. We love you, kid.