Friends and Family

Posted in Uncategorized by adrianahartley

This sign was hanging in the women’s restroom in San Luis Obispo.

In the men’s room, Jeff says the sign said, “Some call it chaos. we call it family.”

I think we have it all.

We spent a lot of time with extended family this weekend and I feel sad leaving them, even though I am happy to be going home again.

I love being together and embracing the chaos and love that swirl around us, tying us together through shared experiences and laughter.

There were several highlights from our time together, however my favorite was when friends and family gathered outside and held hands, all 26 of us, and shared a Thanksgiving prayer before dinner acknowledging our gifts and our heartbreaking loss of Chase this year. We were able to smile and cry together and it was a beautiful moment of being safe and authentic, vulnerable and real. We were happy to be together and sad to be missing a loved one. Yin and yang.

I love the unique gifts that each person brings to our family, quirks and all.

Homemade bacon.

I kept reminding myself that we all bring love to share in our own way.

Baking together.

I am especially thankful to my parents for opening their home to everyone and making us welcome and embracing everyone with unconditional love.

We left their home this afternoon and headed home ourselves. My favorite place to be, besides home, is at the beach. My BFF ML also loves the beach and was at Pismo today. We were so lucky to be able to find each other on the beach and watched the sunset together with our families.

This was such a great way to wrap up the day and I was so happy to see her and to be together on the beach!! Simple joys, I’m telling you!!

Life is good!

I hope you enjoyed your own family and friends this giving thanks weekend, and always.

Wishing you peace and love! xo

17Feb2014

Pismo Beach

Posted in Uncategorized by adrianahartley

Where is your favorite place to be?

My favorite place is to be near the ocean. Any ocean. I love the sights, sounds, smell, feel, the lighting, and constant movement.

I got up early this morning and ran above the cliffs in Shell Beach through the fog, and then continued my run on the sand at Pismo Beach in the morning sunshine.

I saw surfers and dog walkers, runners and couples strolling.

There was even a man searching for lost treasures with his metal detector. I loved starting my day on the beach bright and early.

My sisters and nieces and my mama came up from Southern California today to spend the day all together.

We walked around San Luis Obispo and had lunch downtown before heading back to the beach. Everyone loves the beach once we get there. I think it’s because the beach is magical!

We checked out the butterflies again and then walked over the dunes to the beach, where we played volleyball, collected sand dollars and ran in the water. Watching the kids enjoy the beach made me incredibly happy. I am thankful that all the cousins and the Aunties and Oma and Jeff all got to play together on our day off.

Life is good.

15Feb2014

New Experiences

Posted in Uncategorized by adrianahartley

One part I miss about living abroad is the sense of adventure and everything being new. My challenge now is to find new adventures and experiences for our family to share closer to home, that we hopefully all can enjoy.

Today we discovered the monarch butterfly migration in Pismo Beach. The butterfly is an amazing creature that knows when to migrate and follows the sun and warmth of the fall equinox. They fly individually and all know to meet up at the monarch grove. So incredibly fascinating to me. There were about 10,000 butterflies there today and there were close to 80,000 over Christmas time. Some of the butterflies are tagged and one flew all the way from Arizona. Their migration path and distance would be like if we travelled around the world 11 times, based on our relative size. Five butterflies weigh about the weight of one single penny.

From the monarch grove, we walked along a path to the sand dunes on Pismo Beach.

We liked seeing the wind formations in the dry and wet sand and looked for whole sand dollars. We considered ATV riding or bike riding, but decided to come back maybe tomorrow as we arrived later than we had hoped.

The other new experience we shared was going to the Drive – In movie theater. The kids had never been and Jeff and I hadn’t been since we were kids. We picked up dinner at Chipotle and brought it with us to eat in the car. In the old days, you had a little box that clipped on your roll down window to hear e sound. Tonight we programmed our car radio to the FM 100.7 channel to hear the movie. We brought folding chairs and blankets and the kids lasted about 30 minutes in the cold before they piled back in the van.

The Lego Movie was entertaining for us all and had a great, positive message.

Of course, I loved it and could relate to the sweet, positive pink unikitty! You just have to see the movie! If you’re looking for a good old fashioned drive in theater, this one is located in San Luis Obispo and is called the Sunset Drive In. Adults are $8 and kids 5-11 are $3. Here is a link to a help review: Sunset Drive In – SLO town