The weather was not quite as nice as we anticipated it would be today, but nonetheless we still headed South to the sandy beaches of Santa Cruz – we spent a little over two hours on the beach to the South of the harbor (the very harbor that got slightly battered a couple of weeks ago as the backlash of the tsunami hit the US coast.  Of course daddy managed to get his back burnt – isn’t that standard protocol for daddy on the beach at Santa Cruz? 🙂

The boys had a great time with Oliver having sand everywhere… Poor little monkey – he then slept for a couple of hours on the wya home and then when we got home.  Of course the downside is that it is now 10:23pm and he has been awake for the last 30 minutes and is showing no signs of being ready for bed….. Guess who is going to be a visitor in mummy and daddy’s bed tonight then….

We head back to the UK on Thursday and have got a lot of stuff to do with the house in Ossett in readying it for Tim to move in next week.  The decket man is heading in on Monday and should have completed the whole house by Saturday (when we actually get there after arriving in London on Friday afternoon).

We need to figure out what the state of the kitchen is and hence whther we need to just acquire a couple more new doors for the cabinets or consider a full kitchen replacement…..  Oh the joy..

It feels like months have passed since we ordered Vicky’s new diamond ring, and we have been chasing the company for weeks now.  Finally on Tuesday they had arrived so Simon picked them up on the way home from the office.  They are simply stunning and look incredible alongside Vicky’s existing rings.  On top of this the upgraded ring (that she already had) looks outstanding – we bought a further carat and a half to up the main diamond to a full carat and then to have two half carats either side.  Then the existing two 1/3 carat diamonds have been made into a new pair of earrings.

Today, we were out shopping (well actually heading out for lunch on Santana Row) and when we got back in the car, we realized that Simon’s mobile phone was not with us.  We called it but there was no answer, so we used the app on Vicky’s phone “find my iPhone” to track Simon’s phone.  We actually followed the phone to find that it was in the Apple store in the mall – some girls had picked it up and taken it to the store in the hope that Apple would be able to return it to its’ owner.  Clearly we are very thankful and a little annoyed that we were not able to thank the people in person.

Tonight we have been out house hunting around the area – just to try to figure out IF we were to consider buying property where we would like it to potentially be.

Hopefully tomorrow we will head to the beach – apparently the weather should be good for it.  We have had two days this week that have been 30+ Celsius and are anticipating another of those days tomorrow….

Bundt cakes for tea !!!!! 🙂

It feels like it has rained for two weeks solid 🙁  There have been mudslides and all sorts in the area around here.

Thankfully the sun came out a little yesterday and has been out quite a lo today, with the temperature making it’s way to almost 20 degrees Celsius this afternoon.  As a result we went out on the bikes tonight and the boys played in Houge Park for 45 minutes or so.  Was nice to be able to be out in t-shirt and shorts again – was January the last time we were able to enjoy the weather like this.  Apparently the week will only get warmer… 🙂

Simon went to a business friends place in San Francisco on Saturday night and they made what this guy called Deathburgers – basically a burger with grilled cheese sandwiches for the bun, a 1/2 pound burger (hand made), bacon that was fried and then eggs that were fried in the fat left from the bacon, chips that were fried in the fat that was left after the bacon and eggs, chilli, lettuce, onion, avocado, tomato ketchup etc etc – you get the jist of it…. There were definitely way north of 2000 calories in these bad boys….

We had a lovely dinner at Daisy and Roy’s last night to finish the weekend off nicely.

We are heading back to the UK in a little under 2 weeks so we are beginning to think about what we need to take back vs. bring back here 2 weeks later.  We are trying to minimize baggage all round as it will make it much easier to manage with the boys if we have little or no luggage. It also means we could leave the date car in the airport car park rather than the X5 – the X5 has over 9,000 miles on it, yet the date car has not yet got to 7,500.  Given that we are paying extra so that the date car can do up to 12,000 per year, we need t use it a lot more at the weekends.  This is not a major drama since for some reason the boys both seem to prefer the Golf.

Check out the wonderful birthday cake that Amy, Jason and Charlotte brought for Vicky’s birthday celebrations last night 🙂 How cool is this cake?  For perspective it is about the size of a head 🙂 Almost felt too nice to cut…..

Only said *almost* 🙂

We have had cake for breakfast this morning – Olly certainly approved of cake for brekkie 🙂

We are heading out to the shops to buy mummy something nice 🙂 |We are also heading round to Escobars Jewellers as they have finished upgrading Vicky’s rings with the new diamonds, created the earrings and HOPEFULLY have the new ring in as well – will make a nice start to mummy’s birthday.

The rain has been persistent for the last few days and looks like it is here to stay for a significant few more 🙁 At least the reservoirs will be full and we won’t need to worry about the water supplies over the summer.

Simon picked up his new watch last night – he ended up upgrading it (typical !) and so picked up a rather cheeky IWC Portuguese Automatic Special Edition (Laureus).  He seems very pleased with it even if it’s arrival has overshadowed Vicky’s birthday 🙁

We are going out for a nice meal tonight with the Folks, so that will be nice – the restaurant that Amy suggested in Los Gatos looks really rather nice – looking forward to finding out.

Simon received his new glasses this week – they were shipped over from the UK by Simon’s optician when the US folks would not make any up for him – apparently his eyesight is too bad for rimless glasses in the US.  They are spot on and even have reacting lenses to UV so they turn into sunglasses in the sunlight – nice.