Part One: A Curb Appeal Face Lift for our house. Part Two: Clara and 3 stitches.

This post will probably only be interesting to our kids but we're here to share. We recently had some major upgrades done. Roof--all plumbing--outside painting and refurbishing of the front door. Wish I had pictures of the first 4 days but alas, we were at the beach escaping the mayhem. Crews arrived at 7:00 A.M.--we were out of there by 9:00 A.M. and it sounded like bombs were going off. On day one the old roof was torn off, plumbers were standing up in the attic waving at the neighbors. My neighbor apologized for not taking pictures of the chaos--would have made great post material.

This is the last day of roofing. It looks awesome!!



The door and trim used to be green. It was totally in style in the 80's. Observe the door magicians.

The finished door--and siding paint colors. Love them. Curb appeal not yet finished on the porch. Flowers, etc. to come.


No, the bushes aren't dying--just frying.

Our house is happy now. No more leaking roof. No more leaking pipes. No more green door. Life is good.

Part Two: Last Friday Clara was playing at Gramma's, tripped and hit her head on the brick hearth. Three stitches. I'm just now getting over it. She was fine as soon as they let her out of the papoose straight jacket. In my defense--her mommy was here too so it was not totally on my watch. Whew!!

In order to make myself feel better, we had a date today. Bought her new shoes at Target. I can't help myself.

Happy, stylish feet make for a happy person.

"Does my bottom look smaller in these?" I'm not kidding. That's what it said on the advertisement for these new FITFLOPS. I found them at a little shop in Avila, tried them on, felt like I was walking on a cloud, paid for them and wore them out of the store.

Here's the why and how--MICROWOBBLEBOARD TECHNOLOGY.

Sorry for the revealing picture below. . . . .but it was totally necessary in order for you to get the picture. Do you think my backside can look like that? If not, at least I'll have happy feet. Don't want to wear anything else. Maybe they come in a 'dressier' version for church. Yeah?

The Visors trip to Avila Beach. . . . . Awesome!

We hadn't been to the beach all summer (I know) and really wanted to enjoy that good ocean breeze, feet in the sand thing. Well, I did--Cris never liked putting his feet in the sand. We rented a really fun condo just steps from the beach and Becca and Jason and kidlets joined us--for fun and for support. Traveling has become challenging and a little help goes a long way.

Owen, Liesl and Clara loved the playground. . . . .

And the beach was super fun. It was not very warm but the kids seem to be immune to it.

Some little princess LOVES the sand.

Clara's hair is getting long and curly and very cute.

These are the condos---really nice, comfortable and great location.

Avila has a street fair/farmers market every Friday complete with Mexican dancers---

And a really good band.

Here's the really cool part. There's a power beach wheelchair you can borrow that will go right down to the water. Check out this video. It was really fun for Cris.

Check out this ride.

Owen and Liesl LOVED the water. It was freezing---didn't matter. It was great to spend time with Becca and Jason and family and we really appreciate their help. As always. . . . life's good.