The Death of Supermom

Tuesday Nov 22 2011 by Isa | 10 Comments

Do you like Working Mommy?

This has been the running joke between The Husband and me for the last two months. I ask the question at midnight, when I am still on the laptop and he wants to turn out the light. I ask him in the morning, when I call his office for tech support. I ask him at dinnertime, when I serve frozen pizza (again).

Stay-at-Home Mommy seemed like a pretty good gig for The Husband. So why does he like Working Mommy anyway?

The Husband likes her because he knows me well. He knows that as much as I fear missing out on my children’s childhoods, I am equally terrified of disappearing into them.

Producing something tangible and valuable is an exhilarating contrast to the unpaid, amorphous world of mothering. Plus, Working Mommy gets to wear cute shoes when she meets a client.

To clarify, I am only working part-time—way more hours than I have childcare, but way less than full-time. But 1 large design job + three small children=crazy. The blog has suffered. Dinner has suffered. My sense of humor has suffered.

Blogger Liz Gumbinner wrote a wonderful post called Grass: Greener on Mom-101. (If you are not already reading MOM-101, you should really start.) Liz, a full-time writer, writes about the tiresome battle between so called stay-at-home moms and working moms.

Personally, I’ve attempted to balance on top of that fence, jumping back and forth, trying to decide which side is really greener. I dislike the labels. We all know that stay-at-home moms work really hard and working moms love their children just as much as the stay-at-home moms.

After my first was born, I tried to be Supermom. I worked full-time running a business and full-time running after my toddler. Granted, I was self-employed so my super-awesome schedule allowed me to work nights and weekends.

My flexible schedule also allowed me to masquerade as Supermom with my toddler during the week. We visited all the best San Francisco museums and snacked on homemade flaxseed kale muffins. I was so tired I barely remember any of it.

The thing is that Supermom really doesn’t exist. She is drinking too much coffee at breakfast and too much wine at dinner.

During that time, riddled with new-parent guilt, I felt my son’s childhood slipping through my fingers. Every distracted minute was a slippery speck of childhood that disappeared forever.

I built something beautiful, but hiding in the coat closet to answer client calls was fairly ugly. I’m not sure I would do it again. I know for sure that I couldn’t do it again with three children.

After my second was born, I sold my business, shed my ego, and surrendered to motherhood. I knew that being a stay-at-home wouldn’t be all cherry pie and giggles, but it had to be better than the coat closet.

And it was. And it wasn’t. My time at home with two little boys was equal parts bliss and terror—blissful gratitude for being able to share a fleeting precious time with my children and terrifying anxiety at what I was, or was not, becoming.

After an official year of stay-at-home-mom status, I climbed up on top of the fence again. I wanted to grab hold of that illusive work-life balance that couldn’t be found visiting the same playground day after day. I picked up freelance graphic design and copywriting work again. I gobbled up the work like a starving refugee. I couldn’t get enough.  I hired sufficient childcare this time. I was born again into the adult world.

Productivity was intensely intoxicating.

Then I fell off the fence. I moved back home to Santa Barbara, sadly left my clients, and happily returned completely to my beloved little people. We all waited for the debut of our third.

In hindsight, I couldn’t have worked until now. A third baby is a game-changer even for the most capable parents. And three months after my third was born, my father died. The question of working or not working in Santa Barbara became irrelevant.

This fall, I peered over the fence into to world of start dates and end dates, and paychecks and proper grammar. I announced to my—don’t judge—life coach that I would take one design client a month. The next day a friend of a friend called to hire me for a large project.

And so here I am. My design project is wrapping up and I am submitting my first blog post in nearly a month.

I haven’t forgotten that Supermom has dark circles under her eyes. In fact, they look a lot like the dark circles under my own eyes. So after my project is completed, I am putting Working Mommy and Raising SOS to sleep for a while. You see, I have started this other really, really long blog post. The kind of blog post that has chapters and belongs in hardcover.  Not surprisingly, I have a lot to say.

In order to give the big blog a chance, I need to put my little blog on hold. I have finally learned that I can’t do it all. Besides, Halloween is over. It’s time to pull off the red cape.

Filed under: Me

Friday Treats + Eats: Pajama Walk

Friday Oct 21 2011 by Isa | 2 Comments

A pajama walk is a delicious treat any time of the year. And with daylight savings closing in fast, it is especially sweet.

Our house turns into sticky fly paper in the late afternoon. It's difficult to unglue our feet and venture out. We lean into the safety of our tried and true routine. The blessed routine that helps us achieve the holy trinity of three sleeping children.

But the days are getting shorter. And the kids are getting taller. And we have all been rushing since school began.

So we brought the pajama walk back. Before having our third child, the evening walk was part of our nightly routine. We walked around our old neighborhood in Oakland, pulling Otis in a red wagon and trailing Samuel on his scooter. The walks were short, but blissfully sweet. But our move the southern California and birth of our third child threw off our equilibrium. The pajama walks slowed to barely a trickle.

But the baby isn't a baby anymore. She rides a tricycle and yells at her brothers to, "Wait for me." Swapping a "wind-up" bedtime routine for a "wind-down" routine will not bump our nighttime world into deep space.

We are more rooted now.

We announced the pajama walk after pizza tonight. The kids yelled yippee and raced downstairs to put on their helmets and and jump on their scooters and tricycle. They acted like kids riding to Disneyland. We only walked for 20 minutes, but instead of rushing toward a goal, the kids navigated us through the houses.

We saw bride and groom in the Rose Garden, the first star of the night, and our neighbor and his dog. And in spite of our wind-up bedtime detour, the kids all wound right down into their pajama dreams.

Filed under: Friday Treats + Eats, Getting Out
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The Hotelito - Best Boutique Hotel on a Budget

Monday Oct 17 2011 by Isa | 1 Comment

Growing up, our family vacations revolved around good surfing and fishing spots.

Mexico was a favorite and we drove down Baja once, twice, sometimes three, times a year with my parents and assorted family friends. They strapped surfboards, kayaks and boogie boards onto car roofs and piled fishing and camping gear into the truck beds.

We used south of the border names for our CBs—I alternated between Baja Pajaro and Talking Taco—and our adventures often involved truck break downs on dusty dirt roads in the middle of (insert explicative here) nowhere. We would spend hours waiting for a friendly local to tow us out of a ditch into the nearest dusty town. We spent days waiting for car parts to arrive from another tiny dusty town.

My mother endured it, but my father and his buddies loved it.

Something happened to the normally responsible adults as soon as we got south of Tijuana.

Then men let their beards grow and the women stopped wearing bras. Even the buttoned-up dads started smoking cigarettes and drinking beer (ever cautioning us about the perils of tobacco and alcohol). We camped on the beach, made friends with the Mexican owners of coastal desert ranches, and bought fresh fish and lobster from the fisherman who docked in front of our camp.

These wild and messy trips are forever anchored in our family lore.

Now, as a parent myself, I am in awe of the brand of courage and spontaneity displayed by my parents. Mexico is more dangerous now, but even if it weren’t, I’m just not as brave as my parents were.

I will always have a special affection for Baja, but we didn’t immediately think of Mexico for our ten year anniversary trip.

Our criteria included:
1) Less than a 6 hour drive or flight from Santa Barbara.
2) Warm ocean.
3) Small, romantic (read, un-child-friendly) hotel.
4) A trip that wouldn’t break the bank.
5) A destination that could be fully enjoyed in a short week (grandma babysitting limit).

Italy didn’t quality, but I remembered reading about a little 4-suite, boutique hotel in Todos Santos called The Hotelito.


The magazine travel editors oohed and the online reviewers aahed. Skeptical, that a hotel that affordable could approach nirvana, we searched hard for a bad review. The worst reviews we could find complained about country roosters waking up too early on the ranch across the street. Obviously, these reviewers did not have children.

The photos on the hotel website were not all that impressive, but the online gushers, $100/night rate and quick 2-hour flight from LAX convinced us to book.

At risk of gushing myself, I will just say that The Hotelito was magnificent. Read all about it yourself on Trip Advisor. I added the most recent Hotelito love note.

I have stayed at world class beach town hotels and this was one of my favorite spots. If you are looking for flat screen TVs, poolside bar service, and marble spa tubs, the Hotelito isn’t the place for you. I loved the hotel for its understated, modern, romantic vibe all orchestrated by the lovely and gracious owner named Jenny.

Todos Santos also has some excellent surf spots for the wave lovers. We boogie boarded, released baby sea turtles, took a cooking class, read, visited a street festival, walked, and swam. However, we mostly focused on the fine art of relaxing and getting to know each other again. The Husband let his beard grown a tad, and although we don’t smoke, we did extensive research to find the best margarita in town.

I understand why some American travelers do not share my love of Baja and even Mexico as a whole. If you venture off your resort, you will find trash, dust and poverty. But if that is all you see, you really haven’t seen Mexico at all.

It was a little surreal to spend five days alone with The Husband. We welcomed and savored our reconnection, but the slow pace  threw us for a loop. We talked a lot about returning with three other couples. With only four suites, we could book The Hotelito solid.

The country roosters didn’t bother us one bit, but we missed our little roosters at home. We have become accustomed to chaos and movement. Like Baja, we have come to love the  wild, messy and unpredictable nature of life with three small children. The life that requires its own brand of bravery.

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PS - And if you were wondering about Thai nuts... I declared "no food or drink" and sneaked them through customs. Then, I ate the whole bag while swinging in a hammock and drinking a margarita. My talents are many.

And that cooking class we took... It was ridiculous and fun and probably subject for its own post. Here is a photo from our private class (Ignore the surrealist pornographic beach art in the background.)

 

Filed under: Getting Out, Marriage
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Friday Treats + Eats

Friday Oct 7 2011 by Isa | 2 Comments

Thai Lime & Chili Mixed Nuts

Real cocktail parties exclude dinner and children, but include plenty of drinking, snacking, and chatting. A recent Friday night, the Husband and I happily cocktailed with friends. Their impressively mature teenager took a cab to go out, freeing the adults to party like kids back at home.

Another couple brought amazing appetizers, including a baba ghanoush dip made from homegrown, grilled eggplants. Top shelf tequila, beer, and full glasses of wine were passed around. Before I started to have a little too much fun (these are newer friends after all), I decided to preventatively snack.

I am not a mixed nut kind of girl, but the closest bite was a Thai Lime and Chili Nut Mix. Flecks of crunchy kaffir lime leaves, threads of dried lemongrass, and fingers of red chili peppers were a spicey slice of Thai heaven. I knew I would have to have more.

In a slightly drug-addicty way, I stopped the conversation to ask where I could buy a bag. It turns out the addictive and exotic-tasting nuts can be purchased legally at our local Trader Joe’s.

The six of us moved outside and cozied up in a little love cabana by the pool. I plopped myself straight in front of the nuts and continued snacking. I only paused for a moment after accidentally eating one of the red peppers. (Avoid these peppers at all costs.)

The Thai flavors reminded me of our honeymoon. Our friends gave us a few days of cooking classes at a cooking school in Chiang Mai. We mashed and chopped kaffir lime, chili, and lemongrass and listened to the stories told by our Thai instructors.

Apparently, bad Thai husbands eat noodles (street food) and good husbands eat curry (wife food).

This Sunday, we leave for our ten year wedding anniversary trip. Since the Thai cooking classes were a highlight of our two-month trip honeymoon, I booked us for a commemorative 1-day Mexican cooking class next week.

I haven’t packed my bag of clothes, but I already bought a bag of the Thai nut mix from Trader Joes. If I can get it through customs, I think it will pair perfectly with a couple of margaritas.

Filed under: Food, Friday Treats + Eats, Marriage
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Friday Treats + Eats

Friday Sep 30 2011 by Isa | 3 Comments

Every autumn, I fall hard for figs. And this fig-a-licious season is no different. The Black Mission variety has been making a regular guest appearance at Friday pizza night.

A few years back, I read Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. The book not only inspired me to plant a vegetable garden, but also to instigate family pizza night every Friday.

Three hungry children asking for dinner right now erases my mental recipe index like the magnet sliding across the Etch a Sketch. It’s such a relief to always have Friday dinner already planned.

We make the pizza fresh and ideally, throw on whatever happens to be in season. However, if we haven’t made it to the farmers’ market, we are not above dusting off jars of olives and roasted peppers from the back of pantry. The fresh oregano, thyme, mint and rosemary that grow in our garden magically brighten the flavors. (These four herbs are really, really hard to kill.)

The best nights are when we grab the zah straight out of the oven and walk it over to the Rose Garden. We add a big green salad, bottle of wine, and soccer ball for a pop-up picnic.

I used to make and freeze all our own pizza dough, but I am diligently trying to relax my make-water-from-scratch religion. I now use the pre-made pizza crust from Trader Joe’s with pride. The love triangle of figs, goat cheese, and caramelized onions makes plain pizza feel special and look lovely.

Try a triangle and see for yourself.

Fig, Goat Cheese, and Caramelized Onion Pizza
Serves 4 adults

-pizza dough, premade and uncooked
- 1 pint black mission figs (about 14), sliced in 1/8” rounds
- 4-6 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
- 1 large yellow or white onion, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- fresh oregano or thyme leaves

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Heat butter and olive oil over low heat and add onions. Cook slowly (do not brown) until onions are translucent. Stir often until they begin to caramelize and turn sweet and brown.

3. Roll pizza dough on thinly on floured surface. Transfer to cookie sheet or pizza pan and bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes. (Don’t use a pizza stone unless you preheat it in the over for at least 45 minutes.)

4. Spread caramelized onions, then fig slices, then goat cheese on pre-baked pizza crust. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Bake pizza in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until crust is golden brown and toppings are bubbling.

6. Remove from oven and toss with fresh herbs.

7. Pack a pretty tablecloth, grab your lovies, and head to your nearest park for a pop-up picnic.

 

Filed under: Food
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Happy Anniversary

Thursday Sep 22 2011 by Isa | 4 Comments

Ten years ago today, the Husband and I stood under an old oak tree, at the base of the Santa Barbara foothills, and recited our wedding vows to each other.

Our dear family friend, Gary, gracefully officiated our patchwork quilt of Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist traditions that we had woven together into a wedding ceremony. The ceremony represented who we were and who hoped to become. The tattered copy of my vows sits in my sock drawer and still rings true today. 

At our ceremony's end, we kissed and our family and friends cheered. They threw bright rose petals across our path.

We all made our way back to the reception and were welcomed by steel drums and cold mojitos. We ate, drank, danced, and laughed. At the end of the night, we left the house in a cloud of smoke from hundreds of sparklers lit on fire to send us on our married way. (I'm sure it was my side of the family that didn't realize that sparklers should only be lit outside.)

Our sleepy first morning as husband and wife, we flipped through our guest book made by my artist friend, Anna. We read all the good wishes and looked at the polaroids from the night before. We still keep the book on our mantel and treasure all the notes, but it is Gary's note that has stayed with us all these years.

Gary wrote, "Thank you for letting me share your joy and excitement. The words of your ceremony were deeply and beautifully written. Live them!"

We haven't always lived them perfectly, or even prettily, but we keep trying with all the love and hope of two newlyweds.

Today, I mean them as much as I did ten years ago:

I, Isa, take you, Darryl, to be my husband and life-long companion.
I will work with you through the hard times,
enjoy each moment of the good times,
support and care for you,
help you achieve your dreams and the dreams that we share
and nurture our marriage to keep it strong and alive.
I will love and cherish you for all the days of my life.

In a couple of weeks, we head out to celebrate our decade in Todos Santos, Mexico, but tonight we stay in. We cancelled our dinner plans so we can lounge around eating Thai take-out, drinking good champagne, and watching the slide show of our honeymoon in southeast Asia. We'll spend a couple minutes reminiscening about the impossibility of taking two months off for a trip in this phase of our life. But, we'll move on to appreciate our kids and family we have built together (especially if said kids remain asleep in their bedrooms).

If we move onto a second bottle of champagne, I may even suck in my stomach and try on my wedding dress so we can party like it's 2001.

...because we have each other ~Jennifer Renninger

Filed under: Marriage, The Husband, Uncategorized
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What does your Netflix queue say about you?

Monday Sep 19 2011 by Isa | No Comments

Good for eating or heckling

Netflix thinks it knows me.

I recently visited the full site on my laptop and saw the following “Taste Preferences” selected just for me:

    1.  Inspiring Fight-the-System 20th Century Period Pieces
    2.  Visually-striking Mind-Bending Independent Movies
    3.  Critically-Acclaimed Understated Dramas
    4.  Any BBC Classic Miniseries or Documentary
 
I object.
 
The person who watches movies from this list doesn’t sound like much fun. I don’t think I would want to hang out with her. What about all the witty, quirky movies that I love? I am not above a chick flick. Really, I am not all that serious.
 
I recently went to see The Help with a group of girlfriends.

My friend Mara and I arrived early to make sure that we didn’t miss the previews. Like a 30-minute jog, movie previews are a low-commitment, quick-thrill way to “watch” a movie. I really enjoyed the book and figured the previews would be good too. Just like internet ads are matched to the websites you view, movie previews are matched to the genre of the feature film.

Besides, if you aren’t going to watch the previews, you might as well stay home and watch a DVD in your frumpy pajamas.

My friends Bess, Dannell and Sheri came straight from a round of Monday night cocktails. They laughed at Mara and me who arrived way too early in the near-empty theatre.

Bess cheered, “Who-hoo! Monday night is the new Friday.”

We all really need to get out more.

I laughed and clutched my warm decaf chai latte procured at the nearby Coffee Bean and Tea leaf. I didn’t have time for cocktails and a movie. I hate to admit it, but I’m guessing that the person who likes those Netflix recommendations—really, not me—probably also likes decaf chai lattes.

The Help is a bona fide chick flick. Yes, it explores the viewpoint of African American nannies and housekeepers in Jim Crow Mississippi, but don’t be fooled. It may try to masquerade as a poly-class-civil rights commentary, but it’s about the home, which 50 years later, is still ruled by females. Think floral dresses, bridge parties, plantation mansions, and varying hairdos used as metaphors for character types.

Surprisingly, the previews for The Help fell squarely into the intellectual, strange, and navel-gazing documentary category.

My girlfriends threw popcorn at the screen and booed. Mara said something along the lines of, “Who even likes documentaries?”

They were disgusted. I was captivated.

I love documentaries as much as I love nonfiction. There is enough tragedy, comedy, strangeness, and surprise in life to fuel all the best stories. I love fiction too, but I always gravitate toward the real. The Help is a fictional story, but it is based on a very real, very dark, florally patterned time in our history.

After the movie, I checked back with my Netflix queue. I decided to at least entertain the movie recommendations based on the algorithm’s judgment of my character and soul.

My latest “Taste Preferences” included:

    1.  Cerebral Fight-the-System Documentaries
    2.  Critically-Acclaimed Inspiring Dramas
    3.  Witty Coming-of-Age Comedies
    4.   Quirky Mother-Son Dramas
    5.  Witty Cult Movies
    6.  Classic Gritty Movies About Marriage
 
Now the person who watches these movies sounds a lot like me.

Filed under: Getting Out, Me

DIY Tissue PomPoms

Wednesday Sep 14 2011 by Isa | No Comments

Pompoms aren't just for cheerleaders anymore. Giant paper pompom flowers are blooming, and dangling, from ceilings everywhere.

Three cheers for party pompoms!

Martha Stewart Wedding debuted them years ago, but now you can order the whole rainbow on Etsy. My cousin Camila has turquoise pompoms hanging in her sea-themed nursery. My friend Crystal hung a giant pastel bouquet for her daughter's Easter birthday party. Crystal can make anything look beautiful and she pointed me to the instructions at Martha Stewart.com for the pompoms.

I live for party decorations, but the tissue pompoms always looked too labor intensive, even for someone who bakes homemade bread.

This weekend I started dreaming up a menu and party decorations for a little birthday bash I threw for a friend on Monday night. Birthday girl Morgan just moved from Chicago to Santa Barbara with her family and I wanted her to feel as welcomed and celebrated as possible. She is one of my favorite people in the world and I love her enough to make party pompoms. I also love her enough to cook a complete vegan dinner and vegan chocolate silk pie. (See, Morgan belongs in California.) I checked Martha's DIY instructions and realized that the tissue pompom flowers are ridiculously easy and quick to make. 

I folded and fluffed four giant tissue paper pompoms faster than you can say hip-hip-hooray.

I hung them below below my crazy crystal chandelier—surely chosen by someone's grandmother—in my dining room. I added a few crepe paper streamers and voilà, party time. The two husbands joined along with my cousin Jennie who loves Morgan too.

Jennie and Morgan

We laughed hard and ate mounds of vegetables by candlelight under the poms. By night's end, Morgan's husband was on guitar and Jennie on piano, both serenading the group. I enthusiastically cheered them on.

Just say no to crystal chandeliers, unless covered by poms

Filed under: DIY
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DIY Balloon Drum

Monday Sep 5 2011 by Isa | No Comments

This is one drum that you will happily let your kids play in the house.

We learned how to make child-sized tom tom drums on our recent trip to the Getty Villa in Malibu. The drums were easy to make, held together, and held interest for weeks. Making balloon drums would be a great birthday party activity. Add costumes, paper crowns, and maracas for a music parade around the block.

Supplies:
8" or 10" cardboard tubes - sold as "concrete forms" at Home Depot (an oatmeal container, soup can, or roll of duct tape work well too)
Heavy duty latex balloon (suitable for helium tanks) a few inches larger than the diameter of your cylinder
Colored construction paper
Curling ribbon
Scissors, glue, and a hole-punch

Instructions:
1) Cut the cardboard concrete form into 2-3" rings using a hack saw. Or, persuade one of the friendly Home Depot employees to cut it down for you with the store saw. The cardboard forms are usually about 48" long so you can make a lot of drums. If you only want to make one, an oatmeal container, soup can, or roll of duct tape would work well.

2) Stretch the deflated balloon repeatedly to loosen it up.

3) Snip off the open end of the latex balloon. We used 11" balloons for 8" cardboard rings. You need to be able to stretch the open end of the balloon all the way over the top of the cardboard ring, over the sides, and across the back (see photo). 

4) Tie a long loop of curling ribbon underneath the open end of the drum with a long "necklance" loop extending around both sides with the loop at the top (see photo at top of page).

5) Decorate and hole-punch a strip of construction paper as long as the circumference of the cardboard ring and the same width. Glue the paper around the edge of the ring, over the curling ribbon to secure it.

6) Give your kids a pair of unsharpened pencils to drum away.

7) Feel super crafty and wholesome with your homemade music party.

Here is a good video on tom tom drums on ehow: http://www.ehow.com/video_4428434_make-drum-using-container-balloons.html

Filed under: DIY
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Base Jump - The Getty and Muscle Beach

Monday Aug 29 2011 by Isa | 6 Comments

A museum full of priceless Greek antiquities may not seem like a wise destination for two bouncing boys, but the Getty Villa is surprisingly child-friendly.

It's always easier to stick close to home base, especially when home base happens to be Santa Barbara. But mixing it up is good fun and we all benefit from stepping out of our little world from time to time. So earlier this summer, the Husband and I left Story with my cousin, and jumped south with the boys for a day trip.

We first stopped by the Living Homes tour in Santa Monica. Living Homes are fabulous prefab homes that are ultra energy efficient, use recycled materials, and manage to feel warm and natural even with their modern designs.

Oh, and did I mention that a Living Home can be built in less than 8 hours?

After the home tour, we drove a few blocks to Muscle Beach. We thought it prudent to exercise the bulls, I mean boys, before letting them charge through the Gettys' china shop. The boys flipped on the rings, admired oiled biceps, and watched stage mommies coaching their little gymnasts in the grass. At the adjadent Chess Park, Samuel demonstrated a four-move check mate on the life-size chess board. For a moment, I fully understood the alure of stage mommy pride.

We then raced down the coast to Malibu, arriving at the museum during our designated time slot. Admission is free at the Getty Villa, but you need to reserve a ticket in advance and pay $15 for parking.

The Greek and Roman art was nice, but the family crafts were outstanding! As part of the Family ArtQuest program, the kids built "ancient musical instruments." I figured the boys would quickly loose interest, but the stations were well-organized and well-stocked with volunteers. We made rubber band guitars and balloon drums. The guitars twanged and the drums boinged. Oh noisy joy!

The boys are still playing their drums at home. Check back later this week for DIY balloon drum instructions. (They shot the guitar bands all over the house.)

The grounds were beautiful too.

The Getty's Family activity program runs all fall. Check the website for details. If you live in Southern California, it's worth a trip. Go while the lavender is still in bloom.

Even though the PCH traffic was decidely un-child-friendly on the way home, we had a  fantastic family day. We arrived home just before dark to collect Story who had just as much fun alone with her auntie.

It's great to leave Santa Barbara, but even better to return.

Filed under: Getting Out
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