Back to Bakersfield

For the sixth summer in a row, I went to Bakersfield to hang out with Katie and Ben and the kids. Took lots of pictures, as usual. To sum it all up, we played with the kids, ate a lot of cupcakes, went swimming a couple times, sweated a whole bunch, and in general had a lot of fun. Mom came with--she was great company on the drive to and from. I always forget that I actually live in NORTHERN Utah, and there's a whole lot of Utah south. That part of the drive is the most painful on the way back because it feels like it never, ever ends!!

Anyway. On to the trip! The stars of the show, Seren and Jonas! Seren has been into making faces lately: I can't remember if that first one--the super-evil-baby look--was intentional or not. Jonas has some pretty good faces too, and was kind enough to actually hold still and look at the camera this year: The 2nd picture especially reminds us all of Mike. :)

Every summer I go to Bakersfield, we always have to go to Long John Silver's (or "the fish place", as Jonas calls it). There are none in Utah, and I miss hush puppies!! We had all kinds of fun here. This Long John Silver's is paired with an A&W, and root beer on tap is pretty awesome. Seren was more interested in poking her Dad with a fork than actually eating. In 100+ degree weather, swimming is about all you can do!

Jonas's favorite thing to do is jump into the pool, and I got some good action shots of that. He also requested lots of "jump over the noodle", hand stands, and also cannonballs and belly flops (which I declined). I tried to practice diving, and had a lot of leg flops, though. Cute, cute, cute. Seren really liked my goggles, and I kept getting adorable smiles out of Jonas. It's been years since I've managed to take such good pictures of that boy! Here's Katie and her ducklings, sunning themselves by the pool.


During this visit, we had a love affair with cupcakes. Seriously, the trip began and ended with cupcakes, and there also a whole lot in between. I bought some cupcakes at Sweet Tooth Fairy to bring as a treat. They were 1 1/2 days old and a little squished by the time we ate them in Bakersfield, but still delicious! Those cupcakes got Katie wondering if such a place as Sweet Tooth Fairy existed in Bakersfield (she didn't think so). I googled cupcakes in Bakersfield, and found a half dozen possibilities. Over the week I was there, we visited three of them. We tried Frosting Ink first. That was my least favorite. I had an orange vanilla cupcake, but it was mostly just the color orange and tasted very little like the fruit. Next we tried Cupcakes N' Crema. They had a maple bacon cupcake that I really liked, and also they came to the rescue when we got home and I discovered one of my pretty Colombia earrings had fallen out of my ear...somewhere. I called Cupcakes N' Crema, and the wonderful bakery lady found it in the parking lot and held it for me. Whew! Finally, the very last day, we tried out Sweet Surrender. They had a lot more variety to offer at their store (they sold more than just cupcakes), and the cupcakes were pretty decent. I think Sweet Tooth Fairy is still my favorite though.

Turns out cupcakes are Jonas's favorite dessert, which is very sad because bakeries don't really make dairy-free cupcakes. Katie made him some box-mix yellow cupcakes with the pre-made frosting. And sprinkes. Seren also loves cupcakes, although all she really does is eat the sprinkles and smear frosting all over her face. Her favorite shirt is the "cupcake tirt" and she requests it daily. If it's dirty, she pulls it out of the laundry hamper and carries it around with her. One of the most frequent words out of mouth was "cupcake" (along with "can I see it?" every time I took a picture). So adorable.
The shirt in the picture is the beloved cupcake shirt. No, it's not really a cupcake. More like a pile of whoopie pies. But that's ok. :)

So I said the trip also ended in cupcakes. When we got back to my apartment in Utah, the first thing we did was go to Sweet Tooth Fairy (which is a mile or less away from my apartment). For cupcakes. Again.
The rest of my pictures are just random. Enjoy! Seren and Mom. Seren was entranced by Mom's hair clip. She also enjoyed watching Mom put on eye shadow, and picking out which earrings I should wear.

It was too hot to play outside most of the time, but we got a few hours in. Katie's back yard is really pretty. We helped with a teeny bit of yard work and spreading bark mulch around. Or babysitting. :) Seren hates spiders, but she's obsessed with rolly-polly bugs and snails. Like this awesome specimen that Katie found for her:


Seren carried that thing around for a good half hour, I think.

After bark mluching on Saturday, the kids got a little bored. Ben gave them fake tattoo mustaches. Seren wasn't quite as thrilled with her mustache as Jonas was. Although, despite her girly-ness, she requested a dump truck video on my iPad once, and wanted Mom to read her all of Jonas's constructions books.


Here Jonas is playing a game I made up while Mom and I babysat one evening while Katie and Ben had a date night. I would build a box out of these giant alphabet foam puzzle pieces with a kid inside, and then the kid would burst out. We built a lot of boxes after that. Jonas peaking out with his mustache reminds me of some cartoon character. Can't think of the name.

Speaking of Jonas, check out this awesome rendition of "Do You Hear the People Sing" from Les Mis. He sang the entire song over webcam for Shelley. I love how he hums some of the musical interludes.


Ben has started writing a column for a Real Estate magazine. He needed a face shot for the magazine, and asked me to take one for him. The gorgeous backdrop is a pillow case, expertly held up by Mom and Katie. Here, Ben, I fixed up a really good one for you:

It was a fun trip, and it was hard to come back home. I'm almost down to one more month of freedom before school starts back up, but I still have so much more to do! To round out a post full of adorable kids, here's one more awesome face from Seren: