Day trip to santa barbara

yesterday, we took a trip over to Santa Barbara. We had a lot of fun, and Santa barbara is truly one of the prettiest and nicest cities I've been to. Quite the contrast to LA if you ask me. First we went to the zoo, then down to their pier and afterwards to the SB mission

sliding dow hill at santa barbara zoo

liam got to feed a giraffe

all in the family

the zoo had a beautiful backdrop

flamingos

a lion took a nap

a piranha

a cute penguin

after the zoo we went down to the pier. We took a monkey with us from the zoo

Erik got tired after all the monkeying around

ice cream at the pier

one of the monks at the santa barbara mission, an old ministry from the 1700s

another monk

outside the mission

yet another monk

the church in the background

we stopped at a beach to watch the sunset. It was beautiful, but not quite worth the 70 dollar parking ticket

Erik

different uses of lavender

we made a butterfly garden out of mussels that we found on the beach and lavender and rosemary from the garden

the result

I couldn't stand parting a whole year with the Nusnäs candleholders I got for Christmas so I tied rings out of lavender to make them less "christmasy"

the advent candleholder

Liam took this photo while skyping with mormor and morfar. Morfar always comes up with fun stuff, hence the horse next to mormor

the lights in the backyard

erik dancing to snoop

The best moment of the day

your little hand is resting on my underarm
one foot burrowed into my stomach
finally still after a day of constant movement
a kiss on your hair
down soft after an evening bath
I'm not worried about you
you are strong
willful
a handful
but pure
draw people towards you without effort
and now you are breathing slowly
I get a chance to enjoy you
a quiet moment to remember how much I love you
always

mixed pictures from our vacation in florida

The boys comparing their spiderman shoes and their features

Mattias taught Liam some new tricks

Erik and grandpa at naples beach

Our beloved Johanna

The kids doing artwork during brunch

claire and millie at brunch

Luc and Liam in the "spider web"

Erik in the grocery store

In the fog of Naples beach

Naples playground

Philip and Liam sharing the fun

Anna and baby Maya

At the playground

Baby Filip

Erik being coy at the Eckstein's house

Alicia and Erik

Liam hanging in the rope-swing

Viveka, Filip, Tindra and Liam

picnic at the playground

Mattias hanging in the rope-swing

picnic

after christmas in weymouth

snowy weymouth

brothers playing

cousins

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