Eleanor's Birthday Weekend in Aptos (aka Aaron's Work Retreat)

Eleanor turned 2 on January 9th and we celebrated her birthday with a trip to the beach!  Her birthday fell on a Saturday and it just so happened to be Aaron's work retreat weekend to Aptos.  We had fun making Eleanor feel special in the midst of all the bonding with the office.  It was seriously picturesque and just an all around great weekend.

We drove into town on Friday and Eleanor didn't get sick in the car (success!).  We were the first ones there so we headed out to the beach and tried to psych Eleanor up for her birthday the following day.  We have a video on Aaron's phone of us asking her "What's tomorrow Eleanor" and she says "Birfday?!" Then we asked, "And how old are you going to be?" and she responds with "Two....day!" It's pretty darn cute.  I'll have to talking upload when I get a chance.

In the meantime, I love the these pictures...

That night we got a late Italian dinner and then headed back to the beach house to crash.

Eleanor slept in until 9 am that next morning (so heavenly!).  She could have kept sleeping but I didn't want to mess up her 11 am nap time so I woke her up with a round of "Happy Birthday."  I carried her down the stairs to see Daddy who was in the process of making breakfast for everyone.

^^Eleanor gets the BEST bed head

After breakfast, we went up to our room and blew up balloons for our own little family celebration.  Eleanor opened some presents (a couple "big sister" books and some clothes) and we sang "Happy Birthday" several more times.

^^gotta love the leftover Christmas boxes

We got all dressed for the day and headed out to the beach.  Aaron and his co-workers played wiffle ball while Eleanor and I roamed the seashells.  Turns out she's not much for walking on sand (who is this girl?) so she and I headed back inside pretty quickly.

After naps, we headed out with everyone for some lunch, antique shopping and Marianne's ice cream.

 ^^Aaron holding the girls while we all ate :)

 ^^The workers at Marianne's put a candle in Eleanor's ice cream and serenaded her with another "Happy Birthday" song.  By this point Eleanor was really into the birthday song and started singing "Happy Birthday to Eleanor....that's ME!"

^^This girl loves her ice cream!

Then we went to the most delicious dinner at Cafe Sparrow.  I have never had such amazing pork chops in all my life.  

We came home to the beach house for our last night, put Eleanor to bed and stayed up playing the name game with everyone.  It was seriously funny.  

Sunday was spent packing up, going to church and grabbing lunch before heading home.  

The whole weekend was great and Eleanor felt more love than ever, thanks to both the people we were with and the many family members that FaceTimed her with birthday wishes.