Saying Goodbye to Daddy// Third Birthday

Lyla turns three this Saturday, no big plans like her first birthday, but a little more than her second (we took her to the Jacksonville Zoo). Unfortunately, it turns out that Lyla's third birthday will be the first that Alan misses due to a deployment. Since Alan won't be here on her birthday, we decided that spreading out special moments leading up to Lyla's birthday would be better than throwing a huge party that he would miss out on. 

 We spent an entire day hanging out at the La Jolla cove catchin' some rays, hanging out with the sea lions, and playing in the water.

I can't get over how adorable Lyla is in her watermelon bathing suit from Target.

 

Lyla hates being dirty, so I was completely shocked when she let us burry her in the sand and then asked for us to do it three more times. 

She was not too thrilled about the "gross green stuff", but ventured out with her Daddy anyway.

   After the beach we headed to the nearest Cold Stone Creamery for some ice-cream and posted a bit on snapchat. 

We were so busy that I didn't have time to bake a cake (I'll bake a real one on her actual birthday) so I just bought one and threw some sprinkles on it--simple and cute, right?

Completely intrigued by her little critter friend.

We had to say goodbye to our favorite guy this week, it's always hard when you're away from your other half. I'm not really sure how much of the concept Lyla grasps, but she cries for her Daddy at bedtime, then gets overly excited when I tell her he's on a big ship--she thinks he's a "good pirate". We're going to take this all one day at a time and continue our adventures, that way when Alan comes home we'll have so much to tell him.