My First Apron

Made the apron, bought the boots :)

Levi's First Airplane Ride

After saying goodbye to Em, Peter, Josie, and Chiara, we drove to the airport and headed to Montana to spend two weeks with my family. Jared was able to join us for our journey up there and vacationed with us for two days before heading to the East Coast for two weeks for work. This was Levi's first airplane ride, so we were curious to see how he would handle things, and how it would be flying with both kids! 


I must say that at this age, Parker now seems like a breeze to travel with. He was super excited about the flights and happily packed his own backpack with some snacks, toys, and games--and even carried and took care of his backpack himself the whole time. He loved the turbulence on our approach to Salt Lake City, asking us if we could do that again! 


Levi was totally excited about the whole scene as soon as we sat down in our seats on the first flight. He loved all of the new things to explore and flirted with everyone around us. He was so active the entire time, clambering over all of us to get a look out the window. By the time we finally landed in Montana, I felt like I had been wrestling an alligator all afternoon!

5 Years Ago Today

Happy Anniversary to us.

"Paige and Jared's Wedding Wine 2006"

Jared + Paige

Ah, yes, there are moments where we can focus on each other and ourselves and not just the children, although they do seem to be few and far between. Here we are with a great view of the northern San Francisco Bay, heading down the hill after our walk in Muir Woods and getting ready to hit the road to Gold Country--Part Two of our vacation, coming up.

Mothers day revisited

A walk along the San Elijo Lagoon. On Mothers day we drove around looking for something to do and actually attempted to go for a walk in Torrey Pines but found that we needed CASH at the ranger parking station. Cash, who uses cash? Instead of searching for an ATM or robbing an innocent bystander for $10 (it is mother day after all) we went for a free walk. Walks should be free right?

Parker and "Mama" take a break from the walk to look for jumping mullet.

Who's more cute? I'll say Paige since Parker can't read this.

It's pretty hard to get Parker to smile for photos and it's might be even harder for him to "act" normal on video. That being said, he's still pretty sweet.

Point Loma Lighthouse

We went for a great walk around the Point Loma Light House at Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego with Dee and Niki last weekend. The weather was a little chilly, but the views from the point out there of San Diego, the harbor, and the ocean are incredible. Parker did a pretty good job on the walk (he's never been much of a "hiker"), with only a few complaints about hunger along the way; Levi slept in the front pack almost the whole time. Parker held onto a magnifying glass the whole way, although he's still figuring out how to actually use it :)

Dessert

Somehow I've managed to do a little baking lately--it helps that this dessert was super fast and easy to make! Lava cake is one of my favorite desserts to have, especially at fancy restaurants ;) I found this simple lava cake recipe on a really fun blog called thepioneerwoman.com; I've been dying to try it for ages, but I never had the ramekins to bake them in or the right kind of chocolate. I finally was all prepared last night, and they came out just right--delicious! Now, if only any of you reading this lived next door, you'd be enjoying the extras!!


The recipe that I used can be found at: 
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/07/molten-chocolate-lava-cake/


There are lots of more complicated recipes out there for lava cakes and souffles that I'll have to try next time to compare. I'm just glad that my first attempt was a success!

An Idyllic Day

The weather has been beautiful lately, and it sure puts me in the mood for summer fast! We spent a long afternoon and evening putt-putting around the bay in San Diego, and it was such a nice time. It was fairly warm despite a brisk breeze, and we ate sandwiches on the boat while watching about 100 sabots race around the Shelter Island basin, skippered by really young, really confident sailors! Then we headed down to the Midway and got a great close-up view as the sunset became more beautiful with every passing minute. We made it back to the launch ramp at dark, and I turned around to see Holland America's Oosterdam cruise ship passing right behind us, fully illuminated as it headed out to sea. By then, my feet were freezing and I was chilled to the bone (bringing only flip flops for the day out on the boat was a bit overly optimistic), but the day was totally worth it.

T.I.R.E.D.

Deep in the depths of exhaustion. We had a really fun but super busy Sunday--started off with a birthday party for a girl from Parker's preschool class, then came home for a photo shoot with our sister/in-law Diana, who is an awesome photographer. She flew down from Northern California just for the day to take portraits of the kids and the whole family--we laughed a lot and hustled to get as many different photos done as possible before dark. I can't wait to see the results!


I've been fighting a nasty cough for over a week now, which combined with getting up four times a night with Levi (and rarely getting a nap) is just really grinding me down. It's bitterly ironic that while we've tried to be really conscientious about not having Levi around too many people in his first weeks, to try to keep him healthy, the person that he has to be closest to is constantly coughing. I'm really, really hoping that he and Parker stay healthy--Jared is already the next man down. 

37 Weeks

Tick tock, tick tock...

34 Weeks

31 Weeks

28 Weeks

So, I reached 28 weeks on Friday...I feel like my belly is already HUGE, but once I saw this picture of myself, I realized that I'm not THAT big, and I'm still going to get WAY bigger! Oof. Twelve more (or so) weeks to go!

Batiquitos Lagoon

Do we have the most charming, photogenic son in the world, or what?