Trick-or-Treating with Spencer

This year, we decided Spencer was old enough to go trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. All the kids at daycare got dressed up and heading out together. Click here for a full slide show of our Halloween festivities.


We had quite an entourage, including Spencer the Lion, Evan the Turtle, Rochelle the Princess, Gaby the Pirate, Superman Roman, and seven adults!


At the first few houses, when offered candy, Spencer either shook his head "no" or took the candy but promptly handed it back. About five houses in, he finally got the hang of it and was going back for seconds. :)


We continued the Halloween festivities later that night at Grace and Alonzo's house where we ate a delicious chili dinner, handed out candy to neighborhood kids, and watched the kids romp around. Yet another fantastic Halloween!

Spencer steps into some BIG shoes

Lately, Spencer has started putting on shoes...other people's shoes. The bigger the better.


His favorite pair of shoes are actually Mom's ridiculous fuzzy slippers from Patagonia. He steps into them (sometimes forwards, sometimes backwards) and pads around the house looking down at his feet in amazement. Click here for a video of Spencer running around in Eunice's slippers...


Sometimes, when we're not looking, he shows up wearing shoes that our guests kindly took off by our front door. Here, Spencer shows off Pedro's nice leather shoes.

More Apple Eating

Tuesday means Grandpa Nic is down from San Francisco, and its time to enjoy the fall bounty of our backyard apple tree. Legs crossed, leaning back in the lounger, gnawing on a juicy apple... what could be better for these 2 peas in a pod?



Spencer practices his high fives with Grandpa Nic:


Enjoying that apple, big guy? This is the easiest way we've found to keep Spencer occupied for a good half an hour-- take one chomp to get things started, and he'll work his way through an entire apple (including the core if you're not watching!).

The Life of a Juror-- Playing with Spencer in Central Park

Ryan has spent the last couple of weeks serving his civic duty as a juror on a murder trial. Heavy stuff (more on this topic once the trial is over!), but civic duty does have its upsides: the lifestyle of a juror isn't so bad-- home in time to spend lots of early evenings in Central Park with Spencer!



Click here for some shots of us on the slide and in the playground...


Here we are running up the great ramp up to the top of the slides. Spencer stands at the bottom of the slides, says "up!", and runs up the ramp to the top!


Spencer would be smiling even bigger if he could see the goofy expression on his dad's face as they head down the slide!

Visit from Josh and Kimberly

Josh and Kimberly came out for a weekend visit from Boston, and we had a fantastic, fun-filled Bay Area weekend with them. Click here for the slideshow...


We went hiking in Purisima Creek and enjoyed beautiful views of Half Moon Bay-- the only problem was when Spencer decided that he had to be carried by mom on the steepest part of the climb! We enjoyed a glass of wine and the sunset from the Marina before handing the little guy off to Grandpa Nic and Terez as we headed off for dinner on Chestnut Street. We ate at Mamacitas.... which had amazing upscale Mexican + dynamite margaritas!

Spencer's First Puddles

Fall has arrived, which means the start of the rains. We got a real gusher last week-- the first real rainstorm since Spencer has been walking around, and it was coming down hard. We put him in his new raincoat and let him loose on the front porch.



Click here for the photos and a video... He was definitely a little hesitant at first, but soon was running around like a champ in the puddles. Of course, while we were playing in the rain the drain in front of our garage became clogged with the fall foliage and flooded again... but these pictures are a lot more cute then the pictures of Ryan cleaning the gutters and drains with his bare hands, or making a soggy run to Home Depot for a sump pump!

Spencer Shares an Apple

One of our favorite things about Spencer is how much he likes to share. No matter how much he's enjoying something, he almost always offers you a bite and will usually laugh with delight if you take him up on the offer.

 Here, Spencer shares an apple off the tree in our back yard with dad.

Matt and Julia's Wedding

Our second wedding weekend in a row! This time up in Napa, to celebrate with our Williams friend Julia at a fabulous ceremony and reception at Barndiva in Healdsburg, followed the next day by a wonderful afternoon at Iron Horse Vineyard for bubbly and tamales.

 Our favorite memories include plotting our route up to Napa to avoid the fleet week festivities, finding a wonderful last minute hotel room, setting up our video camera for our "official duties," seeing Barndiva transformed into a perfect wedding site, seeing our Williams friend Adam Serfass transformed into the perfect wedding officiant (next to Eunice, or course!), We unexpectedly had Spencer with us, but the whole weekend was very kid friendly... we can't wait to see the photos taken by the wedding photographer of Spencer and his girlfriend at Barndiva's gate! Congratulations, Matt and Julia, and thanks for a wonderful time!

Click here for a slideshow