Spencer's First School Picture

In this age of ubiquitous digital photography, where it feels as though every moment of our children's lives is being recorded for posterity (and blogged about by their inconsiderate parents), its refreshing to be reminded that there's still an industry out there dedicated to capturing the most forced, artificial smiles that our children are capable of producing.  Good thing we remembered to have Spencer wear his extra-special Puma t-shirt for his very first school picture. ;)

Haircuts for the Boys

Forget those specialty kids places that charge an arm and a leg for a haircut just because they show Nemo.  We're going to Great Clips.  And is there anything cuter than a freshly shorn 2 and 4 year old?

Ryan's 35th Birthday

Getting older happens to everybody, but not everybody gets the chance to celebrate their 35th birthday with friends and family watching a fabulous sunset from a catamaran underneath the Golden Gate bridge. It was a pretty amazing evening, and I'm very grateful my Dad for making this happen and to my sister-in-law Lauren for sharing her birthday with me!

The boat ride was spectacular, but the best gift of all was a happy birthday poster that the boys made for me-- the first time that Spencer had done so much writing.  Its still hanging up in my closet!

Check out the full set of photos....

Bouquets to Art

As Nancy has gotten more and more involved in the "Bouquets to Art" fundraiser, it became more and more embarrassing that we'd never gotten our act together to support the cause!  Finally this year we got Juanita to watch to boys and headed over to the de Young with Adam, Rachel, Phil, Nikki, and of course Nancy and the Barrons.

The premise of the event: floral arrangements inspired by modern art.  Highlights included the fashion show (all the dresses were made out of flowers), hob nobbing with the models & designers, strolling through the exhibits, swing dancing in the arboretum.... not to mention just getting dressed up and heading out for an evening of cultural entertainment!

Thanks for organizing such an amazing event, Nancy-- full photos here!

Reading Time with Rachel

We are just so0o glad that Adam & Rachel are still friends from us after that Hawaii trip... here's a cute shot of Rachel reading books to the kids at their place in San Carlos.  SO nice to have these guys just 10 minutes down the road...

Lake Lagunitas Hike with the Usual Suspects

This Bay Area adventure didn't get off to the most auspicious start-- Lake Lagunitas is deceptively far away, and we were all dealing with whiny, hungry children as we wound our way up the final road to the lake.  In fact the Canadas called to say that they were turning around and going home.  They ended up making it, but only after we'd ravenously eaten their lunch!

But a little food was all it took to revitalize the troops.... and lunch by the waterfall was just the thing to get us all ready for a fantastic walk around the lake.  Fond memories include epic battles between the kids for hiking sticks, an hour of fantasy fishing in the river, several near-soaked experiences (both from the lake as well as from potty training), one very real tumble from a log for Theo, and an even more real fire truck evacuation during our hike (fortunately, no one we knew!).

A great adventure, thanks for organizing, Nikki!

See the full slideshow here....
    

Spencer's Version of Wall-E

Over a year ago, Phil & Nikki gave the boys Wall-E on DVD for Christmas. It's pretty much the only kids movie we own, so suffice it to say Spencer has watched it a LOT. We didn't realize just how much until we saw this drawing on a pad of paper in his room.

Big Island Adventure

Hawaii... what could be more relaxing?  Unless you decide to go to the big island, bring along 3 kids under 3, and eschew the fancy resorts in favor of a couple of "Westy" WW camper-vans. Then, not so relaxing. But an adventure? Absolutely.

We did actually start our trip at a resort-- enjoying a night at the Sheraton Keauhou outside Kona.  The swimming pool was nice, and seeing manta rays from the restaurant was cool, but we were here for some adventure. So off to "Happy Campers" we went to pick up our Westies!

The next couple of days were pretty memorable: we ate, slept, and played from these little vehicles at some of the most spectacular beaches around the island.  We saw huge waves, amazing rainbows, spectacular sunsets, and tremendous vistas.  We BBQ'd some amazing meals, and loved being able to roll out of our Westie in the morning to have breakfast on the beach.

There were definitely some rough moments: Tyler was eaten alive by the bugs.  Adam and Rachel would move their Westie to a deserted corner of the parking lot since Lilah was up so early.  And I don't think either one of us really remembers Volcano National Park thanks to a massive toddler meltdown in the parking lot of the visitor center.

After a couple of sleepless nights with all 4 of us in the van, Ryan took the boys out to camp on the beach.  A great plan, until a storm came through and knocked over the cheap rental tent!  Ryan will never forget ferrying the Spencer back to the Westie in the rain, and coming back to find a now-awake Tyler screaming at the rainclouds in confusion.

We even had a breakdown-- one of our Westies overheated on Easter Sunday, stranding us on a desolate stretch of highway outside Hilo.  As luck would have it, there was a charming Hawaiian church across the street that took us in for an amazing brunch and afternoon of hospitality while Happy Campers tracked down the right parts.

The grand finale?  Tyler took a fantastic nap on the flight home, only to wake up on the wrong side of the bed.  He was unconsolable for the last 2 hours of the flight.  It was horrible.

Well, you really do get to see the Big Island in a unique way from the back of a camper van.... a lot of fond memories from this trip, but suffice it to say that it took us nearly a year to brave getting on a plane again after this Big Island Adventure!

Full slideshow here....