The Birthday(s)!

Our precious baby boy is a baby no more! C logged in his last hours of babyhood on Sunday morning. He's now a big toddler of one! Also celebrating an important birthday this year is Auntie Jess, who hit the quarter century mark on Sunday. To celebrate we had a wonderful day in the parks, ate lunch with friends (thanks again for coming down to see us Steph & Shane!), played in the pool (the kids first time on a water slide!) and a delicious and very filling meal at the Jazz Kitchen. We had Disney cakes in the afternoon and birthday beignets at night!

the park is a lot more fun when you're one!
big sis is a big help with gifts
his very own Uggs (or bouts, as B calls them)
mmm...pirate cake
and a birthday beignet to end the day

Disneyland, Post Two

We are home now from a wonderful trip and although we're still a bit dazed and confused we're (grudgingly) getting back into the flow of regular life. It was interesting how differently we see Disneyland when we have small children with us and we really don't know how anyone does it in less than five days and without at least four adults.

Some of the rides we thought they would love really freaked them out: B was scared of the Buzz Lightyear ride and C got freaked out when the sub went dark in the Nemo ride. But they both did great on the Haunted Mansion ride! Maybe it was more of a timing issue, the "scary" rides were on day one and maybe they just didn't know what to expect. They definitely did not like Pirates of the Carribean or Snow White, but we sort of expected that... Their favorite rides were Dumbo, everything in Bug's Land, and Peter Pan. They also loved Toon Town and the Tarzan Treehouse. The only rides we did multiple times were Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh and Flik's Flyers.

But the highlight was definitely the Playhouse Disney Live show, which we finally caught the last show on our last day. We really should have done it the first day and then taken them to as many showings as possible! It was super adorable and they both LOVED it. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins and Handy Manny live! What could be better?

We also did the Minnie Mouse and Friends breakfast on Monday morning and that was a lot of fun. B got really into meeting all the characters and having them sign her autograph book. C was more into his food than the characters...until Captain Hook came around that is. He was so into Captain Hook! The only other character he liked as much was Ariel (guess he has a thing for redheads).

These are only some of the pictures. We still need to upload the ones taken with the point & shoot, so expect a third post soon!

having fun on the deck (that's California Adventures down there making all that fun noise)

we all loved the treehouse
a very happy birthday boy
wondering why mama & daddy need to stop for coffee before playing in the park
a girl in Pixie Hollow = happiness

meeting the mouse himself
just taking a break from it all
I spy a beautiful castle and a cute little bebo!

Happiest Place on Earth: Part One

We got here Thursday...after a long wait at SFO, fog was not our friend and apparently did not want us to get to Disneyland. We love our room at the Grand Californian, even the bunk beds are fun. Went trick-or-treating at California Adventures that night. Auntie Jess and Uncle D joined us late on Friday and we've all been having big fun ever since. Too tired...can't say anymore...

Please enjoy these photos while you wait for the next post: Happiest Place on Earth: Part Two.

costumes waiting to be worn

meeting Jojo might be the most exciting thing that has ever happened to B

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!

Yesterday we went to the the Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival. We had heard that people attend en masse (as in hundreds of thousands of people) so we decided to head out after B's gymnastics (in San Jose) and cut over to HWY 1 as soon as we could to avoid the traffic on HWY 92. We figured that even if it took us an hour or more to get there, at least we'd be driving instead of sitting stock still in our car (just in case you're wondering it usually takes us about half an hour to get to Half Moon Bay from our house). The drive was absolutely wonderful! We ended up taking 84 at about Palo Alto, and it was such a pretty drive.


We found a nice spot along a creek to stop and take photos for T's assignment. J and the kids had fun playing with the rocks and constructing a sculpture for T to photograph a la Andrew Goldsworthy, and T had a blast playing around with the elements and using her new tripod.

B, C & J's sculpture

B's sculpture
we gathered a bunch of white rocks and left our mark

B the photographer

Apparently, Half Moon Bay is the pumpkin capitol of the world, but we still stopped at the first pumpkin patch we saw and we're glad we did. The closer we got to the town, the flashier the pumpkin patches were; that might have been fun for the kids, but it meant three things to us: 1) paying more for the pumpkin, not because the pumpkin is better but because someone has to help foot the cost of the giant blow up bouncy house 2) way too many people, pushing and shoving and driving us nuts and 3) overshadows the fun of simply picking out your own pumpkin. We all had a lot of fun picking out some very interesting pumpkins (seven in total: one for each of us, one for G-Money who will be visiting us the week of Halloween -- we can't wait! we can't wait! -- and two teeny, tiny baby ones for good measure). We got to use a wheelbarrow and there was even an hay pyramid to be climbed.

Coming up from the south we really didn't see much traffic at all, so it was a big shock when we got to the town of Half Moon Bay. So. Many. People! We were starving and had to pee when we first got there, so we roamed around irritably for awhile trying to get those needs met. The first place we tried to eat had a line out the door and people kept cutting in front of us even though J said "We are in line here!" The second place we went was kind of divey, the food did not look good...well, the food we saw other people being served, we never even got to place an order; after awhile we got tired of batting away the flies and just left. The third place was closing at 3 pm. The fourth place was great though; an Italian ristorante with delicious food, clean (and borderline fancy) and the service was friendly...thank goodness!

Bladders emptied, tummy's filled, we commenced strolling through the many, many booths with arts and crafts. T got a replacement for her Mug (there's a story involved in that, we'll try to post about it soon but emotions are still running a little high on that one), B got some new undies, C got a fun pumpkin cap and J got a beautiful glass photo frame (okay, maybe that's not strictly for J, but he didn't want to feel left out). We met some great artists: Mike Taylor, who makes whimsical wire sculptures (Wire-U-Here) and lives in Portland...in fact his kids live in (drum roll please!) Columbia City! We also met Sam Price who makes these amazing dog collage portraits; we're buying lotto tickets now in hopes of winning funds for a portrait of Rhys.

It took us an hour to drive about five blocks out of town, but once we hit HWY 92 N it really wasn't so bad. The slightly slower flow of traffic allowed for some fun camera play.