Ano Nuevo

We visited a nearby beach where elephant seals gather around this time of the year to breed. We didn't see any births, but we did have beautiful weather and lots of baby seals.

See more pictures here

Zoo animals, Lego animals

We took a trip to the zoo on Presidents' Day. Apparently, everyone else had the same idea. LT enjoyed the giraffe that looked at us, the kid-size door and brushing the goats (kids?).

Later, LT surprised us with his Lego skills.

A pair of Tyranosaurus Rex

A dog (or was it a velociraptor?), an airplane, and an "elephant T-rex"

(Feels like) Springtime!!

Finally it stopped raining after raining pretty much every single day of January. (Which was fine, we did need the rain!)

We sold off the washer and dryer from our old house Saturday morning, so then we felt justified in getting some new patio furniture. It's great! There are 4 chairs, 2 ottomons and a table, so you can sit 6. The chairs also recline for lounging. See picture #1.

We also had a fire in the Chimnea, tested out the tiki torches (also left by the previous owner) and even made S'mores!

In other exciting news, the hot tub is back in operation and the three of us used it both last night and the night before. Yeah!

Hands-on art

LT dons a smock (aka daddy shirt) in preparation to paint.


He learns to mix colors to make new colors, and invariably everything turns brown.

Handprints are cool too.


I call this piece, "Arghhh!"

Tisket a Tasket

Getting ready for brother!

I've starting getting things ready for baby and then LT got in the swing of things, too. All his animals needed diapering. Then they all lined up for a picture.

The smaller animals are wearing newborn fitted diapers (cloth, but I think that's obvious :)). These are the same diapers LT wore! Panda was not newborn sized and had to upgrade to a premium size prefold diaper. That's a little more old school.

Then Kitty wanted in on the action (diapered over underwear for modesty's sake)...



Very proud of his work!

Natural Bridges

We went down to the Natural Bridges state park in Santa Cruz this weekend, hoping to see some butteflies. It was too late to see the butterflies, they'd already migrated on. Next year, we have to try and make it down in November!

Lucky for us, we were there for a tidepool tour! The ranger showed us a safer way down to the tidepools and we had fun jumping over them and looking at the aneomes and starfish and whatever else there was!

It was really neat and I'm sure we'll be back!

Orange Smiles

Jump!

Do you see it?

Tidepools

Quick Christmas Recap

We are back and getting back into the grove. Okay, we've been back more than a week, but still not a week back at work yet.

Here is a brief rundown of how the trip to Indiana went.

Presets! Yeah! We love presents!


Picture takers everywhere!


All those cameras can make a boy tired!


Look at this nice family sans boys.

Oh wait, one of the nappers has decided to make an appearance!

Note, sorry to Auntie C for the picture with the eyes closed... even with all those cameras, I didn't have too many to choose from!

Of course there was a wedding and all sorts of other fun stuff that may have pictures on the other camera. :D Baby steps...

Hair Cut

LT got his first real all over cut a couple weeks ago, courtesy of Daddy's salon.




Adn then we went to Auntie M's college gradtion. Congrats!
And now we're off to the great-Grandmas!

Merry Christmas from Rudolph LT!

Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas ...

We got the tree up and decoreated Thanksgiving weekend...

Then LT was a tree!

This gingerbread house dwarfed ours!

And all the lights are up now, too.


It's an area tradition that everyone (okay, maybe half?) gets a yard tree and decorates it with large multi colored lights with a yellow or white on top. Our street tree coordinator collected $15/tree back in late October or early Novemeber and then the first weekend in December this large tree appeared on the lawn!

Thanksgiving

LT gets a baby ...

BROTHER! He's just going to be so excited. He was already convinced it was a boy baby. It's his baby, he tells us. I asked if he was going to help change diapers and he said, "Yes, but I can't reach the table!"

Gingerbread House!

LT really wanted to make a gingerbread house last weekend, so I did what any mom would do: go to allrecipes.com and search for 5 star gingerbread and frosting recipes. Then a trip to Sur La Table for essential cutters and decorating gun.

Beginning!


Decorating!

And the best part, eating!


It turns out that this is a good use of Halloween candy. The rest has been hidden in my closet and has been forgotten for the past week, so it's probably about time to toss it. Once the parents raid their favorites, of course.

Christmas List

LT made up his Christmas Wish List. He insists it is not a Christmas List, just a Play List, since really he would like these toys at any time for any reason. It was tough, though, trying to fit every single toy in the ad on to his paper.



Note: it's hard to get a real smile and not a silly "cheese" grin.

Halloween Fun

Ugh. Our computer is not working very well, but finally here are the Halloween night pictures.

A confident Trick-or-Treater, flashlight in hand.


The Candy Train.


I think he got a few more candies than cousin JT. LT has never met a candy he didn't like. Except, maybe the gummy eyeball. He didn't try that one. We will be doling out 2 candies a day for the rest of the year, it looks like.