Our Visit to Santa

With less than a week to go
we headed out through the snow.
(not quite)

Dashing and dodging parking lot traffic
we needed a little holiday magic.
(aka an empty spot)

Owen and Tess
were in their best dress.
(by my standards)

When we finally made it to see Santa
there was a line stretching back to Atlanta.
(seriously)

It was getting down to the wire
the situation was dire.
(O needed to pee)

As the line got smaller and our time drew near
we found out Santa needed to take an hour break to feed the reindeer.

Tessa's first crawl!

Owen's Wizard of Oz

Owen had his debut on stage, starring as lion number two in the Building Kidz version of the Wizard of Oz. Here is our tap dancing phenom.

Owen with Grandpop's trains

A favorite thing to do when we were growing up was to set up my dad's trains during the Christmas season. Below is video of the first time Owen is setting up Grandpop's Lionel trains.

Here is a link to some more video with the Plasticville Houses set up.

A great holiday weekend

A holiday weekend definitely to be thankful for. Great food, family, friends and weather. Turkey day was spent with Molly, Eric and their family. We all had plenty of play time (mountain bike rides, surf, searching for starfish at low tide and strolls along the beach). The surf on Sunday was GiNORMUS - (click on the link to see a picture - the set waves were probably 20 feet).

Mother's little helper

A little help from big brother

Fall Hike

Weather starting turning - good day for a little hike on the other side of the Valley, up Montara Mountain.

Hike two

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As goes Tess, So goes the Nation

Halloween

Halloween trick or treating over at the Kellers

leaf t-rex

leaf t-rex
Originally uploaded by rick loughery

A great fall weekend. We went on a photo safari, nature hunt w/ O's new camera from Nana (future ansel adams in the works). And then some art projects with leaves, of course they had to be in the shape of dinosaurs

Fantastic Four

The big 4
Originally uploaded by rick loughery

Big weekend for Owen’s fourth birthday. Dee Dee came out to visit and celebrate. On Saturday (O’s bday) we took a trip to Lemo’s Pumpkin farm down in HMB. Owen got cold boots at the last minute and didn’t want to do the pony ride but we did do a train ride (actually a tractor disguised as a train). Kylie and Sam (and Molly/Eric) came for some birthday cake. Then on Sunday we went and saw the Blue Angels – still unbelievably impressive. The big birthday gift was a fish tank – 10 fish and two snails. Owen has been intensely tracking their moves.

The Anti-Bib

Tess is not much for the bib these days. This was like the 5th time in a row she did this.

Fun wedding weekend

IMG_0281.JPG
Originally uploaded by rick loughery

Fun weekend in Colorado for Bryan (kim's brother's wedding)

Summertime in Pacifica

The last few weeks the weather started finally changing from the summer gray fog to the warm, sunny beach days of the late summer. We took full advantage this weekend - went to the beach Friday evening and then back on Saturday. There are some more pics on flickr.

Serious Babble

Here is some quick little video of Tessa's first babbles. This was about 2 weeks ago.

Owen's first camping trip

Owen's first camping trip was a big success. We went camping at San Mateo Memorial Park with the Kellers (Tristan and Trevor) and the Andrasicks (Sean and Ben). We all hiked in (2 miles) to reserved camp sites. (Dad mostly pushed Owen in the double jogger - who knew it was an all-terrain stroller). There was a great creek that the boys played in and fire pit for us to make smoores. Pictures are here at flickr.

Ad Man

Tonight Owen had his first real experience with commercials... they work...(he is so use to watching PBS Sprout and other shows without the typical commercial breaks or if he does... they are TiVo'd and we skip by them for him) But tonight - he was watching Nick and had some good exposure to commercials.... so far he needs apple juice - "You can just go to the store and get it dad." And "Chocolate breakfast cereal b/c the crazy bird told me."

Fun weekend

1st hike in backpack
Originally uploaded by rick loughery

We survived (we being, Tess, Owen, Rupert, Bailey and Dad) while mom took a much needed break. We hit the zoo, did a nature hike, ate pizza and burritos.... good stuff.

Santa Cruz Boardwalk

Its been just over a year since we went down to the boardwalk at Santa Cruz - this time we decided to stay over night - nothing fancy a Super 8 - (as compared to where Kim is staying this weekend :-) But it was actually super clean and just a few blocks away from the boardwalk, so it worked out great. Some pics of are up at flickr - but the highlight was the dinner at Kianti's Pizza & Pasta bar - check out the video, they put on a little show - the pizza tossing was impressive. Maybe this is something we should have done at Sal's.

This past week was the first time that Tessa started babbling... we'll try to catch some on video.

pasta twirling

owen practicing twirling pasta





the beneficiary of the practice