First Kiss!

We met up with our good friends the Readels on Saturday evening for a wonderful summer BBQ in their backyard.  As the adults were toasting to the addition of little Zoe Westcoat into our world of friends (born that same afternoon...hence the Westcoats weren't able to make it to the BBQ), Ryan and Hadley were chasing each other pushing strollers around the table and giggling their heads off.  It was the first time I've really noticed Ryan playing with another kid his age, instead of playing in parallel.  So much fun to watch!  And as the evening wound down, Ryan and Hadley got just a little bit closer....

 The First Kiss!  

And these pictures don't even do it justice, as they were both repeatedly leaning in for more kisses. (with a little encouragement from the paparazzi of moms and dads of course)

 It only seems fitting that Ryan shared his first kiss with the girl he first held hands with at less than 1 week old!

(thanks for sharing these pictures with me Lindsey, and for sharing the idea for this blog post.  I give you full credit for this one!)

ready to ride

After weeks and weeks of deliberation and trying to decide which bike seat to invest in for our family (on the back of the bike?  or the trailer behind the bike?), we finally decided today.  And I believe we chose wisely.  After Ryan's first spin up and down the street, we were greeted with "More?" and a big smile on his face.  Much different than the previous biking experience a few months back, which was nothing but whining and whimpering.  Cheers to investments and adventures.  Bring on the summer!

Father's Day

Yesterday was dedicated to my wonderful husband, who is such an amazing father.  Ryan would choose "dada" over me any day of the week when he is in the mood to run, tackle, wrestle, get tossed in the air, or get thrown on the couch, over and over and over and over and over.  Eddy, may you never lose your ability to make our boy giggle.  Love you so much.

it is hard to get Ry to sit still for most photos

 Introducing our new grill...Father's Day gift for 2011.  It only took us 2 hours to put together, and who knows how much faster that would have been without the few glasses of wine we enjoyed while doing it. (and it actually works, really well!)

And to my own dad, another wonderful man in my life.  Thank you for being such a great guidance counselor for all these years....for helping me with the mundane tasks like how to do my own taxes, giving advice for planning our next great international vacation (which may be years from actually taking place, but it's still fun to talk and dream!), sharing with us your love of wine and the great outdoors, taking me on some killer bike rides, and for being such a wonderful grandfather to your 3 awesome grandkids.  Love you old man. 

Reading

Ryan loves to read.  And recently he has gotten much better at reading actual words (or at least pointing out the pictures to me).  This video is a bit long, but enjoy for however long you would like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2g4-1fM0zM

iPhone outtakes

I find it very hard to take the time to plug my phone in to my computer, so I can copy those snapshots from the phone onto my hard drive.  So, I thought I'd share a few pictures that I've taken on my phone over the last few months that have not been posted to this blog.  Some day (probably sooner than I even realize) that "cloud" will be my best friend...no more syncing needed!

at the playground, playing "peek a boo"

sitting on the FireTruck at Children's Wonderland

Ryan's 1st bike ride!  We borrowed a friend's bike trailer to test it out, Ry wasn't totally in love with it, but we had a fun ride through the Napa valley anyway

 Shopping at IKEA -- Ryan found every surface he could climb through, under, and on (he especially loved the Children's section --  maybe he's ready for a toddler bed?)

You really should stop and smell these roses

Reading, yet again

bed head

This is what Ry looked like today when he got up from his nap. 

Who needs a haircut?

Alexandra's first birthday!

Our niece Alexandra turned 1 last week, and her big birthday bash was over the weekend.  Always a good time to run around, eat a little extra sugar, and a great time to catch up with Eddy's family.  

Happy birthday Alexandra!  

big cousin teaching little cousin how to read

Nonni and the birthday girl

'atta girl!

"what a nice bear that's bigger than me, I think I'll sit on his lap"

a winter Memorial Day getaway

So, instead of whining and griping about the crappy weather we've been having, we decided to embrace it and head up to Tahoe last weekend for Memorial Day.  Snow and all.  Honestly, we saw the weather forecast and thought, "okay, it may snow, but it won't stick".  Wrong.  We woke up to 4 inches of fresh snow on the deck Sunday morning.  It made for some fun exploring that day, but by the end of the evening it had all melted away.  One last taste of winter never hurt anyone...but can the sun and warmth please come our way now???

 Exploring the back yard at the cabin, as the snow is beginning to fall.

 It's Memorial Day, so we fired up the BBQ.  What's a little snow? 

Ry's first attempt at corn on the cob

 

The Sunday morning snowfall.  A little tough to get used to walking in it, but in 5 minutes Ryan was running and throwing snowballs with the rest of us

Running through Sugar Pine Point State Park

I took this picture a few weeks ago, about the last time we had sunny and warm weather.  I wanted to share it with you all, and reflect back on what Memorial Day weekend usually is all about...

sick of being sick

I feel like this winter/spring has brought a whole new world of germs into our house.  Luckily, none have been too bad, or too long lasting for that matter.  It just gets tiresome, wiping Ryan's nose and having him scream and whine at me because he hates it.  This past weekend, Ryan came down with something, along with a fever for a day, and a wicked cough that keeps waking him up, and then makes him whiney because he doesn't feel good and is no longer sleeping.  So I spent 1/2 the night awake with him the other night.  Which means my body was run down, and now I'm sick.  Yuck. 
But, after a day of force feeding Ryan some Tylenol, his fever was down, he was a bit more energetic, and I was not yet feeling my head cold, so we took off to enjoy a sun-shiney Monday at the beach.  Eddy had the day off, and it was a wonderful family day out of the house. 

my new short 'do, and my hiking buddy

We took a short hike on the "Steep Ravine Trail"...ya, with a name like that, who thought that would be fun with a 30 lb toddler on your back?  It actually wasn't too bad, and the trail had a nice mix of views of Stinson Beach & the California coast and some redwoods. 

happy hiker

 We let Ryan out to stretch his legs a bit, and he loved collecting as many rocks as he could carry to help him make his way along the trail.  Thus, our hike ended up being a bit shorter than planned, as this short stretch took us about 30 minutes. 

our attempt at a family photo along the trail

our kid, who has never been one to fall asleep in public, was definitely not feeling 100%

chasing seagulls

 And of course we got some beach time in after the hike.  A true Northern California beach day...in long sleeve shirts and pants.  At least the sun was shining!

belly button!

weekend

This last weekend was kind of just an ordinary weekend.  Yummy homemade breakfast in our pjs, good nap times for the entire family, movies on the couch with a glass of wine in hand (okay, Ryan isn't included in this last one!).  But we did have some visitors last Friday afternoon....Eddy's cousin Autumn, her husband BJ, and their 7 week old baby girl Kensie paid us a little visit.  Ryan had a blast entertaining BJ, and I loved holding such a tiny little one.  I really don't think Ryan was ever that little!

 We also went into the city to meet up with a friend who was in town, and on our way we stopped at the playground in Golden Gate Park to let Ryan burn off some steam.  This is the same park that Eddy's grandfather used to walk him to (as they lived a few blocks away) so he could burn off his own steam back then.  And what a park it is, with tons of cool play structures, a carousel, and it was packed with kiddos everywhere.  It's rare that I have an extra hand to actually take pictures of Ryan at the park, as I'm usually chasing after him and hoping he doesn't jump off a ledge or something, so here are a few snapshots of our time there. 

the kiddie swings were all occupied