Go West, Young Fam

Stuck

2011-07-14T08:55:00.001-07:00

Smells like trouble

2011-07-07T15:00:00.001-07:00

Already a pro with the credit card....

Quinn's 1 Year Dr Appt

2011-06-23T15:09:00.001-07:00

Weight: 28 lbs, 13.4 oz, 98%
Height: 33.25 inches, 100%
Head: 49.25 cm , 99%

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T16:09:00.003-07:00

He's a natural!

2011-06-13T14:43:00.001-07:00

First day of swim class and doesn't even need the instructor!

Happy Monday!

2011-06-13T09:19:00.001-07:00

10 minutes to get dressed this morning and this is what he finally decided to wear.

Legos!

2011-06-11T09:19:00.001-07:00

Jackson built (with a little help) his first lego creation!

BATMAN

2011-06-09T16:15:00.001-07:00

Road Tripin'

2011-06-05T15:35:00.001-07:00

Updates

2011-05-30T22:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of our adventures over the last few months. Sorry we haven't posted a complete update in a while but hopefully the pics will give you an idea of what we have been up to this spring.

Baby Genius

2011-05-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

YouTube - Quinn Saying Dada: ""

Daily Dose

2011-05-23T11:28:00.001-07:00

Fell asleep while having his snack.

Little Baller

2011-05-15T22:25:00.001-07:00

Jackson finished his basketball clinic today. I guess he had fun since he asked to sleep with his trophy tonight!

Daily Dose

2011-05-13T14:33:00.001-07:00

We will be happy when the "dress myself" phase is over.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

2011-05-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

What better way to celebrate your heritage than by wearing the kit of your favorite Mexican footballer in the Premier league?

"Sick Day"

2011-05-03T12:54:00.001-07:00

Jackson stayed home from school today because he is sick. It is 65 and sunny. This kid has a tough life.

Dancing!

2011-04-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

Daily Dose

2011-04-26T16:45:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter!

2011-04-22T16:34:00.000-07:00

Hopefully your weekend is better than Quinn's first meeting with the Easter bunny!

Daily Dose

2011-04-19T12:15:00.001-07:00

Mommy's helper

Daily Dose

2011-04-18T09:31:00.001-07:00

Following in his Grampy and Daddy's footsteps.

Enjoying the beautiful weather!

2011-03-31T13:35:00.001-07:00

Disneyland

2011-03-24T15:19:00.000-07:00

Our friends were in LA a few weeks ago so we decided to make the trek to SoCal and meet them in Anaheim for our first trip to Disneyland. We were there for four days and it was absolutely exhausting because we did not stop moving from morning until night.

Disneyland really is the happiest place on earth. For instance, breakfast was filled with Disney characters that visited your table to pose for pictures. We are Disney newbies and didn't realize that gathering autographs of the "stars" was the thing to do so we quickly bought Jackson an official autograph book so he could join in on the fun. Every type of food you could imagine was on the menu at these character breakfasts like normal breakfast food but they also had pizza, chicken fingers, fries, ice cream and Jackson's favorite, fruit loops, which essentially ensured that every person big or small would be happy.

Once our bellies were full we would hit the parks every morning until dinner time. Jackson is tall enough so he was able to go on almost all of the rides and he was willing to try everything at least once. Cassandra was a little teary eyed seeing her little boy ride Space Mountain since she remembered how excited she was the first time she visited Disney and rode it. Jackson's favorite ride was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and he asked to go on it any time we walked past it in the park which meant that he rode it 4 times! He is definitely a little dare devil and even took joy watching from the pier as mommy and daddy rode California Sceamin'. Quinn was a good sport and let us all have as much fun as we wanted on the rides without any complaining.

The craziest part of the weekend took place on the last day of our trip. All of the parks open at 10am on Monday mornings so we figured we would eat breakfast, check out of the hotel and head down to CA Adventure when it opened so we could ride the new Toy Story Mania! 4D ride since it had a 40+ minute wait every time we walked past it. Well apparently every single person entering the park at 10am had the same idea so as soon as the gates opened there was literally a stampede of people running through the park to get to this ride. We arrived at 10:07am, 7 minutes after the park opened which basically was the amount of time it took us to get our bags checked and walk (well speed walk to try and keep up with everyone running) to the ride from the park entrance at our hotel, and there was already a 20 minute wait when we got there. When we were done at 10:38am there was a 40 minute wait. The ride was definitely a lot of fun but in no way worth waiting for 40 minutes with two children.

We tried to pack in as much entertainment as possible over the long weekend and got through most dinners without any major meltdowns thanks to the trusty DVD player. We did make Loftus family history the first night when not one but two children fell asleep at the dinner table. Parents of the year!

Here are our pics of the weekend and this video basically captures Jackson's excitement the ENTIRE weekend. We had a great time and I'm certain we will get back there some day (but definitely not in the very near future!).

Year of the Rabbit - President's Weekend (Part 2)

2011-03-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

This is a long overdue post...

We wanted to check out San Francisco's Chinese New Year parade since it is known to be one of the best but unfortunately it was 50 degrees and pouring rain the day of the parade. We thought it would be pretty miserable for everyone to trek out and stand in the rain so instead we postponed the festivities and went to the Bay Area Kids Museum in Sausalito for their annual Chinese New Year celebration complete with lion dancers, a dragon horse and other fun activities to celebrate the year of the rabbit. And it wasn't raining on the day of the festival so that was a huge bonus.

Check out our pictures here.

Enjoying some lo mein

Happy 9 Month Birthday!

2011-03-17T15:19:00.001-07:00

Quinn is 9 months old today. The doctor told us that he is the size of an 18 month old!

Weight: 26.9 lbs, 99%
Height: 31 inches, 99%
Head: 48 cm, 98%

Our future sumo wrestler...

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T12:53:00.001-07:00

Jackson's 1st Roller Coaster

2011-03-01T12:01:00.000-08:00

We just got back from a long weekend at Disneyland. We had a great (and exhausting) time. Jackson tackled his first roller coaster, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. He loved it and was a pro by the fourth ride. He knew I was taping so he tried to remain calm, cool and collected but once the ride got moving it was hard for him to contain his excitement.

We will post more info and pics later but we thought we would share this video since it is a good indication of the fun that we had on our first trip to Disneyland.

Presidents Day Weekend - Part 1 (Half Moon Bay)

2011-02-21T22:26:00.001-08:00

The week leading into President's weekend was very wet so we couldn't wait to get out of the house on Sunday to enjoy the sun. We headed to Half Moon Bay for an early lunch at Sam's Chowder House and thank goodness we got an early start because it seems that everyone else had the same idea. We enjoyed lunch and a drink/ice cream on the patio and Jackson managed to avoid falling into one of their fire pit tables.

We walked along the beach, played in the sand (in February!), watched some surfer's brave the ice cold water and stopped at Lemos Farm to ride a pony before we headed home. Unbeknownst to us, Jackson never had any intention of riding a living, breathing horse. He thought we were headed to the farm to ride a mechanical horse that you would probably find in a suburban mall. Luckily, this "farm" had just the mechanical horse he was looking for tucked away in a random hallway/tunnel and it (thankfully) accepted our 50 cents. Overall the farm was pretty random with a really creepy "haunted" train ride, a few ponies, some goats, and chickens. Jackson got to ride his pony so he was happy and that is all that matters!

Here are some pics of our day.

Guess who was babysitting?

2011-02-18T20:53:00.000-08:00

Watching episodes of Elmo on YouTube

Stuck

Daily Dose

2011-02-18T16:12:00.001-08:00

Wonder what Jackson's answer to the second to last question would have been if James was still working at the law firm job in NYC. Highly doubt we would have had many meals together as a family of four.

Standing

2011-02-17T12:35:00.001-08:00

Quinn decided to pull himself up into a standing position this afternoon. This smells like trouble.

Disneyland

2011-02-16T17:44:00.001-08:00

Our passes arrived in the mail today. One more week! I can't wait to tell Jackson where we are going (which will be about 12 hours before we get there)!

Daily Dose

2011-02-14T17:20:00.001-08:00

Go BC!

Daily Dose

2011-02-13T15:11:00.001-08:00

Taking advantage of the nice weather. Forecast calls for rain for a while.

Baby Stroller?

2011-02-12T14:41:00.001-08:00

Dog stroller

Daily Dose

2011-02-11T12:50:00.001-08:00

Daily Dose

2011-02-10T17:35:00.001-08:00

Jackson is showcasing his heart shaped macaroni necklace that he made (and black eye).

Daily Dose

2011-02-06T17:13:00.001-08:00

Happy Superbowl Sunday!

Boys Will Be Boys

2011-02-05T17:49:00.000-08:00

We had quite a day today. James was out for a run and Cassandra was switching the laundry so obviously Jackson decided that the two minutes he was left unsupervised would be the perfect time to try and pick up his baby brother. Epic failure. He essentially body slammed Quinn into the train table and gave him a bloody nose and fat lip.

Note the dry blood on Quinn's nose

James and Jackson had lunch in the backyard and James came inside to throw the garbage away. Once again Jackson was left unattended for a moment and managed to face plant while trying to get into the baby swing.

Note the dirty face from face planting on the ground

So I guess the moral of the story is: don't leave Jackson unattended because he will do harm to himself and others.

Just Cause

2011-02-04T22:59:00.000-08:00

Our cable is broken tonight so we were bored and found a favorite youtube video to share.

Here is the original news story:

Nap Time (well sort of)

2011-02-04T11:45:00.000-08:00

Cassandra heard a strange sound coming from the baby monitor in the boys' bedroom this morning when Quinn was supposed to be napping. It sounded sort of like something was being raked along one of the surfaces in the bedroom. When she went in to check it out she found this on the side of his crib:

No, there wasn't a beaver loose in his room. This is the work of one little, albeit pointy, tooth in Quinn's mouth.

Daily Dose

2011-02-02T20:14:00.001-08:00

Counting in English and Spanish

2011-02-02T07:42:00.000-08:00

Jackson went to his first day of Spanish school yesterday and counted to five in spanish when he came home without any prompting. Sounds like day one was successful!

Quinn's Shoe Obsession

2011-02-01T17:10:00.001-08:00

Quinn is obsessed with trying to suck on our shoes (which is gross). This afternoon Cassandra moved hers out of his reach...or so she thought. Looks like he will be able to scale the step down into the family room soon which means that baby proofing the house is in the near future.

First Day of School

2011-02-01T09:21:00.001-08:00

Jackson started his first day of spanish school today. We were greeted with this sign at drop-off. Can someone tell us what it means? ;)

The Scorcher

2011-01-30T22:27:00.000-08:00

We thought it was time for Jackson to get his first real bike so of course we (Cassandra) went totally over board and bought him a BMX style bike complete with pegs for his front wheel. He loved it! Check out pics of him on his new bike.

Holiday Recap

2011-01-30T21:31:00.000-08:00

We are a little late with posting our holiday adventures so here is the abbreviated version: James gets 7 weeks of paternity leave and he has only used 2 weeks so we decided to take an extended vacation for the holidays. We were in Chicago for 2 weeks - where James worked from the Chicago office, NH for 1 week (which included a 12 hour trip to NJ to see Cass' roommates from college and their kids) and we spent a week here in the bay area recuperating from our crazy travel plans before we headed to Lake Tahoe for MLK weekend. Traveling as a family of four is no joke but it was well worth it!

We had a few holiday parties to attend before we left California for the cold. As you can see here, Jackson started to get a little confused with the various Santa's that showed up to all of these parties. We celebrated NYE in South Boston at Terri's. Here are pics of Christmas in NH and video of the kids sledding. Make sure you check out the video of the next So You Think You Can Dance contestants here. Here are a few pics of our jaunt to NJ - left Salem at 830am, stopped for a quick celebratory lunch in Hoboken to see Cass' newly engaged friend Ann Marie and her fiance Brian, headed to Chatham for a visit with the roomies and then we were back on the road to Salem at 830pm (we decided that driving back at night while exhausting was better than listening to Jackson ask "are we there yet?" for 4 straight hours the next morning).

Here are pics of our trip to the Bay Area Discovery Museum. Jackson had an awesome time so we will definitely get back there some time soon. We also hit up the Aquarium by the Bay in San Francisco (click here for pics). It was a fun trip but we definitely do not recommend it - expensive and small.

Finally, a few friends from the east coast decided to make a last minute trip out west so we headed to Tahoe for MLK weekend. The weather was between 45-50 degrees every day which was strange since the last time we went snowboarding out east we were wearing ski masks and board pants over fleece long underwear over a second pair of long underwear (since it was so cold). We skied, snowboarded, snow shoed, ate and drank (a lot because the Patriots lost to the Jets). Jackson also skied for the first time and had a great time. We can't wait to get back! Check out pics of our weekend here.

And sorry if the lighting isn't fantastic in some of the pictures. Cass is taking a photography class and finally figuring out how to take pics off of "auto."

Push-Ups

2011-01-29T20:04:00.001-08:00

Quinn decided to show us his push-up skills tonight (the camera angle isn't great but his knees are also off the ground). This new development is a little frightening.

Bedtime with Jaja

2011-01-29T10:10:00.000-08:00

Jaja reads a bed time story to Jackson (even though he lives 2,000 miles away)

Jackson & Quinn Love Their Aunts!

2011-01-26T10:46:00.000-08:00

Sharing

2011-01-22T09:30:00.001-08:00

Now that Quinn is moving around Jackson is slowly getting used to the idea of sharing his toys with his baby bro. This morning they played trains for a little bit until Jackson got tired of Quinn sucking on them.

Crawling!

2011-01-21T22:20:00.001-08:00

Quinn has been crawling for a few days. He only crawls when he wants something so it has been a little difficult to get it on camera. It finally dawned on us that there is one thing that will always get his attention...food!

Daily Dose

2011-01-21T15:38:00.001-08:00

Daily Dose

2011-01-20T10:43:00.001-08:00

Lake Tahoe

2011-01-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

The view of Lake Tahoe from Alpine Meadows

Skiing

2011-01-16T18:38:00.000-08:00

We are spending the long weekend in Tahoe and Jackson tried skiing for the first time. He had a blast and is already better than both of his parents!

Daily Dose

2011-01-13T07:30:00.000-08:00

Keeping warm in his Woody Toy Story snuggie

Uh Oh

2011-01-12T17:01:00.001-08:00

When your car (and your husband) tell you that you need gas...listen.

BC Football

2011-01-11T18:16:00.000-08:00

We returned from our whirl wind trip to Chicago/NH/MA/NJ for the holidays on Saturday the 8th which meant that we would continue our 14 year streak attending BC football games because BC was selected to play Nevada in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl on January 9th at AT&T Park. Even more exciting was that a few friends decided to make the trip out to San Fran to see the game so we hit up our favorite resident Jesuit, Father/Uncle Kenny, for great club seats at the park.

The game did not end well for BC but nevertheless it was fun to have a semi-real tailgate (and we say semi-real because some Nevada tailgaters actually asked us if we wanted to use their grille because ours was so pathetic) and catch up with old friends. In a failed attempt to relive their college days, the boys decided to shot gun beers before we went to the game.

Before:

After:

Daily Dose

2011-01-06T12:59:00.001-08:00

Tangled in 3D at Chunky's

Daily Dose

2011-01-03T13:41:00.001-08:00

Tea Party

Professional Pics

2011-01-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

Here are all of the pictures of the boys from our photo shoot a couple of weeks ago. The photographer recommended meeting late in the day because lighting is best in the afternoon. It is a minor miracle that he was able to get any good pics since we met during Quinn's nap time and Jackson doesn't nap anymore so he is usually in rare form by that part of the day. Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T19:40:00.000-08:00

2010 was a year full of many new things for us - new baby, new job, new city. We are hoping that 2011 brings us as much happiness with a little less stress!

We wish everyone a happy and healthy new year!

Jet Lag

2010-12-29T23:07:00.001-08:00

We are learning another important lesson when it comes to traveling with children. Jet lag sucks. We didn't think a 2 hour time difference would be a big deal but Quinn has decided that he is not going to acclimate to CST. He wakes up, naps and goes to bed exactly according to his schedule in California...problem is we are in Chicago. Tonight he decided to party it up and finally fell asleep at 1am. This does not bode well for our upcoming east coast swing...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Daily Dose

2010-12-27T22:12:00.001-08:00

Best Christmas Present EVER

2010-12-27T21:02:00.000-08:00

The Xbox Kinect. If you don't have it you should go out and buy one immediately. They are fun for adults, kids and grandparents!

Exhibit A

James and Jackson playing together

Exhibit B

Cass' 72 year old father dancing to Funkytown. Check out his signature move 52 seconds in. Flawless!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T20:21:00.001-08:00

We learned a few things as we embarked on our first cross country trip as a family of four: traveling with two children is not easy and you should never try and fly out of SFO during the holidays. For one, rain causes major airport delays in the bay area and two, there are no flights to switch to since the airlines are fully booked because of holiday travel. And so we started our holiday trek with a 5 hour flight delay (which totaled 7 hours in the airport) before our 4.5 hour flight to Chicago for Christmas.

Quinn enjoyed his first Christmas by chewing on anything he could get his hands on and this was the first Christmas that Jackson really understood the naughty and nice thing when it comes to Santa. So obviously we took full advantage of it and made sure he was on his best behavior at all times! It really has been awesome watching him this week!

Here are pics of our Christmas. We hope everyone had a great holiday!

Daily Dose

2010-12-24T09:32:00.001-08:00

Quinn found a teething ring

Daily Dose

2010-12-23T11:52:00.001-08:00

Building a Bear (or reindeer)

Almost crawling!

2010-12-22T08:58:00.000-08:00

Here's Quinn getting very close to crawling. We are convinced that he might actually be crawling around by the end of 2010!

Daily Dose

2010-12-20T21:45:00.001-08:00

Sleeping at Busha and Jaja's in their matching jammies

Daily Dose

2010-12-16T19:04:00.000-08:00

Dinner Time!

Our little Chicharito. Dances like his daddy...

Train of Lights

2010-12-14T22:42:00.000-08:00

We took the boys to ride the Train of Lights on the Niles Canyon Railway when Nana was here for Thanksgiving weekend. We figured that we couldn't go wrong because Jackson loves trains, he asked his elf Simon for Christmas lights from Santa, and Mr. and Mrs. Claus make an appearance on the train. The only problem (or problems) with our plan was that the first train was at 4pm, Jackson doesn't nap so the wheels have usually spun off by that time of the day, and the train ride ended up being more like 120 minutes and not the 75 that was promised.

We (well mostly he) made quite a scene while waiting for the train to arrive as you can see here:

Ain't he cute?

The Niles Canyon Railway is a member of the Pacific Locomotive Association which preserves old trains so all of the trains were from 1910-1960. The trains run two different routes 3-4 times a week with two departures a day from the day after Thanksgiving until a few days after Christmas so it was fairly impressive that everyone working was a volunteer and train enthusiast.

All in all, we had a nice time even if the terrible threes were in full force! See our pics here.

Daily Dose

2010-12-14T13:42:00.001-08:00

Jackson told Santa he wanted a truck and flowers for Christmas. Interesting dichotomy...

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-13T21:28:00.000-08:00

We spent our first Thanksgiving as a family of four in California this year. Thankfully Nana came to visit so we didn't get too home sick. We signed up to run a 10k on Thanksgiving morning and were shocked to wake up to a brisk 30 degrees. We were slightly delayed getting to the start line of the race since there was frost covering the car window and we haven't seen a window scraper since we left the east coast. The weather warmed up nicely and we clocked in just over 52 minutes. A weekend off wouldn't be complete without work so we stopped off at James' office to pick up a few things and check out the fancy Japanese space toilets which are truly ridiculous.

We enjoyed watching a good old fashioned beat down by the Pats and a delicious turkey dinner complete with a few of our favorite dishes growing up and some new additions. Jackson (red, runny nose and all) thoroughly enjoyed his special Thanksgiving drink and proceeded to spend the entire dinner saying cheers and clinking his glass.

Click here for a few pics of Thanksgiving.

James and his masterpiece

We haven't had a day (let alone 4 hours) without kids since we moved out west so we decided to take advantage of the free babysitter and head up to wine country to bike Dry Creek Road in Healdsburg. We headed out on the 22 mile round trip trek stopping first at Bella Winery. They were having a special Thanksgiving weekend event with food, wine tasting in the wine caves, and live music. We arrived at lunch time and had a little picnic since we packed a lunch of turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce sandwiches with, of course, pumpkin pie for dessert. We had planned to stop at Preston but sadly they were closed for the holiday weekend so we moved on to the next vineyard Zichichi which was not originally on our itinerary but we were happy we stopped. The owner, who was also working in the tasting room, has sold out of his last two vintages (07 and 08) before they were even bottled. We were able to taste the 09 zin's that were still in the barrel which was fun. The next vineyard was Raymond Burr which is owned by the one and only, Perry Mason. They had a nice area to picnic but we didn't particularly enjoy any of the wine so we moved on to Quivira.

This was our favorite stop of the day. Quivira is a biodynamic farm and they grow produce that they supply to local restaurants and markets. They also have various animals like pigs and chickens that all do their part to "fertilize" the soil and make sure that it stays nice and rich so they can grow the perfect grapes for wine making. We were hoping the guy doing our tasting would say something fun like, this wine has notes of pig poop, but sadly that didn't happen. This was probably the most commercial of all the tasting rooms we visited but nothing compared to some of the places we visited in Napa a few years ago.

The last stop on our biking adventure was Lambert Bridge which had the best ambiance in their tasting room. They had a huge Christmas tree, fire blazing and lots of Christmas decorations. It was a nice way to end part 1 of our trip and finish up our 22 mile bike ride. Once we arrived back in downtown Healdsburg we took our sore tushies to Part 2 of our getaway without the kids which was dinner at Cyrus. Cassandra indulged in 1.5 grams of white truffle on her risotto that they stored in a wooden box and James capped the night off with an after dinner drink of Rivesaltes from 1945. It was quite good and as over the top as expected. So over the top that we received our very own copy of the menu as a keepsake.

Pics of our adventure can be found here.

Russian River

2010-12-11T16:03:00.000-08:00

We rented a house in Russian River Valley in October with some friends. James took the day off on Friday and we decided to stop off in downtown Sonoma to see the town. We spent a few days in Napa a few years ago so we were excited to see the less commercial part of California's wine country.

We arrived at lunchtime so we stopped at the Basque Boulangerie Cafe which is a small cafe across from Sonoma Plaza. It supposedly has award winning bread so James and Cassandra had a Croque Monsieur on sourdough and it did not disappoint. It is also a bakery so we couldn't pass up the pumpkin cheesecake while Jackson enjoyed a cupcake. Once we left the cafe to check out the rest of downtown Jackson spotted someone eating ice cream so we also had to stop at the local ice cream shop, Chocolate Cow. James took a work conference call (with Quinn strapped to him in the ergo) while we ate ice cream. As usual he was working on his day off but how could we complain? It was 2pm on a Friday and we were sitting on a bench in downtown Sonoma eating ice cream in 70 degree weather.

Once James' conference call was over we walked to one of the wineries within walking distance of downtown. Jackson found a stick to entertain himself and we played hide and seek as we walked to Sebastiani. Sonoma is a cute little town and it seems like anyone and everyone grows grapes in their front yard as long as they can plant a vine or two. Sonoma is also home to The Mexican Mission which is the last and most northerly of 21 Spanish missions built in California by Franciscan padres. We arrived at Sebastiani and tried some wine. We tried about 10 different wines and did not like any of them which has never happened before. Jackson thought their fountains were swimming pools and could not understand why he couldn't go swimming so we decided to call it a day on our wine tasting adventure.

The house we rented was right on the Russian River in Guerneville, CA. The town left a little to be desired but the house was great. It was a little cold for swimming so we kayaked, fished and played horseshoes. It was a very relaxing weekend and we even were able to fit in more wine tasting before we headed home at DeLoach Vineyards. A box full of used corks kept Jackson busy while we tasted some wine.They had some tasty Zin's and Pinot's so we decided to join the wine club and our first shipment arrived last week!

All in all, a nice little weekend away in the "country." Check out our pics here.

Daily Dose

2010-12-10T09:28:00.001-08:00

Polar Express PJ party at school today!

Quinn: 6 Month Dr Visit

2010-12-09T12:03:00.001-08:00

Quinn will be 6 months old next Friday. Here are his stats from his dr appointment today:

Weight: 21 lbs, 7 oz (97%)
Height: 28" (95%)
Head: 46 cm (97%)

Daily Dose

2010-12-07T10:41:00.001-08:00

Quinn is on the move!

2010-12-06T14:49:00.001-08:00

We are in trouble. Quinn started out laying on the jungle mat...

Apologies for the half naked 3 year old. Jackson doesn't like to wear pants...

We Are Losing

2010-12-06T08:11:00.001-08:00

Found this guy eating handfuls of bird seed when we woke up this morning. It is fairly impressive since this feeder is over 5 feet off the ground with nothing around it to grab on to.

The battle continues...

Stanford Football

2010-12-05T22:37:00.000-08:00

This year was the first year that we did not attend a BC football game in 14 seasons. Groupon was offering a deal for $17 tickets to the Washington State game so we decided to fill the void in our heart and take advantage of the fact that Stanford Stadium is 5 miles from our house.

As we have learned, nothing goes according to plan when kids are involved so of course both boys fell asleep on the drive to the stadium. This was a minor miracle because Jackson NEVER naps any more. We bought a 6 pack of Coors Light and chips to "tailgate" and ventured into the stadium for the beginning of the 2nd quarter once the boys woke up. We had great seats in Stanford's end zone and the teams managed to score 3 touchdowns in the 2nd quarter. Jackson loved the game mostly because it was perfectly acceptable to clap, cheer, scream and stomp his feet to his heart's content in a public setting. The fun ended during half time when Jackson decided he just about had his fill of football and it started to rain.

We learned a few fun tidbits that we hope BC will adopt some day. 1) Tailgaters can camp out the night before game day and start tailgating. 2) You can exit the stadium at half time to tailgate and re-enter the Stadium to watch the end of the game (that is if you ever make it back in).

We also learned that the Stanford Tree is the mascot of the marching band and the unofficial mascot of the university even though Stanford's team name is "The Cardinal." Don't quite get it but whatever...

Stanford ended up winning 38-28. It was a fun field trip. Click here for some pics.

Cheering for Stanford

Skating

2010-12-04T18:14:00.001-08:00

Jackson has been taking skating classes for the last few weeks. Today was the last day of "Parents & Me" class and he graduated! He moves up to "Tot 1" in January and that means he will be on his own!

Click here for some pics of Jackson at his first skating class and here is a video of him on graduation day!!

Maybe one day our little guy will bring the hurt to BU like BC did last night!

Jackson proudly showcasing his graduation ribbon

Recent Pics of the Boys

2010-12-04T11:44:00.000-08:00

Here are some recent pics of the boys.

We also added some pics to the Halloween and Quinn's 1st round of solids posts.

There Is a New Sheriff In Town

2010-12-04T11:02:00.001-08:00

We've had a problem with squirrels since we moved into our house. These pesky squirrels will do just about anything to eat o ur bird seed and they scare the birds away. This is what we woke up to this morning:

Well, Jackson doesn't like it and has had about enough of their shenanigans.

Fall Fun

2010-12-02T20:30:00.001-08:00

Sorry we have been a little lax with updates about life in Cali.

We've tried to keep our Fall east coast traditions alive as best we can. For instance, we tried to find a farm for pumpkin and apple picking. This is apparently impossible in Northern California. Pumpkin farms in the parking lot of Sears? Yes. Giant bouncy houses? Yes (this is apparently an absolute must). Apples? No. Apple cider donuts? No. There isn't a lot of fall weather either.

We ventured out to pumpkin farm central in Half Moon Bay, CA. The farm we chose had a huge maze, petting zoo, a mini train and of course pumpkins. We decided that maybe venturing into the giant hay maze (pictured below) was a bad idea - but the rest was fun - pictures here.

Our second trip to a pumpkin "patch" was in a Sears parking lot, but it was Jack's first official school field trip - so we went for it. There were pumpkins, a petting zoo and of course a bounce house. Pictures here.

Elf on a Shelf

2010-12-02T19:32:00.001-08:00

Jackson tells his elf Simon what he wants for Christmas every night before bedtime. Last night he wanted a truck. Tonight, Christmas lights.

The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-28T09:56:00.000-08:00

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend! Thanksgiving morning was a bit brisk (30 degrees and frosty!!) and the afternoon warmed up to a sunny 50 degrees. The local news stations seem to be pretty up in arms about the weather so it sounds like this is abnormal for Northern California. James and Cass ran a 10k Thanksgiving morning, the Patriots beat the Lions and Nana came to visit. All in all, a great day!

Quinn enjoyed his 1st Thanksgiving!

Go Reds!

2010-11-20T18:27:00.000-08:00

We received a package in the mail this week from jolly old England and it contained two brand new Liverpool kits for Jackson and Quinn from Uncle Sean in London. So naturally the boys all wore their new gear to watch the Reds thrash West Ham this morning.

Christmas Time

2010-11-13T15:43:00.001-08:00

This just doesn't feel right when it is 70 degrees and sunny!

Daily Dose

2010-11-02T16:50:00.001-07:00

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Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T23:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of the kids (and Dora) on Halloween!

Solids

2010-10-28T10:52:00.000-07:00

As expected, Quinn thoroughly enjoyed his first round of solids. Don't you think he shares a strong likeness to someone/something else?

Maybe it is just us...

Here are some pics of Quinn's 1st round of solids.

Quinn is quite the chatterbox

2010-10-27T13:46:00.000-07:00

We Are Breeding Offensive Lineman

2010-10-14T14:15:00.001-07:00

Today was Quinny's 4 month visit to the pediatrician. She confirmed what we already knew...he is huge. Here are his stats:

Weight: 18 lbs, 10.4 ozs (98%)

Height: 26.5 inches (95%)

Head: 44cm (91%)

Jackson was also above 95% for height and weight at his 3 year appointment (and has been that way at pretty much every doctor visit he has ever had..)

At least our boys are all in proportion.

Click here for some recent pics of the boys.

Daily Dose

2010-10-08T11:23:00.001-07:00

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Daily Dose

2010-10-07T19:11:00.001-07:00

Cali Kids - wearing hats in 60 degree weather

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Hipster In The Making

2010-10-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

Apparently Jackson likes the Born Ruffians

Day Out With Thomas aka "Day of Jackson"

2010-10-03T21:59:00.000-07:00

Jackson loves Thomas. LOVES. When we found out that a real life Thomas was visiting Northern Cali we jumped at the chance to get tickets for our little guy. Plus he deserved a "Day of Jackson" after his first two months in California. First, we moved him away from all of his buddies, then we made him spend every waking moment with his mommy for a month while she was nine months pregnant, and last but certainly not least, we brought home this tiny little baby which required lots of attention and was already stealing his spotlight. Tough stuff to deal with for an almost three year old.

"Day Out With Thomas" was a festival of all things Thomas. Jackson equipped himself with his rolling Thomas backpack, engineer hat and train whistle. Not only did we get to ride in a freight car that was pulled down the track by Thomas and meet Sir Topham Hatt, but there was also a bouncy house, bubbles, tons of train tables to play with and a gift shop full of every Thomas branded item you could imagine. Jackson had a great time and Quinn missed it all because he basically slept through the entire thing. I guess he knew that it was Jackson's day to shine!

Since we drove about an hour to Felton, CA to see Thomas we decided that we would also check out some gigantic trees at the Henry Cowell Redwood State Park since the Thomas event was right next door at the Roaring Camp Railroad. Redwoods are the world's tallest trees and these certainly did not disappoint. We took plenty of pictures on our hike around the park but we don't think any of them give you a good feel for just how tall these things are. Jackson got pretty bored pretty quickly. Can you blame the kid? He was just coming off of his Thomas high and we dragged him to look at trees. But he did find a young lady who also shared his passion for Thomas to escort around the park. Such a ladies man (like his daddy)!

Check out our pics here and here.

"I'm having so much fun"

2010-10-03T21:53:00.000-07:00