Anniversary #3

On Dec. 28th, we celebrated our 3rd year of marital bliss together. Having made the decision to get married in the wintertime, and as we are not the skiing type, we cursed/blessed ourselves with having to make sure we travel to a relatively snow-free location every year for our anniversary. As we were already in California this year, our choices were unlimited.

Collin surprised Rachel with a pirate-like treasure map (with burnt edges and everything!) to chart our course on the activities. She had little clues that told her to enter the coordinates into her compass (GPS) that directed our course. Our first landing was at the San Juan Capistrano Mission built by Spanish settlers in 1776. We loved the old architecture (partially destroyed by a 19th-century earthquake), but we were both surprised and delighted by the beauty of the courtyard, with various local flowers and plants that brought both a tropical and deserty feel to the area. While discussing this, Collin, having tried to appeal only to Rachel's appreciation for ancient things, mentioned to her, "Wow! And I thought I was just going to bring you to an old, worn-down building!"

We loved the arches and hallways. It made us feel like watching the movie Zorro.

Davy liked watching the fish in the courtyard fountain.

These bells are found throughout California, marking "El Camino Real", the path that connects all of the Spanish missions in the state. There's even one in Brea, not too far from the Lambourne's house.

Our next stop was at Dana Point to watch the sunset. The colors were amazing, especially when reflected off of the ocean water.

After stuffing ourselves with tortellini and cannelloni at a cozy Italian restaurant called Luciana's, we put Davy down for the night and rested at a hotel right on the shore of Doheny Beach (we actually had a view of the freeway rather than the beach, but hey, it still had a California feel to it). Thanks HiltonHonors points!

The next morning, we took a stroll along the Dana Harbor pier just before boarding a ship for a 2-hour whale-watching cruise. Although it is the start of grey whale season in California right now (they're passing by on their journey south for the winter), we didn't actually see any whales. However, there were plenty of sea lions, playful dolphins and coastal birds. None of our videos are uploading properly right now, but here are a few pics.

We're now back in Boston, happy to be home, resting from our journey, and missing our families (and the 70-degree weather!) already. Our first day back is already greeting us with at least three inches of snow, with more sleet and snow in the forecast. Happy 2010!

Cute Cousins

We are thrilled to be in California with family. Can you believe it's already Christmas Eve? Our vacation is flying by, but here is some of our fun:

Eating breakfast in the special chair Grandma got for the grandsons. And he is happy about it!

Waiting for Disneyland in Peter Pan overalls. Man, it's wonderful to be able to sit on the grass here. I know I at least am storing up sun rays for our long winter ahead back home in Boston.

Crawling around Disneyland with a watchful Aunt Janeil standing behind.

Davy and Evan are so cute--so different (although someone standing in line behind us thought they were twins) yet so adorable. Davy loves patting Evan's head and constantly has three or four people saying "Soft, Davy. No, Davy, be gentle." Evan just takes it calmly, but does not like it when Davy takes his trucks. Evan has an extremely long attention span and a deliberate way of manipulating his vehicles. Davy thinks it is so cool, but when he takes the truck Evan was playing with and it doesn't do the same thing it was before he gets frustrated or disinterested.

At Disneyland we mostly enjoyed the ambiance. We did a few little kid rides, like the Carousel, Small World (which the babies loved), and walk around in vain trying to get the kids to take naps in their strollers. Finally when it was dark they fell asleep for a little while, but were up again for the fireworks and bubble snow.

Our two little monkeys in the monkey train car.

Grandma and the two boys in Dumbo.

Watching the Lambournes play an improvised (a Lambourne special) baseball game this morning.

At lunch at The Hat.

Happy Birthday Davy!

Davy's one year old and my, how the time has flown! We love Davy's emerging personality and get a kick out of his antics. His newest is holding our cell phones up to his face, mimicing what he sees us doing. So cute! Tara (the little girl I baby-sit mornings) and Davy have a blast together (most of the time).

We had a few good friends over to help us celebrate Davy's first birthday. We had a turtle theme, and the best part was decorating a little cake. I enjoyed getting Davy's party ready far more than packing for our trip, and so maybe went a tad overboard. Hopefully in a good way!

Davy got pretty into the chocolate and cake thing. He'd had some sweets before (in very limited quantities) but never tasted chocolate. It took a few mintues, but once he got the hang of it we got our kodak-moment picture!

Here is Davy's sparkly smile. He's all cheeks! I love when his eyes crinkle at the last second.

Davy had been practicing standing for the last few weeks, and here he is with a record time on his birthday. Since then, though, he has taken his first real (not on accident) steps. So I expect within the next few weeks we'll have a walker!

Happy Birthday, sweet baby!

Bring on the Hats and Hoodies!

Because we won't be home for Christmas (we'll be going to visit Collin's family in California), we decided to celebrate St Nicholas night on December 6. Also, it snowed and Collin needed his new gloves that I bought him for a present! Davy was pretty excited about the paper and ribbons. He quickly got the hang of ripping in just the right place. The new toys were cool, too, although it was all rather overwhelming, even with just three or four new things.




As I mentioned, it's started snowing and getting cold. It's still not its worst, but even so we are bundling up every time we step foot outside and staying inside when at all possible! Davy's new hat is just too adorable, though. And it has the Velcro under his neck that he hasn't yet figured out how to undo and rip off the hat.




Can you believe that just last week the weather was up in the 60s for a few days?! We spent as much time outside--at the park, on walks to the library, etc.--as we could as we knew it was too miraculous to last long and winter could only be teasing us. The sweater on Davy wasn't even really necessary that afternoon, but his hood was so cute. The video of him swinging wasn't exactly what I was hoping to get, but here it is anyway, for those of you who like the "moving pictures" and sound.

Getting Around

Davy has been impressing us with his lightning speed in getting around a room or from room to room. It's not so much his crawling as it is his side-step walking around the circumference of an area by hanging on to the walls, furniture, appliances, cupboards, etc. He especially gets around the bathroom pretty quickly, and when one of us is taking a shower, we can tell when he's up to something when it gets all quiet. Here's what Collin found early one morning:

A few crawling videos, as promised. They're a little old though, so not quite his fastest speed to date.

In other news, Davy has two new teeth slowly making their way out on his top gums. He won't quite let us get pictures of them yet, so y'all will have to wait.

Penn Videos

Here's a few cute videos of Davy playing in the hotel and showing off a few new-found skills.

And here's the video from Valley Forge that Rachel promised.

Pennsylvania

Collin's been working in Pennsylvania the last two weeks (he comes home today--yay!) and last weekend Davy and I drove down to visit him and see some sites. We had a fabulous time. Davy was great in the car (it helped that I was driving at night, so he slept most of the way). He actually slept really well at the hotel, too, which was nice for everyone! Friday, while Collin was still working, Davy and I explored Walmart (we don't really have a Walmart in MA--which I'm not complaining about as I wouldn't go there often anyway) and our hotel room. Davy was thrilled to have new furniture to walk along. He's got this new tongue thing going. Cute, if really silly.


Waving "hi" to the camera, and checking himself out in the mirror.


Then we picked up Collin from work and drove through the gorgeous countryside to visit a cross-stitch store Collin had so sweetly found for me. We drove past so many rolling hills with big bales of hay, that were just too tempting. So we stopped, propped our camera up on a bale of hay, and took one of our best family pictures of the year. Surprise!



Saturday we went into Philly to the Franklin Institute, which is a really cool science museum. We followed the path of blood through the famous model of a heart and then watched a sheep's heart being dissected live. The ew factor was definitely a plus, as it got everyone's attention. We also visited the moon and had a "train ride" on an old steamer. Then we had lunch at a fantastic Turkish restaurant. Yummy.


Sunday was an unseasonably warm day, and we enjoyed it fully, along with everybody and their dog (literally) at Valley Forge. We walked through the park and saw some deer up close. We got a cute video of Davy talking to them that we'll have to post later, with Collin's computer.

Laundry and Chair Walking

Davy's really going strong on the standing up thing. Before today Davy had only whined until we helped prop him up against something. And he had stood up by himself in the bathtub, but that wasn't an activity I wanted to encourage yet, so I made him sit back down. But just today he finally got the pulling himself up on something (me--three times!) for real. I foresee a lot more pulling up on furniture in the near future. Here he is helping with the laundry--it really was helping, too, because he was actually happy for the whole time I was folding three loads!


Davy's also got the idea of transferring from object to object. He can move quite well from the couch to the table, to the wall to the book shelf to the other chair and back, now. He's taken some tumbles, of course. I never cease to be amazed what impact the human head can bear and still keep everything inside where it's supposed to be. It's really exciting to watch Davy's excitement. People keep warning me about when Davy can walk and how I'll never have a quiet moment again, but right now I'm loving watching Davy's progress, and I can't help feeling like it will be nice for my back when he can follow me from room to room instead of being carried all over.

Davy is also absolutely adorable with his "kisses" for friends and Mom. (So far Dad doesn't get that preferential treatment, but he does get the best laughs!) At our friend's Halloween donut party there was another baby boy born just two days before Davy, playing on the same little play table with his dad. Davy started scooting himself closer and closer, then bent over and gave him a slobbery, wide-open mouth kiss on the neck. It was really sweet and funny to all the adults watching, but the poor kid got this look on his face, like, "What's he doing? Daddy, save me!" He is becoming quite the mimic, too, with certain sounds. If I start clucking my tongue, Davy will smile with recognition and start making the sound, too. There are a few other sounds he can copy, and we have fun making a little game of it.



Davy and Daddy hanging out in the car while I run an errand. Luckily he hasn't found the horn yet.