Halloween 2010

So I realized that I didn't do a Halloween post - whoops! My posts will be all out of order, but oh well.

Nick's pre-school had a Halloween parade. Nick was chosen to "lead" his class and got to carry the pre-school sign. He was very proud.


Nick with Daddy.


The Proud Leader.


After the parade, we went inside to collect his things. I was lucky enough to get a picture of Nick with his 'harem' - Priya, Sophie and Sydney. They're so cute!! Funny how Nick stays just far enough away to avoid the hug.


Our little monkey.


The day before Halloween, we went to our friend's house for a "Pimp Your Pumpkin" race & party. Here is the host, Jon, wearing his t-shirt for the event.


Here is our entry. Those that know the Giants know that this is a shout out to the Giant's closer, Brian Wilson - Fear the Beard!!! We came in second. However, the race was shrouded in controversy as the 1st place pumpkin was in a three-wheeled running stroller. Not officially against the rules, but against them in spirit. It was still a blast regardless!!


On Halloween itself, we headed over to our local park where they do a Halloween Festival. Nick said he didn't want to wear his costume because he wasn't going Trick or Treating at the Park. One of his favorite games was the Fish for Duck game.


One of the ONLY pictures I got of him actually trick or treating. He had a great time. He is scared of dogs and each time he went to a door he'd ask if they had a doggie. If they said yes, he'd want to run away. But thankfully, most of our neighbors had their dogs locked away for the night.


He actually had an even better time opening the door for other trick or treaters. He'd hear the doorbell and go running to open the door & hand out candy. So fun!!

Merry Christmas!!

We decided to stay sorta-somewhat local for the Christmas holiday this year. And, after seeing all the weather issues that popped up over the holiday, I'm certainly glad we did!!

Here is Nick with us getting the Christmas tree - he's very excited and was very helpful picking out just the right one.


Nick's pre-school did a little Christmas program. It was so cute. Nick was practicing a ton at home, so we'd had a little preview. They made their own hats for their show and did two numbers. One was counting to ten in Spanish and the other was "Santa Claus is Coming to Town".

Here is Nick sitting with his classmates waiting for their turn to go up.


If you have a couple of minutes, you can watch the video. Poor Nick, his hat kept falling off his head, so he kept having to interrupt his movements to catch it. It's a little hard to hear their first number, but the second is a little better.



After the performance, we headed back to Nick's classroom for drinks and snacks.


Then Santa came to visit. After Nick got his candy cane, he told Santa that he had to give one to Mommy & Daddy too. Aww!


Kevin will hate me for putting this here, but couldn't resist (see him in his hat). The adults had our own little Christmas get together that included a night out at Nik's Martini Lounge in Beverly Hills. They have what's called the Vod Box where they have the room chilled to 54 degrees (I think). They give you coats and hats to wear and then you sample different kinds of vodkas. Yum!!


On Christmas Eve, Nick was very excited to put together the plate of snacks for Santa and his reindeer. He even brought out the lantern so Santa could see in the dark.


All set-up and ready to go!


Nick on Christmas morning opening up all his presents from Santa - he had a lot, lucky boy!!


I had a hard time getting a picture that wasn't blurry, he was ripping the paper so fast!!


So, we did go out of town for Christmas. We decided to go visit my good friend, Heather, who lives in Las Vegas. Her parents were there as well, so we had a really nice Christmas dinner with all of them.

Here we are that night - as usual, we're laughing.


Nick and the boys watching the Wizard of Oz. Nick liked the Good Witch :)


We stayed at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay - so nice. It's on the Strip and part of a casino, but has it's own entrance so you don't have to walk for miles through the casino to get to your room. Also, the rooms are suites so Nick could nap in one room while we could be up & about in the other.

We ordered room service for breakfast. Nick loves it as much as his Mommy does.


On our drive home - he's looking quite hip with the sunglasses and the hat.


A very Merry Christmas!!

GIANTS WIN THE WORLD SERIES!!!

The torture is over. A regular season that went down to the LAST game. Amazing pitching duels. Blow outs. The whole gamut of emotions through the NLDS, NLCS and the one series that means everything.

On Monday, November 1, the Giants finally did it. The first time they won it all since they moved to San Francisco from New York in 1958. Since I was a girl, I've seen them in the World Series only two other times. In 1989 against the Oakland A's which was interrupted by the Loma Prieta earthquake. And in 2002 against the Angels which was a complete and utter heartbreaker. It still pains me to think of that series. And it still pains me to go to Angel Stadium now that we live nearby. That damn rally monkey still makes me mad.

I've been a fan since I can remember. Watching Willie 'Stretch' McCovey, Will the Thrill, Barry - and this year's team. I remember freezing my butt off at DAY games at Candlestick Park. I remember screaming with joy when Vida Blue, a pitcher, hit a home run after I cheered for him to do so & my brother replied "He's a pitcher. Pitchers don't hit home runs." I KNEW that he had heard me.

So, that evening, after I stopped crying and sitting in disbelief, we opened some champagne.


I waffled back & forth a bit, but finally decided to get myself a plane ticket and headed up to SF for the celebration. Here are Lisa and me on MUNI on our way to the Civic Center.


As we entered the craziness, we see all the news trucks.


It was a beautiful day in SF, however, it was hot. Especially when you're surrounded by a bazillion fellow Giants fans. Here is the fray as we enter.


We stood there for HOURS. I kid you not. Couldn't sit down, standing room only. In retrospect, we should have headed to the parade route instead of the Civic Center Plaza, where the parade ended. But oh well. I still had a blast.


People were everywhere. There were people scaling the sides of buildings to stand on ledges.


Here are my partners in crime, Bill & Lisa.


Finally, the team started to arrive at the Plaza. It was very difficult to see the video screen they had set-up and was even harder to hear anything.


We actually ended up leaving before they fully got going - decided to go find a bar and watch on TV instead! It was too hot, we were hungry and very thirsty!


City Hall looking quite majestic.


Just to give you an idea of how absolutely packed & crazy it was, I downloaded this aerial view of the plaza. I marked where we were standing with an arrow.


Our boy, Timmy Lincecum - aka The Freak - on the cover of Sports Illustrated for their year-end issue. Amazing pitcher!!


Ahhhh, I still get teary-eyed thinking about it! Hope they can pull it off again in 2011!! Go Giants!!!

Thanksgiving 2010

This last Thanksgiving was spent in Green Bay with the Desotell side of the family. Thankfully, the weather cooperated and we only had a few snow flurries. It was in the 30's most of the time, so I think we were pretty lucky.

The whole Desotell Clan hasn't been together since I've been a part of the family. We had almost the whole contingent at our wedding in 2005, but we were missing a few nieces & nephews. However for this Thanksgiving, all the brothers, sisters-in-laws, nieces & nephews all made it out for Thanksgiving dinner (which was done on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving at a local restaurant). So, as is expected, we took a few pictures.

Here are all the cousins - Nick, Jake (kneeling), Ben, Matt, Shanna, Brooke, Kelly & Kim - all with Grandpa Dean.


Grandpa Dean and Grandpa Mary.


All the brothers - Mike, Kevin, Dan, Al and Ed. And Grandpa Dean, of course.


The rest of the trip was spent visiting with friends and family. Here is Nick bundled up in the car with one of the toys Aunt Cindy is so kind enough to gather for him to play with during our visit.


No trip to GB is complete without a stop at Lambeau Field. There was some event going on later in the day in the Atrium - not sure what it was, but looks like a lot of people were there!


After lunch at Curly's Pub, we took to the game room where Nick tried his luck at becoming the next Aaron Rodgers.


Nick riding what Mommy hopes will be the only kind of motorcycle he'll ever ride with Daddy & Big Matt looking on.


Since we don't live in a cold weather climate, we're lucky in that Nick gets a kick out of putting on boots, a jacket, a hat and gloves before we go outside. He LOVED his gloves - they had monkeys on the palms.


He'd even put them on when wearing his jammies while getting ready to leave Uncle Al's house.


We flew out of Appleton airport (SOOOOO much easier than driving all the way to Chicago!!) We got Nick a muffin - it was practically bigger than his head!!!


It was a very nice trip. And another big thanks to Cindy & Mike for letting us stay at their house!!