The Desotell Family

Our last day in Ireland - boo hoo!!

2011-11-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

And, YES! It began on a double-decker bus again. It was raining when our day started, but we were able to get a seat up top under the cover, so Nick was happy. And well protected from the rain in his red rain coat!

Posing for the camera...

We started our day at Dublin Castle. Here is the entry gate.

Unfortunately, the Castle itself was closed for the day. The only tours they were doing were of some of the outer buildings, so we just decided to check things out on our own. A Nick picture of us in the guard thing-y.

The boys...

The Castle courtyard.

The Castle church.

Annnnd, the Castle gardens...

Even though we had bus passes, we were relatively close to our next stop & it wasn't raining anymore, so we just walked over to St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Inside the cathedral...

Cool helmet things over the choir seats.

On our walk to the next stop, we saw St. Nicholas Place - so I took a picture.

Our next stop - whoo hoo!!!

Our first stop was lunch. And a pint. Happy Mommy.

Yum... cascades of beauty...

The brewery has changed so much since my first visit some 15-odd years ago!! It's very high-tech now, with a ton of stuff to see and do. Nick was entertained and so were we. At the end of the tour, you head up to the Gravity Bar to have your free pint. It has a 360 degree view of all of Dublin. Here are Nick & me at our window spot (which you have to keep a keen eye out for!!)

The Dublin sky line. The Gravity Bar is the tallest building in Dublin. You can see the spire way in the distance.

Another Nick picture. He's becoming quite the photographer!!

Mommy & Nick in front of St. James's Gate.

For whatever reason, Nick wanted golf balls from the Guinness store. Weird kid!!

Our next stop was one of the oldest pubs in Dublin, which, of course, since I waited too long to do this post, I can't remember the name. I DO remember that they had these cool snugs that you could go in. You close the door to the rest of the bar and you had your own little space. These were made to accommodate women in pubs. Apparently as recently as the 1970's, women weren't allowed inside. So, in order to go in, they'd scoot women through the main bar and back into the snugs. Closed the door and no one was the wiser.

You even have your own window to the bar so you could order your drinks.

Here's a little video that gives a good view of everything.

After the pub, we headed back to the hotel area. We'd promised Nick that he could go to this arcade place that was across the street from our hotel. He was very excited because he won a Cars 2 lunch box. And it was full of loot too!

For our last dinner, we walked over to a pub and had some yummy pub grub. Here are Nick & Daddy at the bar ordering drinks.

It was a great trip - can't wait to go back!!!!

Dublin Day 2

2011-11-05T08:36:00.000-07:00

Day two in Dublin began with hopping on the double-decker tour bus. I'm sure Nick thinks there is no other way to get around Dublin but on a double-decker bus. In the middle of our road, there is a very tall spire monument thing. You can see it from all over Dublin (it will be pointed out in the day 3 post, so stay tuned!)

Loved all the ivy and colored doors on the buildings throughout Dublin's streets.

Mommy & Nick on the bus. On the top, of course.

St. Patrick's Cathedral - the largest church in Ireland.

If you click on the photo, it will enlarge. And you'll see it's a Guinness delivery truck - yum!!

In keeping with doing some Nick oriented things early in the day so that we can do more adult oriented things later in the day, we headed over to Phoenix Park and the Dublin Zoo (actually, I love zoos, so this wasn't a HUGE sacrifice on my part!)

The tiger taking a cat nap.

A ginormous gorilla. He was a little miffed as it started to rain.

The penguin exhibit was pretty cool. You could get really close - I mean really close. If you wanted to, you could reach in and grab one. You can see Nick's stroller and foot on the left side of the picture below, just on the other side of the plexi-glass. One bad thing about being so close - they smelled. Bad. Whew!!

It was hard not to reach over and give them a little pat.

Time for Nick hamming up for the camera. "Look, I'm a penguin!!"

And, climbing on them of course...

Giraffes hanging out in the drizzle.

More animals to crawl on...

Baby rhino - so cute!

Baby elephant - also cute!

So we stopped at the snack shack to a) get a snack and b) escape the rain a bit. I guess the peacock didn't like the rain either and came in as well.

The peacock was clearly not afraid of people. The girl working the shack was SO nice. She gave us a pastry to feed the peacock. We chatted for a while - she was very excited that we were from LA. As we were leaving, she pulled out a box & filled it with pastries & cookies - gave it to us for free! So nice!!

After the zoo, we headed to our adult-oriented event for the day - the Jameson Distillery!! We had about 20 minutes to wait for the next tour to begin, so we hung out at the little bar area they have there and (surprise) had a drink.

Nick looks like he'd had a few drinks in this picture. But, nope, just apple juice.

My Irish Coffee - with Jameson, of course. Yum.

The boys and Kevin's whiskey flight.

Into the tour we went. Nick was good - he wasn't the only kid either, there was a baby that made a lot more noise than he did.

In the beginning of the tour, we watched a quick history video in a small theater. After the video, the tour guide asked for volunteers for a tasting afterwards. Both Kevin & I raised our hands, but the tour guide liked it when women volunteered, so I was selected - sorry Kev!!

Here is my whiskey tasting at the end of the tour. The far left is scotch whiskey, middle is Jameson and far right is Kentucky bourbon (Jack Daniels). I tried all of them and liked Jameson the best. I gave my leftover bourbon to Kevin - so he didn't miss out after all.

A very fun day in rainy Dublin!!

Dublin!!

2011-10-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

We hit the road after our lunch near the farmhouse in Killarney National Park. As per usual, Nick fell asleep fairly quickly. The roads in Ireland have improved so much since the last time I was there. Made the trip to Dublin really quick using the M-highways. Once again, we lucked out with our navigation and found our way to the hotel without issue. We stayed at the Gresham Hotel. It was generally nice. The rooms were big although we had issues with our A/C. We couldn't get it to cool down which means we had to leave our window open. But since we were in large city, the noise was an issue. Oh well, it had a great lobby bar, good breakfast and had easy access to pretty much everything.

My friend Maggie, who is also Nick's god mother, decided to spend a few days in Dublin while we were there. She brought two friends, Sharon and Laura. So after we checked into the hotel and got settled, we met up with them at the hotel. We all headed out for dinner at a pub down the street. We didn't stay out too late as it was relatively late already. Here is Nick in his typical form at the bars. Mommy's phone, ear buds and a drink.

Since Maggie and "The Twins" got there the day before we did, they organized a tour out to Powerscout Estate for all of us. (For some reason, Nick started calling Sharon and Laura the Twins. They aren't related and don't really even look like each other. But it was funny.) Nick was very excited to ride in the double-decker bus. Here he is sitting with Maggie in the bus.

A picture of the two of us, finally!

The drive out to Powerscourt took us through all sorts of cool places. Here is a nice statue along the waterfront of Dublin.

You know, just a ruin in the middle of town. Typical.

A picture of the Girls and Nick on the beach in Bray. Laura on the left, then Sharon, Maggie and me.

Nick wanted to climb everything, of course. I can't imagine it was comfortable.

A view of the countryside outside Powerscourt.

The gardens at Powerscourt.

Nick loved being able to run all over.

The terrace that overlooks the garden, along with a fountain. You can see Nick in the bottom left corner. I'm at the top of the stairs in the top left corner.

A view back up toward the mansion. Kevin not paying attention to the photographer.

Nick doing his typical climb atop any animal he can.

More gardens.

The pond and fountain.

Nick in front of the fountain.

Nick took this picture of Maggie and the Twins

A view back up all of the stairs from the pond. You can see the sky starting to look a bit nasty. It did start to rain, but thankfully after we'd finished the majority of our garden tour.

Nick running down the path to the far side of the pond.

A view from the far side of the pond back to the mansion.

To one side of the gardens, they have an Japanese garden. The colors were lovely.

Nick surveying the Japanese garden from above.

He wanted to take a picture, so I'm making sure he doesn't drop the camera.

The picture that Nick took. "Mommy, look at my picture. The trees are so beautiful."

Also on the grounds was a cool tower.

I climbed up to the top of the tower. Nick climbed up too, but a little later. He was busy playing with the canons.

Me at the top of the tower.

Nick and his canon.

Fire away!

After playing with the canons and running about, we headed into the mansion where they had a cafe. We had some lunch while it rained outside. They had some stores in there as well, so we perused the stores a bit before we hopped back on the bus to head back to Dublin.

Once we got back to Dublin, Kevin had to go turn in our car (we'd arrived too late to return it the day before). So Maggie, the Twins, Nick and I stopped in our lobby bar for a little drink before we got ready for dinner later. Nick took a TON of pictures while we were there, but none of them were particularly flattering. Nick doesn't quite understand that getting reallllllly close to your subject isn't the most attractive view. I was able to get a good one of Maggie, Nick and Sharon, though.

Later that evening, we all headed out to dinner. Maggie, Sharon & Laura were leaving the next day. Here are Sharon and Laura playing checkers with Nick. He was very good at dinner - loved his meatballs.

It was a great first day in Dublin, even though the majority of it was spent outside of Dublin. It was too bad that the ladies were leaving the next day, but we still had a great time with them while they were there.

The Goodest Food in the World - Killarney

2011-09-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

After a 'day at the Fort', we hopped in the car and headed to our next destination, Killarney. Killarney is in County Kerry, one of the more beautiful areas of Ireland. Our luck with driving and finding things without GPS, detailed maps, etc. continued and we found our hotel without trouble. We stayed at the Fairview House which was in the perfect spot - right in the center of town with easy access to everything. The hotel itself was nice as well - a big jacuzzi tub, large room, good breakfast - very happy. And, guess what met us when we arrived? The stroller!! Yahoo!!

We arrived late in the day. So, after we had a little wine in our room, we headed out on the town for dinner. This may have been one of the best dinners we had during the entire trip. It was at Treyvaud's. Everything was great, we all loved our dishes. I had a wild mushroom risotto - so good. Nick had pasta. His comment was "It was the goodest food in the whole world". We seriously considered going there again the next night. Here is Nick chowing down.

The next day we headed out to hit the Ring of Kerry. A beautiful drive that takes you along the coast and through Killarney National Forest. The view from the roadside on the western side of the Ring.

Another view.

Here is our car - it was perfect. Small enough to go along the narrow roads and big enough to hold our stuff.

We stopped in a tiny fishing village called Portmagee. It was super tiny. Only a couple of storefronts. But, of course, two pubs.

Kevin and his guidebook again.

Nick steals the camera.

Another Nick shot. Mommy's Smithwick's, Nick's apple juice and Daddy's black and tan. That's the bar in the back.

After our pit stop we headed up the hill to a place that claims to have "The Best Cliff Views in all of Kerry". It was sort of funny. It was clearly someone's farm that had been turned into a tourist attraction. They sold a bit of food and pastries. And you also had to pay to walk out to the cliffs. Not a bad little business they have going on there. Have to say, their claims were not exaggerated.

Here are the Skellig Islands in the distance. You can take a ferry out there but it's apparently quite rugged with hiking paths on cliffs. We decided it was probably best to wait until Nick was older to do that.

A view back toward the countryside.

And the cliffs.

Nick had fun running around, throwing rocks off the cliffs and seeing the animals (cows and horses).

Cow.

We continued around the Ring of Kerry. Made a quick stop for a late lunch in a town called Sneem. Awesome name. The pub we ate at was called the Blue Bull. Apparently this is one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's favorite places to eat in Ireland. I'm not really sure why, I didn't find it particularly spectacular. Oh well.

We continued on to Kenmare to check out a Druid's Circle. Here's Nick checking it out.

Must. Climb. Rocks.

As one might expect, we saw a bazillion sheep. Nick thought it was funny that they had colors on them so I got a picture of the "pink sheep".

We headed back to Killarney and called it a day. A lot of driving wiped us out. I know Kev will hate me for posting this, but it cracked me up.

The next day after a tasty breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and headed out to see some more sights. First stop was Ross Castle.

Nick checking out the river with a swan and some ducks.

Nick loves him some ducks.

Nick "requested" (i.e., demanded) that I take a close-up of the swan.

Then it was time to attack the castle - off they go at full speed.

We took a tour of the castle (no pictures, alas). Always interesting to hear the history of the castle and how people lived.

After the castle, we headed over to Muckross Traditional Farms. This was great. For a fee (of course) you could walk all around the farm and check out the animals. Here is Nick with the donkey.

We didn't realize it at first, but the fee also included a pony ride. Here's Nick on his pony. Daddy walked alongside to make sure he didn't slide off.

Too bad Kev's eyes are closed.

I wish I had gotten more pictures here. They had some super cute puppies that Nick was obsessed with - he totally pitched a fit when we left. You could also walk through the stable and pet all the horses. Very cool.

After we finished here, we had a quick lunch and then hit the road to our final destination, Dublin!!

Kinsale, ahoy!

2011-09-17T15:29:00.000-07:00

Kinsale is a small (formerly) fishing village southwest of Cork. Tourism is the main industry now. It's also one of the 'food capitals' of Ireland. It's super cute. We only spent one night here and we both wished we could've stayed another night (although we wouldn't have given up nights in the other towns - just a longer trip!)

The hotel was OK. It was pretty old and it definitely showed it's age. But, it was comfortable and had decent sized rooms, so it was fine. And, honestly, we didn't spend that much time in the room anyway.

One of the best things about our room was our view:

Kevin happens to have a cousin, Jeff, who is married to Kate, whose family owns a pub in town. So the night we arrived, we met up with them at their pub. The pub is the Lord Kingsale and it's the oldest pub in Kinsale. We had a great time catching up (Kev) and getting to know them (me). Here is the pub:

The harbor area the next morning.

I'm annoyed with myself that I didn't get a picture, but the next day we took a land train up to Charles Fort. The fort is out closer to the sea. We had beautiful weather, so it was a really nice ride. The train was a kick - it was shaped like a steam train and it even had (a rather bothersome) whistle that the operator blew (all the time).

Here we are at the fort. Nick TOOK OFF when he saw where we were. You can barely see him under the entryway in the distance.

So, yea, Charles Fort.

Nick surveying the fort.

It's not a good fort without a few canons.

The three of us on a wall at the fort.

The boys.

I'm guessing that the soldiers who got in trouble were the ones that had to man that turret.

A view back toward Kinsale.

More views.

The train operator mentioned there was a nice pub down the hill from the fort. He was right. We had a tasty lunch (and a couple of pints) while looking out over the water. You can see Kev at our table at the bottom right in the picture.

Others that were just having drinks took them out to the wharf wall.

A closer view - it was such a nice day!

Nick fell asleep on me on the train ride back to Kinsale. He stayed asleep through the walk back to the car and move into the car seat (I REALLY missed the stroller at this point - he's heavy, especially when he's sleeping dead-weight). Then it was off to Killarney!!

Erin Go Bragh!!

2011-09-17T09:17:00.000-07:00

Whoa, boy, I'd better divide these pictures up into multiple posts! But, I've already loaded all these pictures to this post, so I'll roll with it.

OK! According to Wikipedia, Erin Go Bragh is usually translated to "Ireland Forever". I don't know if we'd stay there forever, but we certainly want to go back - multiple times.

The luck of the Irish was not totally with us during our travels. We headed over the pond the same weekend that Hurricane Irene decided to make a huge mess of the East Coast. Our flights were to go from LAX to Newark, NJ and then on to Dublin. Yea, not so much. After a lot of juggling and phone calls with the airlines, we finally got our flights settled and set off (via Toronto, London and THEN Dublin).

As an additional fun twist, Nick caught a slight cold the Saturday before we left (we left Sunday). So during most of the time on our three flights, he coughed a lot. Poor guy. He was able to sleep some of the second flight from Toronto to London, but woke up quite a few times (usually right as I was finally starting to nod off). Needless to say, I didn't get any sleep on any of the flights. Kevin maybe caught an hour or two (he was sitting on the aisle while I was in the middle and Nick at the window). But, oh well, so it goes. We got there. Finally. With MOST of our stuff.

The lovely folks at London's Heathrow airport - well, they weren't our favorite people. Without going into a lot of boring detail, our stroller - which was supposed to meet us at the gate (hence the term gate-check) - did not meet us. We (and about 10 other families) were told to go to Arrivals, pick it up and then come back through security. Huh? Have those people ever BEEN through security at Heathrow? That wasn't happening - we had another flight to catch. We went to our other flight (which involved a bus, more security, customs, ID pictures, retina scans, blood draws, yadda, yadda...) and hoped for the best that our stroller would migrate over to our last flight (on a different airline to boot). Yea, it didn't make it.

Thankfully, WE made it to Dublin. Collected all our other stuff (which, thank God, DID make it) and went off to find the rental car shuttle. Here is Nick on the shuttle. He looks wide awake, right???

In our infinite wisdom during our trip planning, we figured "Hey, we arrive in Dublin at 9-ish in the morning. We'll just get the car and drive a couple of hours to our first town. No problem." Our actual arrival time was closer to 3 PM local time and we were exhausted. But we had to drive to Kilkenny where we had our hotel reservations. Thank God for Hertz and the upgrade - the car was great and fit all our stuff.

Here is Kevin in our lovely Peugeot car. Driving on the left side of the road. Yea, that was easy-peasy on essentially no sleep in the last 24 hours.

He was out no sooner than we could leave the Hertz car lot.

It's probably no surprise that the drive from Dublin airport to Kilkenny is quite fuzzy in my memory. It IS a surprise that we actually made it to Kilkenny and found our hotel with little trouble. Our hotel, the Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel, was right in the center of town. They gave us a very good recommendation for a restaurant (we arrived around dinner time), called Zuni. We had a very nice dinner and found out that in Ireland, they call chicken fingers (or tenders) chicken goujons. This became a common word in our vocabulary in the coming days.

After we had dinner, we knew we had to try and stay up a little later in order to get on Irish time. Our hotel had a bar so we took Nick's DVD player and headed down. Here he is set up with his blue blankie and DVD's.

Our first pints on Irish soil. Ahhhhh....

After sleeping in a bit (thank goodness!) we headed out to enjoy our first full day in Ireland. Here are the boys in front of the hotel.

After stopping for a quick latte (needed some serious caffeine), we headed down the block to Kilkenny Castle.

A view of the expansive grounds in the back.

The view back toward the castle.

Another view...

One of the very cool things about the castle (and all of Ireland, really) is that they have a lot of kid-oriented things. The castle grounds has a HUGE play area for kids. So we struck a deal with Nick - he could spend some time at the play area first, and then it was on to the castle tour. He was on board. Schools in the area were starting up later in the week, so the area was full of kids.

We had a hard time getting him off this when we were leaving.

You weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle, so you'll have to go yourself to see it. Here is the view of the river from the side grounds of the castle.

The gardens in the front of the castle. You can see Nick just over the edge of the top of the stairs.

He's racing Finn McMissle (from Cars 2) along the path.

A view back toward the castle from the gardens.

Another view (and Nick still racing...)

The boys (including Finn).

Nick is becoming quite the photographer. I was instructed to hold Finn. We need to figure out a way to get him to take pictures from a better angle - the upward shot is not so flattering.

Another Nick shot (shocker!)

And one more...

Unfortunately, this picture cut off Kevin's head, but the other one wasn't as good. So trust me, Kevin's head is well and good. Nick liked to sit on the big circles.

Love all the colors of the store fronts.

An interesting statue (I have no idea what or who it is - bad tourist!!)

Ah ha!! The Smithwick's Brewery!! But, alas, not only did we miss the last tour, it was only for 18 and over. Boo! (Thankfully, the only place we went where Nick wasn't allowed).

Nick sitting in a Smithwick's beer barrel while Kev & I looked around the store.

Next stop with the Rothe House. It's a townhouse that was taken over by the Archeological Society and turned into a museum and gardens. Honestly, the museum was sort of eh, not that great. Here is the courtyard of the townhouse - that's the well.

The best part of it was the gardens. They're up on the roof behind the townhouse. It was very cool. Here is a little gazebo type thing with grape vines along the side.

As we were going through the garden, one of the gardeners was there tending to some plants. She was very nice and told us that we were welcome to eat anything we saw. She also added that they use no pesticides so we didn't need to worry about chemicals. Cool! So, off Nick went to find something to nibble on (he, of course, stayed clear of the green beans and other veggies).

Success! He found a TON of tiny little strawberries. He was in heaven. I started to worry that we were eating too much as he literally stopped at every plant and picked all the good ones. Whoops!

The fruit thief in action...

The local ducks. Surprisingly (well, maybe not so surprisingly), Nick wasn't too interested in the ducks. Just the berries.

As we were walking around Kilkenny, we saw all sorts of yellow and black flags, signs, etc. We had no idea what was going on. So when I saw this sign I thought, well I have to get a picture of "Stripy Men"! We soon found out that we were in Ireland during what is nearly equivalent to the Super Bowl. The Irish National Hurling Championship (sort of like field hockey or lacrosse). And County Kilkenny was in the final versus County Tipperary.

We continued our walk around Kilkenny and headed up to St. Canice's Cathedral. Although Nick was doing really well, have to say we did miss the stroller at this point a bit. Anyway, here is the inside of the cathedral with the beautiful stained glass windows.

The cool tower outside. We were going to climb it but they didn't allow kids under 14 to go up. I guess that's the second place kids weren't allowed, oh well. Can't say I was disappointed that we couldn't climb 100+ stairs.

The beer gentlemen.

The outside of the Black Abbey - I liked the raven hanging out on top.

The Black Abbey - you can see Nick in the reflection.

The inside of the Black Abbey, the boys and more stained glass.

Yet another church - can't remember which one it was, but we didn't go in. We were 'churched out' by that point.

Of course, after walking around Kilkenny all day, it was time for a pint. We stopped at the Marble Bar for a Smithwick's (when in Rome, etc., etc.)

Nick had a ham sandwich and apple juice. He also kept entertained by my phone.

A conversation about kids not drinking beer.

We headed out again and hit up another place, the Kyteler's Inn. Big place and pretty cool. It's said to be haunted by a ghost.

The original owner was accused of being a witch. She was sentenced to be burned at the stake but was able to escape. The town-people weren't happy and decided to condemn her maid instead. She was whipped and burned at the stake. Nice, huh? It's her ghost that haunts the Inn.

Kevin was in charge of the guidebook and finding the places we'd go.

As we were getting ready to leave the Inn, we found that in an upper room, they were giving lessons for playing the bodhran.

We all tried to get Nick to do it, but he was too shy. So I did it instead. That's my back on the right in the grey sweater.

Me and my drum (with Nick looking on from the back). It was really fun - a bit cheesy/touristy, but still fun. Can't say I could start up my own band, but I could probably keep a decent beat.

Another view of the river from a bridge.

A view back to Kilkenny Castle from a bridge.

More evidence of the Stripey Men.

Night view of the Castle.

The next day, before we checked out of the hotel, we were required (by Nick) to go to the inside pool. I didn't get any pictures (I SO wish I had!!), but they made any one getting in the pool use a swim cap, which they sold. It was quite funny seeing both Nick and Kevin in swim caps - hence my wish for getting a picture. The pool was nice - very big with a separate kid section where Nick could just stand up with his head above water. We couldn't stay too long, but - as with the day before - we were able to get a fun Nick-activity in before we did other stuff.

After we dried off and packed up, we headed off to Kinsale. We did make a couple of stops on our way down, including Kells Priory. It was one of those places where you just walked through a gate, through a field full of sheep and into the ruins. You pretty much had full run of the place - no one there to watch you or take tickets or anything. Here's the view of the ruins from the top of the hill and the path that runs down to it.

From the inside of the priory.

Ruins...

You could walk all the way to the King's River. Here's the view from the river back up to the Priory.

The sheep that you walked through to get there.

And the sheep poop that you had to avoid as you walked through. There was a lot of poop.

After we finished at the priory, we hit the road again. We stopped in Cashel and had some lunch (at a pub, of course. Nick had - yes! - chicken goujons with fries). After lunch we headed up to the Rock of Cashel, which is a large hill with the ruins of a very old church and fort on top.

Here are Nick and I on the path up to the Rock.

Nick hanging out on the Rock.

A view of the countryside from the Rock.

Another church ruin - not sure which one it is.

The round tower of the fort on the Rock.

A great 'touring the countryside' day. After Cashel, we drove down to Kinsale. Nick took his nap in the car (I must admit I nodded off here and there as well). A great couple of days in County Kilkenny (well, mostly Kilkenny; Cashel is in Tipperary, but whatever. Details.)

Horses and polar bears and whales, oh my!!

2011-08-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we headed down to San Diego for a quick trip. We started out the weekend at the horse races in Del Mar. Just like last year, we headed to the infield to set up shop.

Here is Hillary checking out the racing sheets.

Laurent, Hillary, Tristan, Remy & Justine all lined up for the family picture. Tristan is one of Nick's favorites and Nick follows him all around. Tristan loves Nick and is so sweet with him too.

Christy & TJ - "Prom 2011". Someone took pictures of Kev, Nick & I, but I don't know where they are!! Must get my hands on them.

Dina, Bonnie & I. I clearly need a tan.

The majority of our friends went home after the races. But the Prendergast's and the Desotell's decided to take advantage of the trip, stayed over night and we headed to Sea World the next day.

Started the day with sea otters.

We ran into the dolphins getting ready for their show a little later.

The sea lions were so funny. You could purchase (really stinky) fish to throw to them. As soon as they saw that someone had some fish they'd bark, yell, bellow, etc. at you.

Rowan telling Nick all about them.

Nick checking them out and figuring out where on the map they were.

Of course, Nick wanted to feed them. You can see one of the sea lions just underneath Nick's hand yelling at Nick for the fish.

Nick had great aim and was able to throw the fish right to the sea lion sitting on the rock in the middle of the pool (the one in the first sea lion picture above).

Thank goodness they had a place to wash hands - those fish were gross!

Nick wanted to buy more fish, but we were able to escape with just one "set" of fish.

On to the Shamu show.

We stayed out of the splash zone. It was a sunny day, but not too hot, so getting soaked (especially with salty, stinky whale water) was not high on the list of priorities.

Flying whales.

Well trained - no trainers in the water with them anymore.

TJ happens to work with someone whose partner is a trainer at Sea World. We were able to meet up with him that day and he took us into one of the exhibits to help some new birds get used to humans. They were baby cranes - only about four months old. They'd just arrived at Sea World from Hawaii about a week before. We were instructed to be very quiet and not to make fast movements. I was the designated photographer, so I was allowed in too.

The birds had very little fear of us, so they came right up to us and ate their snacks from our hands. Rowan & Riley were the first to come in.

The cranes - hard to believe that they are only four months old, they're huge - were very interested in my camera.

We weren't sure how Nick would do in there, but after watching Rowan and Riley do it, he came in and did great. Didn't pull his hand away and was quiet & still.

He thought it was "so cool, Mommy!!" It was also the first time that the cranes had seen baseball hats. So they were checking them out and we were a bit nervous that the cranes would peck at them, but they didn't.

You can see just how tall the cranes are in this picture. I was surprised that Nick was so chill.

Had I put the camera down further, I'm sure it would have gotten a little peck. They were very curious. It was really cool for all of us - how many times do you get to go IN the exhibits at Sea World?!

After all that excitement, we headed over to the polar bear exhibit. Here is a nice view of some polar bear butt (not the only butt picture you will see in this post...)

A little better view.

Couldn't get quite close enough to get an up close picture, but not bad.

At the sea turtle exhibit. This turtle loved Nick. Just stared at him - it was funny.

Outside the turtle exhibit - play time.

Riley & Nick - so cute.

Apparently the turtle was slippery.

The girls were so great with Nick - Rowan and Riley took turns giving him piggy back rides. Of course once Nick had one piggy back ride, it was all he wanted to do. Here he is on Riley (and the other butt shot. Maybe Nick will be a plumber when he grows up).

We ran into a couple of animals out for visits. There was a wallaby, but for some reason I missed that picture. Here is Nick with a pony.

On our way out for the evening, we went past the Shamu area. You can go down some stairs to see the whales underwater. The pictures aren't the best, but still pretty cool.

You could really get a sense of just how big they are when they cruise by the windows. Let's just say I'll stay out of the water when they are around.

After two full-of-activity days with no naps, Nick was asleep practically by the time we pulled out of our parking spot to head home. And I don't think he moved the entire ride home. Thankfully, we had great traffic on our way home (unlike on the way down on Saturday) so it was a nice end to a great trip south.

Fourth of July!!

2011-07-16T10:37:00.000-07:00

On the Fourth of July we headed down to Laguna Beach for a party at our friend's parents house. They have a great house in the Three Arch Bay community. Just a block or so from the house is a huge beach that was full of people. We had great weather. Not too hot, but warm enough to be in a swim suit and out in the water.

It took a bit of time for Nick to get used to being in the water, but after a while, he was in & out just like the rest of the kids. All of the other kids were SO great with him - they kept an eye on him & jumped over the waves with him (of course, Kevin or I were also always nearby...) Here he is with Rowan. He had that smile on his face ALL DAY.

How he spent a big chunk of his afternoon - back and forth.

Riley helping him "jump" the waves.

Riley describing how the tide goes in & out.

More wave running...

Rowan & Riley. Hard to believe these two are the same girls that were in our wedding as flower girls almost six years ago...

Nick surveying the beach - watching for sharks, I think.

Later came yummy dinner and fireworks (no pictures of that). When we left at around 9:30-45-ish, we hadn't been in the car for more than five minutes before he was out cold. Sun, sand and surf is exhausting for a little dude!!

Irish Time!!

2011-07-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

We are never ones to miss a fun festival, especially an Irish one. So we headed down to Irvine to hit up the Annual Irish Festival. Nick fell asleep in the car on the way down (which was sort of our plan). We just moved him into his stroller so he could continue napping while we found the Guinness booth.

Here are Christy & TJ - they're both wearing skirts!!

That is a full-grown man snoozing on a full-grown dog. A BIG Irish Wolfhound. Nick thought they were super cool. He was a little hesitant to pet them at first, but once he did, he kept talking about how much he wanted one (so does Mommy!!)

Here is Nick with Rowan & Riley - they have so much fun together, love it!!

Lots of fun at the Festival, as always!!

Spring in the Midwest

2011-07-16T07:29:00.000-07:00

In May we took advantage of the long Memorial Day weekend and headed out to the Midwest to do a little sightseeing and visiting family. We started out with a couple of nights in Chicago. Now, given that it was May (late May at that), you'd think it would be nice and warm. Yea, not so much. Regardless, we still got out and had some fun.

Our hotel was one block away from the John Hancock building. So we walked on down the street and headed up the 100+ floors to the observation deck. It was pretty cool. They gave you a headset to listen to as you walked around, telling you the history of Chicago. They also had headsets for kids, which Nick really liked.

View from the deck. That's the Sears Tower on the right.

They had a description of the window washers that clean the outsides of the windows. So inside they had this little booth you could go into and pretend you're washing the windows.

One of the things we looked forward to for the Chicago visit was going to Wrigley Field. We were not completely prepared for just how cold we would be. Our seats never got any sun and it was somewhat breezy. We had Nick bundled up pretty well, but I was freezing most of the game. Here is Nick with his hot dog.

Showing the camera his hot dog.

Daddy & Nick (see how Kevin's jacket is zipped all the way up?)

The view from our seats (the sun got to about four rows in front of us. And the ushers were pretty strict on making sure people didn't move down closer to the field. Bah.)

The classic Wrigley Field scoreboard.

Nick and his cool Cubby Bear baseball.

The next day, we headed up to Milwaukee. Thankfully it was a bit warmer. And even better, the Giants were in town playing the Brewers. We've never been to Miller Park, so it was a first visit for all of us. Here are Kevin & Nick walking into the park.

The view from our seats. It's a very nice park - more of a full modern park versus the "old style" kind of park that AT&T Park is even though new. And obviously VERY different than Wrigley!

We were wearing our Giants duds of course. Local fans were very nice and there was no heckling of us (although I wasn't expecting much of that in Milwaukee - it's not LA after all!!)

Nick, his grapes & Mommy.

The roof on the park is retractable. So after the game (which, sadly, the Giants lost), they closed the roof. Here it is nearly closed.

Almost there...

After the game in Milwaukee, we drove up to Green Bay. Unfortunately, Cindy & Mike and Ed & Teri were out of town for the weekend, so we didn't get to see them. But we were able to catch up with Pat & Dan and Al & Penny. And, of course, Grandma Mary.

It's becoming sort of a tradition now - each trip we head over to the wildlife sanctuary. This time we caught a large family of Canadian geese as they moved through the park.

Nick had fun feeding the geese.

He tried to get as close as possible.

He got pretty close to this one - I was a bit worried it would nip him, but thankfully the goose was pretty tolerant (probably because he was getting a lot of snacks).

Another thing that is fun to do in the summer months is head to Bay Beach. They have a bunch of small kid oriented rides. Tough to get a good picture, however.

Of course, Nick wanted to ride the red car!

Overall a very nice trip, even though the weather wasn't perfect!!

Baseball, Easter and Legos - of course!!

2011-07-07T11:50:00.000-07:00

After the Egg Hunt (see previous post), we headed down to San Diego with Christy, TJ, Rowan & Riley. We decided to hit up the Padre game that evening. We got seats in the "Family" section, which are bleachers with grass and a sand pit for the kids to play in - perfect!! Here is Nick with the girls (who changed into their Padre gear).

A rare picture of Kevin & I. Who is playing? The Padres and Phillies? Who cares? Go Giants! (And Packers, too!)

The game was fun - the Padres lost (which was fine with us). After the game, we grabbed a late snack and then waited (for what seemed like forever) for the trolley to take us back to the hotel. Have to say, I do love Petco Park - a nice place to watch a game.

The next day was Easter. Our friends Joel, Hope & Emma were also in San Diego - they'd actually gone to the game the night before as well. They were staying up in Carlsbad at the resort right next to Legoland. So we headed up there to meet them for Easter Brunch. Um, tasty!!!

The kids had all sorts of good breakfast food (so did the parents) and also had some candy (of course!) Here is Emma with a HUGE Easter lolly-pop.

Here is Nick with a lolly-pop that Emma bought for him at Disneyland.

The resort had an Easter Bunny touring the restaurant saying hello to all the kids. Nick has never been a big fan of life-size Easter Bunnies (or any life-size characters, really). He did OK with this one, but certainly didn't get too close.

Love his expression in this picture - "Yea, I don't know. Looks a little freaky to me, Mommy"

Kevin & Joel representing their championship teams - Giants & Packers.

After brunch, all of us headed down to Legoland. It was a quick walk from the resort - good thing too, we needed to work off our brunch. It had been raining that morning, but by the time we'd left, the rain had stopped.

In addition to some rides & such, Legoland has all these exhibits of things made out of - can you guess? - Legos. Here is the recreation of the San Francisco city-scape - all Legos!

I doubt this needs a caption...

Bob the Builder is in the house...

As well as Wendy... (there was also a live Bob the Builder character taking pictures with kids, but, as mentioned above, Nick isn't too keen on the live characters that walk around, so no picture for him).

Here is Nick on one of the toddler-oriented rides. He kept saying "Go horsey, go!"

They also have a roller coaster for bigger kids. Unfortunately for me, Nick just cleared the height minimum so he wanted to go on. UGH. I do not like roller coasters much, but what are you going to do. Of course we were put in the first car in the front row. There was a big hill right off the bat. I decided to watch Nick versus what was coming up. There was a hysterical picture that was taken on the way down the hill. You know, the ones that are set-up by the park and then you can buy it for some crazy amount of money. It was me with my head turned to look at Nick. And Nick with a look of utter fear on his face. It was GREAT - ALMOST good enough to buy, but we didn't. After seeing the look on his face, I thought well, we won't be going on another one anytime soon. So I asked Nick, did you have fun? And he said - with a huge smile - yea, Mommy, that was FUN!! Great.

The Hunt is ON!!

2011-07-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

Yea, I know. It's July. And I'm JUST doing the Easter post. Whatever.

So, WAY back in April, we went down to the OC for the annual Easter Egg Hunt hosted by our friends, Hillary & Laurent. There are a ton of kids and they have it organized wonderfully. Thankfully, our kids are also wonderful (HA!), so they cooperate when the parents force them into picture-slavery. Here they are from oldest to youngest (almost). Sean, Rowan, kid-I-can't-remember-#1, Kyle, Tristan, Evan, Riley, Remy, kid-not-remembered-#2, Noah, brother-of-kid-not-remembered-#2, Justine, cute-little-girl-who-I-can't-remember, brother-of-kid-not-remembered-#1, Ben, Nick and Ben's-brother (dang, my memory sucks!!)

See how cooperative they are? "Hey kids, put your baskets on your head!!!" Sean is getting too old for that, but at least he stayed in the picture.

Nick busy hunting away.

By the end of the hunt, the kids were way too excited to dig into their loot to stand still for a picture. Look at Nick's basket - he scored!

Christy wanted to get a picture of Nick with the girls - success...

She then wanted one with just the girls... Fail. Nick refused to leave them (he LOVES them).

After lunch, we hopped in the car to head down to San Diego. We'd barely hit the road before he passed out.

As always, a great hunt!!!

Birthday Part Deux

2011-06-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

A quick update - here is Nick with his boat load of presents after his birthday party.

Thank goodness we had a large enough car to fit all his presents, leftover pizza and all five of us!!

Whoa, four years old? Holy moly.

2011-06-01T10:29:00.000-07:00

*I wrote this up over a week ago, but it wouldn't let me post. Dunno why. Oh well, here you go...*

Yep, in April Nick turned four. Hard to believe, but there it is. We had managed to escape huge birthday parties for a couple of years (his first birthday was more party for us - I mean, how many one-year olds drink sangria? Hmm, maybe we shouldn't answer that question...) But, after attending many of his friends birthday parties, we couldn't escape it this year.

There was no way on God's green earth I was going to host a gaggle of four-ish year-olds at our house, so we went with Adventure Plex in Manhattan Beach, which specializes in these things. It was great - they have a huge inside structure where the kids can go all over (nearly three stories tall - I know this as I had to climb up to release a trapped foot).

You can also do a craft as part of the party, which was a nice break in between the crazy monkey-like frenzy that occurs on the play structure.

Nick making his "Sand Monster" (red, of course!)

The ball pit, which, unfortunately was also populated with non-party kids who were not nearly as nice as Nick & his buddies. Not to mention the parents who chose not to watch said kids so yours truly had to tell said kids to not throw the balls AT people or outside of the pit. Grrr.

When Nick heard the announcement that food was ready, he and one of his best buddies, Sophie, went running by me so fast to get to the table, their heads were a blur.

Soon the rest of the heads were at the table scarfing down on some (pretty yummy, actually) pizza, fruit (of course) and juice.

Waiting for his cake, Nick demonstrates his nose-picking skills. Lovely. Sophie appears to be unimpressed.

What you get when you ask these two "Who can smile bigger?"

The cake!!!

Cake close-up - Cars themed, naturally! Nick informed me that he wanted "the WHOLE Lightening McQueen, Mommy!!" (He settled for just the eye).

Time to eat!!

I don't have pictures of it, but everyone put their gifts for Nick in a big laundry-type bin on wheels. Sort of like laundry bins you might see at hospitals or something. It was FILLED with presents and Nick INSISTED on pushing it out to the car. It was hysterical, the thing was bigger than him. He was a very lucky boy and his friends were very generous. (So much so that we still have gifts that while unwrapped, remain in their boxes!)

I wonder if we'll be able to skip next year? Hmmm...

"Lightening McQueen!!! Lightening McQueen, Mommy!!!"

2011-04-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

We headed over to Disney a few weeks back. After missing the times when Lightening McQueen and Mater were on display the last time we were there, we were sure to head over there first thing. Nick could NOT have been happier. On top of that, Disney is in the process of building Cars Land that will open next summer. So as you're walking through California Adventure, you can see all the scenery from the movie behind the fences. He thought that was way cool.

Also at California Adventure is an "old school" arcade. Nick, of course, wanted to play the games. Something tells me he'll be playing them for real soon...

We also hit up Turtle Talk with Crush (from Nemo - no pictures, sadly). He was very sad that Crush didn't talk to him. I guess we'll have to go back (gee, ya' think?)

This white boy can dance!

2011-04-07T14:15:00.000-07:00

On our way over to Disney last Sunday, we had the radio on in the car. Nick decided it was time to get down. He has some moves. Nice eyes closed, pulling in the lower lip...

Don't ask me what the lyrics are to this dance. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was channeling some ancient Incan or Aztec tribe. Except for the part where he sings "You take my picturrrrrreeee?"

Crazy kid.

Cactus!!!

2011-03-21T17:01:00.000-07:00

While we were in Phoenix for Spring Training we also managed to take a few of the sights. One of Nick's favorite things to point out were cactus. It became a game - who can find the first cactus? We hit the mother lode here.

Since the game we went to on Monday was a night game, we took the day to hit up the Phoenix Zoo. Once Nick got a snack in him (Mr. Grumpy Pants was with us when we first got there) he decided that riding the animals was more fun than seeing them.

I could NOT get a picture of the dang tiger. He kept moving around and I kept moving to catch him... bah.

Lion? Much easier.

Nick got a kick out of the flamingos. "Mommy, where are their heads?"

So after we explained how flamingos nap, he decided to do his own interpretation.

The Zoo has an area where you can walk in and mingle among the monkeys. So, theoretically, if a monkey wanted to jump on your shoulder, he could. Thankfully, the monkeys could care less that we were there and we were not attacked. Not sure how I felt about that exhibit - I think I prefer a less interactive experience.

Here begins the "I want you to take a picture of me on every animal I can sit on, near or in front of, Mommy." Mixed in with Kevin's claim of "I can smile more than you can!!" - it made for some fun pictures.

Komodo dragon:

Kangaroo pouch:

Lion:

Wart hog:

Elephant:

Meerkat:

The only reason he is not ON the rocks is that there is a sign that says "No climbing on the rocks" behind him.

Alligator:

Orangutan:

Turtle:

This one cracks me up. I had to do a little convincing to get him to climb into the shell (he was worried it was going to close on him).

They had a farm set-up with tractors, cows, etc. They had a petting area too, which Nick loved. Didn't get any pictures though.

A cow milking demo.

The elephants hanging out.

Nick loves carousels, so of course...

A day running around the zoo can be exhausting - especially after all that smiling. Nick was kind enough to nap while Mommy & Daddy had a relaxing glass of wine & snacks.

Caught him right when he woke up. Mean Mommy.

We also went to the Arizona Science Center. That was very fun - lots of cool exhibits for kids big and small. They had a huge nose that was set-up to demonstrate a sneeze. You'd stand in front of it and you'd hear the sneeze build up - and then it would sneeze and little foam balls would come flying out. It was hysterical and Nick LOVED it. Alas, no pictures. Oh well, next time.

It's spring! (well, almost) And that means, baseball!

2011-03-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

For the first time, the D-clan headed to the desert to see the Giants in action during Spring Training. In retrospect, I'm not sure why we haven't done this before. Arizona had perfect weather - not too hot yet ('cuz this Momma does NOT deal well with heat...) and cool in the evenings. We were there for a total of three nights and caught two games at Scottsdale Stadium, the Giants' home for Cactus League play.

When we got there, Gaylord Perry was signing autographs. Neither of us are into the whole autograph thing, so I just took a picture.

We were lucky enough to catch one of the games where the World Series trophy was visiting. Thankfully the line wasn't too long and we were able to get our picture taken before the game started. They took one with your own camera and an "official" one (which, since I am a sucker, I purchased as well.) Here is the one from my camera:

Here is Nick with the "official" picture. They're both pretty good, actually.

Rather than purchasing actual seats, we just bought general admission seats - turned out to be a great idea. We found a concrete block that was behind about a five foot swath of grass, which was behind the right field fence. The woman who we ended up sitting next to on said concrete block was kind enough to inform us that the ushers don't allow people to stand at the wall while the ball was in play. So the whole grass area was clear in front of us. And, in between innings, Nick could run around, play catch, etc. PERFECT!!

We were right next to the Giants bullpen. When we got our seats set up, we saw Buster Posey (2010 Rookie of the Year) warming up the starting pitcher for the day...

...Tim Lincecum (yay!!)

Our view of the field. The one bad thing about these seats is that you can't see deep center or part of left field. However, it wasn't so bad as since people couldn't stand in front of you, when the ball was hit out there, everyone just stands up, runs to the wall and looks to the right to catch the play. So I'm not really complaining. (Also a very quick walk to bathroom, food & drinks. And did you know they still sell beer in the stands, unlike AT&T Park?! And good beer too!!)

You could look right into the Giants bullpen. Here is Brian Wilson aka "Fear the Beard" hanging out. He actually pitched one inning this game - struck out the side.

Cody Ross "The Boss" playing right field.

This picture is from the night game we went to the next day. Nick desperately wanted a baseball. So, again - being the sucker that I am - we went to the store and I was "convinced" to purchase a ball, a Panda stuffed ball (he likes Kung Fu Panda, aka Pablo Sandoval) and a Giants Matchbox car. Yup, sucker. But seriously, look how happy!!!

We had SUCH a great time at the games. One of the security guards gave Nick one of the home run balls from batting practice - he was THRILLED. And, the icing - the Giants won both games. Without torture even. Can't wait for the season to start!!

If it's not Scottish it's crap!!

2011-03-10T16:16:00.000-08:00

In February, we headed down to Long Beach to go to the Scottish Festival. It was held in the harbor where the Queen Mary is docked. Admission included access to the ship as well, so it was well worth it!

We got there just in time to grab a spot inside the beer garden to watch the parade. This picture sort of cracks me up. A piper in full attire chatting with the police in a hummer... you know those Scots, they can get out of hand if you let them.

The parade got underway. They had a set of pipes and drums for a bunch of different clans.

Don't worry - didn't take a picture of each clan!

That's Nick's head at the bottom of the picture - he has his jacket hood up. It was very sunny, but still a bit chilly. You can see he had a prime viewing spot.

We called this one the McRagTag Clan.

Nick *loved* all the pipes and drums.

Yummmm, meat pies... And yes, there was haggis. I did not try it. Our friend Scott (McMillin, of course) was going to try it, but by the time we got back over there they were out. Um, darn?

The hull of the ship. Sadly, the only one I got of the whole darn thing!

I wish I had taken a few more pictures. They had Scottish games (really big men throwing really big things as far as they could) and a sheep dog demonstration. One of the funniest things was when the sheep went on their "break". They went into a horse trailer and the kids were allowed to go pet them if they wanted to. So, of course, Nick wanted to check them out. He at first insisted that I hold him, but in a matter of minutes (seconds, really), he was practically climbing into the trailer with them.

We also got to do some whiskey tasting - yum! Kevin & I, not Nick. Although that might have gotten him down for his nap... hmm... maybe next year!

So there was this football game on Feb. 6...

2011-02-24T16:46:00.000-08:00

You might have heard about it - the Super Bowl? It was a pretty big deal in the Desotell household. First of all, a number of weeks prior, we offered to host a Super Bowl party. So of course there was a lot of prep and planning that went with that.

Secondly - and Kevin might think this should be listed FIRST - the Green Bay Packers were in it. Yea, a pretty big deal here. So big, in fact, that I thought Kevin's head might explode.

So what is a wife to say when a husband wants to go to said Super Bowl to see his team compete? Even if they already agreed to host approximately 20 people for a party? "Buy the plane ticket, honey!"

Off to Dallas he went to enjoy the game with his buddy, Joel. While I only have one picture of the whole event (Kevin really needs to get the pictures off his Blackberry...), I have a feeling the majority of the weekend - pre & post game - was spent like this. Perma-grin.

Being a Packer fan myself (unless they are playing the 49ers - then all bets are off), I got into party planning full swing! Bought us some cheeseheads, of course.

Nick loved the cheeseheads too - and he was a great co-host!

Here are all the guests watching the game. I was too busy (I guess) to take pictures of the decor, but you can sort of see the banner I put up over the couch that said "Go Pack Go!!" There are also little flags and balloons near the window. Unlike last year's Super Bowl party - both teams were NOT represented. Packers only.

The noshing table - meatballs, chili, deviled eggs... yum!!

The coffee table filled with lots of things to snack on during the game, including cheese curds!!

Packers win!!

We had a great time at the party. And, needless to say, Kevin & Joel had a GREAT time in Dallas at the game. He said it was the easiest party to host that we've ever had. Humph.

Hey, I even won our Super Bowl pool - winners all around!!

Dean Desotell, 4/25/31 - 1/26/11

2011-02-24T15:45:00.000-08:00

In January, Kevin received the call that no one wants to get. His Dad, Dean wasn't doing well and Kevin needed to get to Green Bay as soon as possible. While there was a glimmer of hope that Dean would rebound, unfortunately, it didn't happen.

One January 26, 2011 we lost him. He was a great man, a kind man and a man that lived a pretty incredible life. Here is the text of his obituary in the Green Bay Press Gazette:

Dean Desotell, who helped found the Brown County Youth Hockey Association and was a member of the Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame, died Wednesday. He was 79.

A native of Green Bay's west side, he played for the Green Bay Hornets amateur team in 1948 and 1949 before going into the Army.

When Desotell came home from the Korean War, he started working with youth hockey programs in Green Bay. He worked at the rinks at Eastman, Farlin and Fisk parks for 11 years, then spent the rest of his career at the Colburn Park rink.

Desotell, who also worked as a foreman at Green Bay Structural Steel, played hockey into his 60s. He was inducted into the state hockey hall of fame in 1999.

Survivors include his wife, Mary; five sons, eight grandchildren and other family members.

The services that weekend were lovely. I'm sad that Nick will never know his Grandpa Dean well, but know that he's in a better place. I think I see a little of Dean in Nick - he loves hockey and has a pretty awesome slap shot for an almost 4 year old!

Rest in peace, Dean.

What happens when a toddler takes your phone

2011-02-22T21:21:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in another post, we headed out to Green Bay in January for Grandpa Dean's funeral. It was certainly a tough weekend, but there were some happy moments as well. Nick was great kid the whole time we were there (I mean, when isn't he great? HA!) One of the things that he LOVES to do is use Mommy's phone to take pictures. Here are a few of his gems.

Mommy at the funeral luncheon:

Daddy and cousin Ben. Ben also made the mistake of letting Nick use his phone... Nick practically drained his entire battery!! Whoops!

Ben and Brooke (Nick's cousin / Ben's sister)

Another one of Ben & Brooke - there are about 10 of this general picture on my phone, this is just a sample!

Later that afternoon, we headed back to our hotel bar to have a much needed cocktail. Again, Nick practices his photography skills. Not such a bad one, actually.

One of the saving graces for parts of the trip was my iPad. And, more importantly, Angry Birds. He loves it and Mommy & Daddy love it too as we can enjoy a drink with minimal interruption for a bit.

Nick "Nachos" - Doritos, yogurt, bananas, popcorn and apples.

And, yes, he actually ate a lot of it.

I don't know why I didn't get a picture of it, but we did get a good load of snow while we were there. It wasn't terribly cold, however. Overall a sad & happy weekend.

Halloween 2010

2011-01-09T16:20:00.000-08:00

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!!

2011-01-09T15:19:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2011-01-09T14:24:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-09T13:52:00.000-08:00

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!!

Oktoberfest 2010

2010-11-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

It's now becoming a tradition I guess. A couple of weekends ago, we headed over to Alpine Village to go to Oktoberfest. Always a lot of fun, but even more so this year as they had a bunch of festival games for the kids to play. As usual, Nick took a bit of time to warm up to the whole situation, but once he did, he was all over the games, trying to get as many tickets as possible.

They have had bouncy houses in the past, but this year they had two separate houses. One geared toward bigger kids and then one that was really more for smaller kids. Nick had a blast. Seriously considering buying one for the backyard. Here he is bouncing away (while Mommy & Daddy had their steins of beer outside).

Nick earned enough tickets to get this cool light-up wand.

He had a great time with it.

Not quite sure what is all over the ground underneath him in this picture...

The stage toward the end of the evening.

And here is our little dancer. Once the music started and he saw all the kids going up on stage, he wanted to head up there (dragging Mommy along with him). He did the Chicken Dance (which we weren't fast enough to get on camera) and this one. Too funny.

Prost!!

Picture perfect!

2010-10-22T10:36:00.000-07:00

In mid-September, we headed to the Rockies to celebrate my cousin, Tracy's wedding. She and her now-husband live in Denver & head over to Keystone quite frequently. So they decided that would be the place they'd get married. I can't say I blame them - it was beautiful!! We also lucked out with fabulous weather. It was a short trip, so we didn't get to see as much as we would have liked, but now we have good reason to go back!

On the day of the wedding, which was an evening affair, we headed over to Keystone Lodge for some brunch and then walking around. There is a big lake behind the lodge that they turn in to an ice rink in the winter. During the summer months, they stock it with fish and give flyfishing lessons. There are gumball machines filled with fish food that we, of course, had to buy *multiple* times so that Nick could feed the fishies.

Fast forward to the wedding... My Uncle Jerry and his band, the Terriors, did a short set for the happy couple.

Tracy's brother, Todd, provided his bass skills. My Uncle Jerry is the one with the guitar crooning into the microphone. It was so sweet - not a dry eye in the bunch by the end.

Then it was on to dinner. Here is my cousin Gwen & her husband, Rich.

Here is Mr. Ham. You can also see a little bit of the golf course at Keystone Ranch over his shoulder.

I love this picture except for the fact that I'm squishing his cheek a little bit.

Ready to eat!!

And to drink!!

A nice family pic...

Our table. Clockwise from the bottom left: Rich, Gwen, my cousin Todd's wife, Grace, Todd, Kevin, Nick and my other cousin, Marilyn.

Gwen chatting with Marilyn. Marilyn was also our travel buddy - so brave to agree to shacking up with a toddler!!! Thankfully, it was a huge condo, so she wasn't impacted too much.

Kevin & Rich talking about poker (well, I don't know for sure if that's what they were talking about, but I think it was!)

And finally, the beautiful bride.

It was a lovely wedding and a great reception. Can't wait to go back to the Rockies to explore more!!

Shake, shake, shake!

2010-10-12T14:48:00.000-07:00

Nope, not a California earthquake (this time). Just Nick learning how to shake his booty. He loves watching himself in the window reflection - what a ham...

Sorta Flashdance-y, dontcha think? Jennifer Beals, watch out!!

Pee in the woods!!!

2010-09-07T21:41:00.000-07:00

In early September the D-Tell clan headed up to Spokane, WA and Yaak, MT for a little vay-cay.

After a crazy long-delayed trip UP to Spokane (cancelled flights, long waits, etc.), we were happy to have a day to relax on Sunday and go visit River Square Park. There are a ton of things to do at the park, including going on the world's largest Radio Flyer wagon (I don't know if it's really the world's largest, but it is in MY world...)

Up the stairs in the back...

And down the slide in the front. I think Nick is a little spoiled by the curly slides he goes on at our local parks as he didn't care to go on it again.

Now, the carousel? He'd go on again and again. He got lucky as they had to stop and start the carousel a couple of times, so I think he thought that he had multiple turns. Each time he passed us, he waved while sporting a huge smile - that thing really moved. Of course, because of the speed, all pictures turned out blurry. This was the best one I was able to get.

The next day we left for Montana, which is about a three hour drive from my parent's house. We typically try to time our drives so that we go for a bit with Nick awake, stop for lunch somewhere and then hit the road. Typically Nick will fall asleep in the car. This trip was no exception - he woke up just as we were pulling into 'downtown Yaak'.

You may notice in the above picture that he has a band aid on his ear. Nick loves wearing band aids, and had said the night before his ear hurt. No other complaints nor did he have a fever (or a cold that would have caused an ear infection, etc., etc.) So on went the band aid and no complaints after that.

However, while we have no idea if it was related or not, there was a problem that was going to come to light the next day. After his nap, Nick woke up with a coughing fit. That sometimes happens to him if he's sleeping with his mouth open and gets some spit back there. Usually coughs a bit, sometimes cries and then he's fine. So while he is crying & coughing, I notice a HUGE, baseball size lump under his ear. I point it out to Kevin who calmly says "I'm going to put him in the car, find out where the nearest hospital is." So, after a panicked call to my Mom & Dad, who were thankfully still in cell range on their way to meet us in Montana, we find out that the nearest ER is in Bonner's Ferry, an hour away.

Kevin broke many speed limit laws that day and we got there in about 50 minutes. My parents met us there (you go through Bonner's Ferry to get to the house) so they were able to let the ER know we were coming. Thankfully, it turned out to be nothing serious - an infection in his lymph gland. Antibiotics for Nick and a few stiff drinks for me & Kevin once we got back to the Montana house.

Anyhow, aside from that, we had a lot of fun. Starting with exploring! Kevin showing Nick he can put a dandelion in his bag.

Nick's "Explorer Bag", aka, plastic grocery bag. He is also wearing a 49er knit cap as it was a bit cool. This was my choice to offset the Packers shirt he was wearing (unseen, heh heh) under his fleece.

Of COURSE Mommy ends up carrying the Explorer Bag (which remained mostly empty until the end of the walk) and Nick takes over the walking stick. He also dons sunglasses and changes hats as it got too warm. Dang it. At least the Packers shirt is still under wraps.

We spent nearly an hour getting rocks & sticks, dropping them off one side of the bridge and running to the other side of the bridge to see them come out (the sticks, not the rocks). Had it not been getting close to lunchtime, I think we'd have been there even longer.

Nick learning how to "pee in the woods". He got a big kick out of it. He said he was peeing in the woods just like the animals. He proceeded to ask if he could poop in the woods like the animals. This was tempting as I HATE cleaning out his potty, but we ended up saying no.

The deer eating Nick's corn. The one on the left is nick-named Two Buck Chuck.

Another decent sized buck (not Two Buck).

Those deer had a LOT of corn to eat.

Nick with a new fun toy, binoculars.

Out for a walk with Grandpa Bop.

Then with Grandpa Owice.

Fishing attempt number one, along the Yaak River. It rained on & off and we had a hard time finding a good spot where Mommy wouldn't suffer a heart attack worrying about Nick falling into the water.

You can see Nick's muddy pants - we stripped him down to his undies before we put him back in the car!!

Fishing attempt number two at Kilbrennan Lake - success!! Much better weather, clear & warm (well, in the sun, still cool in the shade). Nick didn't quite get it, but still had fun. He just wanted to turn the reel.

A nice view of our "spot".

While Daddy fished, Nick was able to run around and ask Mommy if she wanted to see his rock collection.

Why yes, I'd love to see your rock collection!

He "fished" on and off. Alas, we saw loads of fish jumping, but we didn't catch anything.

No trip to Yaak is complete without a stop at the Yaak Tavern for burgers, Moose Drool and in Nick's case a game of pool.

A wonderful trip - never long enough!!

Lions and Tigers and Bears... and Horses, oh my!!

2010-08-24T17:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's what a weekend trip to San Diego will get you. Maybe not in that order, but, details, details...

This last weekend we headed down to San Diego for a double dose of adventures. A day at the races at Del Mar Racetrack and a visit to the ginormous San Diego Zoo. We went down with the Prendergast's, which Nick was thrilled about - he loves their girls, Rowan & Riley. We met up in Irvine, had lunch and headed down. We hit some miserable traffic caused by, we think, a major accident, as it had both north and southbound lanes tied up for miles.

But, we made it down eventually and it actually gave Nick a chance to get a decent nap under his belt before the excitement of the races.

Afternoons always involve a snack and this was no exception. Here is Nick VERY happy that he has a whole container of grapes & blueberries all to himself.

Even though the traffic kept us from seeing the first five races, we were able to carve out a little spot against the infield fence.

The all-important task of picking the ponies.

Rowan and Nick at the fence getting ready for the next race. Nick is standing on a cooler - thank goodness for that. Mommy held him up to see the first race and that was going to get old FAST.

They're in the gate!

And they're off!!

Christy and I showing off our hats. I bought the ginormous hat in Puerto Vallarta - I love it.

After all the races were finished, there was a concert at the stage they had in the infield. Weezer played. It was great, kids loved it and it ended early enough that Nick wasn't up too late. He promptly fell asleep in the car on the way to the hotel.

The next day we went over to the San Diego Zoo. Man, that place is huge. And I think we walked ALL OVER it. Phew. Nick & the Girls looking at flamingos. They are pretty, but they stink. The flamingos that is, not the kids. Well, they have their moments too, I guess...

The kids on a polar bear statue.

Rowan & Riley playing seal.

Big polar bears.

It was hot and I was about ready to jump in there with the bear.

Nick was excited to find a life-size helicopter, or as he calls them, "hop-ti-collars"

Checking out the instruments.

Dave and the saber tooth tiger.

It's hard to see, but there is a lion back there behind the chain link fence.

Rowan & Nick checking out the elephant.

The handler enticed her into the water using lettuce. We've tried to get Nick to do things by bribing him with lettuce. Doesn't work.

I was half-hoping the elephant would spray us with water from her trunk, but then realized it would probably be mixed with elephant snot. So probably best that she didn't.

T.J. is not a doctor, he just plays one at the Zoo.

This is a statue of a bird that is extinct. It's lifesize. I think I'm glad it's extinct, I wouldn't want to meet it in a dark alley.

We ran into this polar bear after stopping for a drink. Nick was kind enough to share his raisins with him.

Baby giraffe, born in December 2009.

We stood in line for nearly 20 minutes because Nick wanted to feed the giraffes. Of course when we got in there, he was too scared to do it. So Mommy fed them instead.

Nick face to face with a monkey.

Good thing this isn't a real gorilla. I don't think it would like to have a three year-old's fingers up its nose.

LOVE, LOVE this picture. So cute.

Yep, more statue climbing. A turtle this time.

It's hard to see because of the shadows, but this was in the kids area and the hole was on the smaller side. Nick nearly got stuck!

Nick helping the sheep get "clean". He did remarkably well in the petting area. He is very scared around animals, so seeing him walk up to them without hesitation (after a little warm-up time) was good to see.

Rowan & Nick checking out the meerkats. They're so cute. The meerkats, not the kids. Well, the kids are cute too. Most of the time.

It was a great day at the Zoo and a great trip overall. Nick didn't take a nap at all on Sunday, so we were a little worried how the end of the day would go. But there was so much to see, he had no issues. And, of course, fell asleep almost immediately upon driving away from the Zoo. Can't wait to go to Del Mar again and hope that next time, we won't have such bad traffic!!

Man vs. Yosemite 2010

2010-07-23T16:31:00.001-07:00

The BTF Trip to Yosemite is officially an every-other-year event. If you go back two years on the blog (*gasp*), you'll see pictures from our first trip. This year was just as fun - even more so as Nick was much more "involved" than he was when he was just over a year old.

However, the last time we went, we only had about a four hour drive from the SF Bay Area. Since we're now in So. Cal., the trip topped out at about 7 hours each way. Thank God for in-car DVD players (or, as Nick called it, TV). Here is Nick happily cruising along watching one DVD or another. (You can also see all our junk in the packed car!!)

We stayed in the Housekeeping Camps again. This year our tents were next to the road instead of the river, which was sort of a bummer. Not only were we near cars going by (which really weren't too bad), we were also near the edge of the forest where lots of animals like to live. And so, our first night in camp, a visitor in the shape of a big black bear decided to say hello. He stayed on the opposite side of the road.

It's kind of hard to see the bear in this picture, he sort of looks like a dark stump. But it gives you an idea as to where he was versus where we were. I was standing at our camp and the two people in the picture (Dina & Sean) were up on our side of the road.

Later in the trip we had much more welcome visitors. A doe and her two fawns. The fawns still had their spots. It was initially a little worrisome that the deer were fairly tolerant of humans but I then remember that there is no hunting in Yosemite, so they're probably pretty safe. From humans, that is. Mountain lions, not so much.

They had opened the rafting on the Merced River about two weeks before we were there. So the river was a little faster than last time, but still mellow enough that we could bring Nick. Although he was not officially allowed - you have to be over 50 lbs. to go on. We snuck him on though. It was SUPER hot while we were there - in the 90's. So Nick was perfectly happy standing in the very cold water on one of our pit stops along the river. And, of course, each pit stop required at least five minutes of rock throwing (his little hands are filled with rocks).

The McMillins cruising the river.

The ladies of the river - left to right: Betsy, Bonnie, Jocelyn, Margaret, Dina and Katie.

The gentlemen of the river - back left to right: Sean, Scott M., Kevin, Scott W., Jon, Brook, Cary. Front left to right: Evan, Nick, Kyle & Noah.

The fam eating lunch riverside.

Mommy & Nick cruisin'.

Back at the camp, Sean decides to use Nick as an armrest. Nick LOOOOOVES Sean, so he doesn't mind (too much).

Yosemite Falls

How Nick spent our visit to Yosemite Falls

Falls take two

Half Dome. A bunch of the guys on the trip climbed up there on Monday. Not sure I'd want to - a little steep!!

All (well, almost all) the kids getting ready to play some sort of frisbee game.

Frisbee is now in hand.

John O'Malley giving the "rules" to said frisbee game. I don't think Nick cared. He was likely thinking "Throw the frisbee already!!"

Group picture - we were a big group!!

What happens when candy is around and kids are left to make their own dinner - a red vine burrito by Sean.

Yummmm, s'mores....

On our last night, the local wildlife decided to come bid us adeiu. Another big bear came by. We're not sure if this was the same bear who greeted us on our first night, but we do know that this one came MUCH closer to our tent. He was on our side of the road, came straight for our tent but then I think decided there were too many people around, so he took a right turn and went past the bathroom & over to the next cabin over. Here he is just going behind a tree - dang it if the camera was just a smidge too late to catch him in full.

The bear strolled alongside our neighbors tent - the resident of the tent heard everyone yelling (the Park Rangers instruct you to yell "BEAR" loudly when you see one so they can come scare the bear off). So our neighbor comes around the corner of his tent, only to come face to face with the big bear not 10 feet from him. The look on his face was priceless. I'm thinking he probably had to change his underwear after that.

Only a few moments later the guy in the picture below came running through the camp with a rubber pellet gun and the bear scattered back across the street. He came back through our camp and we talked to him for a few minutes. He told us it was a 7 year old male and it would likely be back later. Sure enough, about a half hour or so after we went to bed, another bear came through the campground. We didn't see him, but certainly heard all the ruckus when they were scaring it off. Makes it a bit hard to sleep!!

I'm sure Nick will LOVE that I'd post this picture, but couldn't help it. We're still working on potty training with Nick, so we brought his little potty along with us to make sure we'd have one on hand during our long drive. Sure enough... here he is on the side of the road in the foothills, happily playing with Mommy's phone, doin' his business.

A GREAT trip and can't wait to go back in 2012!!!

And under he goes!!!

2010-07-08T14:57:00.000-07:00

In late May, while Kevin was off in Las Vegas for a bachelor party, the Nickster and I headed up to wayyyyy northern California & southern Oregon to see my youngest nephew, Tony, get baptised. It was cold for May! We actually had snow on our drives between CA & OR. The poor little dude had some awful colic, so we didn't get a chance to see too much of him. But Nick did have a great time playing with his cousin, Sasha, who is just four months younger than Nick.

Here are some pictures of the baptism, courtesy of Grandma Owice. Lighting wasn't the best, so many of the pictures are a bit blurry. Tony spent the majority of the time screaming his lungs out - poor guy. Here is a shot of the group, with the baptism tub.

Natasha, my sister-in-law, is Russian Orthodox. I've never spent any time in a Russian Orthodox church nor am I familiar with the traditions. It's certainly different than the baptisms I've seen!!

This is the church. It's way up in the woods and very small.

My brother and I corralling the toddlers - they actually did pretty well for sitting in a nearly hour-long ceremony!

Nick trying to "fly".

Part of the ritual is putting the baby up on the altar all by himself. I'm sorry to say I don't remember why they did that. Tony did NOT like that ONE BIT.

A closer look at the baptism tub. They immersed him all the way up to his neck! And the water wasn't heated! Sheesh! Remember I mentioned that it was snowing? Yea, it was cold. Poor little dude.

After an hour car ride back to my brother's house, the boys were ready to PLAY.

"Ah, Sasha, you so funny!"

"No, Nick, you so funny!!"

Remember the book Hop on Pop? Well, the afternoon turned into Hop on Mommy. Both of them ran around the room and then jumped on my lap. I had a number of bruises from that afternoon!!

After Mommy cried uncle, they took to bouncing and falling on each other on the bed.

Shortly after that, it was time to calm them down as Tony was napping.

It was a good trip. Nick & Sasha had a blast together and Nick also got to hang out with Grandma Owice & Grandpa Bop, which is always a favorite for him (and Mommy too!!)

And happy to report that Tony's colic is much better now - I'm sure my brother, sis-in-law and Sasha are all VERY happy about that!! Tony too, I'd bet.

World Cup 2026??

2010-07-03T15:27:00.001-07:00

We took Nick to his soccer class this morning. Turns out the class was cancelled, but we were still able to go play on the fields. Nick had a great time and ran back and forth dribbling the ball for a while. And he did pretty well! Maybe a soccer career in his future?

And beware!! Dowloaded a Blogger app on my iPhone. So more posts in the future.

Giants Baseball & Bay to Breakers Weekend

2010-06-25T18:01:00.000-07:00

OK, so I JUST figured out how to get my pictures off my iPhone and onto my computer without emailing them to myself. DUH. So, I now have NO excuse for not updating this more frequently. I think there is an app for the iPhone to do this too, but I'm too lazy to figure it out.

ANYHOW.

The three of us headed up to SF about a month ago. The main reason to go up there was I walked in the Bay to Breakers in honor of my dear friend John Kalayjian, who passed away unexpectedly in March. He did the B2B every year, so I joined a number of friends & his family to walk in his honor.

I was able to convince Kevin to make the trip (and, therefore of course, Nick - still to young to leave at home, darn it!) by letting him know that the Giants were in town. (Truthfully, it didn't take much convincing even without the Giants.)

We were able to see lots of friends, including Hope, Joel & Emma - Nick was talking about Emma alllll week long before the trip. So cute! They had a great time together at dinner on Friday night (dang it, no pictures!!!)

On Saturday, after a visit to our fave, the Ferry Building Farmer's Market, we headed over to the ball park. As usual, Nick fell asleep in the car and we were able to transfer him to his stroller for the remainder of his nap. We had Club Level seats, so we were able to hang out inside, eat a couple of Sheboygan brats, some garlic fries and some Gordon Biersch beer while Nick napped.

We happened to be sitting by the Ghirardelli Ice Cream Sundae cart. So when Nick woke up, he saw the cart & the yummy sundaes walking away and decided he wanted one. He's not much of a sweet-kid, but who can blame him? We were "behaved" and got one for the three of us to split.

After we got to our seats, Nick saw the guy next to us eating peanuts out of the shell. The guy was really nice and gave Nick a few peanuts. Nick LOVED them. He - embarrassingly - went over and asked for more. The guy (did I mention he was nice???) gave Nick the rest of his bag. It was great - kept him entertained for quite a while.

Nick also loved having one of the HUGE lemonades that they sell. The long straw is perfect to prevent spillage!!

Here is one of the only pictures I took at the Bay to Breakers. I forgot my camera as my friends who picked me up to go to the race came early, so in my scramble, forgot it! Also forgot to charge my phone, so lots of photo-ing was not in the cards. Oh well. At least you can see how crazy-crowded it was at the starting line!!

While Mommy was walking in the race, Daddy & Nick went to yet another Giants game! Nick learned to cheer - "Let's go Giants!!", clap, clap, clap-clap-clap. And they went all over the park.

The trip ended sort of crazy. Due to some miscalculations on timing, we missed our flight. Tried to do stand-by, but SFO-LAX on a Sunday night is ridiculous. So, thank goodness Kevin works for Hertz - we just grabbed a car and drove down. Nick slept the whole way and we made it in about 5 and a half hours. Exhausted, but in our own beds at least!!!

Holy moly, he's THREE.

2010-05-28T14:43:00.000-07:00

I am FINALLY catching up on blog posts!! It's been so long you might think this subject line should read "He's TEN!" But, thankfully, no, just three.

Yes, a three year old. Hard to believe. But he's turning more and more into a "little person" everyday. Including being a backseat driver - "Mommy, both hands on the wheel." "Mommy, if you go too fast you'll get a ticket." Yep, quite the chatterbox.

So we've continued to avoid the huge birthday parties so far. Don't know how much longer we'll be able to do that, but for now it's working. Instead we just do presents & cake here at home and then head to Disneyland. I guess that's not too shabby, right?

Here is Nick with one of his presents - a set of Tinkertoys.

I'm not entirely sure who had more fun with them, Nick or Daddy.

His big present from us was a Big Boy Bicycle. It is - of course - a Cars-themed bike, so obviously a big hit with the toddler set.

Turns out it is a smidge too tall for him, but we let him ride it around on the flat sidewalks and he does OK.

Another present was a play BBQ set from Aunt Teri & Uncle Ed. He had a great time with this.

He cooked all the food and then served it to us, with the warning "Be careful, it's hot".

Of course we had a cake - it was yummy if I do say so myself (although it came from a box mix with frosting in a can, but whatever). And, yes, you're right! Those decorations are Lightening McQueen and Mater from Cars. (Seeing a pattern here? Kevin thinks we should buy stock in Disney...)

Blowing out the candle...

Then off to Disney! As it is when we leave the park, the characters are hanging out. So here is a picture with Mickey (Nick was too tired to get out of the stroller).

And with Minnie...

All and all a very good birthday. Nick had a great time and so did we! Onto four!! Yikes.

And, for those of you that pay attention to these sorts of things - his 3 year stats (well, three years and a month, the Dr. appt. was about a month after his birthday).

Weight: 40 lbs., 4 oz.
Height: 40 inches even

Yep, still a big boy!!

The Joys of Potty Training

2010-05-04T16:01:00.000-07:00

We have been working at getting Nick potty-trained for a while. Well, working might not be the best work, I think we both hoped that Day Care would be the magic bullet. But so far, not so. While he will go, um, #1 in the potty when we bring him in there, he doesn't volunteer the fact that he needs to go. He's much happier to continue to play with his toys, eat his lunch - whatever - than stop & run to the bathroom (and, really, can you blame him? It really can be a hassle...) #2 is always in his diaper or pull-up, even when he is in the potty. He just doesn't want to sit that long (he's a busy boy, you know.)

So last week, we instituted the Potty Chart. Nick loves all things related to the Disney movie Cars, and lucky Mommy was able to find a pre-designed potty chart on-line that has Lightening McQueen and Mater from Cars on it (really just a grid with pictures on each corner!!) I also found Cars stickers at Target. We told him that if he went #1 in the potty, he'd get a sticker to put on the chart. If he went #2, he'd get TWO stickers (said with great emphasis on how great getting TWO stickers would be). Once the whole chart/grid is full, he gets a new toy.

Well, needless to say, wish we'd done this weeks if not months ago. BIG HIT. Since then he's gone #2 in the potty a bunch of times (although only when prompted by us) and - on Sunday - the holy grail. He actually told us he had to go potty. Of course, we were on the freeway heading to a birthday party. But, after I let him know that we'll be there soon & that we can go on the potty when we get there, he actually held it and was dry when we arrived! Yay!!

I think the funniest thing I've heard him say lately was what happened this morning. As with most kids, he's very curious about what's going on in the potty and likes to look at his, um, work. So after a successful potty "experience" this morning, he looked down to see what all had happened. He looked up at me and said "WOW! That's BIG!!!" He was quite proud of himself. He was yelling "Daddy!! I POOOOOOOPED!!!" (Daddy was in the shower.) Wonder what the neighbors think...

Don't worry - I'll spare you any pictures!!

Ahh, the beach...

2010-04-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

Still have to get the rest of the Hawaii pics posted... sooner or later!!

Just a quick post to rave about the beautiful weather we had last weekend. It was in the 80's so we decided to head to the beach in the late afternoon!!

Not a bad way to spend the last Sunday in March, wouldn't you say?

Fishing

2010-03-06T11:21:00.000-08:00

On the day before the big TSUNAMI (yeah, not so much...), Kevin, Grandpa Bop and Nick went on a fishing trip. They left super early and headed out. We didn't know if Nick would suffer from sea sickness or not, but sort of expected him to be OK as he's never gotten car sick. Well, I'm not sure we should use this trip as the true test. Here is Daddy putting some sunscreen on Nick. As you can see Nick is a little green.

Nick, unfortunately, did get sick. However, so did about 50% of the people on the boat. The seas were a bit rough and Nick was down under the deck for a good portion, so poor guy didn't feel so well. But, after he bit, he fell asleep for a while and Kevin was able to go up top to help one of the guys land a HUGE marlin.

Once Nick woke up and was able to go up top, he felt a little better and liked watching all the guys fish.

Even blew a kiss to Grandpa Bop taking the picture.

Here is the HUGE marlin the guy caught. Wow.

So, at this point, I'm not labeling Nick as a sea-sick prone dude. We'll wait for the next boat trip and see how it goes. I mean, heck, if all the guys around you were throwing up in one big bucket, you'd probably get sick too. Thankfully Nick had is own little cup and didn't have to use the "big bucket". Blech.

Luau

2010-03-06T11:18:00.000-08:00

You can't be in Hawaii without doing a Luau. Well, I guess you can, but they're so silly and fun, it's hard to skip them. And the bonus - it was at the hotel right across the street from our condo!

Here is Nick's very own Mai Tai (yes, it's virgin!!) He did like it, despite the look on his face.

Nick had fun playing with his Giants players while we waited for the food to be set-up.

Daddy took Nick over to see the pig being brought out of the underground oven. He was fascinated.

I didn't get any pictures of it because it was too dark. But Nick was having a lot of fun dancing around when the big drums were played. He was also in total awe of the fire-baton dancers.

Culinary Tour

2010-03-06T11:11:00.000-08:00

One of the days we were there, Mom, Marilyn, Debra and I went on a culinary tour. Chef Ann Sutherland runs tours that brings people to three different houses across the island and feeds them. Yum.

Here I am at the first house - a seaside, beautiful house. It can be rented and you can bet that I'll be checking this out for future trips! The price is actually quite reasonable if you have enough people to share.

The four touring ladies...

The tide pool that was built right next to the house. Yep, you can walk down into it if you want.

The ah-ma-zing mango gazpacho - so good. She gave us the recipe and I've made it since - so good!!! Especially on a hot day. Yummy.

These little lizards came up and ate the soup out of the spoons.

Relaxing on the lanai...

The last dish of the day... yummy too.

I wonder how much it would be to have a private chef? Hmm, must look into this...

Black sand beach

2010-03-06T11:00:00.000-08:00

On our drive back from Mt. Kilauea we made a pit stop at Punalu'u Beach Park. It was SOOOO cool. A black sand beach where ginormous green sea turtles come to hang out.

Here are Grandma Ow-ice and Grandpa Bop posing for a picture on the beach...

One of the ginormous turtles. The barely moved, so if you weren't careful, you'd trip over one.

Kevin, Nick and Grandma checking out the tide pools...

Daddy showing Nick where the fishies are.

"Look, Mommy a fishie!!!" Too cute.

We had to PULL him away from this beach - he just wanted to walk around and check everything out. He liked the turtles, but since they didn't move too much, he got bored with them. Oh, well!

Mt. Kiluaea

2010-03-06T10:55:00.000-08:00

It was a bit of a drive, but we got over to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park and checked out Mt. Kilauea. It was really cool, but somewhat daunting to be standing at the precipice of a big, smoking volcano.

As you can see from Nick's face, it was a little stinky.

We also went for a walk down into one of the big lava tubes. It was really cool - both literally and figuratively!!

It was pretty dark and had some echoes, so Nick didn't want to go very far inside.

The hike back up the trail after we'd investigated enough. Oddly, it seemed a lot further down than it was going back up - it's usually the opposite!!

The drive was certainly long, but well worth it!!

Beach Day

2010-03-06T10:50:00.000-08:00

Our first official beach day was spent at Kamakahonu Beach which is right in "downtown" Kailua-Kona. The little beach between the sea wall / jetty and the King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel property is great for kids. There is practically no surf and the water is warm & clear.

The day started out with Nick just playing in the sand. He had no interest in going into the water.

He decided to bury a big lava rock that was sitting on the beach.

Once the rock was buried, we decided to try to coax Nick out into the water. It took a bit of time, but soon he was in and loving it (as mentioned in a previous post).

He ran back and forth in the water until he got pooped. Then he plopped down to toss sand and splash water.

So fun - he turned into a fish in a period of ten minutes. He LOVED it!!

Place of Refuge

2010-03-06T10:37:00.000-08:00

So rather than put all the Hawaii pictures in one super-long post, I decided to break it out between different trips or events. Much easier to attack this way.

On our first full day in Hawaii we drove down to a place called Pu'uhonua O Honaunau, the Place of Refuge (and, yes, I remember the full Hawaiian name AND spelling!! Ha - right, yay for Fodor's). It's a National Historic Park that used to be a safe haven for women during times of war. We got there somewhat late in the day, so we walked around where we could before the sunset.

Here are Grandpa Bop, Nick and Kevin strolling along the seaside.

Grandpa Bob standing in front of some old buildings of some sort.

Grandma Ow-ice and Nick on the beach.

When we arrived at the park & paid our admission, one of the staff gave Nick a cool fish woven out of palm fronds. He loved it but, sadly, the fish was sacrificed to the Gods at some point during our adventure as it never made it back to the car with us.

Nick was in heaven with all the rocks that he could throw in the water. We had to make many pit stops to grab & throw rocks. He was feeling particularly strong as they were lava rocks & therefore fairly light. So he could pick-up some pretty big ones!

The cool coastline. Lots of good tidal pools to look in.

Nick deciding that a rock would look good on its head.

Nick found the coconuts really fun.

I think he thought he had a second head.

It never got old.

Family pic...

Solo pic

And Grandpa Bop watching the sunset. It was beautiful!!

Grandpa Bop helped Nick find pieces of coconut on the beach - for two days we had gross, dirty pieces of coconut meat on our condo kitchen counter as Nick insisted that we bring them back to the condo. Blech!!

So this picture needs some explanation...

2010-03-04T16:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know, another not-really-full Hawaii post - but I couldn't wait on this one, because it cracks me up.

I think it was the second day that we were there when Nick woke up from his nap and started saying that his pancake shirt fell in the dirt. Nick has a shirt from Old Navy that has a stack of pancakes on it that he calls - obviously - his pancake shirt. While I had brought said pancake shirt on the trip, he hadn't worn it yet and, as far as I knew, it was in either a backpack or the dresser drawer in his bedroom.

He went on & on about needing to find it and picking it up out of the dirt. As we had no idea what he was talking about, we just assumed that he must have been dreaming about it or something as 1) we hadn't really been out & about by the dirt and 2) our condo was on the 6th floor with a large lanai, not a backyard with grass, etc.

I think it was the next day when my Mom pointed out something that was on the ground next to the walkway at the bottom of the building where our condo was. I leaned over the railing to see what it was, and there - spread out nearly perfectly - was Nick's pancake shirt laying in the dirt. Clearly Nick got his little paws on the shirt and promptly threw it over the railing.

So I went and got Kevin and asked him to look over the railing. This picture is his reaction when he realized what it was and how it must have gotten there.

Now I'm sure you're saying to yourself, "How could you not know he did that because shouldn't you have been out on the lanai WITH him?" Honestly, I'm not sure when he did it. We didn't let him go out there by himself, so he could have done it pretty quickly while one or the both of us were sitting there right near him.

Hawaii 2010 - the Tsunami!!!

2010-03-03T17:44:00.001-08:00

Yes, we were some of the lucky people that got to experience a true tsunami evacuation process while on our lovely vacation to Hawaii. We had a great trip - even with the evacuation - and have a MILLION pictures. So, thought I'd start with a "teaser" post. (Well, it's also because I'm lazy, still receiving pictures from Mom and haven't downloaded my pictures from my camera yet. Whatever. Details.)

These are from my iPhone and are easy to upload. Yes, I know, this furthers the "I'm lazy" reasoning.

On the way over to Hawaii (yay for direct LAX-KOA flights!!), Nick had fun playing with the headphones (and trying to get Mommy's iPhone).

DJ Nick Rock getting ready to watch Cars.

After about 15 minutes of his movie, he decides that he doesn't need his headphones anymore and about 10 minutes after that... zzzzz... yay!!

If you have read earlier posts on Nick's beach experience, let's just say they haven't been good ones. So Nick was not at all willing to go into the water when we first got to the beach. But, after a lot of coaxing and convincing, in he went. And did NOT want to leave.

He ran back and forth through the water, having a fabulous time splashing and kicking water and plopping down. It was great fun (except maybe not so much for Kevin who had to follow Nick back and forth... I had to keep near our stuff, of course!!)

A Monday Mai Tai lunch for Mommy & Daddy...

And a Tuesday evening Mai Tai night cap by the ocean!

Nick snoozing in his stroller while we had - yes, you guessed it - more Mai Tai's.

On Tsunami Evacuation Day, I decided this would be a good shirt to wear...

What Nick did while the rest of us wondered if the coast line would be there in a few hours...

More pictures to come. Well, as soon as I stop being lazy. Or busy. Or whatever.

Mahalo

The Battle of the Crock Pots

2010-02-17T16:45:00.000-08:00

Or, as some might call it, Super Bowl 2010!!!

Why crock pots you ask? Well, I challenged our guests to bring something to eat or drink that is somehow related to either New Orleans, Indianapolis or Miami (the host city of the Super Bowl). It could be something that is known to be from these towns or I also expanded it to include food that is the color of either team (black & gold or blue & white).

It sounded like a good idea early on, but as I talked with our friends, we realized that - with no offense intended to the kind folks of Indy - there isn't a whole lot of food that comes out of Indy. At least not food that people would consider bringing to a party for other guests to eat. But our friends got creative!

So the various crock pots contain all sorts of goodies - beer cheese soup, gumbo, a corn soup-thing, jambalaya and meatballs.

Christy made descriptive cards for her things (beer cheese soup with all the toppings)

We also had guacamole and seven layer dip (I know, not really "up to the challenge", but whatever...) We used blue corn tortilla chips to fit the theme, well, you can't see them here, but we did! Those in the picture are WHITE corn tortilla chips, so there.

All the kids piled into our bedroom to play XBox. Some of the kids, Nick included, tranferred to the living room to watch a movie instead.

Dina & Bonnie (who is looking at something on her leg, I think) sitting in our "stadium row seating".

We broke apart our sectional couch to allow for more seating.

A view of everyone enjoying the commercials - I mean - the game.

Yep, we had decorations too!!

It was "Super" fun (ha ha...) and pretty much everyone except Bonnie was happy the Saints won!

Even more Nick-isms

2010-01-27T13:34:00.000-08:00

Last night as Kevin was putting Nick to bed, I gave Nick a kiss & hug and said "'Night Munchkin". Nick says, in a very serious manner:

"No, Mommy, I not munk-in, I'm Nick-o-las and I'm two and a half"

-----

Everything is "a good idea". "Mommy, let's play cars. Yea, that's a good idea."

Or he forgets:

Nick: "Mommy, is TristanLu coming tomorrow?"
Mommy: "No, honey, not until Saturday."
Nick: "Oh yea, I forgot."

Iron Chef America, watch out!!

2010-01-19T15:31:00.000-08:00

Nick has become OBSESSED with helping in the kitchen. He loves to get whatever he can out of the 'fridge, prepare it and, of course, eat it. As soon as he walks in the door from day care he says, "Mommy, can I help you cook grapes?" He then proceeds to the refrigerator and gets to work. We let him use a plastic knife so he can cut his grapes.

Soon he'll be making us full five-course meals. At least I hope so.

(He also likes helping Daddy make his drinks - gets the ice, pours the Jack Daniels, etc. But we figured it would be best to leave that OFF video in case someone reports us to CPS!!)

Cars!!! Otherwise known as Christmas 2009

2009-12-28T12:37:00.000-08:00

This was our first year of spending Christmas at our own house (and not to mention Kevin's first Christmas in California!!) Although we've gotten trees even when we haven't been here for the holiday-proper, it was nice waking up in our own place and opening presents in front of our tree. Well, I should say watching Nick open presents.

I think as children we think Christmas is all about OUR presents and as we grow up & have kids of our own, we realize that yes, it really is all about the kid-presents. I think Kevin & I had maybe two presents each. While Nick, well, let's just say he has plenty to keep him entertained for some time!

On Christmas Eve, we put out cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer. We actually did this quite early as we were going to a friend's house for dinner and Nick would likely fall asleep before we got home.

While I am sure this will change in the coming years, Nick didn't remember that Santa was supposed to come when he woke up on Christmas morning. This was nice as we were able to eat some breakfast and drink some coffee before we launched into opening-present-mode. So mid-morning, we asked Nick if Santa came. Here is the video of what took place after.

We did take any still pictures as we were too busy untying twist ties, putting in batteries, etc., etc. But the video is a good representation of how the rest of the morning went. Nick LOVED all his presents and we think he's pretty darn lucky to have so many people that care about him!!

More Nick-isms

2009-12-23T14:21:00.000-08:00

Driving home from day care with Daddy, they pass a nativity scene on someone's lawn. Nick says "Hey!! There's Mary and Joe!"

-----

On the way to day care this morning with Mommy:

Nick: There's a purple car!
Mommy: Yes, it's purple! You don't see many of those around.
Nick: No, they're dangerous.

-----

And - each day this week, Nick has reminded me that we have to get cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer at the store. If we so much as even mention the store, Nick says "And carrots Mommy? For the reindeer?"

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

2009-12-20T12:20:00.000-08:00

Nick was very excited to help decorate the Christmas Tree this year. He was very careful ("I be careful, Mommy.") with all the decorations. He also thought the lights were "whoa, cool!!"

Here he is carefully putting an ornament on the tree.

The little bugger moves fast - he was in the frame but ran off to get another one. So instead you can see Kevin placing one. Kevin is the "Light Master" and is very particular about making sure the ornaments don't get "bunched up" - love it!

Another ornament. We had to come back and re-distribute Nick's ornaments as of course he put them all in the same place. This does not synch up with Kevin's "No Bunching" policy.

The next day, we decided we'd better take advantage of our Disney passes before they go into their blackout holiday period. I was hemming & hawing about going because Nick still had a little cough, it had been raining & was cold out and I also thought it would be crazy-packed. Well, thank God we went - it was SO COOL!! Here are some of the decorations they had down Main Street.

Nick's favourite has always been Small World. So we headed there first and can I just say: AMAZING. SO, so beautiful with all the holiday decorations! The lines to go on were super long, as you can see here:

The line moved very fast though, and soon we were able to get up close to see all the decor.

Nick had a look of awe on his face but of course, did the cheesy, squinty smile each time I tried to capture it on camera.

I didn't get it on camera, but every 15 minutes or so, they turn off the lights and do a light show on the side of the building. They also mixed in Chrismas songs with the regular Small World song.

Once we got close, Nick didn't even want to look at me for a picture - just "Lights, Mommy!!"

After Small World, we went on a few other rides - Dumbo and the "Horsies" (carosel) being Nick's favorite. Then, as we got ready to leave (at this point, it was just after Nick's bedtime), I saw the Mickey Mouse character standing by the Lincoln Theater at the exit-end of Main Street. Now, Nick has never liked the life-size characters and has never wanted to go see them. Figuring this was still the case and we'd see him & be on our way, I said "Look! There's Mickey!" Nick said, "I wanna talk to Mickey!" So we went over to look and Nick insisted that he wanted to talk to him. We got in line and waited our turn, with Nick saying he wanted to talk to Mickey over & over. We got up to the front, Nick hopped out of his stroller and went over to Mickey. He told Mickey that he was wearing a jacket (which he was) and that he went on a train (which we just had). Then he stood for a picture. I couldn't believe it.

The "Mickey visit coordinator" (I have no idea what to call him - the guy who keeps the line moving) thought Nick was super cute. He knelt down and asked Nick if Mickey was his favourite. Nick said yes, so the guy pulled out a folder and gave Nick some stickers. Nick was SO happy!! But, of course, with all this excitement plus the fact that it was now WAY past his bedtime, it took forever for him to fall asleep. Usually when we're out and we leave in the car around his bedtime, he'll fall asleep in his carseat and we can just move him into his bed. This time we had to actually drive around the block near our house a few times before he fell alseep - close to 10 PM!!

And all week this past week on the way to day care in the morning "Mommy, can we go Disneyland tomorrow?" Aww...

Best Buds

2009-12-20T12:11:00.000-08:00

Nick has a friend that he met at day care. His name is Tristan Lu, but since there is at least one other Tristan in his class, they use the last name too. So I think Nick thinks his buddie's name is TristanLu - all one word. It's never just Tristan, always TristanLu.

We've done "play date swaps" with Tristan's parents - it's been great. Nick went over there for a Saturday morning a little over a month ago and Tristan came over to our house a couple of weeks ago. They play SO well together, it's great.

They both love trains, so there was a lot of "choo choo-ing" going on...

It was raining that day, so we couldn't be outside, but it didn't matter. Trucks were a hit as well.

We'll be doing swaps as much as we can - not only do we get some child-free errand running time, Nick gets to have his buddy over and they play on their own. It's great!

So is the flu season over yet????

2009-12-11T16:11:00.000-08:00

Because I really don't know if the family can take much more!! Oy, what an awful time we've had over the last month & a half. All three of us have been on antibiotics and albuterol. Two of us (Kevin & I) have been on steroid inhalers. And one of us (yours truly) was on oral steroids too. Throw in two of us (Nick & I) with either food poisoning or stomach flu and a random nosebleed for Nick - that just about covers it! I suppose I can't forget the cold with yucky wheezing & cough that Nick is currently getting over. Yea, I think we've all had it with illnesses.

I don't know if this is cute or sad, but here is Nick with his "mask". He now insists on doing it himself and is quite content watching "Nick TV" while he's getting his dose of medicine.

The good news (I guess it's good news) is that Nick has had the H1N1 vaccine, so I hope we'll dodge that bullet. I just received notice that my doctor's office is now giving them to adults with asthma, so you can bet I'll be getting that ASAP. What we had wasn't the Swine Flu, but it was horrible enough that I don't even want to chance getting it!!!

ANYWAY.

On to more pleasant things!

This last weekend, the three of us headed up to San Francisco. It was a great trip!! My company had their annual Holiday Party on Friday night. Our friends, Kirsten & Sean immediately offered to watch Nick for us, so not only were we able to get out for a nice evening, Nick had a blast playing with Kirsten & Sean at their house. And, as far as we've been told, he only broke one thing!! Nick was cool as a cucumber as we left; he barely took the time to say goodbye. Always nice to leave him happy than a crying mess.

On Saturday we hit the Farmer's Market with Danielle, Lisa and Maggie. Nick had a great time running all around and yelling at seagulls. I think Maggie got a little exercise chasing after her Godson and Danielle & Lisa sat there in awe of the energy that comes out of a toddler.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency down on the Embarcadero. The lobby is a HUGE atrium that they had beautifully decorated for Christmas. Nick loved all the lights and the little "towns" they had set-up with trains, snow, people, cars, etc., etc.

They had a ginormous Christmas tree in the atrium.

The atrium goes up about 15 floors - all the hallways to the hotel rooms surround the atrium. At about the 12th floor, they strung lights that hung all the way down to about the second floor above the atrium. You can see them in the background of this picture, but it really doesn't do them justice as to how cool they were.

Completely unexpectedly, the hotel brought in a Santa Claus on Saturday. We thought "Great! We can get a picture of Nick with Santa!" Yea, Nick had other ideas. He was happy to stare at him from afar but had NO desire to go climb on his lap. This about as close as he would get. And clearly rocks are much more interesting...

Nick took a super late, super long nap that afternoon. This worked out well as Kevin took Nick to go meet with Joel, Hope & Emma for dinner and they didn't meet until 8 PM, which is about a half hour away from Nick's usual bedtime. The late nap worked, Nick had a great time at dinner and totally CRASHED after dinner. We didn't have the heart to try to get him out of his clothes...

On Sunday when we went downstairs, Nick was asking where Santa was. Sure, kid, you won't go near him one day but the next it's "Where Santa, Mommy?" Humph. So we let him climb up on the blocks instead.

So once we got back home, we were talking with Nick at dinner. I asked Nick where Santa lives.

"San Francisco!!!"

I suppose some summers could be considered similar to the North Pole...

Nick-isms

2009-11-04T17:17:00.000-08:00

Now that Nick is Mr. Chatterbox, he says some pretty funny things. Here are a few choice ones lately:

At the dinner table last night, "discussing" flying dinosaurs:

Mommy: Can Mommy fly, Nick?
Nick: No, Mommy you're too big (thanks, kid)
Mommy: Can Daddy fly, Nick?
Nick: No, Daddy too big
Mommy: Can Nick fly?
Nick: Yeah, I'm little!!

This morning on the way to day care:

Nick: Mommy, you need to SLOW DOWN (for the record, I was going well under the speed limit. I think.)

Upon seeing a fireman on top of the fire station:

Nick: He's looking for the fire truck, Mommy!!

I don't think the fireman found his truck up there...

New toys are always fun, especially when you're a tiger

2009-11-02T14:55:00.000-08:00

At the Halloween Festival, the loot that Nick was able to gather included mostly toys & other assorted non-candy things (stickers, etc.) One of his favorites was a paddle with a rubber ball attached. It lasted, oh, about three hours total before the ball came off...

And if you're wondering why Nick's voice sounds sort of funny, he likes to talk in his low, silly voice sometimes. Especially with a growl that sounds like a tiger!!

A tiger says "ROAR"!!!

2009-11-02T11:35:00.000-08:00

So this year's Halloween didn't turn out as we expected. Nick kindly shared his germs from a recent virus with both Mommy & Daddy. The little guy bounced back fairly quickly. Mommy & Daddy - not so much. Sadly we had zero energy to do much decorating, pumpkin carving, etc. Thank God I bought Nick's Halloween costume early, else he might have been going out dressed as... a toddler. The weather was also kind to us so that bringing Nick to the Halloween Festival didn't have an adverse affect on Daddy's illness (at least we hope so!!)

On Friday, Nick's day care did a Halloween Parade. So we headed over there in the afternoon to get him suited up & ready. Unfortunately, Kevin didn't make it until just the end of the parade, so we have no pictures of the parade itself (as a certain two & a half year old INSISTED that I walk with him in the parade).

Here he is in his classroom getting ready to go.

A rear view of some tiger booty...

Nick waiting for Daddy to go to the Halloween Festival. He was very annoyed with me and did NOT want his picture taken.

This is how a tiger rolls...

Nick's attempt at being a scary tiger.

The Halloween Festival was over at Wilson Park here in Torrance where they have a bunch of baseball fields. So in an attempt at burning off energy without having to burn energy himself, Kevin sent Nick off to the fields.

A tiger running the bases.

I stayed home and manned the door for Trick-or-Treaters. Last year we had ONE set of ToT'ers. So we only bought two bags (and nearly only had one, the second was a "just in case" bag). As Murphy's Law would dictate, this year we had a ton. I was up & down at least 10 times (which was annoying given the fact that jogging through the house to get to the front door caused me fits of coughing...) We ran through the two bags FAST and then dipped into a stash of dark chocolate Hershey kisses that we had left over from Easter (yea, we don't eat a lot of candy around here). Once Kevin & Nick got home, I shut off the front lights - good thing, too, or else we would have been one of those houses that gave away pennies or something!!

Oktoberfest 2009!!!

2009-10-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe it was a little over a year ago that we moved down here and experienced our first Alpine Village Oktoberfest!! But I'm so glad we discovered it and we'll be back each year for sure! Nick was a little more interested in things this time around and could partake in more of the goodies. He also had his buddies, Rowan & Riley to keep him company.

The band gettin' down with the common folk...

Nick observing the tuba player wondering why Mommy doesn't tell HIM to get off the table like she makes Nick do...

Time for tasty treats!

Mastering his fork & knife skills...

Still not old enough for a stein of beer, but this big bottle of water is close!

Christy & TJ and the girls. The girls are donning their chicken hats - they were quite appropriate for the chicken dance!!

Christy & TJ modeling their shirts - there were lots of those chants throughout the day!!!

The ladies with their steins - just like the good ole days at UCSB!!

Mom & Dad enjoying having Nick entertained by Rowan and Riley.

I wish I had gotten a video of Nick RACING around. And I mean he was running at full speed. The poor girls were chasing him all over and would come back to the table panting. Too funny. They also had a bounce house that Nick surprisingly went down once - the second time it was too crowded so he stayed on solid ground.

I do think that from the looks Nick was giving us during the chicken dance, that he thinks we are all crazy.

Golf Cart!!

2009-09-26T15:11:00.000-07:00

Nick would do this ALL DAY if he could. I kid you not. Here he is going on one of a bazillion golf cart rides on our recent vacation (see previous posts).

In a few years, we can just send him off on his own, right????