Happy Valentine's Day

Wishing everyone a happy Valentine's day!  Didn't think we'd get around to making cards with Quinn for his classmates this year, but with the help of Emily we quickly threw together these beauties.  They don't have Quinn's personal touches like last year (although he helped with glueing), but I think they'll do.  Better than nothing!  :)

As I walked up to the dark and empty house this evening I noticed this flower stuck in the screen door. Quinn had left it there for himself and his Dad so it would be waiting for them when they got home from swimming.  At that time he also presented Emily and me with our own flowers.  Sweet kid.  

Kidfest 2013 - Idyllwild

We rented out a large 4 BR cabin in the nearby mountains several weeks ago and invited lots of friends to join us.  All of those friends but one (Emily) have children.  It was a fun, crazy, hectic weekend filled with lots of wine, good food, hot tubbing, pool playing, hikes, lots of toys and minimal sleep.  The kids had a blast!  Somehow I managed to not take a single photo of any adults!  Thanks to all who braved the kiddies to join us!

Kyan, Quinn and Holden

Quintin and Quinn

Snowman!

The kid table

Camelbak Cousins

6 kids on a log!

Sweet baby Kellan!

Cincinnati

I flew solo to Cincinnati last month to attend Biggy's service.  It was an emotional trip, but alongside the sadness that comes from losing a loved one is the joy of being with other loved ones.  It was great seeing my family, Don and Janet, Bonnie, the Bertens.  As you can see below, a raucus game of spoons broke out on the night of my arrival.

And it's always amazing to get to see my favorite little niece, June.  She's grown a lot since I last saw her in late November!  What a cute and sweet baby!

Biggy

The world lost an amazing person when Andrew D. Smith passed away in early January.  He was known to my brother Andy, me and to all of our friends as "Biggy", which came about because my brother could not pronounce "Big Andy" when he was a toddler.  Biggy was always around during our childhood.  He was my dad's best friend for almost 50 years.  In fact, I met him at the very same moment I met my dad (or so I'm told).  I remember when he moved to England when we were kids and how much I missed him then.  He was like a second father to us and I cannot even fully express how deeply he will be missed.  My birthday was December 28th and my last conversation with Biggy was the day before when he sang me the most memorable happy birthday I've ever received.  I miss you, Biggy!  

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2012 will go down in history as one of the most memorable holidays yet.  It was to be my first Christmas away from my family since I was born 3 days after the date in 1972.  Pretty remarkable really that I've managed to go 40 years and never miss a Christmas with the fam...not even the year I spent in Germany kept me away.  So here I was feeling like I've finally grown up.  I was a little bit sad about not spending the day with my family, but at the same time I'm excited to start having our own Christmas traditions to share with Quinn.  On Christmas Eve I went to the beach to visit a friend who was in town and we saw this cute little Charlie Brown set up (there is a little skimpy tree in front of them, but it's hidden in the shadow).

The plan was to have dinner with Jeff's mom, Phyllis/Grammy.  At around 5:30 we were all ready with the table set.  Phyllis was due to come by at 6.  She arrived around 6:15, apologizing for being late.  She had received a long distance phone call that delayed her in leaving the house. 

About 3 minutes after she arrived there was a knock at the door.  Annoyed that someone was interrupting our holiday dinner I sent Jeff to answer the door.  He claimed that there were some "elves" at the door.  I thought some neighbor must be delivering treats and went to see who it was.  I was BEYOND shocked to find my lovely parents dressed in santa hats!

Needless to say we had to rearrange the table to accommodate two more guests!  :)  

Jeff prepared an amazing meal.  Grouper, smashed butternut squash with ginger, asparagus and homemade rolls.  We had pumpkin cranberry bread pudding for dessert.  

Santa came!

The aftermath of Christmas morning 2012!

We had planned to have the neighbors over on Christmas morning for Milk Punch (a tradition observed in Savannah by my parents friends Ron and Jim), but Quinn had been battling a nasty virus for almost a week and still had a fever on Christmas day, so we had to call all of our friends/neighbors with little kids to tell them to avoid us to keep their kids healthy.  Finally he managed to get a couple of good nights of sleep and kicked the fever after 6 days!  I went in to check on him one evening after he'd fallen asleep and this is what I found.  :)

It's been great having my family here for our first Christmas in San Diego.  And also great to share our first Christmas with Jeff's mom and sister, Jaime and her family.  We had a nice dinner at Phyllis's house with Jaime, John and the boys and Kelly and Lee.  Of course Quinn and Kyan had a ball together as always.  Mom and Dad leave today to spend New Years with friends in Atlanta.  I hope we manage to do this again sometime!  It was fabulous.  Thanks to all for the wonderful surprise and the fun holiday!  :)

40 Years Young!

Wow.  I had the best birthday ever yesterday!  Could not have imagined anything better.  First of all my parents were here to share it with me.  They surprised me on Christmas Eve by showing up at our door right around dinner time.  It was an amazing surprise!  Yesterday my day began with Jeff sharing with me videos that several of our friends sent to him wishing me a happy birthday.  My favorite of the bunch is this little gem from my brother, Andy, and Colleen.

Yesterday's evening plan (as far as I knew) was for us to drop Quinn of with our friends, Jeremy and Lisa, and then to head out to dinner around 8pm.  Then Jeff received a phone call from his sister, Jaime, that she was down in San Diego and wanted to wait out traffic and wondered whether we would like to meet Phyllis and her for a quick pre-dinner drink at KnB (our favorite local wine bistro).  When we arrived we found Jaime near the front of the restaurant, but Phyllis was not with her.  Jaime ran off to "look for her mom".  After a few seconds we walked back towards the back of the restaurant and into a large party room to find all of our favorite people waiting.  I was greeted with an enthusiastic "Surprise!"  It was amazing!  I could not have dreamed up a more perfect evening!  Thanks to everyone who was in on this....and there were a lot of you!

Light Filter Experiment

 Emily just taught me the coolest trick.  Put construction paper over your camera lens, cut a small hole in the center in some interesting shape, point the camera at some lights, and blur the focus.  Below are the results.  Pretty cool stuff!  

Had to try to make a Q for the Q.