Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve

Today we took a rather spontaneous trip north to the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve, which is near Jaime, John, and Kyan's house.  Since Jaime and John are busy preparing the house for the impending birth of their second son, we thought we'd take Kyan off of their hands for the morning.  Quinn has been asking to go see Kyan for weeks, so this trip was very overdue.  The boys had an absolute blast running screaming down the trails, climbing rocks/trees, and being silly little monsters.  The reserve is beautiful.  We only saw a small fraction of it on this trip, mostly oak woodlands, but the area appears to be very diverse ecologically and we look forward to visiting again when we have more time to explore.  

Anza Borrego

I've not been very good about keeping the blog updated lately.  Oops.  Well, we've been back from GA for a while enjoying January in San Diego.  The weather has been pretty stunning and we've been taking advantage of it as much as possible.  A couple of weeks ago Emily suggested that we head out the desert, so we headed to Anza Borrego State Park for a morning hike.  We found a great road/trail that led up into a sheltered canyon.  We plan to head back there sometime soon for a weekend camping trip.

Self portraits:

A boy with his dog:

Oatland Island Wildlife Center

We finally, after at least 2 years of trying, managed to visit the Oatland Island Wildlife Center in Savannah, GA.  This is a cool little wildlife area owned and managed by the department of education.  They feature animals that are either currently or were historically native to the area.  Pictured below are a handful of the featured critters:

Sandhill Crane

Mountain Lion

Wild Toddler

Red Fox

Spanish Moss

Quinn was very excited to have the opportunity to handle an Indigo snake.  This was one of the highlights of our visit.

Christmas in Savannah

Christmas in Savannah is beautiful.  I love the city, the spanish moss, the many parks/squares.  It's great having Andy and Colleen here.  It's also great being reunited with the other two black cats (Tori and Big Wilie).  

Q is enjoying being surrounded by family.  He wakes up every morning in the carriage house saying, "Want to go see Nana and Gogo and Uncle Andy and Aunt Coween." Gotta say thank goodness for the Red Bullet, the tiny little balance bike that Andy and Colleen brought with them from Cincinnati.  We've had hours of fun in the park on this.

This has been the first Christmas where Q has any awareness of Christmas and presents.  It was fun watching him tear into the wrapping paper.  He even unwrapped everyone else's gifts when we weren't looking.

It was a dino Xmas for the kid.  He received a new dinosaur lunchbox, water bottle, stuffed animal, dino rain boots...

Christmas morning we had our traditional eggs benedict with mimosas.  This occurs before we head over to my parents' friends' house for milk punch.  Needless to say we're all pretty "happy" by lunchtime given the multitude of alcoholic beverages consumed early in the day.

Cheers!

This was a book Christmas for the Houston family.  

Thank goodness for the rain boots!  We've had a lot of rain.  This morning we went out to Forsyth park during a nice rainstorm to take full advantage of the big puddles.  Q loves riding his bike through the puddles.  The bigger the puddle the better.

As nice as it is to be here it's also a tad challenging with Quinn.  This seems to be a tough age for traveling.  After 7 days on the east coast he may FINALLY be adjusting to the time zone change.  Of course tonight will be the real test.  We've been having to lie down with him each night until he finally manages to fall asleep (this can take multiple hours - until after 10pm) so it kinda kills our evenings.  Fingers crossed that tonight will show some improvement!

Tybee Island on a warm December morning

We arrived in Savannah on Tuesday evening.  As we headed towards the airport exit Quinn spied Nana and Gogo on the other side of security.  He pointed excitedly, squirmed to get down, and ran through the crowd of people and into Nana's arms.  It was a fun reunion to witness!  

We had a rainy day Wednesday, but today is beautiful, sunny and in the 70s.  It was a perfect morning for a trip to the beach!  I didn't expect that Quinn would want to get in the water, but it didn't take long before he was asking to get nekid so he could get in with Dad.  

Lots of dolphins were out VERY close to shore!

 Snacktime on the pier