Day Trip

Today we took a break from the unpacking and drove up to Sonoma for a little exploration.  We had a great day, and O was a very good boy all day.  Our first stop was at a visitor's center and sculpture garden.

There were some very cool kinetic sculptures there - here is one where you could roll big balls around in the sand.

O and Grandma walking on the path.

After lunch we went to our favorite winery in Sonoma.  The four of us did a tour of the vineyards on a tractor-pulled tram.  O loved it and talked a lot about the tractor.  Here he is in the wine cave (or tunnel as he liked to call it).

We are pretty excited to live just over an hour from Sonoma.  It was nice to get away from the house and have a reminder of why we wanted to get out here for this tour!

Lemon Harvest

We harvested the lemon tree for the first time yesterday.  O was very excited to help pick the lemons and put them in the basket.

Today we made lemonade from some of the lemons we picked.  O was a big help squeezing the lemons and adding the sugar.

We are mostly moved in and getting well settled.  Having Grandma here has been a big help.  Tomorrow we are going to take a little trip to Sonoma for a well deserved break and to show Grandma a little bit of California.  I will get some pictures of the house soon to share.

Californians

We are here!  We got in last night at around 8pm California time.  O was very good on the plane, but it was a very long day for him.

So far today, we have movers at our new house delivering and unpacking our stuff, and we got our new car delivered!  Right now Tom is over with the movers, and I am sitting in a dark room while O is having his nap at the hotel.

I thought I would share a few more shots of O operating heavy machinery at Nan and Pop's house and with Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Jennifer.  Happy Birthday again to Aunt Jen, we miss you already - I wish I had my video camera yesterday at the airport when O spontaneously started singing Happy Birthday Aunt Jen!  This morning at breakfast, he was saying Happy Easter, Aunt Jen, funny boy.

Here he is with the front end loader at Nan and Pop's:

And here he is driving the Prowler with Uncle Jimmy.  He sure did a lot of riding and driving during our visits!

On the Road Again...

We have been homeless now for just about two weeks.  The movers packed up our stuff and took it all away at the beginning of last week, we left D.C. on Friday for New Jersey to visit Nan and Pop, then up to PA on Tuesday night to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  We leave for San Francisco tomorrow!

Mommy, Olin and Nan on Mother's Day:

Olin offering PopPop flowers:

Olin driving Pop's tractor

Olin, Nan and Pop also had fun adventures planting, feeding ducks and riding heavy construction equipment, but I will have to get pictures from Nan to share!

When we were getting ready to leave Nan and Pop's house Tuesday night, O told me "Get the camera, Mommy.  Take a picture."  This is his cheese face:

O in Grandpa's fishing boat in the garage.  He would spend hours in there if we let him.

I think he is a natural.

Moving dirt around...

Riding Grandpa's tractor.  Notice a theme here?

Helping Grandma make cinnamon bread:

 Fishing in the rowboat on Miller's Pond with Grandpa and Daddy:

They caught one! (actually, they caught two)

O is having lots of fun on the east coast with his cousins and everyone before the big cross country plane ride tomorrow.

Goodbyes

We have embarked on our goodbyes in D.C.  So far, we have done a pretty good job of balancing getting ready for the movers (tomorrow and Tuesday) and seeing the people we need to see before we go.  There is still more to do than I care to think about before tomorrow and more people to see than we will likely be able to see, but we have made a good effort.

Kristen took the day off on Thursday to come and spend it with O.  She kept him home from school, and they had a great time together.  It has been really wonderful having her so close, especially with O's arrival and the amazingly fast two years since.

We love you Kristen, and we will all miss you so much.  O's face says it all...

Friday night we had dinner with Tracy and Steve, who flew out for 14 days in France on Saturday morning.  Yesterday afternoon we went to a Cinco de Mayo party at Jim and JoAnn's, who we know from Guam.  Today we mostly got ready for movers, but also had a few people drop in to say hello.  We are still not quite ready for the movers, so it may be a long night.

O knows that we are moving.  He knows that the movers are coming tomorrow to "pack up the stuff" and take it to the Alameda house.  We realized the other day that we must have made our point to him that we are leaving D.C. since now every time we go anywhere he says "bye bye house, going to Alameda house".

May?

Wow!  It is May already!  April flew by with lots of visitors and travel.

I took these shots at Easter of the little man in his Easter duds, and hunting for eggs:

Before I left for San Francisco and Tom left for Yorktown last week, we went on a tour of the White House gardens with Grandma and Grandpa.  It was surprisingly not crowded, and we had a really nice time.  The gardens are very nice, and we were right next to the White House.

While we were both traveling, O was a very good boy for Grandma and Grandpa and then for Nan.  He really enjoyed them, and was happy to have Mommy and Daddy back to.  He also got a new bed! I talked to him from San Francisco, and he said "I got a new bed, Mommy!".  He loves it.  He climbs in at night or for a nap and says, "I need blanket" "I got animals".   He is talking so much, I love his little voice.

 Less than two weeks left in D.C.!