Happy Birthday!

Tom's Birthday is today!  We were supposed to go camping near Big Basin for the weekend to celebrate, but someone was sick all weekend, so this is the closest we got to sleeping in the tent.  

The poor little guy was pretty sad and feeling bad on Friday and Saturday.  He seemed better yesterday, but was complaining of ear pain.  He is feeling much better today, after a quick trip to the doctor and an ear infection diagnosis this morning.  

We are going camping next weekend at Big Sur.  We already had that trip planned to celebrate our anniversary in the trees.  It was good that we had that trip to look forward to and could promise  him that we would go next week since we did not get to go this week.

So, we had a nice quiet weekend at home, watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang over and over (and over).  Tonight we had Tom's Birthday dinner and a pumpkin spice bundt cake for the Birthday boy.

Blowing out the candles...

Local Fun

Last week, our friends Steven and Sarah visited us from Florida. Steven was on SEQUOIA in Guam with Tom, and they were in D.C. while we lived there too. It was great to see them. We were all supposed to go together up to Sonoma, but at the last minute, ASPEN had to get underway, so O and I took them up to our usual Sonoma haunts ourselves. We had a great time at Gloria Ferrer, the Cornerstone Sculpture Garden and Benziger. This should look familiar to anyone who has visited us:

Over the weekend, we took a nice walk at Tilden Regional Park to a small lake. O had a great time running on the boardwalk and leading the way on the trail.

One evening this week, we went to see fire jugglers at Jack London Square.  O was pretty transfixed by the performers.  Here is one of them twirling his flaming torches:

Just a normal week in the Bay area.

America's Cup

Both Tom and I spent most of September involved in the America's Cup finals.  It was an interesting and exciting month of racing on the Bay.

ASPEN was underway carrying passengers for several of the race days, so O and I went out twice to watch the races from the water and just enjoy the day on the water.

O was pretty excited to go on Daddy's ship when it was floating.  He spent most of both days in the Captain's chair with Tom, or sometimes, without him.

Supposedly, there is only one person who sits in this chair...

Matching Captains.

He probably spent about 45 minutes pretending to talk to other boats with the radio below.  He really loved it!

On the second day we went out, O insisted on wearing his fireman's jacket.  He wanted to make sure he was ready to assist in case of an emergency.

Keeping a sharp lookout.

Happy boy!

America's Cup Party

At the beginning of September, right before the kick off of the America's Cup Finals, Tom and I were invited to attend the America's Cup Party on the waterfront in San Francisco.

It was amazing.  I have never been to a party like it before, and doubt that  I will ever have the chance again.  The party progressed from a Great Gatsby themed garden party, to an incredible cocktail party to a disco party throughout the evening.  

The food, wine, cocktails, dancing and music were all fantastic!  All of the hard work of preparing for America's Cup was rewarded with this awesome experience!

(That is a person dressed as a statue behind us.)

Cabo San Lucas

In late August we took a trip to Cabo San Lucas to meet up with Adam and his family.  We had a wonderful trip, we spent most of our time swimming all day.  O's favorite part of the trip was riding the golf carts around the resort.  There were multiple pools to chose from.  Our daily schedule generally went something like this:  wake up, eat breakfast, pick a pool, swim for a couple of hours, eat lunch, nap (or try to), pick a pool, swim for a couple more hours, eat dinner, maybe swim again...  pretty much paradise.

The view from our room.

We brought along some mustaches for everyone to try on.  O was very excited to have all of our friends wearing mustaches.

Hyabob!

Matching family mustaches.

Sunset at the sky pool.

O and his buddies.

We told the kids to make an "angry" face.  This was the best O could do on demand:

In case you can't tell, we were all pretty happy and relaxed by the end of the trip.  Actually, we were all pretty happy and relaxed for the whole trip.

Among O's favorite things to do was watching the flamingos from our balcony.  Here he is posing by the flamingos for Nan.

One last swim before the plan ride home.

When we got back home, O went to his swimming lessons and tested into the next level!  Hurray swimming!

Adventures

O and I have had some fun since we got home from our trip.  Tom left the day after we returned (he is home now!).  Last weekend, we went to the California Academy of Sciences for the day and had a picnic in Golden Gate Park.  

Yesterday, we went to a birthday party.  The theme was traveling, so here is all decked out in his traveling gear!

I took an appetizer to share at the party.  They came out really good, so I thought I would share a picture.  The eggplant and tomatoes were from my garden!

Tom came home today, and I have not seen O so happy to see him and single-focused on playing with Daddy.

Big Trip!

We had a wonderful two weeks in New Jersey and Pennsylvania!  We all had a great time visiting with family, and O basked in the attention of so many people for two weeks!  I did not take as many pictures as I thought, but I did get some good ones.

We started out with Nan and Pop in New Jersey.  O helped Pop out with fixing his tractor and got to drive one of his own around.

We also spent a few days on Long Beach Island while in New Jersey.  It was fun to go to a beach where we could actually swim!  O had so much fun playing in the sand and surf.

After a few fun days in New Jersey, we all headed north to Pennsylvania for Grandma and Grandpa's Anniversary party.

Road Trip Buddies!

The first order of business in PA was Grandma and Grandpa's 50th Wedding Anniversary party.  It was a gorgeous day and a lovely party.

Me, Jennifer and Katelyn (looking very grown up)

The happy couple!

O enjoying a sweet ride!

Jimmy, Peggy, Chris, Jennifer, me and Tom.

I hope we still look this happy after 50 years!

We were very happy to see Kristen at the party too!  She drove up from Baltimore for the day, and it was wonderful to see her.

O also got to have fun at a fishing day with Jenna and Grandpa.  He caught two fish!

He also got to ride the tractor with Grandpa.

One evening we went to see Katelyn play softball.  She was pitching that night, and it was pretty impressive.  The picture is a little blurry, but that is because it is an action shot.  They did not win the game, but Katelyn played really well.  It was fun to see her play.

On Friday we went out for a fun day on Grandpa's boat.  O sure did love driving the boat and fishing from the boat.

The Captain and his Radioman

Jenna!

The big catch of the day!

Friday was also Grandpa's 72nd Birthday!  After fishing we came home and had cake to celebrate.

"When I'm 64..."

O got to go for a prowler ride with Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Jen on Saturday before we 

It is good to be home, but we miss everyone.