A couple years ago we went up to Mendocino (about 3 hours north and west of us) for the 4th of July weekend.  We had such a great time, we thought we’d do it again this year! 

We stopped at Navarro vineyards on the way, and took some beautiful pictures.  Alex is loving his new “work” camera, and it is the reason for the incredible upgrade in our photos!

We got up to Medocino around dinner time.  The last time we went we took Milo, and there were a bunch of restaurants that we could sit on the patio and bring him with us.  Unfortunately we didn’t know that for many restaurants they had changed their policy.  So poor Milo spent more time in the car than we had hoped.   

This is our hotel.  We had a great room with a huge bed, couch, and jacuzzi tub.  Both Ella and Milo enjoyed the jacuzzi tub!

The view of the bay.

Ella with her “packpack”

Not sure what she’s waiting for, but love this pic.

On the 4th we took our new and never used beach tent, and set up camp down by the ocean.  Mama enjoyed the shade, and Ella enjoyed the water!

We also had some great dinners.  And although we didn’t take pics of the food (I know only some of you are disappointed), we did take lots of pics of us and mostly E in and around our meals.

Ella enjoyed the bacci as well…

We had a great time.  Ella refers to Mendocino as “the country.”  Swimming, walking, eating… a wonderful relaxing weekend.

Weekends are our favorite time. We usually don’t do much, and love it. Every Saturday morning we pack up and go to the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market then off to Rainbow Co-op to get our shopping done for the week. After lunch and a nap (sometimes for all of us!) we usually take Milo with us and walk down to the park. This weekend he found a frisbee that was left on the ground. He loved it, but it was a bit big for him to fetch.

But Sundays are a bit more free. Last week we took Milo with us and went to Stowe Lake to feed the ducks. Milo was not happy that he had to stay with the stroller, and not swim with the ducks.

Then walking back home.

This Sunday we took Ella to the carousel at Golden Gate Park. She loves, it but gets so serious, and will not smile or laugh while she’s on the horse.


Then off to Ebisu (newly remodeled – yeay!) for lunch. They gave Ella “training” chopsticks, which made her fork truly undesirable.



She loved the edamame and crab cakes. And started getting a little greedy with Mama’s salmon nigiri. Although she spit out the rice, so she’s a bit more of a sashimi girl.

Weekends are fun… just time for the three of us to hang out, play with Milo, eat great food and spend time together.

Many many years ago Alex and I got married. Thirteen to be exact. At the time, when we decided on the wedding date, there were so many people to consider, and in the end, we ended up getting married on my 21st birthday. So, forever hence, it’s been the Birthversary. This year, as we have for the last 4 years, we went to Chez Panisse for our anniversary dinner. Betsy and Steve were amazing, and took on babysitting duties in exchange for laundry privileges. We so got the better end of the deal! Dinner was delicious, as always. And now that we have a small child, being able to spend a few hours of undistracted time together is that much more precious.

On Sunday Ella and I took my coworker Laura and her daughter Bella to the Academy of Sciences. Because of the Bay to Breakers race, it was completely empty! We had total run of the house. The girls had a great time running from room to room. As usual, I think the penguins were the favorite. We met Alex for lunch and then took one parting photo (of two very tired girls) before they went back to the East Bay.



After naps (for everyone) we packed up Ella and Milo and took them to Crissy Field. It was so hot on Sunday – over 95 degrees, which is crazy in San Francisco. We didn’t get there until almost 5pm, so most people were leaving, and the fog was blowing in cooling everything off. Both Ella and Milo had a blast. Milo even took a dive into the water! Here are a few pictures and a couple videos of Ella in her new bathing suit playing in the waves.

The other recent news is how well Ella is doing at her potty training. She loves to have a sit, and read all her books. We mostly credit Ana, our nanny. But she seems to be picking up this new skill quite well!

Our family Saturday morning ritual is the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market. This morning it looked like rain and we were groggy from an early Ella wake-up. But this is why we went anyway. We feel really lucky to live where this is a second of May local harvest.

I hope Ella likes it as much as we do. She definitely was happy with the peas and fish we had tonight, but I’m not sure she’s making the connection. But then again, maybe she is, given this response to these apple sculptures in the garden of the De Young Museum on our afternoon walk:

Last weekend we took a bit of time off work and flew up to Portland to spend Easter with Unkie Wayne. He was very gracious to open his home to our boisterous bunch. We had a lot of fun, doing the same kinds of things we do here at home… farmer’s market, playgrounds, bookstores, restaurants, and cooking. We didn’t take a ton of photos, I guess we were having too much fun to remember to take out the camera. But here are a few fun shots.

We found this great old school playground that still had all the toys they usually rip out and replace with lead-free, nonlethal new equipment. But Ella loved playing on it as much as we did!

One on the merry-go-round. I forgot how fast these go!

A few on the tire swing:

One end of the teeter-totter:

Alex had some friends he’d met from a work conference who invited us to crash their egg hunt:

Alex’s other favorite site in Portland – Stumptown Coffee. He can’t get enough. But Elle and I decided to share a hot chocolate. This one came with whipped cream, which she enjoyed more than the drink:

Sunday night Wayne, Alex and I pitched in (Ella was asleep, thankfully) and made an amazing Easter dinner. We had a hazelnut crusted pork loin with apple chutney, asparagus, Emily Bates’ mac and cheese, and a green salad with radishes and bleu cheese with Wayne’s secret dressing. I also made a strawberry rhubarb crisp for dessert, not pictured (although it should have been…). It was fabulous. Best food we had the whole trip.

Wayne:

And for those of you keeping track of Ella’s hair styles, Monday night (after we got home) I sat her in her high chair, and one dinner and two Yo Gabba’s later, we had this:

These two shots below are from today, so day 4 of the hair, doing it’s own thing. Dressed to kill in the dress from Grandma Debbi for Easter. Also, wearing her new shoes (I love shopping in Portland, no sales tax, and TONS of amazing shops. Dangerous).

Ella has hit the point where she only wants to feed herself. Usually this isn’t a big deal – we give her food that isn’t messy – eggs, noodles, etc. But yesterday we attempted yogurt. And it was MESSY. But she ate it all — so Success! Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the documentation of said event.

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Okay – fair warning, this is going to be a photo heavy post. I was finally organized enough to get all of our photos uploaded last night, even if it took until midnight! But there are a lot of great ones. This holiday we stayed home. San Francisco is delightful at the holidays, mainly because it’s deserted. You can park anywhere! We seriously thought about driving around the city just to park. That must sound strange to anyone who doesn’t live in a big city and doesn’t understand how precious and rare parking is.

We kicked off the holiday season by attending the Kessler’s annual cookie party. Ella has a recent love of dogs, or “dados,” as she calls them. This night she got to meet Tatanka.

In this picture Shawn is holding Tatanka back. Because we found out quickly, he is much stronger than Milo, and kept knocking Ellie over. At one time he jumped up, knocked her through Alex’s legs (he was standing behind her to prevent such an occurrence) and the throw was so powerful it took out a barrette and a shoe!

Last year we splurged for a family membership to the California Academy of Sciences. What a great buy. It’s only a few blocks away, so we can just pop down and check out a few things and head home whenever Ella has had enough. It opened in late September, and the crowds have been unbelievable. But Sundays from 10-11am it’s members only hour. This usually means lighter crowds, but still pretty heavy. The Sunday before Christmas – empty! It was fantastic. We roamed around checking out all the sites we never had time for before. We even caught the planetarium show (although Ella didn’t appreciate it, and finally fell asleep). Here are some photos from that delightful crowd free hour (don’t worry, at 11 the floodgates opened and people poured in).

I took of the 24th and 26th so we could have a nice long weekend together. We started things off right on Christmas Eve by having breakfast at Tartine, arguably the best bakery ever. Ever.

We haven’t let Ella watch television hardly at all. But this year we decided to let her watch one of Alex’s holiday favorites “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.” She loved it!

That night I made a big Christmas dinner. I made a rack of goat (delicious, like lamb but not so fatty), roast carrots, green beans, and potato/broccoli mash.

Then a family picture before we sent Ellie off to bed.

Christmas morning we woke up late! 9am!!! Delightful. We took Ella out to see this:

She walked up, looked at the tree and gifts, then grabbed a book and brought it to Daddy.

Maybe next year she’ll be more excited! But she enjoyed opening her gifts.

After presents we had our traditional breakfast of crepes with bananas and nutella. Delicious!!

After a morning nap we took the whole family for a walk.

The rest of the day we mainly just hung out together. Ella and Milo are such good friends.

Somehow he found his way into her toy box. Crazy dog.

One of Ella’s presents this year was more swimming lessons, and a new swimsuit. We put them both to the test on Sunday at La Petite Baleen.

Well, there you have it. Holidays at our house, in nutshell – a large nushell, but jus the same…. Whew, I’m exausted.

Thanksgiving 2008 was a roaring success. We had our friend Wayne in town from Portland for the long weekend. He and 9 others joined us for our Thanksgiving meal. Ella liked the rolls Liz made the best.

On Friday while I was making a pie for another party, Alex took Ella to the aquarium. This is her favorite place to be. She loves that the glass goes all the way to the floor so she can stand right up against it to look at the fish.

That night we and a group of friends went down to Union Square for the annual tree lighting. Last year Ella slept through the whole thing. But, being a year older, we thought she’d really enjoy it! But she fell asleep on the walk over.

Luckily she woke up in time for the lighting and a family picture.

We all went to Betsy and Steve’s house after the lighting for “Pie Friday.” Ella got in her jammies and cozied up to Wayne.

Saturday we went with Shawn and Robyn to cut a Christmas Tree. Luckily, we kept the Old Port Lobster Shack tradition, and Ella tried a bit of lobster herself. She liked it, but thought the oyster crackers were far superior. Oh well.

Sunday we took Milo and Ella for a walk, and let Ella walk by herself. Whenever Alex would squat down to take a picture, she’d mimic him.

She loves walking by herself!

Such a big girl.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, full of fabulous food, friends, and family. I will take another, please!

Ella doesn’t officially turn one until tomorrow, but we had her party on Saturday (since Grandma Meme and Grandpa Papa were in town to celebrate).

Here’s the beautiful birthday girl:



These were the table decorations:





And the cupcakes – each with it’s own pinwheel:



Ella insisted on walking as much as possible. It’s her favorite thing to do. But since she doesn’t have it down solo – except for 5-6 steps, she needs a bit of assistance.



Here we are opening presents. She wasn’t all that interested in unwrapping, but loved checking out the goods.




And occasionally had some help….



And the favorite portion of any child’s first birthday — gorging on cake.





After we’d cleaned up, and all the guests had left, she got to take a special ride on the carousel with Daddy.



All in all, a very wonderful first birthday party. Thanks to all the friends and family who came to celebrate with us.

We went to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival again this year. Although, we didn’t take Milo with us again. We figured a squirmy baby was enough. Well, Ella charmed the women behind us into giving her a cup of raspberries. Oh, she was in heaven!