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.

I finally found all the camera cables (everything disappears when you move!) and uploaded all the pictures off the camera. To my surprise, they went back before Thanksgiving. So, for those who want the more thorough tour, visit our Flickr site. Otherwise, here are the highlights:

Wayne joined us for our annual Thanksgiving party. He has come every year for the past 8 years. He and Ella had a ball playing in her toy chest.

This year we ordered a Heritage turkey from a local farm up in Point Reyes. We ordered before we had a confirmed headcount for dinner, and this happened to be a small year but a big bird. Somehow we decided since I was taking the day before Thanksgiving off, it would be a fun family outing to drive up to Point Reyes to pick up the turkey. But no one else could come with me — so I drove 4 hours round trip by myself. But the turkey was delicious, and well worth all the extra effort.

After the “Big Move” (and it was — so it deserves caps and quotes, believe me). We decided to do something Christmasy. We hadn’t decorated the old flat – because we were moving, and it didn’t make sense to decorate the new falat because we were traveling to SLC for the holiday. So one Saturday we decided to take the bus downtown, and hop on a cable car. Ella had never been on a cable car – despite living in San Francisco her whole life. I guess we don’t have many new visitors anymore… Anyway, she loved it. She was entranced with the break man, and could hardly peel her eyes from him to enjoy the amazing views.

Then we walked down to Union Square to check out the Christmas tree and the ice skating rink. Elle will have to wait another year or two to try skating, but she loves to watch the kids go by.

Before we left for SLC we had to open presents from Meme and Papa, since we wouldn’t be seeing them for Christmas. Ella was very excited, and opened all the presents — even those that weren’t for her.

The next morning we set out for our 12 hour drive to SLC. As soon as we got there, we had to pack it up and drive over to Ann and Lon’s house for the annual family party. They even had a Santa! Ella’s last experience a week or two before with a neighborhood Santa had not gone well, so we figured she would not be excited to see this one. We were so wrong. We kept having to pry her off his lap so another kid could have a turn.

After Santa, and a huge buffet dinner there was the annual nativity play. We haven’t been to SLC in about 7 years for Christmas, and had no idea how the production had evolved. Costumes were sewn – no more bring your own bathrobe! All the grandchildren were sheep. Yep… Elle was the only black sheep. Oh, but she loved it. She ran up to me, in costume and said “Mama! I’m a sheep! Baaaaaaa”

Christmas morning at Grandma and Grandpa’s house

We had a wonderful time, but are glad to be back home, settling into our new house and enjoying the new year.

Things have been really busy around here. Work for both Alex and I was insane in June, and in the middle we had a 10 day vacation to visit family in New Hampshire. So here is a big blog post for our June adventures.

On June 9th we celebrated Family Day, the anniversary of Ella’s adoption. We went out for breakfast at Park Chow, then off to Point Reyes for a hike and picnic.






Her favorite thing now is to “help” in the kitchen. Lately that has meant also multitasking on the phone…



Here we are at the Haight street fair.



And she got her face painted.



Our trip to NH began with our dropping Ella off at Meme and Papa’s house and jumping a train to NYC. We spent 4 days eating in the most fabulous restaurants, sleeping in, and wandering in the rain. It was great. And Ella had a wonderful time with the grandparents. Once we got back to NH we had another week just to spend with the family. We went to the NH Children’s Museum





She met Uncle Nate’s cat and dog and played with her cousins Grace and Ethan.






Playing in Meme’s garden




Swimming at Lake Sunapee (before the thundershowers broke out)



Papa’s birthday:




And the last day we went to Eckhardt’s farm. Ella loves animals, and really enjoyed this!