Day at the museum

Hello family and friends! It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and I hate that! Work has been crazy for me lately and, unfortunately, blogging is one of the first things on the list of things I don’t have the time for. Hopefully I’ll get around to retroactively posting a few things here soon.

Anyway, today is President’s Day and both Dave and I had the day off of work. We slept in (after an early wake-up from the little guy, but eventually got him back to sleep), had a delicious brunch, hug out around the house for a while and then went to the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose. We weren’t sure how Carter would do, but we read online that there were exhibits for younger kiddos so we figured it was worth trying out. Turns out, Carter had the time of his life!



We started in the “Wonder Closet” which is designed for kids ages four and under. In the baby room Carter had fun shaking tubes and dancing along while an employee played songs, crawling up wavy stairs, banging on a xylophone, seeing himself in a three-sided mirror area and watching lights dance around the room in a giant kaleidoscope.











After that we went to the water play area. We knew he would love this because he loves to splash around in the bath tub and play with the water.



It was so cute that they had “waterproof” smocks for the kiddos to wear. Too bad it wasn’t very effective – C would sink his whole arm in the water and the water would pool in the sleeve and then when he raised his arms up the water gushed out the arm and onto his clothes. Oh well, he still had a blast!





Finally, we went to the bubble area to see how he would react. Let’s just say, this may have been his favorite part of the day…

Oh, that laugh! I’ll never get enough of it! There was a machine making bubbles and letting them float to the floor – that’s what we were “popping”. So fun. And then there was a tube blowing air that we dipped in bubble solution to make a big bubble and Carter loved popping those, too. He was already soaked from the water area so a little bubble goo on top of that was no big deal.





Carter had so much fun that he fell asleep on the way home with a half-finished bottle in one hand and a little shaker toy/rain stick that Daddy bought for him in the other. Sweet kid.

It was a wonderful day! We loved watching Carter experience new things and learn and play in a new environment. We hope to have many more family days like this in the future!

Christmas as a family of three

Christmas this year was very special for our family - it was our first time celebrating with Carter! We have been looking forward to sharing Christmas with our children for years and it was so wonderful for it to finally happen. And if that wasn’t enough we were also privileged to have my Aunt Pat and Uncle Tim come and visit us from Santa Barbara to celebrate the holiday! They are like a second set of parents to me and a third set of grandparents for Carter and we were honored to have them here!

Pat and Tim arrived on Christmas Eve. We went to church for the Christmas Eve service and then headed out to P.F. Chang’s for a yummy dinner. Carter did well at the restaurant and even enjoyed some cuddle time with Aunt Pat after dinner.

Before bedtime Carter set out some egg nog and cookies and wrote a letter to Santa… well, I wrote the letter but I’m sure it was what Carter would have written, if he could write.

After what felt to be a short night we woke up to find that indeed Santa visited our house!

We caught Carter’s trip from his bedroom to the living room on video (a long-standing family tradition on my side of the family). Checking out the shoes seemed to be more exciting initially, but I’m sure that was because he didn’t know what was in store for him in the living room…

Then the fun began as we showed Carter how to check out all of the loot from Santa in and below his stocking (that my mom, aka Grammy, made for him)!

After this we headed into the family room where our Christmas tree was to open gifts under the tree from family and friends. The tree was certainly packed for only having five people’s gifts under it. What a blessing!

It was really fun teaching the little guy how to open presents and he caught on pretty fast! He’ll be a gift-opening pro in no time!

After opening the gifts under the tree we ate brunch, hung out, did some video calls to family, made dinner, ate dinner, and hung out some more - a pretty wonderful way to spend the day if I do say so myself!

We had a wonderful first Christmas as a family of three and we’re so glad we got to share it with Aunt Pat and Uncle Tim! We hope your holiday was wonderful, too! Merry Christmas!

Weekend trip to Santa Cruz

This past weekend we took a little family trip to Santa Cruz just to get away for a little while. It was nice to step out of our routine and spend some fun time together!

We headed out Saturday after lunch and started the fun at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. We walked around for a little bit to get the lay of the land and Carter enjoyed cruising in his stroller while sipping on a bottle - arguably the coolest baby ever.

Dave and I decided to take turns going on the roller coaster (The Giant Dipper) since we couldn’t take Carter on the ride. Amusement parks are certainly a little different now that we have a little one! While Dave was taking his turn on the roller coaster Carter and I (OK, just me) sampled some fried Oreos and enjoyed a beautiful ocean view. I have never had a fried Oreo before so I wasn’t sure what to expect - but it was tasty!

After the roller coaster rides we headed over to the carousel to share Carter’s very first carousel ride with him. The fun began even before the ride did! After I put Carter on a horse he just started squealing! It was so funny and we caught some of it on video:

And THEN the ride started. He wasn’t really sure what to think at first and I wasn’t sure if he was excited, scared, or ready to throw up.

We made it through the ride with no crying or throw up so I call it a success! It is such a joy to be able to share Carter’s firsts with him!

On Sunday we went to the Mystery Spot which is a gravitational anomaly where this cabin slid down a hill and because of its placement there are a lot of optical illusions where you experience variations of gravity, perspective, and height.

They claim the area “defies physics” but the optical physicist I brought with me has a different opinion ;-) At any rate, we had a fun time and took some interesting photos.

For the record, it was hard to keep my balance walking on a sloped floor and it was even harder doing it with a 20+ pound baby strapped to my chest!

 

After our Mystery Spot tour we headed to Capitola for lunch and some sightseeing. Carter enjoyed a bottle on the pier while Dave took a few fun photos.

This photo cracks me up. It’s like the seagull is daring anyone to clean their fish. Ha!

It was time to head home and back to reality but not before Dave was able to show Carter the ocean.

We had a wonderful weekend away and we were sad to see it end. But we are definitely looking forward to when we can get away again soon!

Halloween

Happy Halloween! We had a great time celebrating Carter’s 1st Halloween with him! We started off the week carving a pumpkin for our front porch. Carter wasn’t too sure what to think about it, but I’m pretty sure he had fun watching Daddy.

For the last few years I have helped to plan the Fall Festival at our church and so I was already committed to working the event on Halloween night. Luckily I got an hour off of my duty time so I could spend time with Carter and Dave at the event. I also had to dress as a busy bee so I would match the other committee members and Carter and Dave had a cute costume theme going without me. They were pretty cute, no?

It’s not every day you see a banana holding a monkey!

Carter was too little to really play any of the carnival games but we had him try to fish for candy, go through the maze, and enter the costume contest with Dave. It was so much fun!

Next year I will not be helping with the Fall Festival so I can spend more time with Carter and I look forward to that! We hope you had a great Halloween!

Furloughed

Happy Easter!

OK, that might confuse you, but today Dave was granted his (2014) Easter holiday from work because otherwise he wouldn’t be getting paid. Let me explain…

Dave works for a research lab that is mostly funded by the government, and the government is currently shut down, so funding for the lab has stopped. The lab has worked hard to make sure its 6,000+ employees can continue to be paid for as long as possible so they have been using reserve funds to pay their employees through this past Friday. Now, they are in their last bit of reserve funding and have pulled out a few last tricks to keep everyone paid while the government sorts out their problems. Today the employees were given their 2014 Easter Holiday early, they will be able to work to wrap up current projects on Tuesday and Wednesday and then on Thursday and Friday they get two more of their 2014 holidays (President’s Day and New Year’s Eve, if you were curious).

While we’re super grateful that the lab has worked it out to keep paying Dave, they cannot pay anyone starting Monday, October 21. If the government is still shut down on Monday then Dave and everyone else at the lab will be furloughed without pay. And because he works for a lab funded by the government but is not a federal employee then even if the bill passes to back pay federal workers, he won’t be included.

So if the government doesn’t get their act together soon we will join the ranks of the thousands of furloughed workers in this country. It’s a shame that the leaders of this nation seem to be too stubborn to really see how their decisions, or lack thereof, are impacting real people. And I’m not just talking about closing some national parks and memorials.

Our local economy will take a hit. With 6,000+ local workers in a smaller community losing their pay even for a short time, local businesses will see reduced spending and reduced revenue. Some families we know will lose their only source of income (and we would lose 2/3 of ours). And it’s not like these furloughed workers can apply for unemployment or just go get a new job. Technically they all still have jobs, they just can’t work at them.  And as soon as the government gets going again they will all go back to work. It’s just this crummy time of unknowns that is causing a lot of worry and frustration. And the worst part is there is (almost) nothing that we as individuals can do to make any difference or move things along faster.

Please pray for our leaders to come to an agreement on our national budget and get all of the furloughed workers back to work ASAP. Regardless what your political beliefs are, I think we can all agree that keeping hard-working people from their paychecks isn’t a good thing.

Grandma and Grandpa meet Carter!

A couple of weekends ago Carter's Grandma and Grandpa (Sue and Rick who are Dave's parents) came out from Colorado to visit and meet Carter! We were SO excited that they were able to come!

Even Gromit was excited to see them. See the smile on his face?

It was so special to see Carter be so comfortable with his grandparents right away. It’s like he just knew that they were family!

I swear Carter doesn’t always have his hands in his mouth, but most of these pictures don’t seem to support that statement…

Anyway, we had a pretty low-key weekend just hanging out and playing with Carter. We managed to get out a bit to show our guests our little town including where we both work. We even stopped to have lunch on the property where I work overlooking a beautiful golf course. Of course, we didn’t take any pictures while we were there - oops!

We also got a special visit from Sue’s aunt and cousins who live in other parts of California - Dorothy, Deb, Rob and Dwight. It was fun to be able to meet them and to introduce them to Carter. They only stayed for a little bit, but they will certainly have to stay longer next time they are in town! Below from left to right is Dorothy, Deb, Sue and Carter.

It was a very special weekend for us and we are so glad that everyone was able to come and visit. We can’t wait until Grandma and Grandpa can come back again! We love you!