The dog whisperer

We stopped through Northridge on our way to and from NorCal for a visit with our friends, the Reilly's. A couple years ago the Reilly's rescued a beautiful retriever, Chester. He's a sweet dog but, like many rescues, he can be nervous around strangers in certain situations, especially men. You wouldn't know it from this picture though...

Steve and Chester both enjoyed their quality bonding time. Thanks to the Reilly's for always being the gracious hosts when we descend on your peaceful and lovely home.

Quadragenarians

Lisa and I have been friends since the summer before we both attended UCSB. We worked together at a Togo's sandwich shop that summer. She likes to tell people how cool I was because I was 18 and I got to use the slicer. (Who knew a career in cold cuts had its very own celebrity status?) Our first day at college, we ran into each other while moving into our dorms. To bump into a familiar, friendly face in a huge dormitory meant that we immediately connected and to use the cliche, the rest is history. Twenty-three years and many laugh-out-loud memories later, we're all grown up with careers and families and celebrating milestone birthdays!

So just a couple weeks after we'd been in San Jose for Al's memorial service, I flew back solo to celebrate Lisa's 40th birthday. It was a quick trip but a great time catching up with old friends and making new ones. We're already talking about a girl's trip in 2010!

Happy 233rd Birthday!

We spent the 4th camping up at Big Lake Recreation Area in eastern Arizona. We've been up to the area to enjoy the snow during winter and the summer was just as beautiful. If you were blindfolded and plopped down at our campsite, you'd have thought you were in the Pacific Northwest. But considering the temperatures back at home were in the 110s, we welcomed the 70 degree days and occasional drizzles.

We enjoyed the company of many friends...some we planned for and some were a coincidence. The kids enjoyed a boat ride out on the lake, fishing for crayfish, running between campsites, bonding with puppies and many other camping traditions.






I lifted this last picture...thanks Jillian!

Dad's day

We spent Father's Day weekend in our traditional fashion...enjoying one of the local resorts with our dear friends. The guys get in some golf on Saturday morning and we all enjoy the resort's wave pool, lazy river and water slides. The 'cooler' than normal temperatures and slightly smaller crowd made for an especially wonderful time this year.

This was our seventh year out there. The three of us first went when Em was a year old. We've enjoyed the last six years with the "J-Team". Our memories of each year are often triggered by each child's swimming abilities and whether or not they're tall enough for the water slides (the youngest of the brood, our Megan, has about another four inches to go). It's a treasured tradition that both families look forward to every year.

Note: Which one doesn't belong?? For those of you counting the kids and wondering where the sixth came from...she's a darling friend of the oldest and has been a part of our time-honored tradition for two years now.

An evening spent with parrotheads

We spent last night with old friends enjoying the music of another old friend, Jimmy Buffett. We were grateful he made Arizona an early stop in his SummerZcool tour. It allowed us to enjoy the show on what was practically a balmy night.

It was a typical evening with Jimmy...lots of shark fins, sons of sailors, forty year old pirates, cheeseburgers grilling and volcanos blowing. Definitely a great way to kick off the summer.

Facebook Freak

Since I’ve been blogging, I’ve been introduced to a number of other hip internet channels. Like Twitter. Twitter seems like fun. A public forum for all my trivial random thoughts? Perfect! But I’ve resisted because I knew I’d become obsessed with it.

Recently my dear friend Kristin sends me an email suggesting I join Facebook. I respectfully ignored it for the same reason I have resisted Twitter. And because I remember losing hours of my life on classmates.com before my high school reunion. Kristin’s email has sat in my inbox…tempting me. Then we had dinner with a friend and she is on Facebook. It helps her keep in touch with both family and friends. Then I spent the weekend with an amazing group of women and at least half of them are on Facebook. They love it…and you can monitor who can see what…and there’s groups and networks…blah, blah, blah. That was the straw that broke this camel's back.

The last two days I’ve been crazy obsessed with it. Searching out and finding old, and current, friends. Reading and posting on walls. Adding photos. Lucky for me…and my productivity…my employer blocks the site on the office network. Otherwise I’d be on it even more than I am now. Steve came home the other night while I was on it. He casually informs me he is signed up on it for networking, but never goes on it. My reaction, “What?! You are?! You have to be my friend!” Did I mention crazy obsessed? But it really is fun getting reacquainted with old friends. I just found an old friend from Schenectady. That seems like a lifetime ago...oh wait...it's actually two-thirds of a lifetime ago. So I’m thinking that once this initial finding old friends part slows down, the novelty will wear off? Maybe??

In the meantime, if you know me…you can find me there. I’d just love to be your friend. ;-)

A monster mash

Yesterday was our 2nd Annual Halloween costume party for the kids. We had 15 kids attend ranging in age from four to eight. That number was down from the 20 that originally RSVP's. We kept the kids busy with a pinata, cookie decorating, a craft and various games. We even had an impromptu parade down the street and back. A great time was had by all. A telling sign was that most of our household was in bed by eight.

A very big thanks to the adult friends and family that were on hand to help with crowd control. We couldn't have done it without you!

The Cowboys are goin' down!

Our good friend, James, visited this past weekend. It's a tradition that he comes into town whenever his beloved Cowboys play the Cardinals (uck...typing beloved and Cowboys together in the same sentence actually made me gag a little). It was great to have him here for a visit and the Cardinal's crushing victory over the Cowgirls made it even better. Meg especially liked doing his hair. Thanks for being such a great sport, Uncle James (that applies to both the football game and the hair)!

More from the Great Outdoors

We had what may have been our best camping trip yet last weekend. We went with three other families to Christopher Creek, AZ. We got some rain on Saturday...but not enough to ruin the trip...just enough to make it more of an adventure. All the kids played together splendidly....which gave the adults an opportunity to relax and visit splendidly.

Here's all but two of us on the final morning.

Here are some of the kids hunting for crawfish. The critters seem to like chicken even more than hot dogs (Megan still likes hot dogs best).

Birds of a feather

You saw the picture from Emily's first day of school back here. So this week Jill brought in some pictures of her middlest's first day of school. Jeri happens to be Emily's bestest and oldest friend but in different districts. Did you notice what we noticed immediately?



That's right! The same shirt! Total coincidence. No one else might think anything about it. But Jill and I think it's darling...and we're the moms so what we think is really all that matters, right?

A river runs through it

Our stay in Kyburz was a wonderful four days of R & R. A very big thank you to Aunt Phyllis for hosting us girls while Steve and James were in Tahoe for their guys trip. Phyllis is mother of Steve's best friend, James. She is like a second mom to Steve and the way she opened up her mountain home and heart to us girls made us feel like family too.


We spent our time reading, taking walks and naps, doing crafts, playing in the American River and just enjoying the cool outdoors with Phyllis and James' wife and son, Debbie and Russell.



And we even got a little quality canine therapy time (for those of you that know our girls well...this is a monumental step).



For all of our friends with dogs that have graciously crated, corraled and sequestered your pet on behalf of our girls...it seems that accessorizing your pooch helps break down some of the barriers of intimidation.

An evening with old friends

Yesterday afternoon my friend, Jill, and I went to see the SATC movie. I'm pleased to report that it exceeded both of our expectations. I didn't realize how much I missed "the girls" until the familiar sound of the theme music first played and a satisfaction rushed over me like slipping on an old, cozy sweatshirt. The next two and a half hours flew by just like time catching up with old friends usually does. We laughed, we cried and we wished for just a little bit more time together. The only thing disappointing about it is that there isn't another episode to look forward to in a week.

Jill and I then went for dinner to share a pizza, dessert and great conversation. And that portion of me that only girlfriends can recharge is back on full.

The Posse Proliferates

Steve's core group of friends are guys from the 'neighborhood'. These guys have known each other since they were the age that our children are now. And over the years the group has grown with friends from college, friends from work, etc. One of the original friends happens to live just down the street from where they all grew up. That same friend is moving his family to the other side of the country next month and that definitely called for a gathering of grand proportion. So we were back in NoCal this Memorial Day weekend for a BBQ in the 'old neighborhood'.



It was a great time. Old friends reconnected and the most magical part of all...new friends were made. Just about all of these guys now have families of their own and these kids played non-stop...literally. From about 1 in the afternoon until bedtime these kids only stopped for the bathroom and food. (Note to parents...a bouncy house/slide makes for fast friends and is a worthwhile investment for your next backyard party.)







Pete, we hope you enjoyed the send off. We all certainly did. Thanks to both you and Steph for opening up your home to the menagerie that is the Posse and their mini-Posses. We wish you and your family a safe and uneventful move and we'll look forward to visiting once you're all settled.

The Great Outdoors

We took a family camping trip up on the Mogollon Rim this past weekend with some good friends. Here are some of the things we learned:

1. Our girls are great campers.

2. When camping 135 miles from home, don't forget to feed the neighbor's 13 year old cat.

3. To appreciate a well maintained spare tire and camping just 30 miles from a tire store.

4. Crawfish like hotdogs almost as much as Megan does.

5. Our tent can survive a night of gale force winds.

6. We need a new camping stove.

7. The Rim still gets pretty cold at night at the end of April (35 degrees cold).

8. Megan likes collecting ladybugs almost as much as she likes collecting rocks, but not nearly as much as she likes eating hotdogs.

Despite a few set backs, we all had a great time and we're looking forward to a lot more camp trips at cool places this summer.

Good times

A couple weeks ago we kicked off Emily’s spring break with a wonderful visit with our good friends, Bill and Jeannette, at their new home in the San Fernando Valley, CA. The trip included lively conversation, delicious meals and a couple touristy trips into Malibu and Hollywood.

Thanks to you both for a wonderful time!

So you think you're a blogger?

I use to have a website. One of my bestest and oldest friends gave us the domain name as a gift right before the birth of our first child. It was a thoughtful, hip and generous gift that I so appreciated. What a great way to keep our family and friends abreast of the goings on of our budding family. Said friend provided continuous coaching and words of encouragement as I learned this fascinating language, html. You see, she is a talented and highly-sought-after Silicon Valley web designer. I am not. But I did a good job of faking it with my trusty copy of HTML For Dummies and a lot of copying and pasting.

The first year of Emily's life was chronicled quite regularly on that site. But then she became a walking, talking toddler and the postings became less frequent. Then our second child was born and I never really posted again. She's now 3 and Emily is almost 7. I had good intentions...I really did.

But now there is a whole new medium that I have become an avid fan of over the past year. Blogs. Seems both easy and manageable for this working mom. And so I introduce to you...my very own blog. Again...I have good intentions. Again...it will serve the purpose of keeping friends and family abreast of my family's humble existence. And if nothing else...I have a feeling I'm going to have a lot of fun doing it.