Mickey, Minnie & Tigger

Halloween...another year, but with a baby! I know baby's first holidays are supposed to be grand, but we are not really that type of people I guess. So we made do with what we had around and to borrow! We introduce our small Halloween festivities.

Trunk or Treat

Little Tigger cutie. A bucket of candy...in his dreams. Maybe another couple months buddy.

My little bro and wife were in town and joined us for Trunk or Treat.
Not a costume, but it could be! His first time in this nightie. Our Allstar baby.
Cousins. 3 months apart.

our one Little Halloween party at my brother's house.

the Spontaneous Hike

...the Willow Heights Trail. This has become our annual fall hike. We have been trying to plan this hike with our friends for the last couple years, but it just wouldn't happen. Life. And that's why this hike is now spontaneous, when we can go!

Spencer and I still really wanted to hit it this year, knowing our colors most likely won't be great. On a Friday morning Allstar woke up at 6:30 am to eat, so Spencer decided to get up as well and take us on this hike! We made it to the trailhead at 8 am and were up there by 8:45. We were hoping to catch the sunrise, and we would have, but the overcast sky prevented it being seen. As we suspected, most of the Quakies leaves were already gone, but we were able to catch one little forest that was still in yellow bliss. Enojoy our early morning hike! Haha, you can see our early morning eyes.

We bundled Allstar up. Fleece PJ's w/fleece top & bottom over that!

Jump Jump...can't forget the JUMPS!!! I love it.

Wow!

Babe fell asleep on the way down. So sweet.

Announced

It's that time of year...what is that time you say? Time to figure out where to order those family Christmas Cards! Go check out our friend's site, Announced. You just pay a small flat rate for her to insert your family pic and info into on of her many custom designed cards, and then she'll give you the .jpeg file to you so you can then print as many of your Cards you want anywhere you would like to! CLICK ON THE PIC TO VISIT THAT, she'd love to get you "Announced" for the holiday season.

She also has a craft blog, Less Cake More Frosting. Wow, super cute crafts on a low budget. I don't know how she thinks up most of her projects, but you should go check them out, and maybe become a follower too...She is very creative at writing, and though some of her posts may seem so long, just read it, you'll be entertained. CLICK ON THE PIC TO VISIT.

Believe it Folks

I thought I had a couple more weeks, but this boy ain't wastin' time. While on his stomach he gets his knees under him real well, but just didn't know how to move. Last Night I pushed his knees while he moved his hands...then this morning he remembered and thought he'd try it out himself! Wow...it's time for us to get on our hands and knees and babyproof for real now! He has been movin all day, albeit a bit slow, he'll speed up in no time and be in all sorts of trouble. This one is alive and curious, just 4 days short of 8 months.

He also just got his first cold yesterday, full blown today. It's the saddest thing ever, especially hearing him trying to breath with all that snot in his nose. He was up almost every hour for a 4 hours last night. Sad.

Lake Mary, sort of

We forgot to put the shoulder straps on him, and he kept sticking his head and body out. He'd never done this, and it took us 10 min to figure out why he was being silly.Lake #1, Mary: WHAT's WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE???
Aww, that's much better. What a SAD sight to see when hiking to a lake...emptiness. Only 1/2 of this lake was full.

Lake #2, Martha

Lake #3, Catherine

Getting the Fall colors this year has been a little rough with our weird cold then warm weather. The reds were already dying out while the yellows are just starting to turn.

Man, I love this nature stuff! It is beautiful and rewarding.

Golden Gate + Baseball =

EXHAUSTION for poor Allstar. We rented bikes to bike across Golden Gate Bridge. Allstar did not take a very long nap to begin with, and was so tired for most of the ride. Then, once we got onto the bridge it was SO noisy from all the cars he got even more upset. Too bad. The ride had a couple little hills that surprised us, but it was a pretty good ride altogether. The bridge is very long and seemed to go on forever. All in all, it was a fun experience worth doing!

We stopped before entering the bridge for our tasty [and pricy] cheese & crackers w/grapes. YUM.

and to take the family picture

Allstar got so upset that we took him out of the bike trailer and I went totally illegal riding w/him like this. I was so scared on the hills, well and most of the time. Not from getting in trouble, but for the tiniest of rocks that could've caused a crash.

DONE. See, look at all those cars! So busy

After he fell asleep in our arms we softly laid him down like so, we should've done this the first time he fell asleep so he was more comfortable. Then, when we boarded the ferry they made us take him out, which meant waking him up yet again. Afterwards I wished we didn't tell them he was in there!

To end the day we were so excited to see this MLB game. Unfortunately, after getting there a couple minutes late, then figuring out what to do w/the stroller we forgot to think about, then waiting in the "Gilroy's famous garlic fries" line for 20 minutes, we saw like 2 innings before having to leave the game...the babe would just not be happy or sleep. The noise and the cold just was not in our favor. Darn, we were really looking forward to this. We had sweet tickets too. In all the crying and everything we didn't even get a very good pict of the whole field. Next time Allstar, there will be another and you will enjoy it!

He even wore his Allstar Baseball shirt!

Alcatraz

Alcatraz was very interesting to see and learn a little more about. We really enjoyed the tour and highly recommend it. Though there were a lot of people, the tour is very well designed for a lot of people to flow through it. We took the audio tour, which had a couple prison officials and inmates telling the main stories and facts of Alcatraz when it was a prison, which is what it is most known for. We have toured the Utah Prison, so seeing the cells were not new to us, but it does remind you how awful of a life it would be to have to live in such tiny, dirty, cement quarters for years and years. 1 interesting fact I got out of it: those in prison read more than the outside population, something like that.

Some of the re-reations were very neat, such as this head that was made out of wax, concrete and paint; made by the prisoners who escaped, to look like they were still in their cell.

We used this front carry pack a lot during this trip, when he got tired of the stroller.

San Fran Overview

We just got back from our vacation to San Francisco, CA. We went Mon-Fri this last week. It was a success, in that we were so tired when we got back to our room each night from going and going and going! Seriously, we need to learn how to take a vacation. So here is a quick overview, minus the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, and some of the smaller sights we saw and did.

To start out...we stayed at a HOSTEL...for reals. It was right downtown, and it was the place where the price was right for us. Everything else was over $175/night. We got this private bedroom for only $90/night! We got some very strange looks walking around in there w/a baby, but we didn't really care, he was great sleeping at night and wasn't a bother to others. Buses, Cable Cars and Trolleys. We most likely took every route and bus possible in San Fran! We prefer to take public transportation when they have great systems, and this place did.

The Japanese Tea Gardens. This was the only hour that we really felt like we were on a relaxed vacation. Spencer really likes the Japanese type gardens in particular, and we will most likely have a little splash of this type in our perinnial gardens here at home.

Lombard Street a.k.a. the Crooked Street. It does have like 6-7 bends, very crooked, but beautiful with hedges and large begonia flowers spread throughout. There are very steep streets in this city as well.

Coit Tower, it's their overlook to the city. Definately not worth it. Most of the weather has fog, so you can't see too far. However, if it is for sure a clear day w/no rain, then it may be worth it.

Unfortunately, we didn't find as many great eats as we would've liked to, but by the last night we found the jackpot, and went back for lunch the last day.

Overall, it was a very eventful, successful vacation. We did almost everything you could do there, just like we usually do. From here on out, we have decided to slow down and try to relax and enjoy the city more. Traveling with a baby is DOABLE, just adds a bit more work and time needed to get from here to there. Oh yea, and a bit more stuff to take around everywhere with you. Another couple posts to follow...

Comical

It's the warm water...just relaxes those muscles everytime!

See you in a week with fun vacay picts.

Gettin' Down on the Farm

...lyrics from a Tim McGraw song, which I find very enjoyable I just wanna dance. It talks about kids in a rural area gathering together at the Barn to dance and have a good time! I love country music btw.

Anyway...we didn't really get down on the farm, we just took pictures in front of the barn! We're not country, but I guess we were a little bit of posers here. These family picts turned out darling, even if we were in front of a barn [which I don't usually love] but Carla did well with placing the family then turning on her self timer and running into the picture!

Then of course we had to shoot a million picts of Mr. Handsome for 6.5 months! Go HERE to see more of our darling little man.