Re: great trip to San Carlos, MX

We just spent a week-long vacation in San Carlos on the beach, where we celebrated many things, including Aaron and Karis's wedding!!! And Ranier's 1st birthday!!

Here's Ranier on the beach

Megan, and the boys went down to Tucson early and had a reasonably easy flight...but our luggage didn't make it (on a direct flight!!!!!!!) It was a pain, especially with the little ones, but it finally arrived around 1am. The next morning, we drove down with Grandma (Nana) to San Carlos and the boys were amazing!!!

Fortunately, Ranier is still not crawling, so we could plop him down and he couldn't get into too much trouble.
As soon as we arrived, we found our swimsuits and headed to the beach. The water was a little cool (67), and the air was warm (mid-upper 80s) and it was very refreshing to have a swim. Dahrius had a lot of fun splashing and playing in the water and we hope his fears subside with swimming. He has swimming lessons this summer...so we'll see!

We had a leisurely day or two, though mom and I realized we spent all of the first day and got nothing done! Partly because had trouble getting pesos, but also because the kids can easily take up an entire day to take care of, play with, feed, get down for naps, etc...

Unfortunately, on the second day, Dahrius was playing around the deck and jumped into the firepit...which happened to have bits of wood with rusty nails in them. He landed perfectly on a nail which went right through his crocs and into his foot. After a bit of cleaning up the wound, we made it to "Rescate" a few blocks away for more thorough cleaning of the wound and a new bandage. Fortunately, I brought several "Winnie the Pooh" and "Cars" bandaids which were a big hit. By late the next morning (thanks to Nana's coaching), Dahrius was walking on the foot again and running by the following day. WHEW!

Dahrius resting with the hurt foot.
We saw a stingray in the water!!!!
Today Ranier ate a pancake, egg, toast, melon, pina, milk, potato....

At the Marina

Playing together

We set up a "sea wall" for Ranier so that he could sit close to the water, but the waves wouldn't splash him and scare him. This way, the gentle waves would sometimes reach him, but moving slowly around the wall.



More and more family arrived and Dahrius was thrilled to see Uncle Joshie and Jojo, and even Auntie Karis read him bedtime stories. We enjoyed some great local shrimp and tasty fresh sea bass with lots of helpings of guacamole.
Dahrius is being buried as a fish here.


Dahrius went to play at the beach this day and insisted he would not get wet...but eventually changed his mind. He took a little rinse after being buried with just the essentials: a hat to protect the face and the sock to protect the injured foot and keep the bandaid on and the shoes just because they're crocs, I guess.


Yoga with Jojo and Dahrius
Dahrius is demonstrating the donkey kick here.





plaid boys


sunrise in San Carlos



Ranier: happy baby until he spies mom (taking photo)

with cousin Mikis
At the "rehearsal" dinner, which mom and dad (Nana and Papi) hosted at their house, we had some fantastic food painstakingly made and transported across the border by Sandra, of Cafe Poca Cosa fame, where Ahrash and I had our incredible food the night before our wedding as well.

That night, some people went a little overboard with the tequila (no naming names here...), but those of us who remember the evening had a lot of fun.

Pre-party relaxing by the sea.

The next morning, Ranier loves his Nana!


Coming soon...Ranier's 1st bday party and the wedding!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Happy 4th birthday Dahrius!!!!!!

We had a fun 4th birthday party at nearby Remillard park in Berkeley. Dahrius requested a "jet plane" cake and also a "strawberry" cake, so I decided to make a tasty strawberry cake (tis the season) and put a jet plane on it for his special piece. The party was fun, we had the park pretty much to ourselves, and we remembered everything...except matches to light the candles. Luckily, someone at the park had some we could use.
Here are some of the kids crowded around for cake and snacks.
Here's Dahrius and his inseparable buddy, Kush.
The boys (Kush, Sebastian, and Dahrius) were all impressed with the rockclimbers at the park. They were also impressed with gathering sticks and whose was the biggest. Ah, boys!
Dahrius got a pirate outfit, complete with a sword, which all the boys were fighting over.
Little Ranier is still showing no signs of crawling, and his little friend, Jake (just 2 months older), is already walking!
Playing with the ball.s


My, you're cute!!!

Re: Happy Easter!

We had a lovely Easter Day here in Berkeley. Here is Ranier playing with his Easter basket. As you can see, he doesn't much like to get that tummy off the ground! He can scoot around a fair amount on his tummy, though.

He was quite pleased with himself to have found dad's phone here.




Playing with daddy.
My first Easter egg!!
Getting serious.
We had a leisurely morning and I began to assemble ingredients for brunch and then I realized that we were nearly out of eggs! With the egg coloring, I hadn't quite planned for enough eggs. So I sent dad and the boys down to Mina and Monty's (grandparents) to grab a few eggs. In the meantime, the Easter bunny had stopped by to hide the eggs. Here are the boys ready for the hunt!!
Dahrius spotted an egg!
Getting warmer...warmer...
A special treat for the day was that Jessie stopped by on her way from Mendo to Santa Cruz. Here she is practicing with Ranier...she's due in June with her first! Very exciting!!
Megan whipped up a fantastic brunch: asparagus and chevre omelet with home fries and lots of fresh fruit! Dahrius was particularly in love with the strawberries. YUM!
Dahrius still loves his trains.
After brunch we had a lovely hike from our front steps into Tilden Park. It was a gorgeous day, and we stopped on the way home at our nearby park so that Ranier could ride in the swing (which he LOVES). He's also said his first word, where he consistently gets the context right, "Uh-oh" See the video here of his first word!

Dahriusisms

In anticipation of upcoming warmer weather, Dahrius tried on some of his "summer" clothes to see if things still fit. He was especially excited to wear his sandals, reserved only for warm weather. Not surprisingly, the sandals of last summer were WAY too small, so we went shopping for new sandals. Of course I wouldn't let him wear them here in Berkeley for our 60ish weather, and one of his favorite things about going to Tucson was getting to wear his new sandals.

We recently checked out some library books on space, which Dahrius is really interested in lately. While we were talking about the planets in our solar system orbiting the sun (with a diagram in his book), he pointed to Mercury (the planet closest to the sun) and said, "You could wear you sandals on Mercury. It's REALLY hot there."

Re: trip to Tucson

We recently were in Tucson for a memorial for Megan's grandfather. It was a sad reason to visit Tucson, but it was also wonderful to see so much of the family and to share our memories and thoughts of grandpa/great-grandpa/dad/mom.Here is Dahrius on one of our little hikes. He pooped out early and Nana kept him occupied in the car waiting by letting him "drive."

Uncle Aaron was put to work carrying Ranier. Here we stopped for a water break in the shade. Despite being the beginning of March, weather was quite warm and sunny.

WE were admiring the desert poppies blooming in the wash. Spring in the desert is always beautiful!

A little floor play with Nana and Papi.

Little Ranier is not crawling, but he can scoot around on his tummy...mostly backwards, and he can pivot. Here he backed himself into the wall, with both legs split around it and since he can only move backwards....he was stuck! Very cute.

Stuck baby.
The boys were having fun going down the slide together in Berkeley.
WHHEEEE!!!!!!!!!!