Surprise Birthday Trip to San Francisco

For Mike's 34th birthday, I surprised him with a weekend in San Francisco. My mom came from Victoria to watch Oliver while we spend a weekend in the big city. Mike was very surprised, but secretly hoped I was taking him to the Olympics in Vancouver...I didn't plan it THAT far in advance! We had to get up on Saturday at 4:30AM to get to the airport for our 6AM flight, but it was worth it to have the whole day once we got there. I told Mike that Josh was out of town, but he pulled up at the airport to get us. We were BOTH surprised when josh pulled over to pick up Derek! He had arranged for Derek and Dawn to fly down for the weekend too! We went to the hotel (right across from the Ferry Building) and got some lunch. Then I took a nap (so nice!) and Mike, Josh and Derek went for a run.

Then Dawn and Shanna met us and we all walked to the north shore to find the "hat shop" that Josh had been talking about for months. As Mike gets older, he is is more need of hats : ) And he wants to be like Josh....

We went back to the hotel and got all dressed up for dinner. Derek and Dawn snuck in a drink in th elobby before we left...

Dinner was great: long and leisurely. We don't get too many long and leisurely dinners these days, so it was a real treat. This is the night view from our room. So pretty.

Sunday it rained. And we are talking serious rain. So we decided to go to the MOMA. It was the perfect rainy day with no baby thing to do.

Who are those cool guys in those stylin hats?

The only glitch in an otherwise perfect weekend, was that Josh got a ticket for rolling through a stop sign while showing us around his old neighborhood. Poor Josh!

February 2010

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I Can Walk!!!

Oliver gave us a very special gift for Valentine's day...He started walking! He had taken a few steps for the past week, but this was the first time he really walked. You might be wondering why he isn't wearing any pants...he really gets mad when you dress him, so sometimes it's easier to just let him run around half naked. I guess we have a little toddler on our hands!

First plane ride - to Arizona!

We packed up Oliver and all his crap to go visit Fernanda and Ian in Tucson. This was Oliver's first plane trip and our first time navigating security with a baby. We attempted to only bring carry-on bags for our 4 day trip and I have to say it was a bit tricky, but we pulled it off! Oliver did great on the plane and we were lucky to have people sitting nect to us that liked babies...

Our first outing was to the Dessert Museum. It was sunny and warm - the best day of the trip. This baby is not used to so much sun! He is my boy after all ; )

He had a great time riding on daddy's shoulders

And a tortoise



He really loved meeting Fernanda for the first time. They hit it right off.

Even saw some javellina's basking in the shade...they are supposedly more like deer than pigs (says Fernanda)...they sure look more like pigs to me!

Awesome dessert view

We were going to go for a swim at the pool, but it was too cold...went to the park instead. Oliver's first time on a teeter totter. It was a BIG hit!

And of course the swings...

We went out to a great dinner (well, except for Mike's well done pizza...). In case you can't tell, Oliver really liked Ian too : )

There are no pictures of the next day of the trip because it was spent inside watching a marathon of "jersey shore" because Oliver and I were barfing our guts out. Oliver's first time throwing up and he did not like it! Neigther did Mike who got the brunt of it...Luckily we were feeling better by the 3rd day, so we went hiking in this canyon.

Unfortunately, that night Ian got sick too and Fernanda was feeling bad on our last day there. She was a trooper though and took us out to see this beautiful mission.

Then it was back home to Seattle for us. Luckily Mike didn't get sick until we were back home...That was some crazy virus we all got. Very glad it was only for a few hours. Despite all the sickness, we had a really great time in Tucson, especially seeing Fernanda. I miss her already!