Family BBQ

This weekend we went to LA for a family barbecue. My sister hosted the event in her home, and there was great food and great company and everything was fabulous... except poor little Vita. Vita had a rough day on Saturday, and was really in rare form. It was a perfect storm of lack of sleep, teething, a low fever, a new place and a lot of people, and it added up to a grumpy little girl. Although Vita was really not herself on Saturday, we did manage to get a couple of pictures of Vita with Aunt Mary. Vita finally had occasion to wear one of her new sundresses made by Mema. The picture below is a little blurry, but the smiles and laughter are great! Finally, Vita crashed and had a (much needed) Saturday afternoon nap with Ernie on the couch. The next morning, after a good night's sleep, Vita was back to her typical happy demeanor. Mary took us all to Griffith Park to take a walk through a bird sanctuary.

After the bird sanctuary we headed over to have a look at the ponies. Vita preferred to watch them from afar.

After checking out the ponies, we headed over to Griffith Park's little train ride. Here's Vita with her grandparents waiting for the train to arrive.

I'm not sure who had more fun on the train... Vita or her aunt and grandparents!

It got to be very sunny and warm at the park, and although we had hats and were slathered up with sunscreen, we headed back home to Mary's to spare Vita's delicate skin from temperatures we just don't see very often up in foggy Santa Cruz.

One of the highlights of the day was this pinwheel from grandma Marianne. Perhaps the best $2 ever spent. Vita still can't get enough of it, and she looks pretty darn cute toting it around everywhere!

Many thanks to Mary for planning and hosting this summer barbeque - we hope it becomes an annual event!

Fathers Day

Happy Father's Day to Ernie, to Vita's Grandfathers, and to all dads! This Fathers Day we decided to head out to Henry Cowell State Park... We're trying to enjoy our state parks while we can... before they close up due to the state budget crisis. So we took a walk in the redwood forest, and reminded ourselves why we pay through the nose to live in a beautiful coastal California town nestled into an ancient forest. Ernie and Vita got lots of great Daddy time, and although you may see Vita in Ernie's arms for a photo, Vita insisted on walking all the way through the "big trees" loop. We ran into some friends on our walk, and took this opportunity to have a family photo taken. This is one of my favorite pictures. The size of these trees is not easy to convey on film, but they are massive. The park ranger told us this tree is over 2,000 years old. Look how small Vita (and Ernie) look in the bottom right corner. Vita would look up at these huge trees and say: Tree! Tree! Wow....! (Naturally, she collected rocks along the way.) Let's see... what else is new. Vita had so much fun with the bean bag at Aunt Mary's house that we had to get our own. Nothing says comfort like sweatpants and a bean bag chair. Also, Ernie just made Vita her first big girl toddler bed! Below is a picture of the bed, which is modeled after this very stylish (but insanely expensive) designer bed. I picked out this bed online and told Ernie I wanted it to have taller sides, a bigger opening, and skinny wooden leg feet rather than wheels. Perfect! Vita loves it. And we felt she deserved it after making her sleep in her toy box all these months. Not much else is new... Here's Vita enjoying some fun outdoor time. Those eyes! That smile! Is that a bag of rocks she's holding? No wonder she's so happy.

Hanging out around the house...

and making a bowl of rock soup.

And finally, while helping me get dressed this morning, Vita took this Megadeth T-shirt out of my drawer (which I used to wear all the time while pregnant) and put it on all by herself. The apple really doesn't fall very far... does it. That's my girl!

Better Than Rocks?

Hey Vita, what's better than rocks? Sand and water and rocks! And what's even better than that? Playing with friends on a lazy Sunday.

No News Is Good News

We've had a quiet weekend, which is just what we wanted. With the exception of celebrating our wedding anniversary, we didn't do a thing except eat, sleep, read and play. Somehow, our summer has become extremely busy... and after this weekend there is something going on every single weekend until August! There are lots of family visits and miscellaneous occasions coming up (such as fathers day and this year's pirate fest, and much much more). So hopefully we'll have some more exciting posts in future weeks. Anyway, here comes summer! Check out Ms. Vita and the amazing technicolor dream pants! Vita recently received a box with some fun summer clothes... including a couple of beautiful home made sun-dresses in really pretty prints made by Mema! Unfortunately, the weather hasn't yet allowed for sundresses, but we're looking forward to the warm weather and as soon as it heats up enough we'll need to have a special sun-dress photo shoot. Until then, this bright summer number will have to do. Here's Vita having a laugh with some of her books. Here's Vita eating crackers on the couch. And finally, here's Vita informing me that she is out of crackers and telling me where I can get some more to give her. (Nice try.) That's all for now... Kiss!

Holding Rocks

Vita loves playing outdoors. Although it was unseasonably cool this weekend, we tried to get a lot of outdoor time in. Vita is drawn to rocks. She gathers rocks throughout the yard and holds on to them the whole time she's outside. Sometimes she really needs the use of her hands to play with a ball or to climb in or out of her sandbox, but she just will not let go of those rocks. Here's Vita inspecting the flowers (note the rocks in her hands). Just a cute shot (trust me, she's still got the rocks). Enjoying the shade in the play tent. Still holding the rocks. Another cute shot holding rocks. What? Time to go inside? This is the face I get when it's time to go inside. On the way up the stairs to go inside, Vita stalls by stopping to examine her rocks more closely.

Playing Catch Up

Here are a few miscellaneous pictures that, for one reason or another, haven't made it up on the blog yet. I've been holding out on some of these pictures for weeks! Recently, Vita got to meet a new friend... sweet little Maddie Rose! In this picture, Maddie was only 2 weeks old! Vita was very shy around Maddie. (She didn't even say her trademark "hey, baby", although we were hoping she would.) Vita very carefully and cautiously and delicately touched Maddie's foot, and watched Maddie with absolute awe. I know that Vita and Maddie are going have lots and lots of fun together in the years to come. I was so honored to be allowed not just to hold Maddie, but to feed her too! It sure made me miss those sweet and fleeting first weeks and months. Here's Ernie with Maddie. And here's Maddie with her dads, surrounded by love. What a lucky little girl! We've been doing some re-arranging in the backyard, and we're having trouble figuring out where to put Vita's play house. Poor Ernie has to cart it around while we decide. This picture reminds me of something out of Alice and Wonderland. Vita is being raised with good music. Although some of the children's music slips into the mix here and there, she otherwise has very good taste.

This cute snap button western style shirt was a hand-me-down from a friend. Lucky us, we love it!

Book Worm

These pictures are not staged. Sometimes Vita just takes a novel out from the bookshelf and starts "reading".