Cayucos Beach Vacation

We spent four nights in Cayucos (near San Luis Obispo/Hearst Castle) as our pre-new-baby vacation.  We all had a great time.  The weather was mostly good.  Little windy the first couple of days.  Sander loved playing on the beach.  Sander and I dug a big hole and tunnels and he loved slidding down into the hole.  We all went for numerous walks to find seashells.  And Sander learned the game of “Playing Tag with the Waves”.

We spent some time at Montana de Oro, San Luis Obispo, “downtown” Cayucos, and driving up the coast past San Simeon.  Sea Lions were a big hit.

We all miss being at the Beach House and being away from it all.  The only hitch in the vacation was that Sander came down with a nasty cold which didn’t help sleep.  But overall, it was a great time.

Sander playing in the hole:

Playing “Tag” with the waves:

Chris at Cal Poly:

Sander looking at sea lions:

Sunset at the beach a block from our house:

On a hike at Montana de Oro:

I’m really happy about Obama. Worried about Prop 8.

Forward and Back

Last night we had a fun Fiesta de Pumpkin.  There I got to meet the twins Casey & Finn.  They were so tiny it made me remember back to when Sander was a little one.  Hard to imagine that our little guy was that tiny.  I dug up the below picture of him laying across my chest.   I guess we get to go through this all again soon enough with Baby O.  Should be fun to try to carry both Sander and Baby O.

This Week in Photography

I listen to a lot of podcasts.  One of my most frequent listens is to This Week in Photography (TWIP).  Thought I’d post this on here for everyone who is into photography.  Good blog, good podcast.

Article on how to shoot fall colors

Primary website: http://twipphoto.com/

I realize that this isn’t really family related in the direct sense, but really, this blog is all about taking pictures of Sander.  I’m always interested in how to improve my photography skills.  Even if I don’t really have enough time in life to do practice.

Patio

After a summer of having a hole in our backyard I finally finished the patio.  Thanks for everyones help.  It used to be random set of stones that would always allow weeds to go through.  This is a great first step into making a lower maintenance backyard.

NOW:

OLD:

Soccer

Sander and I have been enjoying soccer class.  He gets to do all kinds of fun things like kicking the ball, playing with cones, running after bubbles and playing with the parachute.  The coaches are great with the kids.  Probably Sander’s favorite thing is to play with Anya and her dad, Eric.  One of my favorite things is to see Sander dressed up in his soccer uniform.  Anyways, it is a fun Saturday morning activity.

Baby O

It seems one of the most frequently asked question the second time around is, “does Sander know about the new baby?” We talk often about Baby O, Sander lifts up my shirt and taps my belly and says “Baby O.” Sometime he tells Baby O to come out, so we talk about how the baby still needs to grow a little before it comes out and that long ago Sander was also in Mommy’s tummy until he grew too big and he came out to play with us. Sander agrees and then says, “Daddy was in Mommy’s tummy.” We then explain Daddy was in Gran’s tummy, he nods and agrees. Sometimes Sander says Baby O is crying or hungry or that Baby O needs a nuk.

There is no question that we think Sander is a smart little boy and he realizes something indeed is going on, but does he know how his world will change? Do we? No, so we continue to talk about Baby O in the hope it will help when one day Baby O will appear and be apart of our lives.

Sander’s 2nd Birthday Party

We celebrated Sander’s 2nd birthday a couple weekends ago. All seemed to have a good time. We had the party at our house and kept it small, since we had celebrated with all of Sander’s friends from Mom’s group the week before. Sander got to see his good friend Addy (pictured below) who he spent many a day with the past year while I went to work.

This year Chris and I decided to design our own cake for Sander and since one of his favorite things is a dump truck, well we brought it to him in cake form. It only took three cakes (a little operator error on the one sheet cake), but we think it came out fairly well. At least Sander enjoyed eating it, as demonstrated below.

All of Sander’s Grandparents made it to the party too. I am not sure he knew what to do with all the attention. From left to right, Gran, Papa D, Grandpa and Grandma.

A few days later on Sander’s actual birthday we celebrated just a little more. We saved a few presents for Sander. While Sander took his nap in the afternoon Chris set up his new train table, built by Chris, and set up some new track and accessories we got for him. When Sander woke up and walked out of his room his reaction was, “uh oh”. He seemed to warm up to the new toys pretty quickly.

Reason #33 of Why Not to Live on a Hill

It makes moving things like dirt, gravel, pavers, etc to the backyard much more challenging. Poor Chris had the fun task of moving gravel and pavers bucket full by bucket full from the front to the back of the house. This is when my Dad would say, this is why we had kids. Sander, while completely interested in the gravel not so helpful in the moving it front. Many of you have been to our house and know we live on a hill, it goes from one story in the front to two in the back, which translates to a lot of stairs. Yes we thought of using a wheel barrel but our side yard is too narrow; Chris also came up with the idea of building a chute out the back window of our garage, but slowly realized it might be more work; and, finally, yes we thought of the most obvious, pay others to do it for you, but what’s the fun in that. Perhaps we will post exciting pictures of our patio once it is done. At least all the materials are in the backyard now.

Playing

A few weekends ago we spent a night with Gran and Papa D. Sander, as always had a good time. Sander likes to play with the same race track that his Dad used when he was little. I hear it provided hours of entertainment for him. Papa D joined in the fun. Not sure who had more fun playing with the cars.

One of Sander’s other favorite past times is playing with Big Dog. This time he really liked climbing underneath Big Dog, but it wasn’t enough for just him to climb underneath. How fun it is to be a kid (also this picture I think clearly demonstrates how the dog got its name).