Super Fun Sunday

Today was a fun, but busy day. This afternoon, we went to a birthday party for one Max's friends, Scotland. Scotland turned two today and my friend Kate planned a really fun party at the park. After the birthday party, I went to my friend, Moira's, bridal shower. It was really nice, and was at a super cute vineyard in Castro Valley called Chouinard Vineyard. Moira has a lot of really nice girlfriends and we had a great time drinking wine and chatting. Below are some pics of our day.


I think this picture of my boys is too cute. Max is such a sweet brother to Eli, and Eli really loves being around Max.

This is some of the kids at the party in our attempt at getting a group shot! It worked for about a minute and then Eli and Fiona each had a meltdown. This picture cracks me up, though, because Max and Eli are making the exact same face.

Max loved playing with the balloons and popped two or three of them.

Scotland, the birthday boy!

My beautiful friend, Moira, at her bridal shower.

Nicole and I - Nicole just got engaged a few weeks ago. Congratulations Nicole and Mike!

All the girls.

Moira, Nicole and I. I love these gals! I can't wait for Moira's wedding, which is in a few weeks. I am so excited for Moira and Daniel - they are a great couple.

Last weekened at Mom and Alex's

We had a great time at my parents place last weekend and some pictures are posted below. Today we are going to a birthday party for one of Max's friends, and then I am off to a fun wedding shower for my dear friend Moira. I will post pictures of those events later. This past week at work was so busy that I had no time to post pictures from last weekend. . . I've only now gotten around to it. Generally, Rob is with the kids a few days a week, but he has been so busy at work and I have been so busy at work, that we had to use my work's back-up care. It is nice because they pay for up to 20 days of back-up childcare per year so that you don't have to miss work. I think we will be taking advantage of all 20 days! They actually sent someone to our house to watch the kids through an agency. She was great with the boys and they really liked her. Anyway, below are some pics from LAST weekend. Enjoy!

Rob took Max for a ride on the four-wheeler in the morning. Not sure if Max loved it, but he didn't cry! :-) Rob had a great time though.

We bundled up for our evening walk down to the lake. There are blackberry bushes down there and Max was extremely excited to pick some.


Max eating blackberries and making a huge mess! I think I got to eat about two blackberries. Max made me give him all the rest. :-)

Eli loves to be picked up and held in the air like this. He cracks up every time.

Yes, my happy baby does cry sometimes. But he still looks cute. . . .


Max and Rob taking a paddleboat ride. Max loved playing in this boat.

Heading back to shore. . .

Last Weekend in Apple Hill

Last weekend we took the kids up to Apple Hill (near Placerville) and had a great time checking out some of the gardens and orchards. We met my parents up there and ended the day at a cute little brewery where we let Max run around and play with the other kids while we all sat and had a beer on the lawn (I had the apple beer - yum!). Below are some pictures of our weekend excursion.

We stopped at a neat organic farm and Max ran around the garden for a while. He sure loved all of the flowers and did a good job of smelling them and not picking them. We've been working on the no picking thing for a while. . . it works most of the time!

The boys sitting in the pumpkin patch.

This farm, and the whole surrounding Placerville area is just gorgeous this time of the year. We loved getting up there for the weekend.

More time exploring the pumpkin patch.

After we left the organic farm we went to an orchard that had a bunch of fun stuff for kids - animals to feed, a tire swing, old tractors to play on. . . Max had a ball and had to sit in every single tractor and pretend like he was driving.

Driving another tractor.

Mom and Alex with Eli.

Some Cute Pics of Eli

I just had to post these pictures of my adorable little guy, Eli. He is such a sweetie. He is SO close to being able to roll from his back over to his tummy. I can't believe how quickly he is growing.

Our Wonderful Sunday

Today was just about a perfect day. After the kids woke up and we had breakfast, we decided to take Max to the steam trains in Tilden Park. He loves trains, so we thought this would be a fun thing for him. I think he had a great time! Eli got a little bit scared when the train horn blew, and I ended up having to nurse him for the second half of the ride. After we rode the steam train a few times we went over to the Botanical Garden area and had a picnic. It was really nice. Max was so pooped out after our morning, he ended up taking almost a three hour nap. After his nap we went to the Lafayette reservoir for the afternoon. I jogged the three mile loop with Eli while Rob played with Max at the playground. Below are some pictures from our day.

The Steam Train is a great little 10-minute train ride through the redwoods in Tilden Park. Max must have yelled "choo-choo" fifty times during the ride. He LOVES trains.

Sitting in the train getting ready for our ride.

This is our little picnic site. Super peaceful.

Eli napped during our entire picnic. :-) The steam train tired him out.

Max was happy because there were blackberry bushes nearby.

The boys!

Yay, it's the Weekend!

So far we have had a great weekend with the kids. This morning, Rob had to work so I packed up the kids and took them to the little farm to see the animals. The little farm is one of Max's favorite places and we go there all the time. Max is getting very brave around the animals and is feeding them himself now. We were there for a few hours looking at the animals, then sat on the grass and had a little picnic. After that we came home for the kids' naps - Max was so pooped that he fell asleep about two minutes after I put him in his car seat for the ride home. After naps, Rob took Max on a long hike up Mount Diablo, and I took Eli grocery shopping with me. Rob took some great pictures of Max on the hike, and I've posted some below. Max is looking a little beat up right now . . . a few days ago he fell off of the swing onto his face, so he has some nice road rash on his forehead and cheek, and today while Rob was holding him he lunged out of Rob's arms and landed face first on the railing of Eli's bassinet. He got a bit of a bruised eye and a small fat lip from that one!


Eli was such a good boy today. He slept in his stroller most of the time we were at the farm. This is right before we sat down for our picnic.

The cow giving Max a kiss.

My big boy and his battered face. It actually doesn't look so bad - but this was taken before he did a nice face plant after his nap.

Max likes to climb the fences to get a better look at the animals.

Another picture of my sweet little guy. Eli is turning into a little chunky guy - I love it! He has the cutest, squishy tummy and sweet chubby cheeks. He is very kissable.

Max hiking with dada at Mount Diablo. Rob said they had a great time. I think these pictures make Max look like such a big boy.

Photographer Max

I wanted to get this on the blog before too much time goes by and I forget. . . . yes, my blog is basically my scrapbook of kid stuff and is the only way I will remember details of these times later!

Max is pretty much obsessed with stealing our digital camera and taking pictures. It's pretty cute, except for when I try to take the camera away and he throws a huge fit. :-) The first time he got ahold of the camera was when we were in Tahoe going on a walk. Below are some of Max's shots (the ones that don't have his fingers in them!) - and I've also included a video of what happened when I took the camera away. :-) Enjoy!


This shot is actually pretty good! These are the little wildflowers that Max spent a lot of time smelling. He loves picking and smelling flowers.

A nice, artistic shot of the sky . . .

A nice, artistic shot of my booty. . . :-) I cracked up when I went back and looked at the pictures Max had taken. I normally wouldn't post pictures of my behind, but I thought Max's shots were too funny not to share.

It's interesting to see what I look like from Max's perspective! I am a GIANT!

Our Weekend So Far. . .

I'm so happy it is the weekend! Being back to work has been okay, but I sure do miss my boys when I am away. So far it has been a very nice weekend. On Friday night, Eli and I went to my friend Sarah's house for book club. There is a really great group of ladies in the book club, and although I haven't been going much the past few months, I am always happy to see them and their kids (the kids outnumber the adults. . . ). Later on Friday night our friends Tony and Rebecka came over. It was great to hang out with them. They live in So. Cal., so it's not often that we get to spend time together. We spent Saturday morning hanging out with them as well, and then they had to head out for a friends wedding. Saturday afternoon Rob and I took Max to the farm to see the animals and for a hike (a typical weekend day for us!). It was lots of fun, as always. I've been bad about posting since being back at work, but have been trying to catch up a bit this morning. Below are some pictures from yesterday afternoon.

Max In a Tree

Last weekend Max climbed his first tree. . . . well, he didn't so much "climb" it as have us shove him up into the tree. Max thought it was great. Rob and I were having a heart attack though, wondering how we were going to get him down and hoping he didn't fall. It was pretty funny. After he came down from the tree he wanted to go up again. We learned our lesson the first time and said "no." :-)

This is the tree Max just had to climb! He is an adventurous little guy.

Up in the tree.

Looking down at his mama and dada, who were wondering how the heck they were going to get him down! :-)