Hiking

Tonight's evening hike:
I picked Josie up at day care a little early and we went for a hike at Big Canyon in San Carlos. It was a gorgeous day. I thought the hike would maybe take 30 or 40 min. to do the hilly loop. This little hiker went at it for 90 min. We started at 5pm in the sunlight and after we got off the trail Josie wanted me to carry her b/c it was getting difficult to see as we walked back to the car. She hiked the entire thing, up and down the hills, over bridges, up and down steps. What a trooper. About half way she said she was tired but never mentioned it again. She was stopping to look in holes, smell flowers, kick rocks, pick up rocks, tell a fallen dead tree that she was sorry he fell and bumped his head. We stopped to listen to sounds of water trickling, birds, airplanes, and even the ring of my cell phone. Fortunately I had it with me or Eric would have wondered where we were. We'll see if she'll want to do it again sometime. 

A week or so ago we walked to the top of our street with Josie in the stroller. At the top, after hiking on the trail to the creek, I took Josie out to climb down the steps and across the bridge and up the other side. We walked on the path for a few minutes ad then made our way back over.

It was slightly sprinkling and a little muddy so that's why Josie was wearing her cool boots. 

Santa Barbara & UCLA

On Thursday night Josephine, Tara and I arrived late at my parent's. They were asleep and in about 5 minutes we were all asleep too. We woke up bright and early ready to start the day. Right away Josie found the little shelves with Katie's old toys that she keeps at Gram's house. Katie and Karen came over after breakfast. 

Just when we thought we were done celebrating Josie's bday along comes a party in the livingroom at Gram & Papa's. The "adults" eating breakfast in the dining room missed all the festivities.

Josie got a new dog just like Oliver and Miller's with the same name too - Pepparkakor.

While Josie got lots of love and attention from her grandparents, cousin, and aunt & uncle, Tara and I drove down to UCLA to give lots of love and attention to Rachel. Friday was her 19th her birthday.

We arrived at Rachel's apartment around noon. We walked through campus and to Trader Joe's. She lives about 4 blocks from restaurants, stores, cafes etc. and of course very close to campus. I got to meet her fun roommate Casey. We were headed out to an early movie and dinner but traffic getting out of the area to the freeway was bumper to bumper and we would have never made it in time so did a little clothes shopping at Ross and drove back to Rachel's to leave the car and walk to dinner. We had an adventurous time at California Pizza Kitchen and definitely ate enough with our free appetizers, soup and dessert (Rach let us try her sundae) and then our regular dinner that we did pay for. On top of that we got to eat Rachel's birthday cake that Ron made for her. Delicious carrot cake. We watched part of a movie and then sprawled out across their studio to sleep. We did sleep in like typical college students and then took Rach to Costco. We left around 3pm to head back up to SB. What a whirlwind trip and so fun to see Rach, all grown up and in college. 

We arrived back in SB a little before 5. I'm not sure Josie even knew I was gone. She had a great time and didn't cry or ask for me once. What a nice feeling knowing she was so content and in good hands. 

We all went out to dinner on Saturday night at Palazzio's and then Josie and my parents went back to the house. Katie, as usual, read books and put Josie to bed. Too bad she can't move to San Carlos and be our nanny. 

We went to see the Monarch butterflies before we headed out of town. Their migration is late so we were fortunate to see so many flying around and in their huge clumps. Plus it was a beautiful day to be on the coast.

Fridays in review

Feb 10 

After gym class we met our neighbors Brigit and her daughter Kaira at the park. Josie is about 2 months older.

Jan 27 

At the park on a chilly day.

Helping daddy build a fire, I guess she didn't want to get her shirt dirty.

Jan 20 

Went to our usual gym class

We celebrated Lauren's birthday Friday night. Hard to believe she's 17!!! Here she is with her mom, Tara.

Luke was in town for Mock trials and since we couldn't see him Friday night Josie and I met him for breakfast Saturday morning. 

Birthday happenings

Josie's birthday on Feb 2 started off with Swedish pancakes for breakfast.

Gram and Papa took her to daycare and at the end of the day we went back to join in the celebration.

Our cousins came over for dinner

Sweet dreams birthday girl!

On Friday we went to gym class and then drove to Oakland to meet some friends from Chicago visiting their daughter, Anne, who just had baby #2. Anne's older sister and I grew up together and our parents have been good friends for over 40 years. We visited Anne 2 yrs ago a week before Josie was born and baby Kate was 6 wks old. Kate is now two and baby Abby is 4 wks old. We met for Chicago deep dish pizza at Zachery's.

Josie took a late nap and the evening was spent preparing for the birthday brunch the next morning. My mom prepared a beautiful fruit platter, I made an egg casserole dish and we both were pulling our hair out preparing the cake pops. Everything turned out delicious.

Josephine our beauty queen awakens with a cold on the morning of her birthday party. 

She did perk up and enjoyed her party even though she was clingy on mom part of the time. The party pics are posted on previous date. After naps our cousins Kurt and Amy came for a delicious dinner prepared by my mom. We talked and laughed for about 3-hrs. I managed to capture one picture that evening and that was Josie giving Amy a good night hug . We plopped Josie into bed before we sat down to dinner. Here's Josie with the cute bandana Kurt and Amy gave her. They also gave her a beautiful Charley Harper Coloring Book of Birds.

Special time with Gram and Papa

 

Birthday Bash

We celebrated Josie's birthday at Shirley and Rich's with family. We had a delicious brunch and Josie was spoiled with lots of love. 

We made cake pops which wasn't as easy as we thought but they came out cute. 

2 yrs old

Happy Birthday sweet Josephine!

I remember when you were born as if was yesterday. You weren't in a hurry to make your debut. You were 10 days late and then I had to push for two hours before you popped out. You have barely stopped moving since that day. You are a girl on the go. You were such a sweet, adorable baby, that thrived on a schedule and made our jobs as parents pretty easy; sleep, eat, play. Ah, those were the days. I loved to watch you discover things and the way you smiled and cooed. You were always so chatty and that hasn't stopped. I remember the days when we wrapped you up like a burrito every nap and night time. Soon you made your way out of that and we put you in a sleep sack. You loved being cozy. You just needed your paci and blankie and you were content to go to sleep.

Josie and her Grandparents

Here you are at two and you're no longer a baby. Where did the time go? You continue to bring so much joy into our lives. We love your sweet voice as you sing songs, pray, talk a mile a minute, ask endless questions, cry your little heart out. You express yourself so well and understand so much. You say the cutest things. I love our bedtime routine. After jammies and wash-up we read some books. Once in your bed we pray and I usually read scripture verses over you. Your memory verse that you've been saying for awhile is "The Lord God is my strength, Habakkuk 3:17".You love to be tickled and have your back rubbed. About 3 weeks before your birthday you reluctantly gave up your paci and now you've pretty much gotten used to falling asleep without it. You always have your cozy green blankie with you. Now when you wake up you call for me. I love coming into your room. Your hair is usually in some crazy hairstyle and you look so cute standing there in your cozy pjs. You love to give hugs and kisses and your often say I love you mommy and I love you daddy. You melt our heart our little valentine. We love you, mommy and daddy.