Back from The Grand

Wow. More to follow.

The Day Has Come

Well, it turns out that if you keep on planning for something, pay the bills, buy the tickets, etc. the day will actually arrive and you will be faced with a mountain of gear and the road ahead... Devon is heading to Arizona with John and Sean to start off on what has been referred to in our lives for the past 5 years as "The Grand."

Devon of course is still "working" on something last minute. And jane at the moment is sitting on an airplane. But for the next three weeks the posting may be light. To keep up on the goings on in Santa Cruz Check out Jane's blog. We are both going to miss fiona very much but still plan on a wonderful time on the river.

More to come
Love
Louise

Old Dog...

Not a lot of updates lately, I've been doing a lot of training at work and have been putting in extra hours. Devon has been "working" (see above photo) and getting things done in advance of our being away in October, and Fiona has been busy with swimming and school and isn't that good at typing anyway. Luna is still kicking, she lives a relaxed lifestyle shuttling between sun and shade, and after 12 years of best behaviour she pulled something out of the trash last week. See, old dogs do pick up on new tricks, especially when there is a chicken bone involved.

We're looking forward to our trip which has been in the works for years and years, Blogging might be sparse next month but we'll be sure to have great tales when we get back. So just so everyone is aware, Devon is leaving on September 29th and Louise on October 7th...we get back around the 21st or 22nd give or take a day.

Love
Louise

We got one!

This weekend I did a repeat of my offshore fishing trip, this time with Sean and Mike, two friends from work. We left the harbor around 8pm, and sailed over night, taking turns sleeping and sailing the boat under a full moon. Weather conditions were perfect for sailing, a steady wind all night and all the following day while we fished and sailed home. To catch the tuna you have to find warm offshore waters where they feed, so we sailed a long way, about 60 miles out (copy-paste into Google Maps: 36° 37' N 123° 02' W).

Success!












In addition to fish, we had a Fin whale surface very close to the boat, checking us out.












Also saw about 10 humpback whales, some also very close. In fact, we almost ran into a group of humpbacks--- we had to yell at Mike, who was steering at the time, to turn the boat before we hit one.











All in all a fantastic trip, although it left me pretty exhausted by the time we got home at 10pm after 26 hours at sea.

Behold the Yeti

As elusive, but not quite as hairy, Fiona is having a nap for THE FIRST TIME IN A WEEK!!!!!



Just as we were getting used to the idea of planning things to do in the afternoons. Damn!

Perhaps the fairy princess lifestyle is exhausting. She spent the morning errands in her fairy cape imagining that she was a snow princess. Looked pretty glamorous a the grocery store.

We're still here

We went away and came back again and then sank into our day to day routine hoping that someone else would blog the events of the last couple of weeks but alas the elves aren't working here anymore so I'll do it...

Utah was a great trip despite intestinal distress on my part. We still did a little light hiking and slept in TWO mornings in a row...amazing... and thanks of course to John and Vicki for taking care of fiona and our friends Dan and Justine for getting married so we had the excuse to get away. It was as I mentioned a lovely trip, we floated in the great salt lake, which I recommend but it did involve a few---trillion---flies. It snowed and hailed and there were quite a few rainbows. We both miss the mountains but are also pretty fond of the ocean so what are we to do?

Devon did get to do his offshore sailing trip. 30 miles out to sea to see if there were tuna....not this time but he has aspirations to go again and to go further. I am content to catch halibut at the mile buoy.

Fiona is continuing with her swimming. And recently added a pair of goggles to her collection of stuff. For the longest time she kept her eyes closed even with the goggles on but has finally discovered that you can see things in the water and is a fan of eyes open now. Last week she swam the length of the pool, perhaps 40 feet with a few otter rolls on the way. It is so wonderful to see her learning and enjoying. She is still currently obsessed with horses...NEIGH!!!

I have started to work in the Critical Care Unit at my hospital. A new job that reminds me how much I have to learn. I'm getting the hang of a different routine though and it is a bit less physical than the previous ward I was on, so that is a nice break.

We're looking forward to having Nanna Jane here in a month so that devon and I can go on another trip. This time down the Grand Canyon. Life is crazy but good and we are all happy and healthy and hope you are too.
Love
Louise

Fired up

Tonight we are headed to Pacific Grove to take Fiona to her Grammy and Grampy for the weekend. We will be off in Utah at a wedding for a friend and while we are away Santa Cruz has a bit of a fire problem. Hopefully the house will still be here when we come back. As always we can count on Fiona having a great time with John and Vicki getting to do lots of wonderful things. We of course are looking forward to sleeping in for two mornings in a row.
more later and especially when I have found the camera battery charger...
Love
Louise

With both feet

Fiona now jumps into the pool, over and over and over with glee and tells you about how when she was little (see last post) she used to be scared of jumping in, but now she's not. Time flies.
Sorry for the gap in posts we have been busy with the constant negotiations that life with fiona brings and at night we flop exhausted into bed. Obviously need to budget more time for blogging, but it seems to get left to the end every time.
Will be better.
Love
Louise

July Flies

Lots of work an lots of play has kept us from blogging lately. Since the last post, we had a birthday for Devon. We stopped for a cookie after swimming on the 20th to celebrate. Of course fiona decided that we should make cupcakes too, pink ones and brown ones.

Fiona still spends lots of time wrapping and putting animals to bed, she has horse fever at the moment and mostly gets around on a hobbyhorse. Who knows when this will end. We have a few places the hobby horse can't go: in shops eating establishments, on the deck of the boat (only in the cabin), also not allowed to go to school. It actually is a good thing because I think that I'm carrying her less because riding the horse is so much more fun.

Swimming is still going on mondays and wednesdays. Fiona loves all of it except jumping in...she used to jump in but somehow she's worried about it now. Oh well.

We're looking forward to a trip to Utah in August, and I'm switching around my job to try some different nursing in intensive care. Will keep you posted on how that goes.

Love
Louise

Mum's day off

We had a great weekend this past one, our friend Dina came to town again, so we did all the fun stuff that we never do unless someone is here from out of town. this included a trip to the boardwalk where Fiona got to ride on the ferris wheel for the first time, and had another go of the carousel, which was great because it has horses and anything with a horse right now is better than breathing, better than life, better than anything really. She takes her hobby horse Scarlet (she mispronounces as "scar-lick" which is cute in a grotesque way) all over the place. Anyhow from the top of the ferrris wheel fiona spotted a green plane and really wanted to fly so what's a mum to do...

So after the weekend I just had to make it to tuesday as I had been planning a day in San francisco to see the King Tut exhibit. I had a great time in Golden Gate park and went to the De Young and the Cal Academy. I saw lots of amazing things and walked about unencumbered...I saw parents dealing with emergent toilet stops, tantrums, strollers,and sticky snacks, but I was carefree with a small purse, ate in the museum cafe and for the drive up and back did not play "i spy" or sing children's songs. It was a very relaxing day and I look forward to another one sometime soonish.

Here are some of the things I saw, Couldn't take pictures of King Tut (sorry) something about a curse...

New Lucy (some random chick) standing near old Lucy at the Cal Academy

Big Fruit--De Young

Precolumbian Sun God-De Young

Precolumbian Rain God--De Young

Stelae (name plaque) of a mayan queen (10 feet tall)-De Young

Views from the 9th story of the De Young

The cal academy

Conservatory of flowers--I love that place!

On the rocks

Here is a picture of us at a field site (across the street from Devon's parent's house) for some family science. Fiona was there a couple of years ago. She was much more obliging then. This year she wanted to bring her hobby horse and was fidgety, wanted to go home to play etc etc etc. But it was a beautiful morning, animals were counted and as soon as Devon and John get to analyzing the data and writing it up I'll let you know what they found.
Love
Louise

New Chicks

Here is Luna tolerating the new baby chickens. Fiona is enjoying them and calls the brown one Butterfly and the black one Sunshine. Right now they are living in the porch, when they are a bit bigger they'll get to be outside but for now Luna has to put up with the indignities of having chicks around.
Love
Louise

Back to Summer

Well we're settling back in to life, getting back to work and over our cold, though devon is just digging into his. Fiona is enjoying collecting the cherry plums in the yard and eating them as they fall from the tree and unlike the cherry plum bum we have had trouble with in the past this year's cherry plum dilema is the speed with which they move through her system...thus frantic trips to the toilet ant the occasional extra bath. We look forward to guava season with some trepidation. We hope that y'all are getting at least 5 fruits and veggies a day too.
Love
Louise

El Rio Rapido

The rest of June

Well the month has just ripped bye, the solstice gone, but we have been doing plenty to keep ourselves from sitting near the computer. Devon was off to a meeting in Idaho and so we planned to meet him there. While I was "single parenting" John and Vicki took care of Fiona for a couple of days while I worked. Then Fiona and I caught a movie "UP" which we both recommend...Fiona cried when Kevin hurt his leg and still talks about the scary dogs, so I try to push the happily ever after part to keep her from dwelling on the worrisome things.

We flew on Wednesday the 17th to Boise, Idaho, and Devon met us at the airport. Fiona is still a great traveler. We stayed with our friends Chris and Sky, and their "Baby" Ben, who wasn't yet born the last time we saw them, at their wedding. Now they are expecting another new addition any day. YAY! But, they were brave enough to take on house guests all the same.

We spent the next few days staying in a beautiful Cabin near Crouch, Idaho, in the Payette River system, and did all the things that a 2-year-old, a three-year-old, and a heavily pregnant lady could manage. Delightfully this included whitewater rafting! A wonderful friend, Eric, from CA, and his dog Bodie, happened to be in the area and took ALL of us down the river on his beautiful blue raft. This was the first river trip for both kids (and for Bodie too!) which was a real treat for the four parents who love moving downstream. Devon and Chris also got to do some 'dadyaking'... i.e. whitewater kayaking a few notches below our former glory, but still great fun.

The rest of our time was spent lounging in the pool nearby the cabin, eating, sitting by the campfire, and of course intervening in the MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE arguements that broke out frequently between baby-Ben and Fiona. We also celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary while on our trip (we had spent our 5th anniversary in this same area, way back when). After all of that we headed back to Boise for father's Day and then and Back to Santa Cruz....With a new cold.

So all is good and here are some pictures from the latest adventure.
Love, Louise, Devon, and Fiona

Rafting on the river

Sharing princesses with baby-Ben

Father's Day

The rarely attempted golf cart shuttle

Fiona Paddling

Slept through landing and baggage claim.

Fiona and baby-Ben sharing a rock

PS here are a couple of nice pics from before our trip:

Fiona at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Fiona sitting downand eating her first beef stroganoff.

Sleeping "baby"

I don't know how much longer I'll get away with taking pictures of my sleeping baby. but there she is. And below, on her way home from the pub. Tipsy parents in charge of a stroller rather than a car.

What Fruit?

Horse Poo

Had we remembered to bring our camera this weekend we would have had pictures of Fiona and Devon on a Downtown date buying shoes for fiona's ever growing feet, their playdate at the park with Zoe (fiona's friend) and her dad John. Their noodles at the chinese place and then the family bike /hike up in Henry Cowell State Park. We went up to the observation tower through redwood forest and sandhill trails. It was quite lovely. Fiona had a little trouble with her aversive reflex to poo as we encountered quite a bit of horespoo on the trail. But it was made up for by seeing six horses and a mule on the path. Fiona is even brave enough to touch them these days.

Life is going pretty well we are planning our summer travel and have hit a point where we have no pending house repairs. The garden is growin we are overwhelmed with too many artichokes, looking forward to tomatos that are growing well, and remembering that summer in santa Cruz is the foggy time.

The parenting is sometimes easier and sometimes harder. Fiona lately is on a "I don't want to sleep" this must be said in a whining voice for the best effect. She still naps heartily some days and fitfully on others so it is hard to give that up. Bedtime when it is light late is a trick too, she wants to go to sleep when it is dark bla bla bla. We are doing our best.

Fiona is still in full nursemaid glory. All day every day she spends much of her time caring for her menagerie of baby animals. We are often chided for talking too loudly lest we wake baby zebra, shelly, otter. etc. At school she has a humpback whale which she claims as hers and when I pick her up is being wrapped in a striped sheet in the play yard. She is still going two days a week, not sure when to switch her up to more but it might be after the summer.

Fiona likes to sing and is usually humming or simging something from school or songs we have taught her. Her latest one is "Country Road" which is pretty sweet coming from her. Almost as lovely as when she belts out " Will the circle be unbroken."

Swimming is going well too. we are starting the second level in June. Fiona is getting commfortable with her head under, jumping in, and learning to keep kicking while she blows bubbles. She loves most of all at the end of class when the kids all get to float.kick/splash about the pool in tubes she calls floaties. Very cute.
Will post some more pictures soon,

Love
Louise

Butterfly

Last night we went downtown to have a treat after dinner. We walked along Pacific Avenue and listened to the buskers. The Great Morgani was out, and a man making balloon animals for kids, as well as a Mariachi band competing with some chanting Hare Krishnas. Fiona commissioned this butterfly from the balloon man, quite an elaborate one and then carried her around. This morning the butterfly came to enjoy Saturday morning in bed with the three of us. Not that we don't love the company but once you're having butterflies you picked up on the street where do you draw the line?
We did get to sleep in to 7:40 so I guess we can't complain.
Love
Louise