November

I was excited for the month of November to get here. We had made plans with my parents when we knew we were moving to Cali to attend the Ducks and Stanford game. I was so excited to go to a game! It was an awesome game, and on a side note I loved the seating at Stanford. The new stadium was super awesome, except for the bathrooms.

Later that week we took a trip to Santa Cruz with my parents and I had a moment of road rage in the car, because no one was helping me with directions. But once we parked the car, we had a good time.

It was such a beautiful day...in November. It has taken me awhile to get used to this sunshine in months when I am used to none.

These pics with Reid were taken right as they were leaving.

My brother Troy and his wife Teresa were also around for the game, but I have absolutely zero pictures of them. I really am awful at remembering to take pictures these days. Someone has photos of us together. I know they do because I remember posing for one.

Thanksgiving

We went home for Thanksgiving but do not have a single photo to show for it. But I do have two photos from my mother's camera. She wanted to take a picture of boys and girls - shortest to tallest - and this is what we got. I think the boys photo could qualify for awkward family photos. None of those guys like to pose for the camera. Ha ha!

October

October was much more of a happening month than September. We visited not one, but two theme parks. We drove down to Disneyland to meet up with Robert's sister at the beginning of the month.

There were two odd things about this trip. #1 We hardly saw Robert's sister, Lela, and her family at all and #2 Reid is allowed on a lot of the rides. We went on Dumbo, Pooh, Small World, Toad, Snow White, Haunted Mansion (which was switched over to the Nightmare Before Christmas!) - we had a great time. It was super busy, but we still had fun.

Either way we had a fun mini weekend road trip.

The second theme park we went to was Gilroy Gardens. We actually really liked it. And we thought Disneyland could learn a few things from this park. This park has tons of plants and trees to provide shade. A wonderful thing on a hot day. It was definitely an easier trip as it's right by where we live, it wasn't busy, and it had lots of things for Reid.

I call this one of Reid and the goat "Reid's sneaky smile." He is getting ready to do something crazy when he smiles at you like that.

October is not complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch! He loved the corn maze. He has been walking for awhile, but he finally had mastered walking on the uneven ground found outside. So this was heaven for him.

We fed a lot of animals this month.

We weren't sure how pumpkin carving would go...most of the little kids we know don't really like to carve pumpkins since they are slimy. We were curious to see how Reid would do, and he had a fun time with it.

Hunting for costumes is something Robert and I like to do, but we can never decide what to buy. By the time Halloween rolls around we typically are left without costumes because we just couldn't decide. However, Reid was kinda easy to shop for mostly because they didn't really have anything in his size besides the Hulk. And we think the Hulk is pretty cool!

But once we purchased the costume we realized that it's actually kind of hard to tell what/who he was supposed to be. Oh well! He hated that hat, but we were able to keep it on him as long as he was distracted. Which was actually most of the time. He enjoyed checking out other people's outfits.

Oh, and I turned 29! Wow! I don't remember what we did and there weren't any photos...we are really terrible at taking pictures of anything these days.

September

Here we go again. Once I catch up I think I will be able to get back to a more consistent posting schedule, but as of right now it just feels like it's hard to catch up. Which leads to putting it off and making the task bigger. I'm a procrastinator!

Ok, well September was overall a slow, mellow month. Robert's parents were able to come for a visit and we celebrated Reid's and Robert's birthday a few days early with them.

Reid didn't want to eat his birthday cake, but he did like to smash it. So after it was all smashed it ended up here:

And we held our mini celebration at home with Reid on his actual birthday, and that was when we sang to him. He's a handsome guy!

August

After the high school reunion in Oregon I convinced Pops to drive down south with me so I wouldn't have to endure another 11 hours in the car with Reid alone. It really should be a nine hour drive but with a baby and the needed frequent stops it ends up being a lot longer. The drive south was much easier with his help.




In order for this plan to work Pops had to stay with us for a week! We planned on having him fly home but the cheaper tickets were a week out. But we had a grand time. I took him to the aquarium and we finally got around to checking out things in our tiny town, specifically the old mission and plaza hotel.

I love all things historic, and the tours of the these places did not disappoint. My favorite room, surprisingly, was the saloon. It's completely in original condition...the floors, walls, bar stools, the bar itself. I was really awed by it all. However, I did have one complaint. They have these historical Gregorian Chants written on super old paper, but they just have them sitting in a regular glass box, and illuminated texts as well. They have no preservation system in place. I could easily break in and steal them tonight if I so desired. It irks me! Occasionally when I think about it, I want to send them a lengthy email about my concerns.

We spontaneously attempted a short hike with Reid and Pops of Fremont Peak (John Fremont and Kit Carson held a camp on the top ready to battle the Mexican Army, but they followed orders and left the area before a skirmish happened.) We made it this far but decided to turn back because it was really hot and we didn't have any water. At least we were able to get a good vista of the valley!

A couple of weeks after Pops left we visited Pinnacles National Park for a second time. This time to check out the lake (which is not suitable for swimming) and the caves. Reid loved the caves. It was actually a fairly easy hike, but it was made into a difficult hike due the the baby backpack. We were constantly taking Reid out of the backpack or Robert would have to remove the backpack. But still worth it!

On a much cooler day and with the proper equipment we again attempted Fremont Peak. And we succeeded! We call it Baby Reid's First Summit - Elevation 3,173 - I wasn't sure if we should go to the tippy tippy top at first glance, but it worked out fine. It was really hard to take pictures of the coastal view because the sun was just sitting in the right spot to cause a massive glare off the ocean. The one below was the best one I could get. It was so bright on top. We love this close up of Reid for even though it's the one picture that looks almost nothing like him in real life. But we love how it show his lack of hair. This guy is still so bald. We are hoping it starts to grow soon!

Other than that it's a party at our house every day!