What is this? Why did it take so long to get here?

When we were in CA, a very strange car pulled up in front of the house, the guy got out, took a picture of the view, and then got back in and drove away. Not that big of a deal right? People park at the vista all day long. But look at the roof of the car. I believe this to be the google street view picture car. Here is the guy out of his car and taking his very own picture (car on Left, guy on right).

FYI, street view is where you can type in your street and city into google and up will pop a picture of your house. Creepy. Well, we got curious so we typed in our address in Ohio. There it was... our house! Then, we typed in the address in CA. NO PICTURE YET! As you know, we are only 45 mintues from Google headquarters, yet they have not taken pictures of our street? Why did it take so long? We will have to check back in a few weeks to see if the picture of the house has Maggie & I standing there in our pajamas taking a picture of them!

I can't believe I FORGOT to tell everyone...

We saw the WEINERMOBILE!!! As you can imagine, we were very excited that when it pulled up outside the Children's Museum. Maggie daydreaming in the hot dog.

Erin directing traffic

Princess Maggie

Thanks to Cousin Courtney, Maggie can not get enough of her 'hat'! Yes, that is a little bit of breakfast smoothie still left on her face. Whoops!

Maggie's words

Her current words:

Hi
utohhhh (meaning, oh no!)
Bye
Yes
No
Mine
My
Lamby (her favorite stuffed Lamb)
Mommy
Dada
Granpa
Grama
Baba
Whoops
WOW
Mo (more)
Peese (Please)
All done
See
Sit
Book
Cat
Dog
Milk
Up
Down

Ok, I am now realizing that she actually knows alot of words. I have been keeping this list as she was talking today. But... there were too many!

Go Trojans!

Maggie has found a new favorite team... USC! She wore this outfit to go see our friend Mike, an Ohio State grad. Cousin Kelly is her main influence on the team choice. Not sure what Dada is looking at. But, it sure looks exciting!

Crab

Did everyone read Orangette this week (check the blogs I read over on the right)??? Sums up my love for Dungeness Crab and the beauty of Sourdough bread and white wine. My version also includes my darling husband... the expert crab cracker. He is one of those wonderful people who cracks the entire crab before eating. And he also cracks enough crab for everyone! Once it is cracked, with proper ceremony, we dig into the pile of lump crab and drench it in butter. I love him for this, and so much more.

Heading Home

We had a great time in CA. We are heading home this morning. Here is a parting shot of us and our friend Erin. Enjoying the sunshine and the Bay Area Children's Museum. Of course, it was taken by our dear friend Katherine.

Why I love being a stay at home mom

Today Maggie found her shadow. It was so amazing. We spent a good hour jumping around trying to step on it. So cute.

Bath time with Maggie & GP

But mom....

Maggie explaining to mommy that the camera is in fact hers...

Maggie Smith, 17 months old

Maggie is 17 months old and she is hilarious. Funny. Really funny. She is also really busy, loving, cute, and wants her way. My friends have lots to say about this age... but most tell me it is 'the calm before the storm'. She is super cute, charming, and it feels like she will turn 2 any day. You know what happens then. Temper tantrums.

This weekend she enjoyed mommy's girls night out in Pebble Beach. She was so pretty last night at dinner with her little bow. This morning at breakfast she decided to take a bath in the water glass. Not my ideal display of table manners, but oh well!

Pictures to follow...

More from Disney!

Baba and her cake

The girls and Mickey Mouse

Me & my sweet dad

More from Disneyland!

Not sure what Maggie was scared of... we were just on the train ride around Disneyland!

Excited with Uncle Johnny
I don't think that she liked the Dumbo ride!

At the entrance on day 1

Disneyland!

Baba turned 70 years young yesterday and we all went to Disneyland to celebrate! Baba wanted to take Maggie to the Happiest Place on Earth. The rest of us just got to tag along!

Maggie & Baba on Dumbo... the one that does not move... not the ride. It was a little too much for Maggie. Outside Wild Toads ride with Grandpa. Check out the look of determination on Maggie face as she turns the wheel!

Maggie & Gianna on the spinning LadyBug ride. She was ready to get off!

The Aquarium!

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is amazing. I have been there so many times throughout the years... we even had our Marine Biology class in high school there every week! Maggie loves all of the fish and the 'hands on' areas. We were there right when it opened and went over to see the Outer Bay tank (picture two story HUGE tank with sharks, sun fish, tuna, etc). She ran up to the tank and yelled.... MINE!!! MINE!!!

Pictures for Daddy

We were very busy making pictures for Daddy! All of the crayons were MINE, and the paper was MINE, and the whole aquarium was MINE, and well... you get the picture.

The Bridge at the Aquarium

This is where Maggie took her first 'real' steps last August.

I love you little Penguins!

Maggie loved looking at the Penguins (see them behind the glass?).

And then she started kissing them...

Mommy & Maggie

I know that this is not the best picture.  It is over exposed & a little fuzzy.  But, I love it because we have the same expression!  Mommy was sitting in Maggie's beauty salon and she was 'fixing' my hair.  She thought it was so funny during the shampoo!

The Park

Arizona with Dutch & Kate!

Helping Daddy

John came in to town this weekend for a short visit. What happens when you have a dada who lets you do what ever you want... including play with the shaver?? A happy little girl and a very nervous dada. I love her expression in both of these pictures. It looks like she is telling him how to do it.

Watching history

Maggie watching Obama. She really liked all of the music and was dancing around. Better than a morning full of cartoons!

Beach time with Auntie Gianna!

Hanging out at Auntie Gianna's beach house! The weather has finally changed after 10 days of record highs. We are back in the fog and 60 degrees. It was a nice taste of summer!

Ready, Set, SUMMER!

Testing the sprinkler on the lawn...

Ok, ready... RUNNNNN!!!

Making Lemonade from Lemons

While we were over in the valley this weekend, we decided to drive by our Grandparent's old house. They have been gone for years now, after a long and happy life. No one had seen the house for about a year and a half. As we drove up, there were 10-15 cars parked in the front lawn/driveway. They were brokers touring the house in preperation for a forclosure hearing! We were able to sneak in to get a peak of the place.

The tree out front was gone, the plants along the house were torn out, the bedroom was painted black and dark green, the fruit trees were gone, the pool was green and frothing. It looked nothing like my grandparents house. It actually looked like someone woke up everyday for the last 2 years and was determined to destroy it. Because it did not look anything like their place or the place of childhood weekends, it really was not that sad.

You know what was still there... the door knocker... with their name.

They say you can never go back. 'They' are right.

Hats off to Patrick

Our dear friend Patrick is leaving California for his next assignment. To celebrate his time here and to give him a proper send off, his darling girlfriend Stacey threw an amazing party with family and friends.

Mom & Dad enjoying the party

Mom with Lynn and Joy. They met in 1961 and have been friends ever since.

Beach Bums

In case you have been keeping up with us for a while, you probably have noticed that we don't actually 'do' much. Especially when we head out west to stay at Baba's beach house. Our days go like this: get up, walk to our favorite bakery (yes, always in our sweats, if you know Santa Cruz, you know you don't have to dress up!), get breakfast and coffee, walk down under the trestle to the beach, sit at the benches drink our coffee and read the paper (Maggie usually is snoozing by this point... for some reason all of the 'deliciousness' at the bakery tuckers her out!), watch the surfers at the jetty, walk home. We repeat this at noon and 6 pm. That is it!

Do you think that this counts as exercise?

PS. We actually do more that this... but this is stuff I dream about when we are in some other part of the world! Want to join us? Call anytime.

The long road to... Home?

Our trip to California did not start as we had planned. Well, it started as we had planned, but did not end that way! We left our house at 1 pm and returned to our home (yes, the place we started) at 10 pm. We flew 40 miles on an airplane, had Steph pick us up and drive us back home... a little upset that we missed our connection by minutes! Aghhh.

While air travel is a real pain, especially when you are alone with a very mobile little girl, it was worth it. Stepping of the plane in San Francisco to sunshine, not a cloud in the sky, 68 degrees! As we round the cliff heading to the house, the view always takes my breath away. But today, it was a special day, picture perfect, waves, water, familes out at the beach, bbqs, bands playing downtown... Summertime! In the middle of January. It is going to be a great month out west.

Mommy...

I can do it myself! Now, do I push this button to take the picture? Maggie practising with the camera, Mommy loving every moment.