|
|
|
|
We went to the Millpond Music Festival again this year, and it was a lot of fun. We didn't get to listen to much
music, though, since we're mostly just watching the kids. Nobody big was headlining this year, either.
|
|
|
|
The water in the lake is pretty cold, but that doesn't stop Amelie and Mia and their friend Ava from
jumping in. It's beautiful up there and there's so many stars at night, the sky is lit up.
|
|
|
|
Amelie is swinging on a rope swing somebody set up. It gets out there pretty far.
|
|
|
|
Every year the kids enjoy the vendor booths a lot. Mia and Catherine are showing off the henna designs they got.
|
|
|
|
Mia is showing off new earrings as well.
|
|
|
|
Miles bought this onesie that is for a baby because he liked the bird on it, but he's wearing it like a t-shirt.
|
|
|
|
Amelie and her friend Sequoia did the talent show at the last HSC (home-school) conference with a weird
metal structure that you can roll around on your arm. It's a little hard to see in the video, though.
|
|
|
|
Now that we've had Buddy a while, he's a pretty good dog, but he's stil chewing on everything and he's
still jumping on people. We're working on both of those things, though.
|
|
|
|
Amelie and Mia making a design out of found objects. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a fairy house or not.
|
|
|
|
Demsond in the pool at the Jewish Community Center. That place is huge, and the pool is set up really well for kids. The
area where Desmond is swimming is only 2.5 feet deep.
|
|
|
|
The weather was pretty nice for a while, and Miles is taking advantage of that, ready to swim.
|
|
|
|
Desmond and Miles bowling. It's cute how excited Miles gets, and he was actually doing pretty well with a seven pound ball.
|
|
|
|
Naomi's sister Hannah had her second baby recently, so Naomi drove up to Northern California to visit her.
His name is Robin.
|
|
|
|
This is Hannah's first baby, Raylan.
|
|
|
|
Miles and Desmond cracking up at a restaurant up north.
|
|
|
|
Naomi's other sister Sarah had twins that are living up north as well, so they visited with Faith and Maya.
I have no idea which is which, though.
|
|
|
|
The batting cages is one of Desmond's favorite things to do.
|
|
|
|
Amelie is super happy with Buddy, she has starting teaching him to jump over obstacles.
|
|
|
|
We had yet another set of bunnies, and they are so cute. I put one on my shoulder while I worked, they just hang out.
We've since given away all the non-neutered male bunnies, so no more babies.
|
|
|
|
For Halloween, Amelie was a voodoo princess, Mia was a zombie princess.
|
|
|
|
Miles was the Incredible Hulk.
|
|
|
|
While Naomi was waiting for me to pick up some to-go food, the kids did a silly puppet show in the car.
|
|
|
|
Naomi's mom, Mary, recently re-married to Neal. He's a very nice guy and they're both very lucky to have
found each other.
|
|
|
|
Mia went for the bouquet and got it!
|
|
|
|
I shot the wedding for them, and I set up a background to use for portraits, and I liked this one of Amelie.
|
|
|
|
I asked Amelie to go around and collect best wishes from the guests, and this is what she came up with.
|
|
|
|
One day when the kids were being particularly crazy, Naomi packed them all up and headed down to spend the night at O'Neill Regional Park.
The kids had a blast, it was good to get away, even for one night. Unfortunately, it rained that night, but the tent stayed dry.
|
|
|
We were thinking about moving to Boulder, Colorado, so over the Thanksgiving break we took a road-trip out there.
There wasn't snow everywhere, but we stopped in Beaver Creek to have some fun.
After exploring Boulder for a few days, we decided we wanted to keep looking at other parts of the country before deciding
whether or not to move.
|
|
|
|
The kids were having a blast in the snow. All kinds of mayhem ensued.
|
|
|
|
Desmond, trying to mount a defense against Amelie's snowballs.
|
|
|
|
And then there's Miles, eating it.
|
|
|
|
We stopped at a park on the way out there that was really fun. It had all kinds of stuff for the kids
to climb or or play in.
|
|
|
|
For some reason, the kids love exercise rooms in hotels. They spend hours in there.
|
|
|
|
Since Colorado has recently legalized pot, we saw signs like these around. I realized later I should have had the kids
pose in front of the sign.
|
|
|
|
Christmas is almost here, so we went to the Pelican Hill to take pictures with Santa. It's the best kept secret around, I swear.
We used to go to Fashion Island and wait an hour and they were very strict and you could only take one picture. At Pelican Hill,
nobody's there and Santa is sitting there bored, he doesn't care how many pictures you take. Plus, I mean, look at this Santa. He is
no budget Santa, this is a top-notch Santa. He was awesome, posing the kids for us and setting us up for a nice picture.
|
|
|
|
Desmond doesn't usually let us take his picture, so this was a rare opportunity.
|
|
|
|
Afterwards, we get some of their homemade gelato in the cafe that overlooks the golf course and the ocean, it's crazy nice.
|
|
|
|
Their gingerbread house is always amazing, every year it's so crazy to see how much work goes into it.
|
|
|
|
Some close-up detail of their gingerbread house.
|
|
|
|
It wouldn't be Pelican Hill without a Rolls-Royce parked out front with some starlet hanging all over it.
|
|
|
|
The Environment Nature Center was having an open house, so Amelie and Mia made a bunch of duct-tape items and bees-wax candles and
lanterns and set up a table there. They made $50, which was more than some of the vendors around us. There wasn't much foot-traffic.
|
|
|
|
Of course, they spent about $75 at the other vendor tables. They both got henna designs. Amelie came up with the design herself and
had the lady do it for her.
|
|
|
|
Until next time, have a great holiday season!
|
|
