A busy week

Last weekend (last last weekend) we went to visit my aunt Jean and Uncle Mike and cousin Sky at Disneyland. Unfortunately we forgot to bring the camera - though I'm sure Mike got some nice pictures which he might send me :) Sky turned 8 and really enjoyed playing with Bronson. She liked asking him where his belly was, only to have him pull up his shirt and flash his white beluga belly at everyone as we walked around downtown disney. How has this kid not been signed by a talent agent yet!?!?!

This last weekend we had a suprise call from Grandpa Alan. Matthew's dad is a trucker and was suprised to find himself sent to California on a last minute route. On sunday we drove the hour to Ontario,CA to see him for a little bit while he was on a break. It was good to see him, I guess the world is smaller than it sometimes seems after all.


On monday Bronson went to the zoo twice. Matthew took him in the morning and they saw the 3 week old giraffe who's only 6 feet tall! I was jealous and wanted to see the baby, so after his nap I took him to the zoo again (I love memberships!). Unfortunately the baby giraffe is only out for viewing 2 hours each morning, so I missed out. But hey, I got to see some sheep (Bronson BAA-ed at them for some time)

We also spent a good 45 minutes observing the gorillas who were out and about today. Here is the mom, dad and baby all together on the ridge.

Bronson wanted to try the piggy back trick that the baby gorilla did with her mom - I'm not so keen to do this in the zoo. While walking along the zoo, Bronson started tipping his hat at passing ladies, I think it was an accident at first, but when he realized that it made people laugh, he just kept doing it, it was so cute!!! Of course, by this point the camera's batteries were dead.

Sunday morning Jessie and his mom and dad came over to play. The boys are finally on level ground. They can both walk and share, or not. They seemed to have a good time showing off for each other's parents and I especially liked when they both deided to color and share crayons.

Here is a video which highlights just how dorky Bronson's mom is and begs the question, who taught this kid how to walk, anyways?

Here is a video where my uncooperative little boy tries his best to thwart my plans of showing off his tricks :)

Our first family camping trip

Well, as most readers will know - I love camping. Matthew feels the same way (he'd better...) Anyhow, it has been a LONG time since last we camped, I think we tried when I was 6 or 7 months pregnant, so it's been nearly 2 years now! In fact - we even sold off all of our 2 person camping gear at a garage sale in Victoria before leaving. Luckily Teri-Lynne and Jay got us a 3 person tent and giant sleeping bag for Christmas, and we are now able to get back out there!

For our first trip of the year we went to Leo Carillo - 1 hour away, just north of Malibu on the sunny Southern California coastline. It's a nice State Beach with the campground in a canyon, and a tunnel under the PCH to the beach area.

Unfortunately - our bike with Bronson's baby seat on it was stolen earlier this week, so we were unable to do any bike riding :(, but we did alot of walking and visited the beach a couple times.

We had a great trip - we all enjoyed our Trader Joe's-organic-Mac n Cheddar and Veggie-Protein-link dogs (oh jeez), and turned in at the reasonable hour of 6pm!!!??? Well, Bronson did, and so did Matt. They cuddled beautifully, unfortunately I was cold outside the cuddle, on the feet side of my guys and spent the night, tossing, turning and being kicked. Who knew it would still be a cold camping trip in SoCal in February!

So Monday was a lazy day for myself and Matthew was refreshed and spent the day at work. Bronson urged me to put on Curious George for him, so we watched that and chilled out.
Anyhow, our february camping trip a success, we now turn our sights to the March trip and wonder where we should go.

Turns out the campsite had a built in "babysitter"

Here's a view of the surrounding hills from the public beach parking lot

We forgot to bring toys for Bronson, so we found him a nice big shell to dig with at the beach.

"No, dad, I don't want to work... I think I'll just lay in the sun all day"
Cutest bum ever.

Life is all back to normal

Well, life is back to its usual drone (don't get me wrong - I mean drone in the brightest, sunniest, cutest-kid-in-the-world kind of way). Amy left on Feb 2nd, after a sad 5am farewell, Bronson and I hit iHOP on the way home from Burbank and got all-we-could-eat pancakes. Turns out we couldn't eat as many as we might have thought. Bronson sure loves pancakes, though.

The 3rd - Sunday was rainy. I know. Unheard of. So, we went to the zoo. It was awesome! So many animals were out playing in the rain, and so few humans were out, it felt like a show all to ourselves. The zoo is definetly our #1 choice on rainy days. We've recently discovered the tiger pen, there are 3 kids and a mom and they are constantly jumping on each other and climbing trees and stalking the mom (poor woman!) They're great - Matthew is especially taken with them. Bronson is obsessed with the hippopotamus, however. He just watches and watches it circling underwater, then jumps every time it comes us, flaps its ears andsnorts out water. He cried when we finally pulled him away.

The next week was hectic, what with no 3rd adult to distract the kidlit, but we've figured it all out now, Matthew's made nice with the ladies at the Caltech women's playgroup and explained that, no, Amy was not Bronson's mother :). Work is good, and the switching off is working well.

This past weekend was beautiful, sunny and HOT! We went to Hermosa Beach on Saturday to play beach volleyball with our friend Dan, and his friends and their friends... it was great. Bronson loved watching us smack that ball back and forth and is really getting his "sand" legs. We buried his legs and tummy and he thought that was pretty great.

On Sunday we cleaned and tidied and I got some painting in. A very productive morning. In the afternoon I took Bronson to Huntington and he splashed through the children's garden. He really likes to babble to kids and looks at them as if they should understand. I had one girl asking me if she should know what he was saying and I had to tell her "I guess not, I don't!"

Sunday, as per usual we had astro game night and some friends came over post Bronson bedding for 5 hours of gaming glory (I won!).

Now Monday has come and gone. Bronson had a morning at the park with dad, and I took him swimming at the caltech outdoor pool in the afternoon. After a wonderful (if I do say so myself) lasagna dinner, he is sleeping with a smile across his face.

I am excited for the impending 3-day (President's day holiday) weekend and the forecasted beautiful weather it should bring. We are planning to break in our new camping gear (Thank you Teri & Jay!) and head to Leo Carillo State Beach for a night. This will be Bronson's first ever camping trip and it should be fun. I've done alot of campground research using my So Cal guide and Cali camping guides that I received for Christmas, and I am confident that we will enjoy this place. It has pedestrian beach access without being on the beach, boasts tidal pools, underwater caves and sandy beach straights, has biking paths and flush toilets - this shouldn't be too hard - right?

Here is a picture of the beach - it has been a filming location for several movies, most notably the Karate Kid (I had to choose between the Karate Kid beach or the MASH inland campsite :)

Wishing you a pleasant Canadian 2 DAY weekend, think of us sun bathing!