We're back!

Well, Bronson and I had a most enjoyable trip to Canada. It was sunny, rainy, cloudy, and snowy all in the course of the 7 day visit. We enjoyed seeing all of the family and Sky taught Bronson how to play many the musical instrument. Bronson was enthralled by grandpa's parrot, pulled the cat's tail and kept Dixie's food (and water) bowls full of kibble. I got to catch up with my good friend Christina and re-live her wedding with her. (Literally she has a DVD of it) We had a great time and look forward to coming back in July.

Matthew had a good trip through Europe - he's going to do his own update, but I thought I'd better post some recent photos of Bronson before the Manitobans begin to riot. The pics and video are since our return to beautiful, warm, sunny California... where flip flops everyday are perfectly acceptable, people don't look at you funny when you order an iced mocha in April (or January) and we swim in open air pools. So warm and so sunny. Had to put sunscreen on the kiddo today. Yup, clear blue skies here.

Where's Dixie dog?

We're coming to Canada (but Matthew is going to Europe)

We're splitting up our travels, Bronson and I are going to visit my parents for a week - fyi all, best seat sale ever on Alaska Air right now - and Matthew is going to Germany and England for meetings next week.

Bronson and I will be in Port Alberni from April 12th through 19th, so if you're around e-mail or call!

OVRO was a nice trip. Matthew's supervisor took us all out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant one night and Bronson ate rice and broccoli and zucchini and edamame beans whole! Usually I have to blend these all together so that he no longer knows what they are, but I guess once tempura-ed, anything goes!

Bronson and I explored Bishop while dad worked at the telescopes, we met some nice ducks and found a small playground near an amazing bakery. We saw 2 cows just before leaving. Walter rode back with us and spent 4 hours entertaining Bronson in the backseat on the ride back - which was great for us, though may have tired Walter out.

Bronson and I are so excited to take an airplane on Friday - I can't wait to see how he reacts to living with a dog, cat and parrot. Also looking forward to seeing my family :)

Sunday, lovely Sunday

First in news -
Alan & Lorraine have gone and we are once again the three amigos.
My father had a heart attack last week, he's fine and was released today to go home.
Our second bike was stolen last week while I was at work! Now we have none :(
Bronson's new word is "Fish".
This Thursday & Friday we are gone up to the Owens Valley telescopes where Matthew will work and Bronson and I will play in the clean air.
Matthew leaves on Saturday April 12th for a 1and a half day meeting in Germany, then on to Oxford for a day, then back home on Thursday: Bronson and I will be here sulking.
Matthew and Bronson saw Joey Fatone from *N SYNC at the LA Zoo last Friday.

I am spoiled by the beautiful weather here, the past three days have been cloudy and I've been saying "Really, we shouldn't do anything in weather like this but curl up and read books!" Unfortunately, my boss has a difference of opinion. Despite the non-sunshine, we had a lovely family sunday, here is a video to illustrate:

***Note: no children or animals were harmed in the production of this video - thought one mom was reputed to have been bitten by a turtle and grossed out picking up a frog or two. (They were big!)

Bronson's egg hunt

Bronson is a pretty good egg hunter. He found all of his plastic eggs with one graham cracker in each in no time. He would have been even faster, but he was limited to 2 hands. Next year he'll do better with the spiffy Easter basket we bought him on sale on Monday :)

We spent Easter afternoon outside in Bronson's pool. The water was cold, but it was 100 out, so it was a nice change. We played with the plastic eggs closing water inside of them for Bronson to find. He'd squeal everytime he opened a water egg and got splashed.

Bronson and Matthew also got a cute Easter gift from mom, check out their matching "I want to rock" shirts.

This past week Matthew's dad and step-mom (Alan and Lorraine) have been visiting us. We took them to all of our favorite haunts, including the zoo on Saturday. You may remember that on rainy days we've found some animals to be more active, well, the same can be said for hot days - namely the gigantic tortoises were more active. All of the other animals were dozing in the shade.

So long...squeak squeak

Last week we had a visit from Aunty Teri and Uncle Jay who drove all the way down to see us from Alberta! It was a great visit, we had lots of good food and laughs. They shopped and golfed and explored Huntington and explored Kidspace and went to the zoo a few times. Also, they played board games with us :)

Bronson loved the visit - he got REALLY upset when we waved goodbye as they pulled away without him. He liked having friends sleeping on the floor of the living room and playing with him.

Hope that you had fun in Vegas and good drive home, guys. Thanks for the good time.

Here is a video that uncle Jay and Bronson collaborated on:

My Messy Kid

Because the only thing better than soup - is crackers. And the only thing better than crackers - is soup AND crackers.

The Emperor's new clothes

Last february was a big month for weddings - not only did we miss my good friend Christina's wedding in Port, but we also missed our friend Mansi's wedding in India.

Our friends Walter, Laura and Varun went to Mansi's wedding however. Varun then visited his parents for awhile and Walter and Laura did some sightseeing on their first trip through India. They were kind enough to bring back a traditional little outfit for Bronson and one for I as well, Varun brought back a traditional shirt for Matthew and a really neat tiger coat for Bronson which I'm sure you'll see next winter.


After many apologies, they also presented Bronson with a new pair of shoes - apparently all the kids in India have them and they thought Bronson might enjoy them. Watch the video to see how much he likes his new shoes.