Sacramento

What a fun weekend!  On Friday, we left at about noon to meet up with my parents and brother’s family in Sacramento for a long weekend.  We rented a big house on the water and the kids had a blast running around and playing.  We got there a little after 2, so Derek and Baeo took advantage of the kayak and went out for a little ride.

Unfortunately, Friday was the only warm and sunny day, so we took advantage of it! Braedon and Lilly had so much fun playing with each other and they got along so well!

They pretty much played together the whole weekend.

Saturday we hung around the house in the morning, then in the afternoon we went and picked up our race packets which just so happened to be at the Nike store at the outlet malls, so we also did a little shopping.  We came back home for a spaghetti feast, got our race gear ready and went to bed early.  We had a 4:30 wake up call, which gave us enough time to get up and eat breakfast, gather our gear, change, wake up a little, and drive to the starting line.  Kori was kind enough to drive us!  It was pouring down rain when we woke up and were prepared to get drenched, but luckily the rain stopped just before the race and we stayed dry the whole time.  It was perfect running weather!  I don’t have any pictures of the race right now, but Kori took a bunch, so when I get those I will be sure to post some.  Also, I will go into complete detail of the race on my other blog shortly!

After the race we came home, showered, laid around for awhile and then went out for a celebratory dinner!

Camille and Braedon waiting patiently for our table to be ready.

Lilly, our little poser and drama queen.  I think she might be an actress, or a typical 4 year old, I don’t know.

There was a lot of down time for relaxing and visiting in between our race and other little outings.

Monday morning, we took the kids to the Sacramento Zoo with Matt and Kori for a couple of hours and then ate at Chipotle afterwards.  It was a pretty small zoo, but perfect for our little kids!  After we returned, we packed up are stuff and headed out to beat rush hour traffic.  It was a very nice and fun weekend with the family!

Giggle monster

Adi has been starting to really laugh at things.  She thinks Peyton is hilarious, especially when she is throwing her toys around, she loves peak a boo, and also thinks Braedon is pretty funny too.  I finally got her giggles on camera today!

She is such a happy girl!

We’ve been loving…

Playing in the rain.

Helping mom and dad carefully put the produce away.  The apples must NOT be stacked, and anywhere in the fridge is just fine.

Spaghetti!

Playing hide and go seek.

Where’s Baeo?

Cake….maybe a little too much.

No obstacle will get in his way.  No fork?  No problem. 

Can’t reach the counter?  No problem?

Dancing in our underwear.

Teething giraffes.

And, white board crayons.

Six month stats

Adi was six months old on March 1st.  Time sure is flying!  She’s gone from this…

to this, in what seems like lightening speed.

Here are her stats.

Weight: 15.11 pounds

Height: 27 inches

Adilyn is such a happy and laid back baby, which makes things so easy.  Her facial expressions are hilarious and her little giggle is contagious.  She continues to be a great eater and sleeper!

Here is a comparison of Braedon and Adi at the same age, just for fun.

Wow, looking at the picture of Braedon makes me a little sad.  He seems so old now!

No more diapers!

We only wear underwear with Lightning McQueen on our butt now.

By the way, Baeo’s underwear is so tiny!  Very cute.  We decided that Sunday was going to be the day that Braedon would wear his last diaper, and it was.  He is a potty training success! (Thanks Tara for the tips!)

I don’t think Adi really understands why there has been so much excitement going on in this house the last couple of days.

I don’t think she cares either.

Just keep the booby present and in close proximity and everything will be all good.

We are so proud of our big boy!

The Jeep got an owie and a new name!

The other day I came home from work to take Braedon to a hybrid pre-school/daycare thing in order to give Lacie an afternoon break.  The problem was that I only knew the general location of the place so I had whip out my trusty (or annoyingly slow due to some dumb Android bug that delays Google Maps ability to geo-locate) phone and get directions.  I pulled over to the side of the road, because safety is important, in order to complete this task but as I was pulling over I brushed against a storm drain.  The storm drains in our neighborhood are different than I am used to in that the grate on the road surface is metal but there is also a metal casing that wraps over the top of the curb.  As it turns out, the metal that wraps over the top of this particular curb was rather sharp and too much for the crappy tires (that came with our Jeep) to handle.  Braedon and I heard a loud WHOOSH sound and the front right side of the Jeep dropped like a rock.  I backed up a little bit and got out to find a 2-3 inch gash in the sidewall and a banged up ring from when it dropped on the sharp gutter framework.
At this point I had to then change a tire in my work clothes about a block from my house.  I had a heck of a time figuring out how to lower the spare (thankfully full size but unfortunately mismatched) but figured it out and had the tire swapped in no time.  Braedon loved watching the Jeep get a new tire as he is all about tires/wheels.  I did a quick run home with the Bob stroller that was in the back but now wouldn’t fit due to the destroyed tire, then dropped Baeo off for a fun day at day care.
The problem that I now faced was that I had a tire that couldn’t be repaired for a vehicle that you don’t want mismatched tires given that you can’t shift it into two wheel drive allowing for two unique tires.  There was also no chance of finding a matching tire (same brand with similar wear) because these tires were some random tire that is hard to find.  So I was definitely going to have to buy four new tires.  I also needed to replace the suspension because ours was shot to point of feeling like you were in a 1987 Dodge Caravan that threatened to eject you when any bump in the road was encountered.
      
I unfortunately didn’t get a shot of the front right tire which had the black rim and mismatched tire but you can see that these tires are definitely not all terrain tires.
A couple of months ago Lacie and I were talking about what we wanted for our second car and we settled on the Jeep turning into my vehicle which would be used for off roading/road trips/camping/etc and our second vehicle would be something smaller with better fuel economy.  I was now in a prime situation to make the changes that I wanted given that I already had to replace the tires and suspension.  Adding a 2 inch lift and larger tires would only add a couple of hundred dollars to a rather large bill and prevent having to incur massive costs in the future to have the suspension taken apart again and throw away the new tires. 
Well I went all in and did exactly what I wanted with the vehicle striking the balance between being a good family vehicle, not spending too much, drastically improving the off road capabilities…and still fitting into my work parking garage.  I went from random and crappy 245/65 R17 tires to 265/70 R17 Nitto Terra Grapplers, Skyjacker rear shocks and front struts, 2 inch lift, and new rims because the old ones were damaged and would have caused some tire rub while turning.  Not only is the rig more capable with a much smoother ride but it looks sharp too.  Now my dad is likely to disagree as he thinks that OEM rims look better most of the time but he drives a Ford Explorer so his vote doesn’t count.
    
Now to find some dirt in order to try out this new setup.  And here is to hoping that Adobe’s 7’ clearance in the parking garage is correct because the top of the Jeep is now at 6’10” which leaves very little room for error.
Regarding the name, Braedon named the Jeep "Chuck" today.

Little Miss Adi

I can’t get enough of you!  Those smiles and giggles are so contagious and every time you smile, I smile.

You are such a good baby, and at 6 months old, I can’t believe how fast you are growing!  Slow down, please.  You have started solids and love mashed bananas!  You are sitting on your own and grabbing everything in reach.

Your cute personality is starting to shine and you continue to be our sweet addition to the family.

I love the way you look at me with those big blue eyes!  I just can’t get enough of you!

 

I can tell you adore your brother and I love seeing the two of you together.  You just love to watch him play and grab his hair if he comes into reach.

You, little Miss Adi light up my life! 

*Her 6 month check up is next Wednesday, so I will post stats then.

Carmel by the sea

What a gorgeous day we had here today!

This morning when we got up we decided to head to Carmel, CA, which is a little over an hour from San Jose and is known to be a very dog friendly little town.  Something that is pretty hard to find here.  The beach was awesome and we all got to run around and enjoy ourselves, even Peyton.

We really lucked out weather wise as it was sunny and in the mid 70’s!  Braedon had so much fun running up and down the beach…and of course, playing in the water.

Little buddies.

After running around on the beach for awhile, we walked back up into the cute little town and had lunch at a local café, walked around a bit more and then headed back to the car.

We drove along the ocean and stopped so I could feed Adi with this view.

Braedon loved watching the waves crash up on the rocks and wasn’t so happy when it was time to leave.  With such a fun filled day that included a lot of activity, this is what happened about 10 minutes into the drive home.

Our little man had so much fun, but completely wore himself out!  We absolutely loved the little town of Carmel and how dog friendly the beach was.  There were tons of dogs out running around, without leashes, playing with each other, fetching, and swimming in the ocean.  That is our kind of place and I think we will be making a few more trips back there!

In other news…we have a sitter!

She still may not feel the need to roll over, but she can sit.

We call her our little slug.  Hopefully she won’t get mad when she hears about that when she’s older.