Texas Reunion

Several days ago we all returned from a long vacation/work trip. I was gone 12 days and Tori and the kids were gone 14 days. We started the trip by flying to Houston and seeing my aunt Kay and her daughter Amy's family. I especially wanted to fly into Houston so that I could get in a few visits with my grandma, which I did. The visits were emotional because it's the first time I've visited her when she didn't know who I was, but I still enjoyed our time together and was glad I got to see her.

Then we drove to the family reunion in Leakey, Texas. I think there were about 60 family members there and it was great to see family members that I don't get to see as much as I would like. Eric did his part to represent the California wing of the family by staying up until 5am one night and holding his own with the drinking. Better him than me.

Kim posted some great photos of the kids playing here and here and here.

After the reunion, we flew to Washington, D.C. for my week-long conference and Tori and the kids came to hang out. We stayed at the Embassy Suites downtown, which was great luck that our work happened to book a hotel that has two rooms! We also had a GREAT time extending our time in D.C. with Tori's very good friend Emily and her family. Thanks for being a great host in the incredible heat, Emily! As someone else described that muggy 100 degree weather, "I felt like I was in someone's mouth." Ha!

It's good to be home and even better because this weekend the kids are in San Diego with my parents. Woohoo! We have three date nights in a row and tonight we're going to a concert at the Hollywood Bowl with friends. Fun fun!

Skip's First Birthday, Part 2

Skip with his birthday brownie made by our friend Sidney.

Here is Zadie, Skip, and Skip's half-sister Hannah, who came a long way to celebrate with Skip!

Not sure who brought this cake with strawberries in it, but Skip was a huge fan!

Here are some of the folks who celebrated Skip's big day with us. They think kids are really fun because they don't have any yet!

And more friends celebrating. Sidney is in the middle and is responsible for many cupcakes and other treats in our children's lives.

I like this one of Zadie and Skip wrestling around because it's quite the common sight!

Although we had already had a birthday party with family members over the 4th of July weekend, we also wanted to celebrate Skip's first birthday with friends in L.A., so we invited everyone out to one of the concerts in the park in Manhattan Beach. There were lots of big and small friends for all of us to hang out with! (Many thanks to Pear and Tim for taking all these photos!)

4th of July Extravaganza

The whole gang gathered on the back steps!

This family portrait is even nicer when you consider that we woke Skip up from bed to take it!

We haven't had a photo of the Zadie Zoo in a while on this blog. I like this smile...

Can I sell this photo to a croquet magazine or something?

Ladies Pro Croquet Tournament!

Every year Tori's dad sets up this massive slip and slide into the river behind their house. And, yes, this is Tori taking poor Skip on a ride!

As I was mentioning, we got together with most of Tori's family at her dad's house in the Central Valley. What I didn't mention was that it was tons of good old-fashioned fun, all very typical of Tori's family! Her Dad has a really beautiful place and we loved our time there. Zadie and Skip loved it too because it meant they basically ran around naked for the entire weekend, played in the water, and jumped on the huge trampoline. And Zadie got to stay up late and play with her twin cousins Bailey and Rihanna. Fun all around.

Skip's First Birthday, Part One

I love this photo of Skip and his Grandma Linda. Not sure if he's smiling so big about Grandma Linda or that blue balloon!

Thanks to Tori's sister Katie for this birthday portrait (and all these photos!). Note chocolate cake crumbs!

Gotta have a pinata for the party! This is Skip's cousin Rihanna taking a swing.

Skip with the birthday cake that Tori made him.

Here's the family assembled in the backyard for Skip's birthday picnic!

Although I've been remiss in blogging about it, we have very much been celebrating the birth of our little Skipper. He first came into the world on July 3rd and then on July 7th we received a phone call asking us if we were interested. We had five minutes to decide and I would say we called them back in under three minutes (and that's with me having to interrupt Tori from the interview she was conducting). We've never looked back and we're so happy to have Skip in our lives.

It is amazing how many people comment on what a happy guy he is. It's true -- he has a very happy temperament and is full of smiles. In recent weeks his personality is growing a bit and he's starting to decide he doesn't like to be pushed around by his big sister quite as much, so he's been protesting and fighting back a little bit more, which is obviously totally normal. I think he's trying to let us know that just because he's all smiles doesn't mean he'll put up with being pushed around!!

Most of Tori's family met up in the Central Valley at her dad's place to celebrate the 4th of July and so we had a family birthday party for Skip there. Here are some photos from his party, and more will come from the rest of the weekend and also another birthday party we had with friends in L.A.

Fun Friend Day in San Diego

Last weekend was super relaxing and fun because we went to my parents' house in San Diego (more photos to come about that) and we had a brunch on Sunday morning with high school friends. It's not very often these days that we all get together (minus Jen) and so it was lovely to sit by my parents' pool, have a great meal, and catch up a bit.

Plus, the kids loved playing in the wheel and it was nice to have others keeping them busy with fun times in the pool while I watched from a pool chair (thanks to Mari and Scott for putting in the pool time!)

Amy and Jenelle's son Nathan is only six weeks older than Zadie and Amy is due to have a baby any day now, so it's nice that our kids are all fairly close in age.

Fun times!

Skip's Half-Sibling

Another very momentous event that I neglected to blog about was that Skip met his half-sister, Hannah. About six months ago our social worker gave us the contact info for Hannah's father (he is not related to Skip because Hannah and Skip just share the same birth mom). Anyway, we decided not to reach out to them until Skip's adoption was official because we were worried that if someone became upset that two moms were raising Skip somebody in the family might start trying to get Skip back. Hence the delay in contacting them.

But obviously Skip's adoption is official now and we arranged a beach play date that was really fun. As you can see from the photos, Skip and Hannah look VERY much alike. Their coloring is exactly the same and so are their eyes and chin. It was very cool to meet Hannah (who is only two weeks older than Zadie) and also her dad, Danny. Danny is a very nice guy who has his work cut out for him as a single dad. Through Danny we hope to get some photos of Skip's birth mom so that he will have them for the future (we've never met her and unfortunately don't have any photos).

All in all, it was a great and significant day for us. We look forward to future get-togethers!

Two Toofs for Skip

This is the longest I've ever gone without posting a blog, so I'll try and do some quick updates. First of all, Skip got his first tooth/teeth like six weeks ago. Sorry for not better chronicling that milestone, Skip! His two bottom front teeth started to peek through right before he took his first step, but I just couldn't get a good photo of them so I never blogged about it.

But I just wanted the record to show that he got his first tooth/teeth at 10.5 months, almost exactly the same time as Zadie and just barely before he started his first steps.