August 11-13, 2012: Mothershead Family Weekend

With Uncle John living all the way in New York City, and him having an amazing new job (the NED show) that has him traveling around the globe, we don't get that many chances to spend time with him.  In fact, we hadn't seen John since he first met Ellie at Christmas time.  So, we were all thrilled when John notified us that he'd be spending nearly a week in California during the summer!  Due to work schedules, for us, that meant a long-three day weekend with my favorite brother.

 

We spent Saturday at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, playing miniature golf at Neptune's Kingdom, fighting the crowds on a walk up and down the boardwalk, and dominating carnival games.  It was exhausting, but it was a blast!

After that, we determined that we would spend the rest of the weekend relaxing.  And so we did.  On Sunday, we took family pictures at the park, and we celebrated a very belated birthday for John with a great family dinner and a delicious German chocolate cake (John's favorite).  Uncle Gene and Beth, and John's friend Amanda, even came and joined us in the fun!

On Monday, with Grant and Jeremias having to work, the nuclear Mothershead family (Dad, Mom, Heather, John and me) plus grandkids spent the day at Foothills Park in Palo Alto.  We ate a picnic lunch, lounged around on the picnic blankets, and went head-to-head in the Mothershead Family Olympics - croquet, Molkky, and bocce ball.  To my dismay, Mom won the "all-around" gold medal after annihilating us for the gold in croquet, racking in a silver medal in Molkky, and finishing with the bronze in bocce ball.  I came in a close second, going bronze-bronze-gold.

It sure was hard to see everyone leave on Monday night!

August 4, 2012: 10 Months Old!

Ellie turned a whopping 10 months old while we were on our recent family camping trip.  She is growing like a weed, and she continues to be interactive and fun.  Some of her latest milestones include:

• Getting a third tooth (she now has two on the bottom and one big one on the top right).  Check out this smile!  Thank you, Scott Marmer, for taking this great shot!

• Raising her arms high in the air when we ask her, "How big is Ellie?" so as to indicate that she is "soooooo big!";
• Starting to wave "hello" and "bye-bye" when prompted
• Holding our iPhones to her ear to look like she is talking on the phones;

 

• and - as you can see from this video - she is sure to be walking soon!

We sure love this little girl!

August 3-5, 2012: Smith Family Camping Trip!

I'm not sure whether we are brave or crazy for taking our 10 month old camping!  But we had a terrific time spending a long weekend with Grant's extended family at Lake Nacimiento.  Several of Grant's relatives had never met our little cutie pie before, so Ellie enjoyed getting to know her second cousins/first cousins once removed (we'll have to ask Susan to confirm), and she loved spending time with her Grammy, Grandpa and Tia Megan too!  Tia Heather, Tio Jeremias, and Cousin Betinho even joined us for the fun.  Check out our big group (and this wasn't even everyone)!!!

The nice thing about camping near a lake is that you have a beach to hang out at.  We enjoyed relaxing in the sun together and hanging out in the water.  Corbett and Nadalie even brought their boat down, so Grant and I took a spin inner-tubing.  We felt like we were 12 years old again!

Ellie was spoiled with afternoon naps in Grandpa's arms, and she sure enjoyed all of the quality time with Grammy and Tia Megan too.

All in all, it was another wonderful summer weekend with family!  Thank you to Angie and Betsy for all of your work planning!

July 28, 2012: Ellie's First Feast of Lanterns!

Pacific Grove's Feast of Lanterns is one of the many community events that allows the City to live up to its motto as the "last home town in America."  Each year, the City comes to life with a week of activities that bring community members and visitors together.  I remember pulling my two rabbits Buster and Peter in my Grandma Mothershead's red wagon in the Feast of Lanterns Pet Parade, swimming for blue ribbons in the Feast of Lanterns Fun Swim Meet, country line-dancing at the Feast of Lanterns Street Dance on Friday night, and - year after year - setting up our blankets in the same spot at Lover's Point Beach for the Feast of Lanterns pageant and fireworks on Saturday night.  As I've gotten older, returning home to the Feast of Lanterns has been a great chance to reconnect with friends from high school, and spend time with family.  I was thrilled this year to be able to introduce Ellie to this amazing community tradition.  Although we were only able to attend the festivities on Saturday night this year, we had a wonderful time.  Here are some pictures of Ellie's first Feast!