Saturday, December 29, 2007

New Years

It has become our tradition to go somewhere for New Years.

For New Years 2006, we went to San Francisco.

For New Years 2007, we went to New York City and spent the night in Times Square (not recommended)


For New Years 2008, we are packing up the car, and taking Isaac and Cracker to Cayucos- a small beach town on the Central Coast of California.


Happy New Year!


Thursday, December 27, 2007

A Merry Christmas

Our little family had a very nice Christmas this year. We enjoyed celebrating the holiday season all month long. The first of December we brought out the decorations and got our Christmas tree. We had our third annual Wood Family Christmas party, and as part of that tradition we adopted a family and collected gifts for them. We spent another night baking treats and the next night delivering them to our friends and neighbors.

We decided to stay in CA for Christmas this year and so we spent a lot of time with my family. We got together three nights in a row with different relatives. It was good to see everyone but got to be a little too much time driving and out late away from home (past Isaac's bed time). Next year we are looking forward to having a little more quiet time at home!

Christmas morning with Isaac was fun. He is too little to have any clue what is going on, but it was still fun to open presents with him. He was not in need of much, but did get a few books, clothes, and toys. His big gift was a play gym from Grandma & Grandpa.


















And of course, Santa filled Cracker's stocking too.

It is always a little sad when Christmas is over. Tomorrow we are taking down the tree and the lights and all of the decorations. But we still have the New Year to look forward to. We have a little trip planned this weekend to the Central Coast. I am looking forward to a fun and relaxing weekend with my boys.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Thanksgiving 2007

For Thanksgiving, we went to Price, Utah and stayed with my brother Chris and his wife Carly, and their three kids.. My parents drove up from New Mexico and my brother and his girlfriend were there from Ogden and Provo.




Here is their home. It's a very cute house and we felt very welcome.

Here are some pics of the weekend:
Me and my Mom
My brother Kelly and his girlfriend, Cassie

My brother Chris and his wife, Carly.

Carrie, Isaac, and Cracker


Carly, and Ginny



Saturday, November 17, 2007

Christmas Tree Lighting

Tonight we headed over to Fashion Island Mall in Newport Beach, CA for the lighting of the nation's tallest Christmas Tree.






You would think the nation's tallest Christmas tree would be in Washington DC or New York City......but it's in Orange County. The tree comes from Northern California.



Here we are at the lighting. (Isaac was not enjoying it very much....it was not one of his better nights)







Thursday, November 15, 2007

Philadelphia

We just got home from a trip to Philadelphia. Charlie had to make a trip out there for work, but he also has a lot of family there so he decided to extend his trip a few days and take Isaac & I along too. We all had a great time!


Isaac was a very good traveler. Everyone used to tell us "Enjoy travelling now, because once the kids come along you won't be able to go anywhere!" Well bringing Isaac along does require a lot of extra stuff, but other than that, it really wasn't that tough. The only real challenge was the security line. Coats off, belts off, shoes off (Isaac just has socks that look like shoes so he was okay), carry-on bags layed on their side, lap top out of the bag, liquids in a Ziploc, baby bottles must be inspected, Isaac comes out of the stroller, stroller dis-assembled and loaded through the conveyor belt, present our boarding passes, and finally we were through. Whew! Then it was time to put it all back together again on the other side. And TSA doesn't want to help you at all. So thank goodness for Charlie because I have no idea how I would have done all that with just one free hand. Anyway, Isaac did great on the plane. He slept a lot, and was only fussy during the descent because his ears were hurting. Way to go Isaac!



We stayed the first few nights in a hotel so that Charlie could have internet access for work. Then we stayed the weekend with his Grandma in Paoli. Charlie also has a few aunts and uncles and cousins that live near by and his mother flew in so that she could enjoy some time with her new grandson. So even while Charlie was off to meetings, Isaac and I had plenty of company. All of the family LOVED Isaac. He got tons of attention and everyone wanted to hold him and play with him. He was the star of the show.



On one of Charlie's days off we drove out to Amish country. The drive was nice because we got to see all of the countryside with the beautiful fall leaves. We stopped on the way and had a homestyle lunch in a little town just outside of the Amish country. It was pretty cold, but we bundled Isaac up really good and took a buggy ride with an Amish tour guide and he showed us the farms and explained to us a little about how the people live. It was fun to see, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed. I expected these guys to be much more old fashioned. I thought that everything would be hand made and home made. Instead it seemed like they got to kind of pick and choose which modern conveniences they were going to take advantage of. It was a little odd. They would be wearing hand sewn clothing and a pair of Nikes. They use a clothes line instead of a dryer, but there were store bought towels on the line. They have a telephone, it is just outside the house instead of inside (what's the point of that?). I figure if we went a little farther out in the countryside where they are not giving tours, then maybe things would be a little more authentic. Anyway, it was still interesting and fun. The Amish pretzel we ate was the best I've ever had. And the jam was really yummy too. They had a tasting station with about 20 different kinds. It was tough to decide, but we picked a few winners to bring home with us. Yum!



Charlie and I had some alone time while Charlie's mom Janelle watched Isaac. On Friday night we went out for dessert at Friendly's and then walked around the mall for awhile. They really should have a Friendly's in CA. They have a whole menu full of ice cream options! Now that's my kind of place.


On Saturday night we went out to dinner with Charlie's cousin Eric & his girlfriend Lauren. We went to the General Warren Inn where Aunt Shoo was our waitress. It is a very nice restaurant and the food was delicious. Shoo brought us some Snapper soup made with turtles! They are brought in live every day from New Orleans. I can't believe I actually ate turtle.


One day we went to a little town called St. Peter's Village. We went to an old vintage arcade and played some pinball. We climbed down the rocks by the water and then went back and got warm with some hot chocolate and a brownie at the bakery.


Monday we went to Valley Forge. I love this place. When we were there last summer Charlie & I ran the 5-mile loop around the valley with Aunt Cathy. That was probably one of my favorite runs ever. It is just so beautiful and peaceful there and it is neat to see all of the history along the way. This time Charlie ran by himself and I went for a walk with Isaac in his stroller. It was also nice that we were there on Veteran's Day. We stopped by the visitor's center for awhile too.




It was such a fun trip and really nice to be able to spend so much time with family. We were glad that Great Virginia got to meet Isaac, and I was glad to get to know everyone much better. I really loved all of the trees turning fall colors and the cold weather. It is a beautiful part of the country. I think I might even want to live there someday!

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Little Pink Dogs

Whenever Charlie travels for work he always brings me back a little gift. A few weeks ago he went to Seattle and brought me back a cute little dachshund cookie cutter.

(Yes, we are totally obsessed with our dog. We have officially become those crazy dog people that everyone makes fun of.)




This weekend we decided to make some dachshund sugar cookies. Charlie did the baking...







...and I did the frosting. Cracker stuck close by in hopes that he might get to try one.




And in the end, we ended up with four dozen little pink dachshund cookies. We tried to make brown frosting, but it didn't quite turn out. Since when do red & green make pink?

Pumpkin Contest

Every year Charlie's company has a pumpkin carving contest. Everyone who enters gets $20, and the winners get $200! The theme this year was Movies. I wanted to do something really creative and fun, but by Thursday night I still didn't have any great ideas. And I didn't want to spend more than an hour or so on a pumpkin. Here's what we came up with:



Charlie had warned me that people really went all out for this contest, but since there were going to be 25 winners... I still had a tiny bit of hope that maybe we would win. Here are some of the other entries:



Needless to say, we didn't win. But we did get our $20, and next year I'll be more prepared!

My Week With Mikael

My best friend Mikael and her little girl came to visit us for a week. It was fun to have her here and a nice break from our normal routine. We went on morning walks, went to the beach, to the parks, the pool, got Sprinkles cupcakes and Golden Spoon, went shopping, and out to lunch and dinner. Unfortunately, they were here right during all of the fires so they had to put up with all of the smokey air. But we had a great week anyway.


Enjoying our Sprinkles cupcakes


Lunch at Souplantation

Getting Isaac ready for bed

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Isaac Austin Wood

He has arrived! Check out his blog for all the details:

http://isaacofwoodbridge.blogspot.com

Friday, August 10, 2007

Our New Backyard













These pictures are of our new backyard. The entire backyard was covered with an old wood deck. We wanted grass and knew it had big potential! I started a few weeks ago on it and tore out the side deck. I quickly realized the job was a big undertaking. We hired a crew who dug out the deck, brought in new soil, put in an extensive sprinkler system, planted plants and flowers, laid sod, and made it look great!

Monday, July 30, 2007

Party Time...

Everyone's invited!