Blogging from my iPhone!

I just discovered I can blog from my iPhone! I realize I probably could have figured this out much earlier, but I have been too consumed with facebook and other important time wasters. So here is my first blog from my phone that never ceases to amaze me! Just testing it out for now...


Here's the Bean and the latest addition to our snowman collection. Thanks Rich and Pam!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Catching up with a photo montage...

Sorry it has been SO long since I have blogged. Since I started working full time in October blogging has pretty much fallen off of my priority list. Here are some pictures of Carina's 2nd birthday weekend to satisfy those of you who have been deprived of her cuteness. In lieu of a big party, both sets of grandparents joined us for a trip to the San Francisco Zoo. Since it is one of her favorite places, Mike and I decided to buy a membership. It actually ended up being a really good deal-you should have seen Mike running the calculations in his head of whether or not it was cheaper to buy the membership compared to paying admission for the day. I could practically see the numbers running in his head! We had a wonderful time, and continued her birthday celebration all weekend (thus the multiple cakes) Her actual birthday was on a Monday, and Mike and I both had the day off of work so we had a fun family day together. We went to story time at the library, had a treat at Borders, and opened presents at home. It still seems crazy to me that she is already 2 years old. She is a such a bright, talkative, sweet little peanut of a girl. Mike and I are so lucky to be her parents and enjoy what each day brings, even if it's tantrums and time outs! I will hopefully get back to posting more regularly now that I don't feel overwhelmed by all of the things I haven't blogged!Mommy, Daddy, and the Birthday Girl!

Helping make her birthday cake

Whoa! A Tinkerbell Fort!

Our little cutie!

Carrot cake cupcakes, cleverly arranged by Mommy :o)

Grandma, Grandpa & the Bean at the SF Zoo

Look I'm almost the size of a gorilla! Well, almost...

Papa, Gigi & the Bean (and a Grizzly Bear) at the zoo

My first time riding the Little Puffer train at the zoo! (Yes, that is it's actual name)

Happy Birthday Carina!!!

Carina Bean is 2 today!

Happy Birthday Monkey! We love you sooooo much!

We Love Auntie Keiko!

After we returned from our trip to Colorado, we got to spend some time with Keiko while she was home visiting from Long Beach. Carina got to spend a fun filled morning with her Auntie at Howarth Park! I was there too, but pretty much just as a photographer :o) During the summer they open up the carousel, train ride, and horse back riding. Carina of course wanted to do everything, so since we don't get to see Auntie Keiko very often we indulged her...although I can't say we wouldn't have anyway, special day or not! We had the best time, and I was so glad that Carina got to spend time with Keiko.

In front of the carousel...the pics I took on the carousel didn't turn out so good-I was a bit dizzy!
You can tell by her face she wants nothing to do with taking a picture with me...get me on that carousel!

Carina riding Midnight-her very first time horseback riding!

On the train ride-of course she wanted to sit in the front row where the whistle was the loudest!

This is fun Mommy!

Wiped out after a fun morning!

Thanks for such a great day Keiko! We miss you!

The Big Finale...

I was bound and determined to finish blogging about our trip to Colorado while it was all fresh in my head, but somehow I lost my motivation. That is possibly due to school starting two weeks ago and I am teaching a new grade, which has left me physically and emotionally drained. More on that later...so finally, here it is, the LAST blog on our trip to CO!

Our last full day in CO we had breakfast in downtown Denver at a place called The Delectable Egg. The food was delicious-they even made Carina a bear shaped pancake with a bacon bow tie! Then we drove out to Colorado Springs to see the Garden of the Gods. It is a beautiful place-strange to see all of these red rock formations appear out of nowhere. It was really hot, so we didn't spend a lot of time walking around. Then there was a thunderstorm that swooped in so we pretty much did all of the sight seeing from the car.

Carina finding all the "O's" in Colorado.
Carina & glamorous Auntie Lori!
Lori, Steve, Carina and me
Mike, Grammy, Carina and me

Hard to believe that it was pouring down rain not too long after we took these pictures! After we left we stopped for lunch, then headed back to Denver. Mike and I decided that we might as well cram as much touristy stuff into our last day as possible, so the three of us headed out on a little family adventure. Grammy and Granddad decided to relax in the hotel room, and Lori and Steve went home for a nap before coming back to join us for dinner...young people these days have no stamina...jk. So Mike, Carina and I walked to Civic Center Park and saw the capitol building, then to the 16th Street Mall where we hopped on the free bus that runs the length of the mall and rode it to the very end. We walked to Confluence Park and crossed the bridge that goes over the South Platte river. Finally, we rode the bus all the way back to our hotel. Carina was such a trooper and you could just see her taking everything in. It was fun to take her to see most of the places that are in her Goodnight, Denver! book. Clearly she was getting a little delirious though since this is what she was doing in our hotel room after we got back:

Yup, you know you are having a good time when your bloomers end up on your head.

We ended the night with a super yummy family style dinner at Maggiano's, a delicious Italian restaurant. It was sad to say good-bye to Lori and Steve, but we had such a fantastic time with them and really can't wait to go back. Mike and I both have said that we wouldn't mind living in Colorado...but I think we'll have to go back in the winter and see if we still think that! Grammy and Grandad dropped us off at the airport in the morning before they started their long trek back to Granbury, Texas. It was wonderful to spend time with our family, and we are looking forward to the next time we are all together!

Colorado Part 3: Go Rockies! (sorry Giants...)

On with the story...

Tuesday night we drove into downtown Denver. We decided to give Lori & Steve their house back and stay in a hotel for the last two nights of our trip. We had price-lined a room at the Downtown Sheraton which is right on the 16th Street Mall, and when we checked in Mike sweet talked them into upgrading us to a suite! ( So I guess he "suite-talked" them....I know I know, groan) The room was HUGE-it had a living room type area totally separate from the bedroom, with a t.v. in each room. Carina got to watch Sesame Street in the living room while we had the Today show on in the bedroom (I have missed Meredith, Matt, Al and Ann). Carina thought it was awesome-she kept running around (plenty of room for her to do that) saying, "Look! I in the HOTELLL ROOOOOOOM!" This was after she took an impressive nap-explain to me why we have not yet invested in black out curtains?! Both mornings she slept in until 8 a.m. and we had to wake HER up!
(quick shout out to the impressive staff at the Sheraton, except for the guy who asked my Grammy if she needed a wheelchair...you are lucky to still be alive. My Grammy was about to go all Chuck Norris on you!)

That night we drove over to Lori's office, got a quick tour of her work, and walked to Coors Field. Her office is just a few blocks away-bonus! Free parking! We were all so excited to take Carina to her first baseball game...Mike felt a little guilty that it wasn't going to be with the Giants, but she thinks any baseball game she sees IS the Giants so it was o.k. After entering the stadium we headed straight for a gift shop. Mike got a Coors Field hat and shirt (he won't support the Rockies, only their stadium) and Lori and Steve bought Carina a Rockies hat & shirt. She immediately put the hat on backwards and would not wear it any other way.

As soon as Carina saw the field, she was pointing and shouting, "Baseball! Go Giants!" Lori and I taught her to say, "Go Rockies!" so they wouldn't kick us out. We went to our seats, watched the game for a while, then set off to explore the stadium. Coors Field is an incredible ball park: good food, polite staff, and my favorite: kid friendly! They even have a concession stand called Buckaroos that is just for kids, complete with a kid sized condiment stand! Carina and I each enjoyed an ice cream from there for $3.00 total. Mike was very impressed with the park as well, and he was happy to add it to his growing list of ball parks he has been to in the country.Seriously, can they look any more alike?! They even smile the same way!

My favorite part was during the 7th inning stretch when we sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". This is one of Carina's favorite songs, and I told her that all of the people in the stadium would be singing it. When the time came, she was in awe. She was probably thinking, "How do all of these people know MY song?" We ended up staying until almost the end of the 8th inning before we decided it would be a good idea to head out and beat the crowd. Mike and I were a little surprised Carina lasted that long, but she was having a blast and probably would have made it through the whole game. She actually watched the game!
The Rockies ended up losing to the Diamondbacks, so that made Mike happy too. We will definitely be taking Carina to another baseball game again soon-she's still talking about it! Thanks Lori & Steve for a super fun time!
As we were walking back to the car, Mike was carrying Carina and I heard this conversation:

"Daddy, I go to a baseball game!"
"Yes, you did!"
"I say Go Rockies!"
"Yeah, you did! We watched the Rockies play baseball."
"Daddy? I have fun at the baseball game!"
"That's good! I had fun too Bean."

(Bean gives Daddy huge smooch-MUAH!)

He is just the best Daddy ever...moments like that put a smile on my face and in my heart.

Colorado Part 2: Butterflies & Thunderstorms

In case you were wondering, the reasons I chose to break up my blogs about our trip into parts are a) I didn't want to write one insanely long post, b) I blog during nap time (why do laundry or clean?) so time is limited, and c) posting my blog in parts makes people come back and visit it more, therefore it makes reading my Feedjit site traffic thingy more interesting because I like to know who is stalking me...it feeds my ego ;o)

Anyway, on with our adventures in the Centennial State! (I just learned that from a children's map of the U.S puzzle)

My rock star grandparents drove up to meet everyone from their home in Granbury, Texas. It is about a 12 hour drive and they are both in their eighties, hence them earning the title of rock stars. They split the drive into 2 days, so they arrived early Monday morning. After a pancake breakfast with the whole fam, we went to the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster. What a fun place! It was 5 minutes from Lori & Steve's house, and has a big tropical conservatory full of beautiful butterflies. They would even land on you!

Carina walked around with a huge smile saying, "Look at aaaaallll the butterflies! They tickle you! They're flying in the sky! They land on my head!" (She always! speaks! with! great! expression!)Peering through the plants looking for butterflies...

Butterflies like fruit, so there were overripe bananas placed in different spots in the conservatory.

Great opportunities for Mike to use the super camera-I love this one
Grammy checking to see if any butterflies are hitching a ride on the Bean
Counting all the butterflies

We also got to experience some incredible weather in Colorado. As we walked out of the Pavilion, there were some serious thunderclouds overhead, and within seconds we were in the middle of a significant downpour. Later that evening, we stood out on the front porch listening to the thunder and watching the lightening flash almost nonstop across the sky. It wasn't long before a tornado warning was issued. That was a little disconcerting! The storm eventually passed and we were all safe and sound, but apparently it did some damage to other parts of the city. Carina and my Grandad slept through the whole ordeal. I think Carina may have crashed due to all the sugar she had eating her very first s'more that we made over the barbecue:Hi, I'm eating lots of refined sugar and loving it!

I look at this picture and my heart melts...just like the marshmallow.

The funniest thing about her eating the s'more is that she did not like how it stuck to her fingers. She would say, "Wipe it off please, it's stuck on me. Mommy, it's on my finger!" Apparently, being high maintenance is hereditary! She ate a few bites of it, then called it a night.

The next day my parents were leaving to start their long drive home, so we took a family photo before they hit the road. (minus Darla dog, who does not pose well)

The Brown, Coughran, and Ogg Family!

All of this rehashing of our trip is fun yet simultaneously exhausting, so my goal is to finish tomorrow with Part 3. Thanks for reading!

Colorado! Part 1...yes, that says Part 1 so get comfortable!

We returned home from our vacation to Colorado on Thursday, and I am finally enjoying a moment of peace and quiet so that I can blog about our trip. True to form we took tons of pictures, so I will just post my faves, then if that doesn't satisfy you then check out the slide show on the right. Since I tend to be a bit wordy (quit laughing!) I'm breaking this up into parts...besides it's my blog and I can do what I want to :o)

Our trip started out with a bang...or a barf really :o( We drove down to stay at the Doubletree near the airport Friday night since our flight left early Saturday morning. We got as far as Petaluma before Carina decided the snack she had before we left was not up to her standards. Ugh...so we pulled off the freeway and parked in the Trader Joe's parking lot. Mike got to work on cleaning her car seat (Purell hand sanitizer cleans and deodorizes, by the way) while I changed her into clean clothes. Pats on the back to me for having a change of clothes (not even from her suitcase!) a bag to put the yucky ones in, and extra wipes. Can you tell we have done this before?!

Okay, that's it for the gross stuff. We have now enforced a strict "No barfing in the car" rule that we go over before the start of any outing. The delay actually ended up being a blessing, because we decided to stop in Corte Madera at CPK for dinner, and shop for a little while so we would miss rush hour in San Francisco. Brilliant! To top it all off, the Doubletree greeted us with warm chocolate chip cookies when we checked in-yum!

The flight to Denver was uneventful (moment of silence for Carina's last time flying for free...sigh) The plane landed early, so we got our luggage and headed out to the parking lot to meet my Dad and Lori who were picking us up. This is what Mike looked like:
What? I was pushing the stroller AND carrying my purse! My cute little pack mule :o)

After walking out to the car, which I'm pretty sure was parked in Oklahoma, we were off! Carina fell asleep within minutes, so we decided to stop and pick up some lunch to take back to Lori and Steve's house. If you ever see a Smash Burger, you MUST eat there! I have to say, I think they are better than In N Out (gasp!) We had to smell it all the way back to the house, but 15 long minutes later we pulled up to the house (which was hard to see due the ginormous motor home parked in their driveway), had a quick tour and then inhaled our food. Best. Burger. Ever.

After lunch I got to take a nap-I was still recovering from a sinus infection, and pretty much felt awful. I conked out on the couch for an hour or so, and woke up having NO idea where I was. Always a nice feeling...and my loving husband took a picture of me sleeping with my mouth wide open (couldn't breathe through my nose) which will NOT be included in the album! While I was sleeping, Carina was falling in love with the cats: Dolce (as in "& Gabana") Moose, and Elvis. She was totally infatuated with them...not so sure what they thought of her though ;o)

My sister's house is great-it's in a nice neighborhood with an elementary school nearby that we walked to later that afternoon. As you know, Carina loves a good playground!

Next stop-Denver Zoo! We love taking Carina to the SF Zoo, but the Denver Zoo puts that one to shame, I have to admit. Carina got to see elephants for the very first time! (Yes, that means SF doesn't have them...how do you have a zoo with no elephants?) We also got to see/hear a tiger growl and jump up on the glass of the indoor viewing area. Thankfully we were viewing from the outside at the time, because we're pretty sure the people on the inside wet their pants. We think he was angry at some flies that were buzzing around him...my healthy respect for wild animals quadrupled after hearing that roar!

Carina loved the peacocks that wander around the entire zoo, and she especially loved the train ride.
Mike had the super camera with him so he got some great pictures of the animals.
Oh, and Carina now understands the concept of "gift shop" very clearly now. We definitely will go back on our next trip! (Back to the zoo for sure, the gift shop is a bonus)

We ended the day with a late lunch at a sushi restaurant called Zen. I told Lori we would not take Carina to sushi until she and Steve could go with us and we could all share our love for it together. Carina slept on Mike's lap through most of it, but when she woke up she was intrigued by the chopsticks, edamame, and tempura shrimp. She did pick the rice off of a California Roll, but I don't think she actually consumed any sushi. Oh well, more for us!
No, she wasn't still sleeping at this moment...although I wouldn't put it past Mike to torment her like this...oh wait, he would do that to ME. More to come later! ( can you stand the suspense? Remember you came to this blog willingly...it's not like you're trapped in my living room for a family vacation slide show)

We are so excited!

"I can't wait!"

We are leaving for Colorado early Saturday morning to go see my sister Lori and brother-in-law Steve! My parents are driving their "big motor home" (they left yesterday and are taking a few days to drive) and my grandparents from Texas are also driving there so we will all be together! Since our family lives in 3 different states this almost never happens, so we are really looking forward to the trip. I've got laundry and packing to do, and then Friday night we are staying in a hotel near SFO since our flight leaves so early Saturday. It's the last time Carina is flying for free...*sigh*...oh well, she is getting too big to sit in our laps on a crowded plane anyway! I'm sure there will be lots of posts to come-get ready for tons of pictures!

First Haircut!

I didn't think we would get Carina's hair cut for a while, but so much of her hair parts to the right and constantly hangs in her face. I think she was using the extra long hairs to catch food in to save for a later snack. I can pull it up into a pony tail, or use barrettes to clip it back, but they either fall out or get pulled out when discovered. So this past Thursday I took her to Kid's Cuts in Rohnert Park. Jill, the owner/stylist, was SO great with her! Carina was a bit skeptical at first, but then she saw all of the toys to play with and quickly decided this was a good place to be. After letting her acclimate a bit, I plunked her in the chair with a toy Tigger she had found still in hand. She started to cry, but then Jill zoomed in with her lollipop bucket. Carina was instantly intrigued and picked out a raspberry one. I don't think she took it out of her mouth the rest of the time we were there-I couldn't get a picture of her without it! Jill trimmed her bangs (she saved the first snip of hair for us too!) and Carina was in lollipop euphoria and hardly noticed. I didn't want her to cut any off the back since I love how long it is getting, which made the end result look slightly mullet-like but overall very cute. So our first experience getting a haircut (or in Carina's eyes: first experience with a lollipop) was a memorable one!

I love the look on her face-classic "What is going on?!"

All finished! Such a big girl!

After the haircut we went over to SSU to visit Mike and his mom at work so they could see her new do. The campus had some beautiful flowers so I tried to take some pictures of Carina with them. She loves to smell the "flowlers". This is what she looks like when she is "sniffing":

After that she said, "Oh, smells beautiful!" (pronounced "booo-ti-ful"). This child gets more and more hysterical every day!