Grandma and Grampa Arrive

Summer was pleased to welcome Grampa (and Grandma) to Los Angeles this weekend.


A holdover from last weekend -- Carson and I spent a lot of time sledding the sand dunes. Not nearly as fast as snow, but still a lot of fun.


Santa made an appearance at Del Rey Lagoon park.


Where there's Santa there must be candy canes.


Even without any peppermint flavored suger, Summer still had plenty of fun at the park.

Winter Wonderland

Carson & Summer were excited to be back at the Manhattan Beach Holiday Fireworks Festival, even if Santa wasn't.


It had been a big week. On Monday St. Nick visited, bringing balls and Shape-Os.


Of course he also brought his traditional chocolate marshmallow Santas.


The weekend brought some major holiday events. Saturday night we took in the Marina Del Rey holiday boat parade.


This weekend also brought some shifts in the sleeping arrangements. Summer moved out of her exclusive space in the master suite to begin sharing the jungle room with Carson.


You'd be surprised how sticky you can get with a single candy cane.


Sledding in seventy-plus degree weather is the only way to go.


Even though she didn't get any sleigh rides, Summer was still pretty excited about the day.


The blog continues to set a high bar for posting during the holidays.

O Christmas Tree

Despite dropping temperatures we still managed to spend some time at the park this week.


Carson spent some time exploring every centimeter of the slides at Polliwog Park.


We made the annual pilgrimage down the street to Home Depot to procure that most important of Christmas symbols.


For the first time we had some assistance in trimming the tree.


Are you ready to rock! The blog will be doing the best to keep up the weekly pace as the holidays approach.

Thanksgiving in the 'Nati

The whole fam made it to the 'nati for Thanksgiving.


The California Jordan's made it there first, which afforded for some time at the Zoo.


We even brought Pops along despite concerns that they'd want to keep him.


Ken & Donna Haun came by to meet Summer.


We continued our Cincinnati tour with a visit to the Krohn Conservatory.


Unlike our last trip to Cincinnati this time we didn't have to cancel last minute on Aunt Ginny.


Uncle Jack gave us the insiders' tour of the Green Hills Fire Department where he volunteered for 35 years.


Speaking of things that have been going strong for nearly 35 years, Bill got some tapioca at the Echo (or at least the few bites Carson would share).


Carson & Bill found themselves in some legal trouble while visiting Sharon Woods.


You'd think Ken would have been the one in trouble given his corrupting of the youth.


After a very fun week we commissioned a very experienced pilot to take us back to California.

Return of the Exersaucer

As if we didn't have enough toys out already, the exersaucer was summoned from the depths of the storage under the steps.


Summer caught up with the new siblings of Carson's baby group friends during the past week. As you can tell this babygroup met up on the west side, as they don't allow more than two brunette children into the southbay at once.


Carson had to work hard to squeeze his way into this blogpost.


We've enjoyed some great weather the past couple of weeks, just in time to head to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving and freeze.

San Francisco Treats

The fam relocated to NorCal for the weekend.


Before going Carson had to test out the new Joovy stroller. I'm not sure why he had to do it dressed as the riddler.


Carson took a spin in the individual teacups at Golden Gate Park's playground.


Of course we couldn't leave without taking a spin on the historic carousel.


As is the tradition in our family, Summer took in her first swing while out of town.


Laura and Carson barked at the sea-lions in fisherman's wharf.


While Bill offered to lock Carson up and throw away the key.


Of course we didn't just come to San Francisco to play, we also came to see infants. In this endeavor we were also quite successful, dropping in multiple times on Kate Brown.


As well as invading Koji and Eliot's (and Yoko's) morning.

Ging Ging & Pops & Halloween Oh My

Ging Ging and Pops made a special Fall trip to the west coast and ended up in the least rural of pumpkin patches imaginable.


Laura & Summer managed to make a new friend while we were there...


and we also got a good family pic.


We didn't just spend our time waiting for the great pumpkin. Summer and Pops got some good bonding time.


As did Carson & Ging-Ging


Even though it was a week early, Carson took advantage of every opportunity to try on his costume.


We also got in a little trick or treating practice at the Manhattan Beach Pumpkin races.


Only you can prevent pumpkin race fires.


After agonizing over which pumpkins to buy at the patch (and then buying none and getting them at Trader Joes), Bill decided to go all out in carving this year.


Despite the gourd based inspiration the Bengals continued to suck. As long as it means we make popcorn Carson is just fine with watching the game no matter the outcome.


Carson got to make time with Lily aka Wonder Woman at a neighborhood Halloween party before trick-or-treating.


Summer & Bill revisited a great costume combination from a couple years back. Being a month younger made Summer significantly more comfortable in the Pea costume than Carson had been.