Sacramento

it was our friend Miriam's Birthday last week so this past weekend we went to visit her in Sacramento. We decided to take the train so we did not have to deal with traffic, surprisingly it was not that expensive and WAY less stressful with a mobile 9 mo. old that wants to crawl around everywhere.
He didnt sleep like we planned but he DID have fun crawling on the table!

The next day we went to Apple Hill, it was a great little area with lots of yummy apple stuff, apple cider, pie, donuts,milk shakes, caramel apples ect... we had to bring back some dutch apple pie and cider.....yummy!
There was also a pumpkin patch and petting "zoo" we were able to gets some cute pics from.


All in all it was a great trip and it was so good to see Mir! We all had a great time and at the end Bryson was all tuckered out!

Like Father, Like Son

I've long thought that Bryson inherited a few things from me: his love of music, the way he's always happier when outdoors, and even his awesome facial expressions (my favorite is the single cocked eyebrow - he's been doing it practically since birth!), but it wasn't until recently that I realized just how close to the tree this little apple has fallen.  You see, Bryson LOVES Scooby Doo.  The talking stuffed Scooby I've had for years (people always assume it's Bryson's...) has become one of his favorite new friends.  He cracks a smile everytime he hears it talk, and he usually crawls towards it at full speed.  He's adorable to watch with Scooby - just check out these pictures (and the flannel pajamas) !!!

 

I mentioned Bryson's musical inclinations, didn't I?  Well, this has recently manifested itself in a very entertaining fashion.  Our little guy has turned into a one man band.  Who knew he was already so talented?

Oh yes, and there's at least one more trait that our rapazinho shares with dad - we're both easily entertained.  yes, Bryson and I enjoy the simple things in life... like crawling through cardboard boxes.  :)

Shoreline

Recently, we took a hike closer to home at a place called Shoreline. We've walked around Shoreline a few times, and we always see some wildlife - usually geese, squirrels, egrets, herons, ducks, and terns - but this time we saw something unexpected. Actually, we saw a LOT of unexpected critters. As we were walking along a trail, we saw a few huge pelicans flying right over our heads. They glided down and landed in a marsh just a few feet away from us. Right behind this first few birds was a HUGE flock literally hundreds of these massive, beautiful birds. We took a few pictures, but they hardly do the scene justice. It was amazing watching them fly in and fly out. Here's a few snapshots and a brief video clip of our experience (plus one of Bryson in his beenie before our chilly morning hike - he's just so darn cute!). Enjoy!

Bryson's First (Crazy) Summer

Bryson's first summer sure has been a crazy one. We've gone through lots of ups and downs, and that little boy has traveled up and down the state several times. On the bright side, we have lots of fun pictures and videos to share. :) This top picture is one of Bryson's first experience at Huntington City Beach (you'll notice the pier in the background). We set him down for a few seconds to take a picture, and he immediately grabbed two fistfuls of sand and shoved them in his mouth. He's such a little boy.

This summer marked another important first for Bryson (and us too): his first trip to Gilroy's annual Garlic Festival! Ever since I first heard that such a thing existed I've wanted to go to the garlic festival, and this year I got my wish. We had some AMAZING garlic fries, garlic steak tacos, and even some deep-fried garlic. (Yeah, it was pretty awesome.) Being the intrepid food adventurers that we are, we also sampled some more exotic garlic cuisine, like garlic ice cream (we have proof - it's in the picture above), garlic chocolate covered peanut butter cups, and garlic grilled kangaroo skewers. No, kangaroo does not taste like chicken... it's more like a gamey beef.

Bryson has been learning all sorts of new things lately, and that has made playing with him even more fun. Recently, our rapazinho discovered the magic of bubbles. Here's a few pictures of him and bubbles in our little back patio.




In August, we camped in Big Basin Redwoods State Park (which, BTW, was the very first state park in California) with our friends the Bergs. Both Bryson and the Berg's two-year-old Luke had fun looking at the big trees, going on hikes, and sitting by the campfire. Bryson's favorite part, though, seemed to be eating dirt. :)

That weekend we went up and saw Miriam, it had been a while since we saw her and so we took our selves to Sacramento, it's SUPPOSED to be about 2.5 hr drive, 4 hrs later we were still on the freeway very frustrated! but once we got there it was worth it!

On Saturday Miriam took us on a tour of her area, she is lucky enough to live 1.5 miles from the Temple so we went, walked around and she did a little photo shoot, we left there and went to Coloma were gold was first discovered in California it was a cute little area and we had a little history lesson.

That night Miriam and I made a Brazilian dinner (a day early) for Fathers day. It was so yummy and we already can see our little guy will LOVE guarana when he is older.
After dinner Mir's brother Keith played 6 instruments in a 2 hr span one of which was the accordion, it was pretty sweet.... the next morning we were on the road for our next adventure.

Bryson's First 4th of July!

The three of us had a fun and relaxing fourth of July this year. Since we've been doing a lot of traveling lately, we figured it would be nice to spend Independence Day closer to home. Plus we figured Bryson wouldn't really appreciate the fireworks yet (the few he heard kind of scared him!). Anyway, we made the most of our three-day weekend (thankfully, there was no summer school on the 3rd) by starting off with a picnic lunch at Memorial Park in Cupertino. The park itself was beautiful - green hills and gorgeous ponds teeming with ducks, geese and the occasional seagull - and, true to its name, it also housed a memorial honoring veterans killed or missing in action while fighting for our country. It seemed like an appropriate place to visit on the weekend of the 4th.


On Saturday we celebrated July 4th with a trip to the pool and a backyard barbeque. It took him a few days to get used to the water, but now, as you can see from the picture, Bryson loves the pool. He's going to be a little waterdog. :)

For dinner, we grilled chicken apple sausages and sweet white corn and served them with baked beans. (Bryson, much to his dismay, had to stick to rice cereal and pureed green beans) And of course we all wore our red, white and blue.

It's been pretty crazy around here so there is a lot to catch up on. We will start with fathers day weekend, Bryson and I decided that we would take Matt to the Cal. Academy of Science because he has been wanting to go.
It was such a neat place, we saw a penguin feeding, aquariums(Bryson's favorite part)he took such a nice nap in front of the fish.
And we had to go out side and give Bryson lunch, it was our first attempt outside of the house.


we saw a rainforest 4 stories high and we went on top of the living roof! all together it was a great day.