happy fathers day!

just wanted to give a great big "happy fathers day!" to all the fathers out there, especially my own fantastic dad, and josh ( my brother-in-law), seeing as it's his first official fathers day.

dad, you're the greatest!

photo courtesy of edyta szyszlo photography

claire and her gecko friend

when my sister, josh and claire were in hawaii (they just got back last week), they had a little gecko friend that visited them in their room. here is yet another moment showing claire's affinity towards animals...makes me crack up every time...

8 months

i can't believe this muffin is already 8 months old. i love this baby so much! she's such a little joy and blessing. i got to spend saturday with claire, josh, jen, my parents and brandon for my dad's birthday and boy did we have a lovely time, although as you can see most of the time i was distracted by the baby.

she's not crawling yet, but she gets close. she also is all excited to stand up and take a few steps--with help, of course.

as you can see in this picture, claire's hair is finally becoming apparent...

she likes drinking water out of a straw, although she makes a funny face and ends up with half of it down the front of her...

she also loves animal. if you saw the gecko video on my sister's blog, you could get a taste of that. at my parent's house, she saw miss kitty and giggled and smiled and tried to move towards her however she could--looks like she takes after her dad's affinity for animals (that's what she's doing in this photo--going for miss kitty)!

i love spending time with claire, and thankfully she enjoys me (so far). i got in the car on saturday when we got picked up from bart, and claire got a big grin on her face. i was able to walk around the store with her away from my sister and she was fine (i even caught her smiling at little boys in the shampoo aisle). i can't believe 8 months have already gone by! i can't wait until i see this little pumpkin next!

the weekend (so far)

so far, this has been quite a lovely weekend. it started out with a baseball game on friday night in amazing seats (they were given to me), and then followed up with a drink with kelly and shane, who are in town for the weekend. it was great to catch up with old, dear friends!

today was the great urban race, that josh and brandon participated in.

it's basically a scavenger hunt/race throughout the city--like the amazing race, but only in one city, not all over the world. brandon and josh had a great time, but are now absolutely exhausted. while the boys were racing, my sister and i were on internet duty to help the boys decipher some clues. we also had entertainment in the form of claire while we waited...today she ate some carrots for us, and we giggled at the faces she made



after the time with claire and jen, i headed up to the orbit room for birthday mojitos for sara's birthday. YUM!

happy mother's day!

happy mother's day to all those wonderful mothers out there! i celebrated mother's day early, spending saturday morning with my parents, grandmother's, and brandon (jen, josh and claire were at a wedding in vegas this weekend). we went to the cliff house, where we had fantastic views of the ocean along with amazing company and delicious food.

thanks to all the moms in my life! what an amazing bunch you are.

meltdown and muffin!

this weekend was thankfully filled with not much. i had this big idea that i was going to totally clean the apartment from top to bottom, but per usual, i started and quickly felt defeated. how am i supposed to reorganize when we aren't increasing our space? i mean, i know it's possible, but on going through our stuff i realized we don't have THAT much to get rid of, and while it may not be the most efficient organization, we aren't THAT inefficient. then i had a downward spiral, deciding we need a bed frame finally and that i hate our bedroom, and that it isn't soothing or relaxing in there, and it drives me nuts in there. i talked with my mom, who sort of talked me off the ledge, listening, knowing exactly how i feel. we also sort of have this thing when we've been in a space for a certain amount of time we need to revamp. i also went off about how i wanted new living room furniture and to swap our living room and dining room, etc. but i have decided 1. one step at a time and 2. a bunch of new furniture is neither needed nor practical right now. this spiral ended with a couple decisions--we're getting a bed frame, and we're getting some more storage furniture for the bedroom to give ourselves the tools to make better use of our space. YAY.

so, that was pretty much my saturday (cleaning, breakdown, recovery, then planning), but my sunday was filled with resting and hanging out with jen, josh, and claire. here are some pictures from the afternoon.

more racetime

here are some pictures my mom took...obviously i will not be looking my best in these, but hey. i just ran 13 miles. in ridiculous heat.

the race crew

race time!

race day arrived! man oh man. we trained for the mileage, but not really the mental aspect of racing OR the heat. well, to our credit, unless it's a day like today (over 85+ degrees in san francisco???) it makes it pretty hard to train for heat in sf. of course it had to be the hottest weekend in MONTHS for our first half. i am happy to say, however, we made it! it was tougher than i anticipated, but i'm glad we did it. i'm very proud of brandon, jessi and i, and thanks a bunch to josh and garrett. josh paced me and encouraged me to keep my legs moving, while garrett ran with jessi to keep her motivated.

now, to back up, our "race weekend" began with a delicious home cooked meal. we got our farm fresh to you box on wednesday, so we decided to use a bunch of the ingredients. i made:
* a green salad with carrots and tomatoes
* roasted potatoes and carrots
* sauteed chard and yellow onions over chicken

yummy!

on saturday josh picked brandon and i up to take us to the santa cruz area, where we spent the night...

so today was the big day, and it ended up being WAY hotter than we thought it would be. thankfully, i purchased shorts the other day. i was worried about running in them because i had never worn them for a long run, but they turned out to work great! i would have DIED in pants. my parents were kind enough to come down, cheer us on, watch us cross the finish line, and hold me up afterward (thanks dad...i thought i might collapse into the sand). we gathered ourselves, got our t-shirts, and then hobbled out to the car to go get some brunch/lunch. overall, a successful (if not slightly painful) race day. i have a whole new level of admiration for marathoners...

nyc 09, day 3

day 3, easter sunday! claire slept in a little bit, so my sister and i sent my mom and grandma on their way to mass (so they could get a seat). jen, claire and i joined shortly after and stood at the back of saint patrick's cathedral (you know, easy exit in case of baby meltdown).

after easter mass (and after we worked out our communication mix-up of where everyone was), we headed up to the east side for easter brunch. we were going to eat somewhere else, but that didn't work out so i introduced the family to le pain quotidien, home of that amazing brownie i had on the day i got there. i had the vegan six vegetable quiche--it was AMAZING.

we then wandered into central park to take in some spring and sunshine.

we then walked through times square (well, after a quick stop in starbucks for some hot cocoa--it was COLD! i also had a reality check--the employee went in the bathroom to restock the t.p. and pointed out that someone had been snorting in the bathroom. he was even kind enough to show me the signs that indicated this activity. there's a small gap in photos for this period of time because i was holding a sleeping baby...i'm not complaining.

after times square we wandered over to bryant park to soak in the sun, rest our feet, and give claire some time to kick her legs around.

mom, on the phone with uncle peter

claire also got her first carousel ride. it was perfect--the carousel was playing french music! claire enjoyed herself, as did grandma and jen.

after our exciting day, claire got a bath at the hotel. boy, does that girl like to kick!

i love this baby, can you tell?

nyc 09, day 2

day two--our visit to see aunt josie! we got up early to take a train out of grand central station to about an hour north of new york city.

when we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to see that aunt josie looked (and acted) the same--it had been over 10 years since we had seen her. at 94, she can still go up and down stairs like nobody's business. she even insisted on making us her lasagna and meatballs! what an incredible woman. i'd like to think i take after her in the crafty department--at 94, she is still crafting her time away.
claire was absolutely infatuated with aunt josie, and lit up in a big smile every time she was around.

we had a wonderful visit, meeting her family and reminiscing about old times...the end of the day came far too soon!

on the way back from our day trip, we decided to stop for some photos in grand central...

happy birthday, brandon!

sufficient to say march 24-25 is an emotional roller coaster in our household. poor brandon gets a depressed wife the day before his birthday, but i always perk right back up to celebrate him. i try and look at both days as a celebration of life, but march 24 will always be difficult.

anyhoo, first off happy birthday, husband! i'll save all the gushy stuff to say to him in person, but i'd just like to say how incredibly glad i am to have him in my life. he's such a rock for me, and he keeps me sane. we decided to keep it low-key, because he's been working on an architectural competition and i've been busy getting ready for vegas so we're both exhausted. i got him his favorite cupcake from the place down the street from my office (that takes the cake)--it's a cupcake filled with peach cobbler, but i'm mad because his present didn't arrive in time, and it's my fault. i put the wrong sf zip code. i put my home zip with my office address...whooooops. at least he got a cupcake, right?

also happy today, flowers from tati arrived! i'll take better pictures in natural light tomorrow, but this is what i snapped tonight. she meant them to arrive yesterday (we had the fortune of living together when we went through the loss of stacy, so we have an extra bond when it comes to that) but ups can't leave stuff at my house because they can't get in our lobby. i was THRILLED to see they have a feature where you can request a different delivery address online. it says 'in close proximity' but i chanced it and put my work address--they arrived! they are a gorgeous mix of bright pink, pink/orange, and orangey/peach roses. it got a little awkward at work to explain why i had flowers, but for the most part i avoided the conversation. one person, however, pestered me until i spilled it. it's not that i mind talking about it--in fact, i don't mind at all. i typically just feel bad for the person who asked--it's never what they expect and usually makes them feel awkward. oh well! i love my flowers.

saturday fun

so saturday was busy. 8 miles in the morning, then i met up with my parents, sister and claire for some shopping and lunch, then home for natalie's bachelorette party.

first stop: downtown. we ran into an anti-war, anti-occupation protest/parade, so i wasted time taking a couple pictures while the parade passed


claire sporting her new giants gear...go black and orange!
and a few pics from the champagne toast at kristin's and dinner after for the bachelorette...

this was taken at beretta, where we ate a delicious dinner...

academy of sciences

today, chris was kind enough to escort me into the academy of sciences so i could go with my family (they have passes). it was great, but SOOOO crowded--i can't wait to go and explore more! here are a few pictures from the day...