Monday, September 29, 2008

Must. Do. More. Of. This.




This past Saturday, Andrew suggested we all go to the beach. I was floored and totally thrilled. We've been saying for months now that we need to hit the beach with Sadie, and this impromptu suggestion was perfect!
Here's a short video of her first real experience in sand.

Instead of being slaves to her nap, we put her in the car and hoped she'd sleep on the way to Pescadero. That only worked until we got on the windy part of Highway 84. She was pretty annoyed at being tossed back and forth for 20 miles. Lunch in Pescadero made us all feel better and then we headed out to San Gregorio State Beach. It was overcast but quite warm, so we played in the sand and let the waves lap our feet and ankles. Sadie loved it and I took a ton of photos. This is my favorite:


It was deeply satisfying to sit by the ocean and watch them together. I breathed deeply, gazed at the ocean and my family and spoke my silent thanks to the universe. I could go on and on, but I'll just say that it was awesome to see Andrew playing with her and enjoying her wonderment of the sand and sea. He was all smiles and said more than once that we need to do stuff like this more often.
Check.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Recent Adventures

I'm starting to neglect the blog again, so here's a recap of the last month:

We took a trip to Atascadero for Labor Day Weekend to visit with my high school friend Chris and his wife Janna, who have a little girl who is exactly a week younger than Sadie. It was a nice trip - lots of good food and conversation. Things got a little heated during the late night poker and domino games, but that's normal, right? Tilla and her man (also Chris) came as well, so they and Andrew got their biking fix on Sunday, and we all headed out to Montana de Oro State Beach on Monday. Great to get a dose of the ocean - it was fiercely windy and storm-like out on the bluffs. Good fun.


On the 13th, I played in a grass volleyball tournament in Sunnyvale which was organized by a friend of mine from my Nordstrom days. I had team "practice" with them the prior 2 Tuesdays, and while I anticipated being a little rusty and certainly plenty sore - I had no idea what was to come. My knees were hurting so badly by the second match, that I seriously could have cried. I ended up spraining my ankle, taping it and playing the rest of the day, but it was not pretty. I literally hobbled to the car when Andrew came to pick me up. I wish I were exaggerating. My ankle was bruised and swollen for a few days and my knees recovered in about 36 hours. Oh, and I was sore all over (but like I said - that I had expected.) Long story short, I feel it was the wake-up call I've been needing to push me to make an appointment with a PT to find out once and for all what's up with my knees and get some strengthening exercises assigned to do. I know I'm out of shape, but I'm not ready to be decrepit at 33.

A few days after that, we headed out to Colorado to visit with Meghan, Michael and their 2 boys, Brogan (3) and Kelton (8 months). We had an awesome time with them, as usual. Great food - Meghan is the consummate hostess, and Michael does waffles and french toast like nobody's business. It was total immersion - we just joined their family for a few days; no pretense, no tip-toeing around one another. They are of the "it takes a village" philosophy of parenting, so that's incredibly refreshing. Brogan is an amazingly mature 3 year old (just turned on August 26th) and he did an impressive job with sharing and watching out for Sadie & Kelton. He's got great manners (please, thank you, bless you, excuse me, I'm sorry, etc.) and will bust out with the cutest sentences here and there. "mom?" Yeah, buddy? "I like you." I like you too, buddy. "mom?" Yo. "You're the best mom in the whole world." Yeah - stuff like that. It was a fun sneak peek into what is to come.
Here's the 3 of them on the couch:

We took a trip to Tiny Town, which was pretty fun, too. Since Meghan's and my friendship really took off over pen & paper back in 1992-1993, we thought a picture by the Post Office building would be cute.


My former volleyball coach (the wonderful one, not the evil one) lives 2 streets away from M & M, so Andrew and I took off for a day with them on Friday the 19th. We ended up going to Golden Gate Canyon State Park for a hike and picnic lunch, which was a perfect way to spend the day. Mary and I got to catch up




and Andrew and Jon had tons to talk about, too.
Their youngest son Tim brought a friend, and the family's 2 black labs Smokey and Bear joined us. We took a picture at a great look-out point where you can see the Continental Divide:

All in all, it was a wonderful trip and we feel really lucky to be able to travel to visit friends. We know it's a luxury and there are many more of you we'd like to see, so stay tuned.