Big Trike Rider

William loves to ride his trike.... and it makes me smile everytime. He is getting so big!

Saint Patties Party

Our neighbors, Brad & Elissa, throw a Saint Patties Day party every year and this was our second year attending. The kids have the most fun at these partys I think... they just love hanging out together. I tried to get a picture of most of them sitting on the couch. There are two kids missing, but this is the canyon gang... William's friends in the neighborhood. ( Ella and Lucia, are 2 months and 6 months older than William- they are so cute together! Sorry for the bad pics)

Zoo Day

Gina Hodson and I are visiting teaching comps and one of the girls we visit is Roxanne Shipley. We decided to meet at the zoo on Wednesday with all the kids and visit there :) It was a perfect zoo day. The baby otters were swimming and playing, the gibbons were swinging and singing, even the snow leopard was walking around and playing with his big ball! (I've never seen that animal move in all the times I've gone to the zoo) The penguins were swimming, the baby giraffe was being fed in the back where we could see, and the gorillas were enjoying the sun. The kids had a blast running around in a little pack and hanging out. They played for a long while at the play ground/ ant hill, sliding down on cardboard boxes... it was so cute to watch. William slid down with a smile for the first time and was being extra goofy too. He was sliding down on his belly and taking turns in the box with the older girls too.

My favorite moment of the day however, was when we passed by the carousel (which is never open) and William looked in and saw it. He stood there for a second and then his mouth dropped open with a big "WOW" and he ran toward it. It made me laugh.
We love the zoo.

Another one gone

Last week our neighbors home (which has been vacant for almost 2 years) finally got hauled off to a new location. It was pretty exciting to watch the whole process of moving a mobile home. They chose a rainy day to separate it in half... then a week or so later they hooked it up and hauled it off one side at a time. It took them about 15 minutes to get around the loop, on the narrow road, through all the oak trees, but they did it and we got to watch the whole thing. Pretty neat to watch, I'm glad we were home that day :) Now there is one less house to look at out the window and we are down to 14 neighbors.

Zachary

At Zachary's 9 month check up he weighed in at 14 lbs and 14 oz. and 25 1/4 inches. Still in the 3rd percentile :) He is growing though. He eats a ton everyday and is as happy as they come. He has now figured out how to crawl forwards (he could only go backwards for the longest time) and he can pull himself up to the train table to "play" with the train tracks. His favorite time of the day is bath time, he LOVES the water. He will eat anything i make for him. Loves the chicken and lentils and brown rice! So nice. He also loves to laugh and is very ticklish. And I can't forget that he is a pretty good sleeper at this point too!

He is such a joy and such a cutie. I love you Zachary.

Tangerine Falls

I finally got a chance to hike the front country in February when Billy had a 4 day weekend. I had not hiked a trail overlooking Santa Barbara since before it all burned about 3 years ago! I went with my friend Nicole and her roommate and it was so nice. The hike is only about 1 1/2 miles up to the falls, a few creek crossings and a bit of boulder climbing, beautiful trail. The fall was really pretty, just like i remembered, and the view out to the ocean is serene. We hung out at the base of the falls for 10 minutes or so before we hiked back down. It was such a treat to get out and hike with friends and no babies on my back. I will have to try and make this happen again :)

Snow day

Last Saturday we actually got some "snow". Well, it was snow for us. I think the tequnical name for it is graupel. It was quite a site! It came down really hard for a while and stayed around for a while too. There was a pile of it on our tarp that covers our precious wood that actually stuck around for over 24 hours! The neighborhood kids were all out playing in it and making snow balls. Pretty fun for us in Santa Barbara :)

Mind of a child

Today at the lunch table, William had a little toy diver man that was next to his plate. He set him down and looked at it and said " Mom look! he is doing yoga." It made me chuckle and i had to take a picture and write it down. I love William.