Masonic Weekend

This last weekend, well starting Thursday actually we headed down to S.F. for Adam's last Grand Lodge weekend. We got to stay in the Fairmont Hotel which is always nice and super fancy too. We started off on Thursday night by going to the Cliff House Restaurant for our last Grand Lodge Family dinner. I must say we got a really good family picture there...



The dinner also lasted a little longer then anticipated and Hannah passed out...even before Samantha, which was surprising.



The next day Adam had meetings all day so the girls and I started out the morning by taking a walk to the park near by but took a little detour to walk some really steep hills b/c Hannah was very curious about them.



And then of course we needed to rest b/c she was "so tired"...we need to get her out of the valley more often.



After Hannah was done resting we finally made it to the park and fun was had...




After this I drove with the girls to the East Bay to visit my dad at work and then we drove over to Marin to visit Nali at work and pick her up. I was dropping the girls off with her for the night b/c Adam and I were having our first overnight by ourselves since Samantha was born. I dropped them off and then headed back to the city for our formal dinner evening in the Carnelian Room at the top of the B of A building. Here are the views from way up there (a little scary but amazing at the same time!)..





Can you tell we were happy to be away from the kids for one night!


I was so excited to sleep that night and the next morning! Adam had early morning meetings again the next day...sucker! But I slept until 9:30am and then I did not get out of bed until 12:30pm...that's right PM!! I finally dragged myself out of bed to go back to Marin to pick up Adam's mom (Nali) and the girls to bring them back to the hotel to stay with us on Saturday night. Adam and I had another formal dinner but this time it was in the Fairmont Hotel and Adam's mom watched the girls in our room. Although while Adam and I were getting ready for our dinner we were wondering why we didn't just leave everyone in Marin b/c it might have been easier on everyone. Oh well.

The next day Nali, the girls and I went for a cable car ride. We walked down Powell St. in S.F. to the bottom so that we could ride the cable car all the way back up. The walk down Hannah was grouchy and I kept threatening her that if she didn't behave that she was going to be walking back up and we would be waving at her from the cable car...I know I know that is not very nice but she was being a pain. Even Samantha was being grouchy in the bjorn and so I decided to take this lovely picture at Union Square which perfectly reflects Samantha's grouchiness.



We finally made it to the bottom of the hill and got on the cable car and Samantha looked a little nervous on the ride...she wasn't too sure what to make of it...


Here we all are on the cable car...and might I add that all these pictures taken on the cable car and at Union Square are with me just holding the camera out there and taking a picture...I must say I have pretty good aim.



I think the ride stressed Samantha out b/c we got back to the hotel room and she fell fast asleep in her fancy Fairmont Hotel crib with a fancy sheet and bumper...no porta-a-crib here.



It was a nice weekend...tiring but nice. Here are a few more pics...

Hannah made a "friend" at the park. This adorable bull dog followed her around everywhere and kept pace with her...when Hannah stopped he stopped...he was too cute. I have always wanted a bulldog.


Samantha decided it would be fun to lean back and watch the sky while in the swing...it was too funny b/c she kept doing it over and over...it was like she was in her own little world.



Shopping at Safeway with the girls and for the first time putting them in the same shopping cart car to ride in...they argued a bit over who was touching who's steering wheel...ahh I can just see the future fights over other items:


Back at home at the end of Sept. Samantha continued to fine tune her crawling skills. She also enjoyed sticking a toy in her mouth and carrying it around as if she were a dog...probably b/c Tulip is her idol.



She also enjoyed riding on Tulip...Tulip is such a trooper.



On the 29th of Sept I was "lucky" enough to take the girls to the doctor for Samantha's 9 month appt and to get us all our flu shots. We had to pin Hannah down for hers but mine and Samantha's were pretty uneventful. Here are the girls with our awesome doctor, Dr. Seimens (before Hannah even knew we were there for shots)



Last, Samantha is in a growling phase...she likes to growl at people...again I think it is because Tulip is her idol. Here is a picture of Samantha growling at Dr. Seimens and Dr. Seimens growling back at her...too cute.



Only 2 weeks before Hannah's 4th b-day and she CANNOT wait. She also talks non-stop about her princess party coming as well...it should be interesting.

Samantha's Crawling!!!...FINALLY!!

On Friday afternoon Samantha finally decided she was going to lift her bottom off the floor and attempt to crawl! Hannah, Samantha and I were playing in the living room when Samantha made her first attempts at crawling. I was so excited I called Adam and was saying into the phone with excitement..."Samantha's crawling! Samantha's crawling!" Rather then saying, "Yay, how exciting!" He says..."Well she's not an invalid"...way to go Dad on being happy for your daughter's major accomplishment. So here is a sequence of her crawling. Hannah and I set up toys out of her reach and off she went...

Hannah giving her sister a "helping" push...


And she's off..


Almost there..


Just about there...when Samantha gets almost to where she is going rather then crawl all the way there, she flattens herself out and stretches. Talk about lazy!! She also crawls at near a snails pace...I guess I should be thankful of that right now.


My next sequence of photos is Samantha discovering that Tulip's bone looks pretty good to chew on...and Tulip does it so why can't she have it too.

"Hey Tulip I will trade you your bone for my blue cup."


"I will just take that since you are not looking."


"Ha-ha I have it!"


"I don't know if this was worth all the effort."


"Oh well it is still something to chew on."


Tonight the girls took a bubble bath together..Samantha's first bubble bath...I cannot believe I haven't given Samantha a bubble bath yet and she is almost 9 months old!! Anyway, she LOVED it! She was squealing with delight and Hannah came up with this skit (which she frequently does in the bathtub with Samantha and I have to present them and there are imaginary curtains) about "The Bubble Girls".

So here is Hannah getting the little bubble girl ready for the show...


"Mom, what is she doing to me?"


The Big Bubble girl ready for the show...


"Hey, this is a lot of fun!"


"Bubble splashing is so much fun!" Squeal! Squeal!


More squeals of delight..


Let me try and stand again in the most dangerous place I can...


Last we were hanging out in Hannah's room having a snack b/c Adam was vacuuming in the living room and I just thought this was a cute picture of the two girls having a snack over a mini table on the floor.



Here is just one more picture...I always post happy pictures of Hannah so I thought I might post one of her not so good moments...because believe me we have several of them. I have no idea why she is crying here...it is just one of Hannah's moments of breakdown that disappear as quickly as they come on...as I said in a previous post...I can't wait for the hormones to kick in when she is a teenager. :)

I know...I know...I need to blog more often.

I really really need to update more often. It's not like I don't have anything to blog about...I really have quite a lot, it is just this thing called work, taking care of the kids (including Adam & Tulip :) ), the house, etc. just keep getting in the way...darn it! Anyway, I will do my best to blog more often, not that I have tons of fans out there wondering where I have been, but I would just like to keep this little blog more up to date.

So let's see...I will start with Samantha. She still refuses to roll over...it could be that she still hates to be on her stomach, but she is great at sitting!! She has great posture, really great posture and she is attempting to crawl, but you know that really takes too much work so she would rather sit on her bottom and master the art of sitting. Here is her attempt at crawling.



Another thing Samantha is trying her best to do it stand up...of course she loves to attempt this in the most dangerous place she can...the bathtub! Here are some cute rear views of Samantha doing her best to stand during bath time with Hannah...





Sister playing time...


Samantha hamming it up...she really thinks she is quite the comedian and laughs at a lot of things she does...





Samantha saw my dad in August also and she hasn't seen him too much in her life. At first she seemed quite curious about him and this mustache on his face..



But then she decided she wasn't too sure about this guy and Dedo didn't help by making fun of her...



Hannah continues to be Hannah, so difficult one minute and incredibly pleasant the next...ah the life of an almost 4 year old...can't wait until those hormones kick in when she is teenager, it should be interesting.

In August we went to the Yolo County Fair. It is free to get in but then they get you on the rides. Well one of the rides Hannah made friends with a little boy named Luke, who believe it or not had a Grandma who had a VIP pass to get on all the rides for free! Way to go Hannah! After that ride where they met, the two were inseparable and Hannah would not stop holding that little boy's hand! She got a lot of free rides in thanks to her friendliness.





There were so MANY more rides these two went on but I won't post them all. We had a fabulous time at the fair until we wanted to go home and were so tired and were looking forward to a shower and dinner and we came to the car to find this...



Flat tires suck!! Adam changed the tire but then the spare had no air in it so after searching the Yolo County Fair for someone with a portable air compressor we called AAA. What a frustrating end to a nice day. We were exhausted!!

Another exciting thing that happened for Hannah in August was that she FINALLY learned to ride a tricycle!! YAY!! I was really getting worried about her b/c her friends were literally riding circles around her on their 2 wheeled bikes. The problem as it turned out was that her short little legs just couldn't properly reach the many many tricycles she had tried. My mom and Hannah finally found one at a garage sale that even has one of those push handles in the back and a cute little basket in the front. So now Hannah is peddling all over the place.





So that is that. I am back to work full time and it sucks big time, but you gotta do what you gotta do.