Happenings!

On Saturday, we drove up to Napa for our friend's wedding. The bride and groom worked with Andrew back at the Labs. I couldn't believe it was in the high nineties (too bad I thought I was being fashionable by wearing a sweater dress and chunky heels!). The wedding was great and the food was delicious.

Blake posing before we went in:


Chris and Jenn walked down the isle together:


They got married in the vineyard behind the restaurant where they hosted the reception:


Sealed with a kiss:


Now official:


The happy couple:


Andrew was too far back and didn't want to fight the crowd for a good picture. Danika made their wedding cake. It was chocolate/raspberry on the bottom and lemon poppyseed in the middle:


Danika and Peter:


Us:


Blake would have played in the fountain, but it had tons of bees hanging out on the edges:


Blake learned about grapes on the vine:


Yesterday (Sunday) Andrew went surfing at his new favorite spot in Santa Cruz. We go to the beach at around 4pm so Andrew could enjoy the waves at low tide.

Up,


up,


and away:


Blake checking out daddy up close. Andrew is one of those wetsuit specks:


Daddy rides again:


He caught us gawking at him:

Great Uncle Don and Great Auntie Brynn Visit

We have had so many great visitors this week. My Uncle Don and Auntie Brynn stopped by last night before they head up to the Mercedes Benz StarFest 2008 in San Francisco: http://www.mbca.org/Starfest2008/

Don and Brynn met up with us again this morning for a tour of Google. Here is Blake playing in the ball pit in one of the break areas. We are looking forward to seeing them again next week for the Burton family reunion in Sacramento.

Grandpa David and Grandma El Visited

On Sunday night, David and Ellen came into town and stayed with us until Monday night. David worked from the Sunnyvale office while Ellen and I bumped around Los Gatos with Blake. It was great to have them and Blake loved having two friends who wanted to play with him all the time.

David teaching Blake to stand up.


Blake loving it.


Look at those fat lines (err muscles).


Blake wants to grow up big and strong like Grandpa.


Grandma El gave Blake a super baby massage after bathtime (lucky guy).


The Hursts.


I had Ellen and David come up with some boy baby names in case Blake ever had a brother. I want to keep the initials the same as Blake's. So far my favorite name has been Bentley Wright Hurst. The Wright is David's middle name. Everyone has disliked Bentley (I love it), but Branch came up and I love that. So Branch Wright Hurst it is for now. I know people will roll their eyes at my name decisions, for I never do anything with the grain!

Yarn Hopping I Go

Today was my second day being a yarn hopper. I am participating in this year's Peninsula To Pier LYS (Local Yarn Shop) Shop Hop. I am part of the Santa Clara County Crochet Group on Meetup.com and Lynne (left) and Britt (center) are fellow knitters/crocheters. Britt spearheaded the wonderful crocheted diaper bag project.

In the last two days, we have visited 12 yarn shops to get out "passports" stamped. We started in Burlingame yesterday morning and ended today by visiting Yarndogs in Los Gatos. There are 18 yarn shops participating in the yarn hop. I don't think I will make it to the last two shops since they are all the way down in Pacific Grove and Carmel. If you get all 18 stamps then you will be entered in a drawing to win $500 worth of yarn at your favorite store. I am aiming for the 15 stamp mark so I can enter myself in the drawing to win $300 worth of yarn at my favorite shop. Tomorrow, Andrew will surf in Santa Cruz while I hit the three participating yarn shops down there.

Blake has been such a trooper during all of this. He has logged no more than an hour of cumulative sleep time in the car and still smiles when he gets to the shops. I keep telling him that the madness is almost over. I have plans to crochet him some cute jammies once this is said and done.

Keep your fingers crossed for the drawing.

Horse Barn Visit

Last week, I visited the horse barn where I worked right before I got pregnant with Blake. They moved to a new location so I brought Skyla, Aiden, Danika, and Jocelyn with me to check out the new digs. I didn't get any pictures of the horses because I had a squiggly kid in my arms, but hopefully Skyla or Danika captured some horse moments and will email me copies.

Here is Aiden driving a tractor with Gari (Sklya is playing Ms. Farm Princess USA). Aiden did such a great job raising and lowering the scoop all by himself. The video below demonstrates his talent.



Skyla is pregnant with a little girl and is six months along. Seeing her baby bump was really fun.



Here I am with my little cowboy. Blake didn't show too much enthusiasm for the horses, but I am sure he is looking forward to all the mutton bustin' in his near future. I dressed him in his horse onesie and his socks are mock cowboy boots. All I needed was the hat, but I didn't have enough time to crochet him a ten gallon cowboy hat.



The video:

Happy Birthday Grammie

Happy Birthday Grammie!

We love you over here and are sad we couldn't make it up this weekend to celebrate the day with you. Hope your day is wonderful and you deserve a big slice of cake.

Trying On San Francisco

To celebrate our five year anniversary, Andrew and I went to San Francisco to try the city on for size. Since I complain so much about sunny weather, Andrew's co-worker said I needed to move to Ocean Beach in SF. So there I was, standing on a dune at Ocean Beach enjoying how chilly it was at 9am. So far, so good. Then we drove to the Marina and walked around a bit. From the pictures you will see how sunny it was. No good! I will never allow a San Franciscan to try to persuade me the city gets no sun.

Here is Andrew enjoying the sun.



Okay there was a bit of fog, but not the sunblocking type.



I guess Blake likes the sun too.



Sailboats



I am only excited about showing Blake the boats, not the sunshine.



After some time at the Marina, we headed over to Russian Hill to get lunch and stop by a candy store (http://www.thecandystoresf.com/) I had read about in a magazine. I tried gummy bananas, a coconut Long Boy Chew, and a Joya Bar. Andrew paid $8 for a chocolate bar that tasted like the $2 milk chocolate bars (3 pack) from Trader Joe's. He only ate two squares of it so it wasn't worth the splurge.

We decided to call it a day and drive by Ocean Beach once more to see if it was still foggy, which it was, so we talked about moving there. Only minutes later we both came to the conclusion that we don't really like San Francisco that much and we wouldn't want to live there. I love my husband because he lets me chase my crazy ideas and try them on in hopes I end up not liking them. I still want my mini horse farm though and we will have that someday. What a great husband. I thanked him for this on our walk last night and he said I could thank his mother (thank you Ellen) because he remembers going to open houses as a kid and running through the house imagining what room they would chose for themselves.

Blake gave us an anniversary present by sleeping for 11 hours straight two nights ago. It was amazing. I woke up at 6:45am when I heard Blake stir and I did a double take when I glanced at the clock. I couldn't believe that he went down at 7:30pm and woke up at 6:45am. Last night, he went down at 8:30pm and woke up at 4:45am. What a sleeping champ. I know he may not keep this up, but I am celebrating it while I have it.

Hats and Hats

I have been busy crocheting hats like mad trying to perfect the patterns. I have already spoiled some Christmas gifts so I thought I would share them on the website.

This is a hat for my sister's boyfriend Chris. I think I will make him another one to surprise him. Blake tried it on for fun.



I am also experimenting with skater hats for kids. I bought a bunch of funny patches and will sew them on the side like real skater hats.