Happy Thanksgiving

We are thankful for laughter!

Clara's got Rhythm

Check out these maraca moves!

Halloween!

Yesterday we celebrated Clara's second Halloween-- but her first trick-or-treating, first Halloween in Ben Lomond, and first Halloween with Grammy.




Clara was a little unsure at first about stabbing the pumpkin with a knife and scooping out the insides. Once it lit up and smiled, however, she said it was "funny".

The fire truck at Felton Covered Bridge Park was a big hit,

And the bridge itself is pretty spectacular.

Clara picked out this pumpkin and carried it around the patch herself.

Clara debuted her trick-or-treating career as Alice (in Wonderland), wearing the dress Heather wore to Disneyland when she was little.

"You mean people just give me candy?"

We had a great weekend with Grammy.

Yay Halloween!!

Pumpkin Patch!

Note: this is the first of three posts tonight. Scroll down to see pictures of Clara's cousin Ian and our first weeks here in the bay area.

Fall has hit in Ben Lomond. We headed to Santa Cruz's "The Great Pumpkin Patch" to pick out a "little pumpkin" as Clara requested. (No big ones please.)

A side note: While some call November the beginning of "holiday season", for me the season starts with a trip to the pumpkin patch. I'm not sure why, but I suppose it has to do with tradition. Drew and I have carved pumpkins every year since we started dating which makes 9, count em' NINE pumpkins. And now that Clara is 18 months old, it occurred to me that this is her second trip to the pumpkin patch. And she wasn't an infant last year. She was actually a rather plump 6 month old pumpkin. So a year ago, Clara was no longer a baby, which means now she must really be getting big. So for this holiday season, I'm going to be all about traditions... for my big girl.



Sporting the cute tee from Melanie. Oh, yes, we are getting ready for Halloween.

Clara's two and a half feet tall. I think that's hilarious.

Happy Halloween!

Baby Ian

We got to go up to Seattle to visit Clara's Uncle Sean; Aunt Jessica; and new cousin, Baby Ian!

Here are some pictures with captions below.



The mamas and "babies" get ready to head to the park.

The beautiful new mama!

And the peanut.

Ready, Set, ...

Go!

Beep Beep!

Ian's long which means he has to wear big onesies, but this makes for interesting leg holes...
Proud Papa is helping him show off his legs. :)

Ian thought Uncle Drew was pretty cool.

And Drew tries his hand at two. (No, we aren't pregnant.) :)

At another park, Clara spies an airplane!

And still has time for kisses from Mama.

our beauty.

First date night for the new parents! We had fun playing with Clara and Ian and managed to get them both to sleep! Yahoo!

Clara loves Baby Ian.

Our New Life

Finally! New photos from our new life. Captions below.




Clara is a fan of our new (100 year old) piano!

Clara enjoys the choo-choo with animals in tow.


Clara's Great Aunt Melanie had her installation service at her new church! Yay, Aunt Melanie!
We celebrated with family, decked out in red as is the norm at celebratory Episcopal services.

Paddy, Clara, and Great Uncle John walk up the steps.

Hangin' outside.


During Drew's week off before starting at UCSC we went to the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose . It's awesome. I highly recommend it. So does Clara; here's why.

There's a GIANT DUCK outside! Clara wasn't sure there was anything better than that.

But wait, there's balls that you throw down this cylinder thing...

And they spin!!!!

AND they have butterfly plates and toy food? Yes, please!

AND a push pin wall?? Are you kidding me?

And I get to hang with Dad? Wow, I'm liking this new life. :)

Chatterbox

Clara loves to talk. While most of the time she communicates her needs and wants pretty clearly, sometimes she just likes to hear her own voice. Below are two such ramblings (back to back). The videos are long, but we think they are pretty hilarious. Enjoy... if you dare.

P.S. See below for a recent picture of Clara helping out in the yard.

Clara the gardener

Quotations

Clara is a chatterbox. She straight cracks us up sometimes with her ability to repeat, remember, and display her personality through words.

In an effort to remember and capture some of the funnier moments from our lives over the last week, I've written down some of her quotes. Make sure you also scroll down and check out last night's post for a recent picture.

"No, Clara, that's not Horton (the elephant), that's Jesus!" -Drew

"Clara, can you blow your nose? We need to get the beans out!" -Heather

"Oh Daddy, where are you?" -Clara (in a singsong voice)

Heather: Clara, do you want to color?
Clara: Um, Yeah.
Heather: Clara, do you want to go get ready for bed?
Clara: Um, No.

(Pretend talking on the phone to her Paddy)
"Hello? Okay, okay, okay." (repeat for approx. 5 min.) -Clara

Clara: Color! Color! COLOR!
Heather: Do you want to color?
Clara (casually): okay.

Big Girl

It feels like we blinked and Clara suddenly became a toddler.
Here's our big girl enjoying our beautiful back yard.

More photos to come...

North to Eden and the Jeeps of Wrath

To me, there is something about "packing up all of your possessions and hitting the road" that can only be encapsulated by John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. This is one of my (Drew's) very favorite books, and the fact that our trip took us through Salinas, CA, birthplace of Steinbeck and setting of many of his novels and short stories, made it all the more pertinent.

The warm glow of my dissertation defense and going-away party on Monday evolved very quickly into an intensely burning fire of activity, as Heather and I (with much help from Mr. and Mrs. D, and her cousin Ben) scrambled to fit all our possessions into a rental truck by Wednesday night. Like the Joads, our longtime (six years!) pattern of of subsistence had come to an end, and we were leaving town in hopes of better economic prospects.

Skipping forward to a comparison to the conclusions of the stories, ours turned out much happier than the novel's. Heather, Clara and I are now happily settled in our mountain home in Ben Lomond, enjoying sunny days, cool nights, and beautiful time together. Family members gathered around us to make the move-in smooth and make us feel very supported and loved. Contrast this with bouncing between migrant work camps, peach-gorging-induced dyssentary, and an awkward finale in a barn, and we are really doing well.

Sadly, though, our journey did parallel The Grapes of Wrath in the loss of a family member along the way. Don't worry: Everybody made it safely. The loss was that of our faithful companion, the Jeep. Heading out of town in 100-degree heat, a failure of the heater control valve caused a sudden, massive overheating, a burned-up engine, and a reluctant but necessary sell-off. Like Granpa Joad, who succombed to a stroke before the family left Oklahoma, it seems the Jeep preferred death on I-5, just south of Del Mar Heights Road, to the thought of leaving San Diego. Or maybe the Jeep was more like Granma Joad. She held on just long enough, passing silently on the Grapevine so that the caravan could reach its destination of the Central Valley. For the last six years we have prayed that the Jeep could "just make it through grad school," which it did, stoically and successfully. In retrospect, hoping that it would "make it to the postdoc" might have been a better idea.

(As timing would have it, we were at that moment purchasing a "second" car, so we do have wheels, and are hoping to find another car soon. Life is good. )

The Jeep incident aside, the move and transition went very well. I start work next week, and we will post pictures of our beautiful new house, and our excellent stay-cation activities (beach, San Francisco...) soon.