Ides of March

Someone told Caesar to beware the Ides of March. I wish someone would have told us. This was a busy month for us. I had to do anther trip to Puerto Rico, for the official site opening. This time with my boss. While this was happening, Maria and Nene have been reconnecting with some old friends they went to high school with up in Seattle. They decided to come down and join us for an extended weekend. Rhonda & Frank flew down and spent Thursday in Napa, Friday in Amador with Maria and Nene, with me arriving late Fri night. Sat we had a BBQ at our place and Sunday everyone headed home. Tuesday we drove to LA for a funeral, while Arcele went in for surgery to have his stomach removed. All the commotion took a toll on us, left us tired, but we managed to get through it all and in better shape than Caesar.


While the adults were BBQ'ing on Sat, the kids decided it was a good time to play in the spa, which was close enough to the pool for their sake. Nate and Logan were running around the pool yelling "get me back in the spa"
Logan leading Nate in one of the many laps around the pool.
These kids are cool, but not as cool as the 62 degree water.
Sorry Nate, the spa's in the other direction.

cold cold cold, spa spa spa

Our budding artist displaying his skills. We're loving the warmer weather, allowing us to spend more time outside.
Of course there's plenty to do inside, especially if your part monkey.

I'm afraid we'll only see more of this as Nate gets older. Beer and balloons.
Lilo loved the company. Lot's of people to play catch with. 75 degree temps meant lots of time playing outside.

Now this feels like a familiar site. BBQ, umbrella, wine, good friends.

Skiing

While it may not be obvious, we did spend some time this winter up in the snow. For president's day weekend, the Cottle's came up and we rented a cabin at Northstar. Here Mike is enjoying the ice bar during a lunch break.More drinks at the ice bar.
Here we are at Mikuni's eating some sushi at the village at Northstar after a long day of skiing.
Here's the gang enjoying lunch together.
Mike and Lilia in front of the cabin we rented. We had reserved a 2 bed 2 bath place, but when we got there, it turned out to be a 3 bedroom place, so even more room for us. Olympics started this weekend, so it provided extra motivation for our outdoor activities.
The kids were happy of course whether they were on or off the ski's.


They had this bounce area, where the kids would hop on and play. Nate liked it, but didn't really get too into the whole thing. This is from a second trip we took with Nene, and we were able to see Julia Mancuso during the closing ceremonies of the Olympics. Nate completed 5 days of skiing lessons this season and finished the year by going down his first couple of ski runs on a chair lift. Next year we'll be able to take him with us on blue and green runs. We're so excited, debating on getting season passes.

Disneyland

Here's our gang at Disneyland. We had heard that Superbowl Sunday was the least crowded day of the year, so we headed down to the Cottles for a weekend at the happiest place on earth. Nate was older and could go on even more rides this year. Needless to say he had a blast. Saturday, it was just us northerners, Nene, Dani, Claudia, Nate, M and I, while Sunday the Cottle family joined in the fun. The weather wasn't great on Sat, with a threat of rain the whole time, but it was great at keeping the crowds away. No lines on the rides and we were able to see quite a bit at both California adventure and Disneyland. Sunday, while not bad, the lines were definitely longer in the 30-45 min range, but the weather was much better. I'm not sure I'm sold on the Superbowl being the least crowded day, but still a good time.
Claudia caught her first glimpse of Mickey Mouse. So exciting for her.
Later in the day, Claudia wasn't as excited about seeing the larger than life animals. She was in fact terrified of them.
Tigger was great, heard Claudia crying, ran out of the photo area to try and console her, but that wasn't going to help her fear of large tigers chasing her.
The Cottle family, enjoying one of their frequent trips to Disneyland. Although if you look closely, you will spot a rather rare occurrence, Mike Cottle is actually in the photo. Might not see that again for another 10 years.
This is over at California Adventureland. Kids were excited to begin their day of fun.
Waiting in line for Peter Pan I believe.
Last year when we brought Nate, he was scared of the big animals, this year, he ran right up and gave hugs and high fives.
Claudia, Nene and Dani at the entrance to Disneyland.
Nate and I soaring over California Adventureland. Nate really likes the roller coaster rides. In fact he loved them. Wanted to go on every ride again. He refused to name a favorite. The only ride that really scared him was Snow White, and it was the picture of the evil witch with the apple that made him cower.

Nate and Claudia at "A Bug's Life", an adventure in 3-D. Like Nate, Claudia doesn't like wearing 3-D glasses.
Nate and I in front of "A Bug's Life".
Here is the playhouse Disney area, with Little Einstein's, Handy Manny, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Tigger and Pooh. Very interactive and the kids loved it.
Nate chasing the bubbles, after Handy Manny fixed the bubble blower.

Nate was wearing my jacket, as we prepared to ride splash mountain. In this case it looks more like a dress on him. He loved the ride, and it was the first time Chloe had ever ridden it because no one usually likes to get wet.

In all, smiles all around. We look forward to doing it again. Never a cheap vacation, since we don't live there, we spend more on ensuring the memories are there for us and the kids. Life is so wonderful to see it through our kids eyes.

Upgrades

We've been doing some upgrades around the house. Late last year, we decided to go ahead and get the office doors, which were finally installed in Feb. We now have them painted and ready to go.

Doors installed, ready for priming and painting.

The finished product, ready for use.

The view from inside the office.

While the doors have been great, we've noticed that they aren't as good of a sound barrier as I would have liked. they aren't bad, better at keeping Nate out if I lock them, but I can still be interrupted by Nate screaming something like "There's corn in my poopy"


Maria has been looking for something to paint in our master bathroom. She finally found the picture, so we contacted our favorite muralist and she continued to demonstrate her work in our house. It took her about a day to complete and it really helps to finish the bathroomOur next project is the patio cover. We've put our decision to buy a new car on hold and are instead focused on getting a patio cover. We want a solid cover from the back door to the BBQ area, and then have it lattice work over the rest of the patio. It will extend out to the curves we had on the original patio before the pool was installed. We'll have 2 fans installed and eventually add in a mist system to help keep us cool. We've gotten a few bids and hope to make a selection by the end of this week. Installation would then be in 3-4 weeks. I'll get some photos once it's installed.

While no photos, it should also be noted that we also upgraded our heating and A/C unit so hopefully we will have the ability to actually cool our house this summer.

Waikiki Beach & Surf Lessons

Sun Jan 10th, we signed Nate up for his first surf lesson. Of course he loved it. Instructor was excited because he could sense that Nate wasn't afraid and was eager to get started. Nate go 15-20 rides in, even though the conditions were pretty terrible. It was cold wet and rainy, well for Hawaii it was cold. Not very big waves, but Nate displayed great balance side to side, needs to get better front to back. We're thinking we'll put him out again Tuesday morning before we hop on the plane.

Here's the onshore part of the lesson. Can you tell who's teaching? Nate kept saying he already knew how to do it.Here's some of the early in water practicing standing up.


Nate catching a wave, as you can see the front back was still a little tough, but he never fell off.


Ready, set hang loose.
Nate has "Shaka Brada" down pat. For you non-locals that's Hang Loose.
Back on the beach, showing off all he learned.
Cold, wet and very happy, until he found out what Baba was getting ready to do without him.
They had an extra spot on the boat, so Maria was able to go out and ride the waves in. She had a blast. Nate spent the whole time crying on the beach because he didn't get to go.

I feel like watching Hawaii 5-0.

The day before, we spent the afternoon in and out of the water. Nate started by trying to build some sand castles, but took great pleasure in getting buried in the sand.

As deep as I buried him, he had a really difficult time getting out, once he was all packed in there. Of course that din't stop him from wanting to do it again and again and again.
Not sure if you can read that, but it says Nate on his Sandstone chest.


So all in all we've had a good time, even though the trip is winding down. It's been hard, I've been absolutely buried at work, and on the beach. Looking forward to getting home, sleeping in a nice comfortable bed and relaxing.

Sunset from Duke's. Aloha everyone!