Swim Lessons... a lot of footage!

OK grandparents, you wanted to see Connor in action at swim lessons so here you have it! Sorry I've been slacking on the videos... someone has been monopolizing both computers in the evening (Will)! So here he is with lots of kicking, splashing, floating and blowing!

First Day of Preschool!

Man, I don't know where the time goes... Connor started preschool yesterday. It's only Tuesdays and Thursdays for 3 hours. He absolutely loved it and came home with his first art project with triangles. Cambria is in his class, so he had a familiar face to hang out with, which was great. We celebrated with a little lunch out to Wendy's, complete with chicken nuggets, oranges and chocolate milk :-)

Connor's New Girl

This past weekend we went to our friend's, the Fields, to help celebrate Elliott's 3rd birthday. Connor noticed the girls had a Barbie Jeep in the front yard so that's where he spent most of his time. Surprise! At one point I looked out and Connor & Elliott were in the jeep and he had his arm around her shoulder, the music was playing, and they were jibber-jabbing about something. Of course I missed that picture. But when I asked them to pose, this is the picture I got. What hams!

Happy Birthday Connor!

Can you feel the anticipation of birthday cake with this picture or what?! We celebrated Connor's 3rd birthday on Saturday at the park around the corner from our house. Before we got it started, it was 'snowing ashes.' No joke. But it cleared up, the sun came out, and Connor had a blast with the kids. All his friends were there. We had a bounce house, plus the playground - complete with sand. Perfect! Then the following day we went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and he road on all his favorite rides. What a birthday!

3 Loons on Vacation

We just got back from 9 days exploring up North. What a great time. We camped in Fortuna, CA - just south of Eureka. Spent 4 days in a little cabin and 2 days in our tent. Connor had a great time and found new friends at the campground every day. They had a playground (that we practically lived at when we were at the campground) and a pool. Lots of day trips. Got to see "Avenue of the Giants" that was incredible, elk next to our car in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, tooled around Eureka and did the harbor cruise, even crossed paths with a few breweries :-) Then we hit Six Flags Discovery Kingdom for the 4th and saw fireworks. Have to say that we're glad to be back home in our own beds though. But what a great vacation!

CHEEEEESSSSSSEEEEEE!

So, while Will was away this past weekend in Tahoe, Connor was hanging out with our neighbor, Max. Max is always out front skating and showing Connor all the new tricks. Max asked if Connor could go for a ride on his skateboard and I looked at Max like he was crazy. He said "No, no, I'll hold onto his arms and we'll just go on our street here, back and forth." Piece of cake. Well Connor tried that twice before he wanted to go down the HILL on our street! Crazy. I almost had a heart attack. Connor loved it and squealed the whole way. And of course we had to show Dad when he got home from his fishing trip :-)

Hawaii... anyone?!

So last week we were in Virginia house/school hunting. We've been researching the areas for months so we had everything narrowed down pretty well, plus we lived there when we were first married so it was nice to be back. We stayed with our friends, the Blacks, and scouted by day with the help of Kristi's mom (thank you Bonnie!). Even found us a really nice place in Chesapeake that I would have loved to make an offer on, although we're a bit early for that since Will doesn't graduate from NPS until the end of the year. Turns out that Will got an email last week while we were in Virginia and the job he was meeting/talking to everyone about is no longer.. it was already given to someone else who will be in Virginia in August of this year! Love the military. So it seems that the only engineering nuke job available will be in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Quite a bit off from Virginia, I think. I have to say that I didn't take the news very well. I know that Hawaii looks fabulous and that anyone who has even been there has absolutely loved it. If I had known that Hawaii was even a possibility for us, I don't think the shock would have been so great. And the whole point of us going to Virginia was to move back closer to our families and be in one place for 3-5 years. I can't tell you how much I was looking forward to that. And I am so bummed that Connor will be even further from his family. It's not like we can just pick up the phone any time we want and call family and friends back East. We have a hard time doing that now. Everyone keeps telling us that they are certainly coming to visit, and that's great. Our door is always open and we love having visitors. But I was really hoping we'd finally be a little closer to 'home' and have a house of our own. Guess that will have to wait :-(

California Surfer!

This pic was taken over the weekend at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and Beach. What a great spot! The day before Connor was on all kinds of kid rides and loved every one of them... flying planes, riding boats, the Pepsi Train, Dragons, race cars, even the sky ride! So we invested in a season pass for him. Anyone want to go?!?!

Here Crabby, Crabby, Crabby!!!

So our friend Cyndi came out to visit us last week. The one day we went down to the Cannery and had some lunch. Of course she had to get her seafood fix taken care and ordered a nice platter, Dungeness Crabs included. She proceeds to go about her lunch and breaks a piece of crab off for Connor. I was certain he'd take two bites and spit it out, due to the texture. Turns out the dude has expensive taste. I was hearing the story of Jannelle in my head all over again, loving lobster as a little girl! So thanks Cyndi!! We had another seafood feast the same week while she was here, compliments of Phil's, and ordered two more crabs. Connor was all about cracking them and digging out the meat. Guess it's best he learns on the Dungeness variety and not the Maryland variety! Get a load of this....