Thanksgiving 09

This year we rented a RV, loaded everything from our house into it , and drove it up the coast to Carpenteria, a cute little beach town just south of Santa Barbara. Growing up, Nathan's family camped there on a regular basis so it's a destination brimming with happy memories, of which we added a few more of our own. The kids had a wonderful time riding bikes, starting/maintaining fires, building forts, sand castles and weaponry, climbing trees, boogie boarding, and eating smores. We had a wonderful time watching them.

After camping, we spent one night at U. Dan and A. Carmen's new house...lovely!...and then drove up to Tehachapi for the rest of the week. Lucas and Jill had a blast with cousin Jax and friend K. We got to listen to baby Marlowe's sweet little squeaks. She so little and precious. How can it be that only a few months ago my 23+ pounder was that little! Speaking of Miss Chunky Monkey she started walking! She had taken one or two steps before but this was five or six steps on purpose. It probably helped that she had a full cheering section egging her on. When she would make it to her destination she would turn with a beaming face and wait for the adulation.

Mia News and Trees

Mieza (newest nickname) took 2.5 unassisted steps this evening and made several "shopping trips" with her siblings around the circle in our house. Mia pushed the shopping cart and Lucas or Jill act as the throttle control. Exciting times at Durango Circle!

I thought this was pretty clever.

http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/bio-diversity/?hp

Hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving!

Backyard

We have been spending a lot of time playing in our backyard lately. Mia seems to have inherited Jill's propensity to wake up crabby from naps and we've found there is nothing like a trip to the backyard to take her mind off of her troubles. There's lots to se, explore and eat (and ya'll thought sand was gross).