Jill's "New" Bike

Over the Thanksgiving weekend in T-hatch, Nathan painted Lucas' (or is it Lucas's or is it Luca's or.... Honestly ever time I write it, I wonder) old bike, which in now Jill's bike, pink and also the surrounding grass but that is really beside the point now since his Mother graciously forgave him and is now just very thankful every time it snows.

To complete the transformation I ran to Maisonnette, which is a wise first step in any decoration transformation one may undertake. Turns out they had the PERFECT oilcloth fabric to tie in the pink and the remaining bits of red. A little bit of paint, a little bit of sewing and a little bit of decoupage glue and TA DAAA....a new PINK bike for a very PINK girl.

Since I had the camera out we had fun trying to make "fast" pictures. I told Jill to ride by me really fast, look at me and smile. She did a great job looking at me with a huge cheese-ball smile.

But occasionally you also have to keep an eye on where you are going...

Lucas pulled out his standard freestyle tricks...

This one "got my heart going. I wasn't sure what was going to happen."And on a completely unrelated note...all fall I've been loving these trees at end of our street.

Boy humor

Here is what I found taped to the toilet seat a couple of days ago...

It reads..."tlit and pee and pup"

Now, ain't that nice! The boy's putting his recently acquired writing skills to good use.

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.