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We had a really great time on an extended vacation out to California. It was nice to get away from the heat for a while. The first week was spent up in Morgan Hill at Susan's parents' house. Ezra got to play with his cousin Sadie a bit more. It was cute to see them together.


Ezra loved all the time that he got to spend outside, as we all did. We took a morning walk through grandma and grandpa's garden. He had to point and pick at everything.


Whenever we got him outside for very long, Ezra enjoyed collecting leaves. He'd pick up a bunch of them and then would proceed to tear them apart and throw the pieces over his shoulder.

We took a family trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Ezra loved seeing all of the fish. He has a fascination with anything that swims.

It was a lot for him to take in, and he just had this amazed look almost the whole day.

He kept pointing at everything and saying, "This!"


They had a kids area and he had fun playing with the toy starfish.

Grandpa even soaked his feet in one of the exhibits (that has things you can reach in and touch).

Overall, it was just a really fun day.

We all really enjoyed being able to spend a bunch of time outside.


The beginning of this week we went down to San Clemente State Beach for a family reunion for part of Shawn's side of the family. Here's the view from the front door of our tent.

We got to go play down on the beach for a good part of the day on Tuesday. We all had a lot of fun.

Ezra was a little apprehensive about the water at first, but after a while he really started to enjoy it. Whenever a wave would come up, he would kick his feet in the water and laugh.

We only got minor sun burns (though some of the relatives got it pretty bad). Ezra was completely wiped out after the couple of hours that we spent at the beach and passed out for a couple of hours when we got back to the tent.


Though it was fun to get away, it's nice to finally be home.

1 Year Old

Life has been a little crazy the past 2 weeks. First we had visitors. Mandy and the kids stopped at our place for a couple of days on the way out to California. Ezra loved having more kids to play with. When we got the camera out Ethan was in the shower so he didn't end up in the shot.


After their visit we packed our bags and headed to New Mexico for a week long visit with Shawn's family. Ezra did really well on the drive there and warmed up really quickly to Grandma, Grandpa and especially Aunt Lori. On the first full day we were there he got his first birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa. A John Deere riding push toy.

He thought riding it was awesome.

Grandma showing him the animals that came with it.

On Monday we took Ezra to the zoo for his first time ever. He loved seeing all of the animals but he definitely had his favorites.

Trying to pull closer to see the polar bears better.

Watching the seals and sea lions swimming. These were his absolute favorite.

Ezra liked swinging at Grandma & Grandpa's house as well. He was pretty happy again once his 3rd tooth finally broke through all of the way.


Shawn's grandparents came over on Friday and we were able to get another 5 generation picture.

Ezra decided to be a bit silly when we took some family pictures.

Ezra really liked the rocking chair. It isn't every day that he gets rocked to sleep.

He's already had cake 3 times, and his birthday isn't until tomorrow. The first was on Thursday night. Lori was going to be gone on Friday night, so we gave him his first cake on Thursday night. It was a carrot cake. At first he wasn't sure what to do with it and just played with the frosting.

Susan took his hand and put it into his mouth, and he caught on really quickly. He managed to get carrot cake just about everywhere. The funny thing was that he only ate with his right hand for the most part, so his left hand was pretty clean.


He had some more carrot cake on Friday night so that his great-grandparents could see him with cake. He was a bit cleaner that time.

The third cake was tonight, and it was chocolate. Shari & Ammon came over for dinner and for cake tonight, since it worked out better for them, and Ezra is going to get shots tomorrow afternoon.



He had no hesitation with cake this time.

A lot of busy nothings

Things have been fairly busy around here, though I can't say that we've done a whole lot out of the ordinary.

Work has been really busy for Shawn, but seems like it should ease up a bit here soon, especially since we're going to be going on a decent amount of vacation here soon. It will be nice to have a reason to be away during part of the hot summer months.

Ezra has had his second tooth pop through the surface. He's starting to walk a bit, when we trick him into it. He seems fairly content to just crawl, but takes a few steps from time to time.

Susan hung up a bird feeder in the backyard, and now we have a flock of little birds all over the yard all the time. Its nice though. Ezra likes to sit and watch them.


We got Ezra a new toy that he just loves to play with. Its a little wooden train that you can take all of the pieces apart. He really enjoys anything that he can take apart.


Speaking of new toys, we got a new chef's knife at Home Goods for pretty cheap. Its nice! Hopefully it will keep its edge for quite a while.


We finally actually got a new picture taken of the two of us. We thought we'd share it, since mainly all that you see here are pictures of Ezra.


"What is this thing? How do you turn it on? Where are the batteries? Does it taste good?"

Summer is upon us

So summer is basically here. Its been getting over 100 the last few days. Its hot, but doesn't seem quite as bad as previous years, probably just getting used to it I guess.

Our gardenias that we planted a few weeks ago have started blooming, they're really pretty.


Kelly and Cameron were here this weekend looking for a place now that Kelly will be working not far from here. It will be fun to have them around.

We also saw Tammie, Paul & Daniel. Ezra is a little bit bigger than Daniel, but Daniel is walking now. We had to keep Ezra from trying to grab Daniel's shoulders to pull himself up.

It looks like Ezra is going to get his second tooth soon. He's been jabbering a lot more, and every now and then he seems to say things that almost sound like words. He eats like crazy, he seems to always be hungry, but if I were growing as fast as him I guess that I would be too.


He's getting to the point where he probably could walk if he would try. He can stand on his own and will even squat down to pick stuff up when he drops it. We've tricked him into taking a couple of steps every now and then, but for now he prefers to crawl.


He laughs a lot now. Kelly had him giggling the whole time they were here. He seems to be just a fun-loving little guy.

Susan and I got to go out on a date last night. It was nice to get out and have dinner with just the two of us. We went and saw Star Trek. It was awesome! One of the better movies that I've seen in quite a while.

Projects

So we've had a busy week. Work has been crazy for Shawn. We have been working on getting our projects done. One of the projects was to recover the chairs that our landlord included with renting the house. They were all stained; why anyone would get white chairs I honestly don't know. We've gotten to all of one chair so far, but here it is beside one of the uncovered chairs:


Improvement, no? The big project this weekend has been stripping a wallpaper border out of Ezra's room and then painting over where it had been. It was quite the job, and took all of Friday night and most of the day Saturday (with a few breaks, since its hard to work on this stuff with a 10 month old awake). The wallpaper was basically falling off of one of the walls. Before:

During removal:



After:


I think it looks a lot better, even if you can tell that it was amateurs that painted it.

We were still able to find a decent amount of time to play while Ezra was awake though. He loves chasing Susan around the house. She'll run a little ways and then wait for him to chase her, and then run a little more before he catches her. He laughs up a storm (especially when he's tired).

We were talking last night a bit, and Ezra was just playing around in the living room. We turned around and he had plunged head first into his toy bin. By the time we got the camera, he had righted himself. He was pretty proud of himself for climbing into the toy bin all by himself.
This afternoon was just a lazy afternoon, once Ezra went down. He didn't get a morning nap since we were at church, and he wasn't about to fall asleep in a new exciting place. It will be nice to have him back in his own room again. Two nights doesn't seem like much, but he likes to have his own space to play. We like to have an easy place to watch him too. We took a bunch of pictures of him, playing around with the camera. Here are some of the best ones:




Isn't he cute?