November 2012: The Lawrences visit

Charlotte, Brooks, Wiley, Ruby, Hank and Max
I just loved seeing all of these kids crammed in one room all playing together.

Last November, Brett, Annika and their three kiddos Brooks, Wiley and new baby Noe came up from So Cal to the Bay Area for a weekend. We LOVED getting to see this family!!  We all met up at the Chen's house in the morning for play time and lunch.

Charlotte and Ruby taking over Max's toys

R & C

Wiley wanted to hold Ruby!

Max and Hank.  Later this bed would have all four boys jumping on it at once screaming "hey little pookie" over and over.  To this day, Hank will still sometimes scream this as he jumps on his bed.

At one point I found Brooks and Hank just lounging on Sandy and Leon's bed jamming.

We turned on a little bit of Thomas to give the boys some down time.  Hank would not let go of the robot.

Brooks wanted to drive Charlotte around.  This picture is out of focus but his adorable smile was too sweet in this one not to post it.

R & C

 

After lunch we all went back to our hotels/houses so we could get the kids to take a nap.
Then we met back up at Stanford for a walk around campus.  

Hank, Max, Wiley and Brooks.  All helping to walk Adam's dog.

Hank and Wiley contemplate the art installation at the new business school.

After our walk on campus we went back over the Chen's for dinner and the Utleys came too.
Here is a shot of the younger ones - all girls!
Ruby, Evie, Charlotte and Noe (with Dads Jeremy and Brett)

Wiley and Ruby

Teagan and her dad Chris also came by to hang out

 

Of course Max, strip down to your undies!!!

This day was a blast.  I love seeing all of these kiddos growing up!

-a

A great holiday weekend

Hopefully you had a nice long Memorial Day weekend!  On Sunday we went to a BBQ with our friends.  It was great food and great company even though the weather was chilly.  (NorCal is such a bummer sometimes.)  Hank ate a watermelon slice for the first time!  We used the bib for this because we knew there was going to be a big mess.  He did not disappoint!

Sandy brought her picnic blanket and she soon turned it into a magic carpet ride of sorts for Hank.  After pulling him around several times it was time for Brett to step in and take over and give her a break.  Hank LOVED this "ride".  Any time Sandy or Brett stopped, he would lean up and sign for "more, more".  We were all laughing every time he did it so of course he kept hamming it up and begging for more.

Enjoying the ride.

On Monday, after a pancake breakfast at our fave diner in Los Altos, we headed over to Stanford to take a walk around campus and let Hank get some of his ya-yas out. 

We went to check out a fountain and Hank tried to scoot right in.  It was funny to us but he was so annoyed that he couldn't go swimming.

Sadly waving bye bye to the fountain as we walked away.

We loved having Brett around for an extra day.  Even if it was only a little bit of the day since he went to work anyway.  Such is life at a start up!  That's OK, we'll take what we can get!

-a

Dream baby. Dream husband. Dream day.

Please allow me to be obnoxious for a moment.  It's my blog and I can do that.  

This dream baby is so stinkin' adorable!  Look at this pose!  I mean, really?  He just keeps getting cuter...how is that possible?!?

Today was a dream day...  

Hank slept until 6:45am.  (We're going on over a month of pre-6am wake up times over here.)

We went to our favorite diner in Los Altos for breakfast and Hank had a bite of pancakes for the first time.

Our weather was beautiful and in the upper 60's.

I got a manicure and pedicure while Hank took his morning nap.  

When I returned home, we took a nice long walk over to Stanford so Hank could play on the playgrounds before lunch.

After his afternoon nap, we went back to Stanford to let Hank roam the campus to get his ya-yas out before dinner and so I could take some pictures of him that did not have our brown couch in the background.  (I wanted to take advantage of having Brett as my wrangler.  It's getting harder and harder to take photos of Hank when we are out and about when I am by myself with him.  Let's just say he finds trouble real fast because he's real fast.)

Using Daddy to help walk down some stairs.

Peeking over a wall and getting excited at what he sees!

I love days like this.  Brett asked me..."Does everyday seem like a weekend to you?" (Since I don't go to an office to work).  My response was "yes" just to make him jealous.  But honestly the answer is yes and no.  Yes, because I don't work for the man anymore!  Woot!  No, because weekends are actually different for me.  On the weekends, Brett and I spend most of our time together with Hank.  I love that Brett gets to experience everything that I get to do all the other days of the week.

I love this dream baby and I love my dreamy husband!

-a

Over already?

The past several days have just flown by. I can't believe Pearce's great California vacation is over already. We all had an absolute blast.

On Friday, we went out to Half Moon Bay so Pearce could see the Pacific Ocean for the first time. He was only able to wade in the water so we promised he could swim another day.

Saturday had us going up to San Francisco so we could accomplish some more things on his wish list. Cable car...check. Eat crab...check. Swim in ocean...check. See crookedest street...check. It was enjoyable to watch him explore the city and experience all of these things that I take for granted about San Francisco.

On Sunday, we hung out in Palo Alto. The highlight of the day was when we took him over to Stanford campus so he could play in the water fountains since it was so hot outside. That was a ton of fun for him to do and afterwards we went to this Willy Wonka-esque fro yo shop so he could get all hopped up on sugar.

On Monday, we went to the SF Zoo. Now I will admit that this was a dreaded event for me, but I guess because I am a mom now I actually had fun. I enjoyed seeing how much fun Pearce had and I look forward to taking Henry back again in a few months when he's a little bit older and can enjoy it as well. Brett took Pearce to the neighborhood park Monday evening and early this morning so they could get more play time in before having to return to Texas.

Today we had the perfect day. The weather was perfect. The pancake breakfast was perfect. And the return visit to the fro yo shop right before dropping them off at the airport was perfect as well. It was a perfect trip for Pearce's first visit to California. I'm sad their gone!

-a

Graduation Weekend

Brett's graduation from Stanford GSB was last weekend. We had family and friends around the whole weekend to celebrate Brett and it was a ton of fun. Thank you to everyone who was able to make it the festivities, even if you were only here in spirit! You made the weekend very special and we couldn't have asked for anything more.

-a

School dazed and confused

Alright, alright, alright.

Brett's done with school! Yesterday was his last day of class at Stanford. I think it was a little emotional for him since he now officially has to enter back into the real world and do some bizness. I felt a little sorry for him too. But only for a few minutes...then I started the official count down clock to my retirement.

To commemorate the finale of his time at the GSB, here's a picture I took of him on his first day of classes. That day, it was cracking me up that he was a grown man and wearing a backpack so I had to take this picture. Not sure why he's flashing signs, so just ignore that part. Do not, however, ignore the fact that his hair was so short back then!

Although it has been a great week due to school being over, Brett's been recovering from a back injury he suffered this past weekend which left him "looking like he was permanently stopped in the middle of a dance move" - Brett's description of why his back looks all twisted up. If you've seen him dance you can understand what he's talking about. He's recovering well due to the meds that left him a little dazed and confused. We're hoping he makes a speedy recovery because we have lots of fun stuff planned over the next two weeks and we can't have him hobbling around anymore!

-a

The start of summer and a blog

This weekend marked the beginning of two things: the summer season and The Paulson Blog.

My friend Shannon and I hung out for most of the weekend. Both of our husbands weren't around this weekend so we hung out on Friday night and all day Saturday. On Friday we melted away at my house with no a/c (it was the first day of summer and it was over 100 degrees here) and on Saturday we went on many adventures in order to get out of the house and cool off a little. We went to the farmer's market, rode bikes on Stanford campus (that's Garrett's bike, which I borrowed, I need to get my own bike soon!), got snow cones at a little stand on campus, went to the movies (for the free a/c), and cooked dinner together. We had a lot of fun and the only time we stopped talking or laughing was when we went to the movies because we were forced to be quiet! It was a great way to kick off the summer.

-a