Pasta and Pumpkins

While I had a chance, I wanted to share some pictures from this last month.  Some of them are just because, others show some new things she has been doing.

She loves snuggling with her Daddy, especially in the morning after her morning bottle.

 While my sister had her hair trial for her wedding, Kalea was hanging out with Pat while Sara's cat Charlie enjoyed his resting on his leg.  I love that face she is giving.

 Here she is trying to crawl again with quite an expression on her face.

 She is really good at scooting backwards and getting stuck with her legs under the couch.

 Ready for some Saturday football with Daddy

 She is learning the "8-clap", she hasn't figured it out yet, but she will be a pro by next season.

 She has had pasta a couple times now, but this last week she had it for the first time with sauce on it and the ability to feed it to herself, and to her Dad.

 At first she was having difficulty getting the slippery pasta to her mouth so she pulled it to the edge and put her mouth to the tray.  A little bit later she took a big clump of it...

 and shoveled it to her mouth!  She loved it and got really good at feeding herself.  She loved playing with it.

 Investigating the pasta...

 It finally got a little bit colder so it is time to break out the boots and pants.  She is wearing jeggings and her new furry boots from Gramma and Aunt Sara.  The boots are a little big still and she really enjoyed playing with her feet in the air.

 Finally, we went to the pumpkin patch for her first pumpkin this last Sunday.  She is ready to pick out some pumpkins!

 Pat found his first

 This pumpkin patch in Fallbrook has all kinds of fun pumpkins to look at and a great selection of small, different ones for decorations.  Kalea loved this small one so we brought it home.

 Daddy and kalea with our haul.

 Kalea with her first pumpkin!

 Time to get ready for Halloween!  

Comic Con, 2012

About a month ago in July, Pat and I spent a few days in San Diego to attend Comic-Con.  This was our second year attending and we had a great time.  It is very crowded and a bit overwhelming, but despite that, we manage to have a good time.  Pat went all four days, I only went Friday and Sunday.  

Friday is typically the big TV day, so of course we had a bunch of tv panels we wanted to watch.  The big panel room to be in is known as Hall H, which seats about 6500 people.  On this day, the room had 3 great shows back to back to back.  The Big Bang Theory, followed by Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead.  We ended up getting in line at about 7:30 in the morning.  Even though the first panel we wanted to see didn't start until around 12, we ended up never making it into the room.  It seems many thousands of people in line before us had the same plan to stay for all of the panels, so the line never moved again once the room was initially filled.

While in line, we did get to see an actor from Game of Thrones.  He was schmoozing with the crowd and had a camera crew with him.  He plays "Hodor" for those of you who watch the show.

Once our day in line was over, it was time to hit the exhibit hall for some great comic geekdom.  Pat in front of the Bat-cycle. 

 Gollum looks a little weary of me...hmmm.

We came upon 3 giant stone trolls 

 And we saw Chewbacca without a head...

 Followed by a green droid.  Not sure of his official name since this is not R2-D2...

An anime Homer Simpson 

 Pat and I in front of the Iron Man 3 booth...complete with many different versions of the Iron Man suit.  We are now onto Sunday.  By this time I had already watched a few panels in Hall H with my best friend, Andrea.  We saw "Fringe," "Supernatural," and "Doctor Who."  Pat wasn't really into seeing any of those, so he spent his time buying and reading comics.  The rest of the day Pat and I walked through the exhibit hall since we hadn't really spent too much time doing it on Friday.

 A look at the craziness of the Exhibit Hall...it is very tiring to get through the craziness, which is why I like spending most of my time in the panels.  

 I don't think this one needs any explanation.

One of the walls had an area where people could decorate with lego's however they wanted.  I took this shot of the TARDIS for Andrea, since she loves "Doctor Who." 

 The Lego booth had a cool activity for everyone where you got to put together your own square that was color-coded and then it would be put into the wall to create a picture.  Here is my finished piece...

 And the spot it is going to be placed in.  My spot is the opening along the top second from the left.

 We got to see Night Rider...

 And Mattel's "new" Hover Board

Outside the exhibit hall they had a special display of all of the Bat-mobiles.  It was pretty cool to see them all in person.  Pat really loved it... 

 He got to touch the wheel!  

 Val Kilmer edition...

 Finished off with the classic Adam West edition.  They also had the Michael Keaton and George Clooney editions on display.  All-in-all we had a great time.  We already bought tickets to go for Saturday only next year.  Saturday is the big Movie day.  Pat loved that day best, he got to see some pretty awesome sneak-peeks including The Hobbit, Superman, Iron Man 3, and many others.  Looking forward to next year!

Beach Day and More

Finally having a weekend to stay home has given me time to share a few more things that have been going on this summer.  I have a few things from before her 7 month birthday that I never got around to.  

As she has become way more interested in her surroundings, the cats in both our house and my parents house have become her favorite friends.  She gets so excited every time she sees one or hears one.  At my parents house, Charlie is super friendly and very good with babies.  He will take her pulling his ears and tail, and will just walk away if he has had enough.  He loves to just be around the baby as well.  If you are holding her on the couch, he will usually lay on your lap as close to the baby as you will allow.  

Here is Kalea trying to get at Charlie a few weekends ago.

 In case you didn't know, we have a busy couple of months ahead of us.  This is due to both my brother and sister getting married within 3 months of each other.  My brother's wedding is first, and his future mother and sister-in-law joined with my mom, sister, and I to throw the bridal shower.  Her sister, Ashley came over for a planning session with her then 2 month old, Joshua.

Kalea, at almost 7 months old, loves looking at babies now.  Here is a great shot of them together.

 His hands are as big as hers!  She was investigating while we were comparing the size of the fingers.

 The last free weekend we had before this one, we took advantage and finally took Kalea to the beach.  We headed over to Carlsbad and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon for a few hours.

Kalea and I

 Touching the ocean for the first time.  It was pretty cold.

 Kalea and Daddy

 A tiring couple hours for our baby, so she took a pretty good nap under our beach umbrella.

 I wanted to throw this picture in here to show what happens if we start story time too late at night.  She was very comfortable in Daddy's arms and went right to sleep.  I think Pat only got through 1 or 2 pages at this point.

 And one more sleeping picture.  This time 3 generations napping together on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Happy weekend every one!

Family trip to Napa

The day after Father's Day in Napa, the boys went for a gold outing.  Us girls decided to do some wine tasting on our own.  Our first stop was the winery where my dad bought some special sparkling wine for our wedding toast.  Here is the front of the winery, Domaine Carneros.

My mom and Kalea waiting for us to walk up the stairs (they were dropped off before we parked.

Kalea wanted to gnaw on the glass as we were passing it around.  

A group shot of the girls

We had a wonderful picnic lunch later that day at Rutherford Hill Winery.  We had delicious salmon in addition to lots of other spreads for our lunch.  So delicious.

The view during our picnic.

The following day we went to a great winery where the owner shipped tons of authentic medieval stones from castles.  We went on a great tour and it was a nice change from the normal wine tastings.

Pat next to the "iron maiden" on the left.

Their wine cave that took almost 2 years to build!  

Pat and I during the tasting

After the castle, we went for our last picnic and I took a few pictures of Kalea.  I love this one.

Daddy and daughter taking it all in.

The last night we were in Napa, Pat and I went on a date to Santa Rosa.  Pat has been wanting to try a Guy Fieri restaurant for awhile now so we took the opportunity to try out "Tex Wasabi's."  We tried one of the "gringo sushi" appetizers which had pulled pork and french fries in it.  It was one of the weirdest things I have eaten in terms of taste expectations.  It was really good, but it completely messed with your head on what you were expecting it to taste like.

Pat in front of the restaurant when we were leaving.

We had a wonderful first family vacation.  Looking forward to many more!