Shopping with....

Santa Delivers

Sick with a fever

Elves hard at work

Visited Walmart last night to scout out Xmas gifts and was a little disappointed with their standard bike display. That's when I discovered 3 elves working feverishly in the garden center.

Great Customer Service

I recently noticed a tear in my hydration pack. Since I didn't want to return it to Costco, I submitted a warranty claim with geigerrig.com. They emailed me back saying that they'd be sending me the latest pack version because they didn't have mine in stock anymore.


I was expecting just the pack and not the water bladder as well but they actually just sent me the entire backpack and system. I didn't need to show them any receipts or mail anything back. In addition to the great customer service, the water bladder is a great design. The bladder itself can be inverted and placed in the dishwasher. All the other camelbacks or hydration systems usually develop some kind of mold or require way too much care to keep clean and free of any buildup. I highly recommend the geigerrig system. I also recently emailed the customer service about my bike pump and how one of the pieces broke off. They also just sent me an entire new pump since the existing pump was no longer in production. Again, no receipts or returning the old one. So the moral of the story is remember to try customer service or a warranty claim for an item that you probably would have just purchased a new one of.

Home Depot Project

Stopped into the Home Depot this weekend to look for an item and instead Cole got to build his own tic tac toe board. Kids get their own smock and a pin after they complete a project. We might have to stop in for future projects.

First trip to the top

Lauren and I went for a hike up Telegraph pass.



A view from the top.


Lauren made it to the top for the first time.

School fund raiser

A first this year was the mini Ferris wheel. Cole enjoyed taking a ride.

Classroom Observations and teacher conferences

For our classroom observations and teacher conferences, the kids usually offer us a drink and a snack. Lauren's new classroom this year offered french press coffee and a biscotti. I'm glad to know they are learning good taste. :)

Cole's soccer team

Watching 4 yr olds play soccer is awesome; between the kids that are daydreaming on the field to the kids scoring in the wrong goal. Cole is really enjoying it.

Divine Design - Master Bedroom Retreat

When we had cable, we would watch Divine Design with Candice Olsen and always dream about having her design our bedroom. So for sabbatical last year, we decided to hire an interior designer to redo our bedroom. Overall the experience wasn't quite what we expected but we are pretty pleased with the transformation. Here are the before pictures.


Luckily I was able to sell all the furniture on Craig's list.


Since I redid our closet, we didn't have a need for the dressers anymore.


Here you can see the faded carpet from the previous owner as well as our redi shades covering the sliding doors. Those temporary shades were up for over 2 years.


We added 7 recessed cans, moved the ceiling fan, and added another pendent light.


Here I'm having the painter smooth out the stucco wall to make it ready for wallpaper. Yes, wallpaper. Never did I think we'd be putting up wallpaper.


Here's our new wood floors to replace the carpet. They are 7" maple. You can also see the new wall color.


Here's the wallpaper lady.


Here's the finished product. We had just finished getting professional photos taken so if you look closely, you can't see any alarm clocks or phone chargers. You can see the TV and the console table on the left which were things that we had picked out. The designers weren't too keen on a TV in the bedroom.


Here's our sitting area.


Another shot of the finished product.

Guess the game

Feed the animals. Cole tossed the whale right into the shark's mouth.

Freebie at the end of dinner

The kids would be in heaven.

Date night at the Biltmore

Halo halo

2nd Sabbatical - Vancouver

After spending some time in Seattle, we headed up to Vancouver and Whistler. In order to not pay for international data plans, we only used wifi on our phones. This proved to be difficult since we couldn't really navigate or get in touch with each other when we split up. We survived though and saved some money. :)

2nd Sabbatical - Seattle

I finally got around to posting our sabbatical trip. Here's the first part, Seattle.

Jersey Shore

Bradley beach

Headrest?

Cole is napping on the arm rest. Perfect height for his head.

Safety first

Mermaids

Our pet owl

Our friend paid us a little visit on our back wall. He was much easier to spot this time as compared to last time.

Happy 4th on the 3rd

Now you see them, now you don't

We are almost done with our Bedroom makeover and one of the remaining pieces was mounting the TV on the wall. We picked up the framed console table at Crate and Barrel. It's nice but has an unfortunate design element. There's a reinforcing piece of wood running the length of the top in the shelf. As a result, the height clearance is only 2.5" instead of the 3.5" in the front. So in order to not have to cut into the furniture, we bought a Tivo premiere to replace our Tivo HD. The Tivo premiere just fits.


Here you can see the full motion arm. It took a while to find one that would sit close against the wall (only 1.3") and yet swings out over 24".


I bought a combo surge protector outlet and wire management unit from Home Depot that will go right behind the TV. Also, right behind the console table, I put in a wire outlet so I can pass the HDMI cables behind the wall and right to the Tivo and DVD players.


Here's the finished work.


You can see the outlet box and the HDMI cables going into the box and running in the wall down below.


Nice and flat!

Show time

The kids' first movie in a theater. Monsters University.

I'm 6 years old today!

This year I had an old school birthday party at a bowling alley. Who knew bowling could be so much fun. This past year has been filled with firsts. I had my first graduation from Kindergarten. I traveled to my first international country, Canada. My parents still need to blog their sabbatical trip. I started Karate lessons for the first time, and finally I received my first cell phone. Okay that last one isn't true but one of these days, I'll get one.

I'm 4 years old today!

This is a big birthday for me. I can finally climb the YMCA rock wall. This past year, I took a trip to Seattle and Canada which my parents still need to blog and I love playing with my cars, trucks, and trains. On a more serious note, I am still not potty trained. I just don't see the need yet. Accident here, accident there, no big deal. As I tell my parents, "I'm never ever ever going to go to the bathroom."

Beautiful day at the Cape

Itty Bitty Sport - Bball and Soccer

We signed Cole up for Itty Bitty sport at the Y. They start with basketball, soccer, T-ball, and then finish up with games. Cole's favorite part of basketball was the dribbling.


Funny seeing how big the balls are compared to the kids.


A little stretching before soccer.


Cole is practicing his Karate Kid Crane kick.

Science Center with the Cousins

My family was in town back in March to visit including my brother and his family. Here they are at the Science Center. Lauren is off to the side not wanting to be in the picture.


Cole getting set to launch a ball.


Caroline and Lauren enjoying the water fountain.


Amazingly Cole is the only kid at the water sand box exhibit.


They opened up this new digital technology area. Here the kids are enjoying interacting with the screen.


I guess they don't have these down in South Africa. Can you tell which one is my brother?


Another group pose minus someone....


Caught Lauren hiding.


So that's an Angry Bird.