Santa Monica and a sunset near Malibu
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and Zoo
Time with Eleanor and Miranda, Bernard and Agnes, and Ah-Gong and Ah-Ma. Cypress, Long Beach Botanical Gardens, Long Beach Aquarium.
Lucy’s Birthday
Winter Break
Holiday Card 2014
Rumor has it that our card has started hitting homes. We were late this year and the cards were not scheduled to ship until December 23rd. Albert’s mother in California got hers so it is likely they all went out. Can anyone tell us if they received theirs yet? Also if you normally get one but didn’t let us know since we will likely do a late card to some additions and we can add you.
Hoaglands
It’s been a while since I have done portraiture. Here are the Hoaglands as the Addams Family.
Family Time
We have this cow that we bought at Carter’s that sings Old MacDonald if you squeeze its arm; it kicks its legs when it plays and is pretty cute. We wrote earlier how Curie pretends to be the cow and kicks her legs when it sings, well, last night it became a family affair with Mommy, Daddy, Curie, and Elia singing Old Mac Donald at the top of our lungs and kicking furiously in bed. We did it until we were tired and our legs were sore. Elia even joined along, although she was a little perplexed at the craziness that is her family. We all have very busy lives – tempers can flare; patience is sometimes short – but it is times like these that we remember that one of our biggest jobs is making memories for each other.
Sisters :)
Elia pulls herself up
To be fair, Elia can’t pull herself to a sitting position yet, and could only crawl the other day. Erin turned around today and found her this way, having pulled herself to a standing position.
Elia, it’s not morning-time yet, it’s time to sleep
Fourth of July 2014
Fourth of July 2014. Here are our obligatory fireworks pictures and our story.
So we didn’t want to go into the city or even find a good show because of the effort it often takes to get home. Hours to walk home to Brooklyn after the NYC fireworks display, the Hoaglands getting a hotel room to avoid the crowds after the White House display, Erin’s boss taking four hours to walk home – of course in retrospect, someone told us to just pull over on the side of the road near the display.
Our version? Avoid the crowds and see where no one else is going – Sheraton Tysons, formerly called the Sheraton Premiere, our favorite staycation site, and Erin’s favorite hotel in the area. The result? Suite on the 23rd floor, take-out, and the promise of the breakfast buffet and pool in the morning. So we sit down to eat and in the corner of our eye notice a fireworks display in the distance, like a sparkler – then another, and another, and another. Before we knew it there were twenty at any given time, most a glimmer far away like sparklers, but a couple pretty close, basketball-sized or so. With the lights off, and fireworks all around us, it was a pretty good way to spend a Fourth of July. Oh, the American Nepalese Association were having a convention, and the Elia went into her first pool in the morning. When we do Elia’s update, we will post pictures.