Happy Dad's Day

So Father's Day started out with a huge trust ceremony between Chris and Parker. At least that's what I guess it was. Otherwise, I'm not sure why Chris allowed a 4 year old to shave his face with a real razor. Luckily, no major vessels were severe. Chris finished the task as Parker used a tongue scraper to ''shave'' his face. Yeah, not sure it that will be going back in my mouth.

Later, we headed over to Tehachapi to celebrate Father's Day with Chris' father and the rest of his family. That means paved roads and sidewalks! Time to break out the scooter. Whoa! Whoa! Whoa there buddy! Don't forget the helmet and the padding. You can't be too careful...even with a scooter. (I know. I know. We didn't have any of this safety stuff when we were kids. But when we were kids, slides were made of shiny metal that headed to 100+ degrees in the daytime. And then think of our parents, they rode in cars without carseats. All I'm saying is can you imaging what our grandkids are going to look like while they're having fun? Pretty freaking awesome -- with an emphasis on ''freak''!)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Happy Birthday Carli!

We headed over to Tehachipi to celebrate Carli's birthday. As usual, Parker took a little time to warm up to everyone. (Arriving late didn't help either.) But on the bright side, it gave him a chance to find some one-on-one time with the birthday girl, not to mention Grandpa.

Christmas Eve

Today was my last day of work. Then, we headed up to Tehachapi to meet up with the rest of the Trillos. Think a family of 6 kids and their families intersecting and, as you can probably expect, chaos ensues. However, the craziness is fun, as always. And, to add to the frenzy, we have to leave early so we can start our trip up north to San Francisco. Tally ho!

Thanksgiving 2008

This Thanksgiving we spent the holiday with Chris' family up in Tehachapi. Another opportunity for great company, delicious food, and, yes, Parker to go absolutely crazy. Actually, he behaved himself pretty well. I don't think he annoyed his cousins too much. The evening ended with some live music courtesy of the kids table.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tahoe 2007

So he we are, back in Tahoe for the holidays. When we arrived, there wasn't much new snow -- which made for a great drive there (no white out conditions on a crowded, slick roadway) and lame snowman making conditions. The snow was just too drive and had the consistency of sugar. So instead of making snowpeople, we ended up making snocanos. The condo did have a sled in the garage so the girls took that out for a test drive. Nice! Parker, however, was too busy eating snow to bother sledding. Excuse me. What we call "eating snow" is what Parker called "eating snowman". Hmmmm. That just doesn't sound too civilized.

The grandparents were with us (my mom and Chris' parents) and the graciously offered to watch the kids, which gave the parents a chance to hit the slopes. Now I've had more miserable days on the slopes but this trying it's best to get there. It was cold, windy, and icy. As I mention earlier, no new snow so each fall potentially could end your day...and that was just on the bunny slope. However, after the men folk took off for larger, steeper slides, my sis and I proved that we're tuff enuf and went up (and down) a few more times. Joanie even took the hill solo! Like any good snowbunny, though, we ended the day in the bar soothing our bumps and warming our toes with hot toddies.

What a difference a day makes! Sunny. Bright. We all headed up the mountain, this time so the kids could get some sledding in. The snow...much better than the stuff outside the condo...taste wise (because, of course Parker had to again "eat snowman") and building wise, allowing the kids to work on a better snowman.

Of course, we did spend all day making snowmen. The kids had real business to tend to...SLEDDING! Parker, however, was having none of it. Oh well. The girls, however, did awesome. Forward and backward, they kicked butt! And what did Parker do while the girls were tripping the ice fantastic? Nap on Daddy's stomach. Cozy huh?

Christmas 2007

Let the Christmas festivities begin!


On the Saturday before, we headed over to Thommy & Geoffrey's place for a delicious holiday brunch, brought to us by the other Chef-Boy-Ardee in my life...Geof. Parker also got to check out Thommy's Christmas Express that circled their tree. And we opened gifts, of course. Chris got the ''The Dangerous Book for Boys'' and Geof and Thommy got the equally ''dangerous'' ''Space Academy, The Complete Series'' and ''Beverly Hills 90210, Season 2'', respectively.


The next day, the party moved to Tehachapi. Unfortunately, not all of the Trillos has arrived yet but, since we were heading up north the next day, the kids got to open some of their presents...TWO DAYS EARLY! WEEE! Parker opened a Hot Wheels race track set and didn't open the box as he discovered that running your car over the picture of the track was just as fun. (No worries, he would find out the truth when we finally assembled the track a couple of days later in Tahoe.)


On Christmas Eve, we made our way to the Bay Area, first stopping as my sister Susie's place so even more cousins could collide. The newest one, Susie's little baby, Brian, brought the number to a round six. Of course, getting all six in one picture proved to be tricky. In the end, the best I could get was one which featured half of Parker's face, right up front on the left. You can't even see Jason's face...but, they're all in the picture so that's got to count for something.

By the way, regarding the huge Hot Wheels bandage on Parker's head, have no fear, he didn't injure himself. He was just feeling a bit grumpy on the way up (it's a lot of traveling even for big kids like me and Chris) so I slapped an obnoxious bandage on his forehead. He loved it. But that meant I couldn't remove it for the rest of the night.



Christmas morning...FINALLY! Luxi was up first to check out all that Santa has left for them. Begrudgingly, Niko and Parker woke up (with encouragement from Joanie). But once all the kids woke up, it became a madhouse. Thank goodness we were at Joanie's. There was chocolate to be had, tea parties, doll play, gun play, and of course a bunch of absolutely loud drumming. Holy crap! Parker loved it. And again, thank goodness we were at Joanie's. What a way to rock out the old year.

That said, WE HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

PLEASE NOTE: Chris will kill anyone who buys Parker drums for his birthday.