Another year behind us. 2008 was good to the Vees. Jake turned 2, Mike turned 30. We went to Alaska, Brazil, and Mexico. Mike started a new career job, I went back to work traveling (so far only to Boise, Idaho and a site here in Portland), and Jake has an amazing playmate by the name of Skylar and a wonderful nanny to look after them both.
We're looking forward to 2009. Bush is leaving the White House. We'll be visiting friends in Austin, Texas, I'll be a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding, and there is sure to be more fun stuff along the way.
Happy New Year to all of our wonderful friends and family.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Cabo Finale
The rest of the trip/pictures...
Paradise...
Three of the days that we were there, Jake fell asleep while we were at the beach club, and either slept in my arms or on the lounge chair. I had the pleasure of an hour of uninterrupted reading time!
Home again, home again... thankfully all of us had full rows on the plane back to Portland. Jake spent the middle part of the trip rotating between the three rows, but mostly wanted to be with Aunt Amy and Tyler!
While we were there on Boxing Day (December 26th), we had a boat take us around to the tip of the island, where they have 2 beautiful beaches on opposite sides of each other. One is called Lover's Beach, and the other is Divorice Beach, we don't know why. We played on the sand on Lover's Beach, and Jake laughed and laughed while playing in the surf. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring a camera, but it was great.
That night, Jake was exhausted, having only had a 5 minute nap in the car ride home from the boat trip. He fell asleep at 5pm and was still very sleepy and groggy at 8pm, when we were just sitting down to dinner. All of our efforts to wake up him and get him to eat were met with "NOoooooo," the evil eye, and a burrowing of his head in my shoulder. Suddenly, we heard fireworks, and ran outside and saw a stunning 1 minute fireworks display. They woke Jake up, and he was enraptured and excited by the display. After that he was totally happy and ate a good dinner. It cracked us all up that it took fireworks to get Jake out of his bad mood nap!
Paradise...
Three of the days that we were there, Jake fell asleep while we were at the beach club, and either slept in my arms or on the lounge chair. I had the pleasure of an hour of uninterrupted reading time!
Home again, home again... thankfully all of us had full rows on the plane back to Portland. Jake spent the middle part of the trip rotating between the three rows, but mostly wanted to be with Aunt Amy and Tyler!
While we were there on Boxing Day (December 26th), we had a boat take us around to the tip of the island, where they have 2 beautiful beaches on opposite sides of each other. One is called Lover's Beach, and the other is Divorice Beach, we don't know why. We played on the sand on Lover's Beach, and Jake laughed and laughed while playing in the surf. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring a camera, but it was great.That night, Jake was exhausted, having only had a 5 minute nap in the car ride home from the boat trip. He fell asleep at 5pm and was still very sleepy and groggy at 8pm, when we were just sitting down to dinner. All of our efforts to wake up him and get him to eat were met with "NOoooooo," the evil eye, and a burrowing of his head in my shoulder. Suddenly, we heard fireworks, and ran outside and saw a stunning 1 minute fireworks display. They woke Jake up, and he was enraptured and excited by the display. After that he was totally happy and ate a good dinner. It cracked us all up that it took fireworks to get Jake out of his bad mood nap!
Monday, December 29, 2008
A Very Mexican Dinner
For our Christmas dinner we all went out to a Mexican restaurant. Of course we had to bring the trains.
The place was all decorated in festive lights.
Notice the chair in which my mom is sitting, and the glass that the candle is in.
Jake had his very first virgin strawberry daiquiri!
This clown came around to do balloon art. Jake was totally in awe and fascinated.
Jake got this ... penguin?
Then someone else gave him this flower balloon thing. It was supposed to go on top of his head, but he insisted on wearing it like a necklace.
A very fun dinner! The drinks were large and delicious, the food yummy. We were serenaded by 3 men with guitars, watched a woman dance with a candle on her head, and turned down multiple offers to have caricature art portraits done.
The place was all decorated in festive lights.Notice the chair in which my mom is sitting, and the glass that the candle is in.
Jake had his very first virgin strawberry daiquiri!
This clown came around to do balloon art. Jake was totally in awe and fascinated.
Jake got this ... penguin?
Then someone else gave him this flower balloon thing. It was supposed to go on top of his head, but he insisted on wearing it like a necklace.
A very fun dinner! The drinks were large and delicious, the food yummy. We were serenaded by 3 men with guitars, watched a woman dance with a candle on her head, and turned down multiple offers to have caricature art portraits done.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Christmas in Mexico
Christmas Eve... we relaxed at the villa we rented in Cabo.
A nice dinner was delivered that we simply heated and assembled!
The stockings were hung by the ... erm.. hung on the cabinets with care.
Christmas morning! We could have had a white Christmas in Portland, but this sunny one was really nice!
Christmas breakfast.
Opening the presents in the stockings! We were so lucky to get our stockings -- the luggage that my parents checked and that we checked (a total of 3 bags and a carseat) did not arrive when we did -- we got the bags the evening of the 23rd and the carseat the evening of the 24th, whew!! The stockings and presents for them were in those checked bags.
Tyler got some bad-ass socks.
Jake loved reaching into his stocking and pulling things out.
He got a new wooden train for his Thomas the Train collection. Gordon joined Duck, Salty, Bill and Ben the trains. (Funny, he asked for Thomas, but we haven't been able to find Thomas!)
After presents, this is what we did.
A nice dinner was delivered that we simply heated and assembled!
The stockings were hung by the ... erm.. hung on the cabinets with care.
Christmas morning! We could have had a white Christmas in Portland, but this sunny one was really nice!
Christmas breakfast.
Opening the presents in the stockings! We were so lucky to get our stockings -- the luggage that my parents checked and that we checked (a total of 3 bags and a carseat) did not arrive when we did -- we got the bags the evening of the 23rd and the carseat the evening of the 24th, whew!! The stockings and presents for them were in those checked bags.
Tyler got some bad-ass socks.
Jake loved reaching into his stocking and pulling things out.
He got a new wooden train for his Thomas the Train collection. Gordon joined Duck, Salty, Bill and Ben the trains. (Funny, he asked for Thomas, but we haven't been able to find Thomas!)
After presents, this is what we did.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
To Cabo!!
On December 20th we headed to the airport to fly to Seattle, then to Cabo, Mexico. Portland had been getting snow and ice and another big storm was on the way -- to arrive the afternoon of the 20th. Arriving at the airport, we found that our 9am flight to Seattle was delayed, thus we would miss our flight to Cabo. The airline had put the 3 of us Vees on a 8am flight, even though our boarding pass printed the day before showed us on a 8:30am flight, but we had not received any notification of all of this! Craziness. And my parents weren't put on an earlier flight. So after standing at the ticket counter for 30 minutes, trying to figure out some other way to Cabo (San Francisco? Phoenix? Houston? LA? Everything was booked full) it was looking like there was no way we could get there until the 23rd since everything was booked and there was a huge snow/ice storm coming in. Then we had the agent check again and discovered that the Cabo flight out of Seattle was also delayed, so we were able to fly out of Portland to Seattle at 10:15am and made the flight to Cabo. Lucky, lucky, lucky us!!!
This is where we ended up.
Amy and Tyler made it out of NYC during a blizzard -- most flights out of NYC were cancelled but they got out. Lucky, lucky!!
After some stressful traveling, some pampering was needed. Mom enjoyed a pedicure, I got a massage.
Dad was happy to read a book when he wasn't running or snorkeling.
Jake played and read books and played some more.
So happy at the swimming pool at the house we stayed at. They had a big pool and this little one that was perfect for him to play in.
And blow bubbles.
All sunshine here... while Portland got 2-3 feet of snow/ice.
This is where we ended up.
Amy and Tyler made it out of NYC during a blizzard -- most flights out of NYC were cancelled but they got out. Lucky, lucky!!
After some stressful traveling, some pampering was needed. Mom enjoyed a pedicure, I got a massage.
Dad was happy to read a book when he wasn't running or snorkeling.
Jake played and read books and played some more.
So happy at the swimming pool at the house we stayed at. They had a big pool and this little one that was perfect for him to play in.
And blow bubbles.
All sunshine here... while Portland got 2-3 feet of snow/ice.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Doll Sling
There was more playtime today. The kids pulled out this doll sling that I had gotten just after Jake was born but he hadn't shown any interest until now. Isn't that cute!?
Skylar loved it, too. She kept walking around with the doll in there and would pat its bottom on occasion.
They even went in for a "family" group hug :)
Meanwhile, it snowed on and off all day. We've had temperatures in the 20's this week, but today it was hovering around 35, so the streets were pretty slushy. They are frozen tonight!
Skylar loved it, too. She kept walking around with the doll in there and would pat its bottom on occasion.
They even went in for a "family" group hug :)
Meanwhile, it snowed on and off all day. We've had temperatures in the 20's this week, but today it was hovering around 35, so the streets were pretty slushy. They are frozen tonight!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Playdough Boats
Yesterday Skylar came over to play in the morning. The nanny is away on vacation and Skylar's mom needed some help to get work done. I was very happy to have her come over so she and Jake could both get some cabin-fever energy out!
They played with playdough. Jake always has us make cars, but then Skylar asked for boats. However, I didn't understand her when she was asking, and Jake looked at her, then at me, and signed "boat." That was officially his first time interpreting a word for me! I was amazed.
They played with playdough. Jake always has us make cars, but then Skylar asked for boats. However, I didn't understand her when she was asking, and Jake looked at her, then at me, and signed "boat." That was officially his first time interpreting a word for me! I was amazed.
Monday, December 15, 2008
December Snow II
The snow looked so beautiful and Jake wanted to go outside, so we got all bundled up.
Theo came outside and immediately turned around and went back inside.
Snow plow fail. Sorry, you're just a dump truck.
There was a lot of snow!
Then we went inside and Jake had hot chocolate and mama had hot tea.
Theo came outside and immediately turned around and went back inside.
Snow plow fail. Sorry, you're just a dump truck.
There was a lot of snow!
Then we went inside and Jake had hot chocolate and mama had hot tea.
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