More First Birthday Photos . . .

 

 

 

 

Jackson's First Birthday Party

Since Jackson's birthday is September 2, and his cousin Ashley's birthday is September 3, we decided it would be easier for us to combine their birthday party's into one, and boy, are we glad we did. Our relatives only had to come to one little kid party, and we were able to combine resources to make it a blow out! We had a jump house, a slip'n slide, 2 wading pools, an inflatable waterpark for infants (which the bigger kids loved too), a water table, sand box, and LOTS of food! (Note to self: Blow up the slip'n slide accessories and the inflatable waterpark the day before the party, do NOT start 1/2 an hour before the party!)

Once everything was up and running, everyone had a great time, and there was something for kids of all ages to do. My sister-in-law, Judy, and I got compliment after compliment about how great it all was. It was very satisfying to see all of our hard work pay off, but now I totally understand why parents throw birthday parties at places like Chuck E. Cheese!

Here's a great example of what a huge difference there is between a one year old and a two year old. 2 year old Ashley ate her birthday cake like a dainty, little princess, and well, you've already seen the picture of 1 year old Jackson eating his cake like a savage. :-)

They each got their own super fancy cupcake, so that people wouldn't have to eat cake that 2 toddlers spit on when they tried to blow out their candles. Jackson's was a Finding Nemo cupcake, and Ashley's was a princess.

Here are more pics of the birthday fun:

 
 

Very Banana-y Banana Bread

This is the banana bread recipe I use, and it always gets rave reviews. I usually make it for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas brunch--I know, it's not very holidayish, but it's so good that no one complains. :-)

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
5 medium overripe bananas, mashed (about 2 1/3 cups)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Makes 1 - 9x5 inch loaf

Bodega Bay Vacation

August 16-August 23, Matt, Jackson, and I rented a house in Bodega Bay (through Vacation Rentals USA) for a much needed vacation. The weather was scorching hot here in Davis, so we thoroughly enjoyed the fog, overcast days, and cool temperatures in Bodega Bay. We enjoyed having lots of friends and family come visit us there, and most stayed at least a night. We even had some deer visit the backyard one evening.

Jackson tried to climb into the hot tub whenever someone was using it (he LOVES water), so we cooled it down a couple of times so he could come in.

We all hit the beach several times. Jackson enjoyed playing in the sand with his cousins, and Owen Case.

 
He found the sand especially tasty, but also enjoyed chewing on driftwood, shells, and kelp. I thought it was totally cute how he left a trail behind him when he crawled on the sand, so I had to take a picture.

Matt and his family rented a house in Bodega Bay every year, when he was growing up, so we had a good time revisiting old familiar places and memories, and creating new ones.

I think we visited every town within a 40 minute drive of Bodega Bay. We liked Occidental, Jenner, and Bodega the most, even though they're so small they can hardly be called towns! We had dinner in Occidental at The Union Hotel. It was pretty good Italian, and a lot of it, with great service and ambience. The patio is so pretty that we HAD to eat out there, even though it had to be in the 50s. Occidental also has some nice shops to look in.

Guerneville and Sebastopol are a bit too hippy-dippy for our taste--you can only look at so many crystals, herbs, and stinky vintage clothes before they all start to look the same. The drive to Guerneville is gorgeous though! The road winds along the Russian River and through a redwood forest--it's so green and lush that it reminds me of Washington.

Monterey/Carmel Weekend

*sigh of contentment* It's Sunday evening, and we are 60 miles from home, on our way back from a fabulous and relaxing 3 day weekend in Monterey and Carmel. We decided on Thursday night that we needed to go somewhere for the weekend--partly because we REALLY needed a vacation and partly because the painters were going to be at our house all day Friday and Saturday. On Friday morning we decided we would go Monterey and Carmel, so we called up Matt's mom and invited her to come with us, and off we went.

We stayed at Hotel Pacific in Monterey, which was nice, but a bit overpriced. Our room was large and comfortable though, and it was walking distance to Fisherman's Wharf and Cannery Row.

On Friday we arrived and walked down to Fisherman's Wharf. We just wandered around a bit and had dinner.

On Saturday morning we had a great time at the Monterey Aquarium. Jackson enjoyed watching the fish and trying to catch them through the glass. He also enjoyed playing in the special area they have there for infants and toddlers, and touching the star fish and kelp in the touching area. We stayed at the aquarium for 2 hours, and Jackson was interested and focused the entire time. We were pretty amazed.

Saturday afternoon, Matt went golfing and Chris and I wandered around at Cannery Row, and then found a couple of thrift stores and a consignment shop, Plato's Closet, on Lighthouse Ave.

For dinner we went to the Mission Ranch Restaurant in Carmel, which was AMAZING.

Sunday morning we packed up, checked out of our hotel room, and spent the day in Carmel. We had a great breakfast at Katy's Place, window shopped, and found a great consignment store called Ritzy Ragz and Thingz.

Finally, with not an ounce of energy left, but with lots of good memories and a few nice new items of clothing, we drug ourselves back to our cars and started the 5 hour drive home (it would have been 3, but there was a lot of traffic).