Wild Winter

8:33 am CST February 19, 2010
This age has been the most fun by far! We stood in awe as he reached for the stars! A dog says "woof" and a cow says "moo", Simple joys touch our hearts through and through!

We kicked off the new year with a trip to San Francisco to visit our dear friend, John Berger! We hiked a beautiful trail to get this awesome view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We visited Muir Wood Forest where the redwoods were unbelievable! That's John, Jamil and G in the distance.

Look familiar? This is where Full House was tapped!

We enjoyed a nice picnic at a park overlooking the city.

John was the best host and had a soccer ball ready for Gabriel!

We drove to Lake Tahoe to introduce G to the snow!

Gabriel skied down the slopped with John and Jamil while I enjoyed a massage!

Relaxing after a morning on the slopes!

We tried to go sledding down the hill behind the resort, but G had other ideas.

He just wanted to sit next to the cozy fire inside.

Napa Valley here we come!

The Robert Mondavi Vineyard

Darioush Winery...modern and beautiful!

Our friends, John and Liz met us in the city to go see Wicked!

Uncle John read Gabriel one of his favorite books, Brown Bear Brown Bear, before we left him with the sitter.

We took a stroll along the beach and enjoyed the Atlantic Ocean view!

We visited the San Francisco Zoo and a peacock followed us around almost the entire time!

Gabriel is way into all of the animals in his books, so it was a lot of fun to take him to the zoo at this stage.

Gabriel knows what a lion, monkey, cow, sheep, dog, cat and horse say!

We got to see the giraffe feeding before we left.

After visiting the farmer's market, we took a ferry to see Alcatraz!

Thanks, John, for such a wonderful vacation!

Happy Birthday Jamil! Claude and Leila came to visit Gabriel and help celebrate the big day!

Jamil and Gabriel now have matching Barcelona soccer jerseys! How cute are they!?!

Aunt Leila gave G a bath. He LOVES to brush his teeth and asks by wiggling his finger around his teeth! :) He also signs please, more, eat, all done and thank you. It is truly a sweet way to communicate.

Claude read Gabriel a bedtime story, Blessings Everywhere. He's a sucker for a good book!

We also celebrated our neighbor Grayson's 3rd birthday, and Gabriel experienced the chaos of a jump castle for the first time!

Gabriel was a big fan of the ponies, and we even got a ride! I felt a little guilty having that poor animal haul us around, but that obviously didn't stop us. :) I apologize to all of you who are feeling sorry for the pony right now!

G likes to play the game Where Did it Go? He thinks that he has hidden his horse with the tupperware he uses as a hat!

Gabriel is obviously a big fan of his rocking horse. You should see him go!!!

G learned to crawl inside of his toy box and then inside of the drum, but now he has to learn how to get out!

Just another day at home with mommy!

Plato took Gabriel's stick! You'd be amazed how long he can play with rocks and sticks!

Gabriel loves the slide Grandma and Granddad got him for Christmas!

One of the best days this winter was when we got to see our sweet, healthy, new baby!

The technology wasn't what it was with Gabriel, but we still enjoyed every minute of it, and Jamil captured a little video on his iphone!

On February 13th we woke up to a winter wonderland!!! This was the first time it has snowed in Charleston since the 80's, and we are so glad that we were able to be here!

We had to hurry and get outside before it melted! Gabriel's a pro at this old bundling up thing!

I was trying to get Gabriel to jump in the snow, but he wasn't into stepping into 5 inches of white mush!

Kiss Kiss is the book we got for Gabriel on Valentine's Day. He is an avid reader ;), and we are so grateful for his love of books!

Gabriel is a big fan of his rocking chair. Thanks Grandma! Some days it's hard to get him out the door and then in the car. He runs straight to his rocker and just wants to hang out and enjoy the view!

We were sad to see it all melt away so quickly, but we were grateful for our brief winter wonderland!

POSTED BY jdmoose

Post and View Comments [3 comments]