Thursday, December 28, 2006

Andy's First Birthday

Jacob was the international baby visiting France, Spain, Italy, UK and the US before even his birthday. But Andy is mister bi-coastal celebrating his first birthday on both coasts! We started this morning in Annapolis with a birthday celebration with the Kandra family. We're then boarding a plane to arrive in California in time for the paparazzi to catch his evening celebration. Enjoy. Don't forget that if you click in the middle of the two pictures below you will see the videos.



Sunday, December 24, 2006

Kennedys / Brothers / Susters


Tony Brothers was in town Thanksgiving weekend and we had the chance to get all three families together. We were all roommates at college together in San Diego so it's amazing to now all be together with our families.


In typical "all American" style both Tony and Stefan had one boy and one girl. Only I, "Suster", would go the difficult route and have 2 boys. And with Jacob telling me recently "I don't want another brother or sister" and with his mom listening approvingly maybe it will be so.


At the play table with Playdoh is (from left to right) Grayson, Jacob, Siena and Maya). Below on the left are the remaining members of the Kennedy (Crady) clan, Ann and Derick.


The Brothers' children, Grayson and Siena were so cute and so well behaved. They taught Jacob to play Candyland and played ball in the back yard for hours with him. It was the first time that our kids had ever been together since Tony moved to Florida a few years ago with the military. We miss them. The last time I saw Siena she must have been 1 year old.















It was a shame that they couldn't spend the night with us so it was a short trip but maybe that leaves me an excuse to plan a proper reunion where we can invite our other All American roommates: John Wood (one boy, one girl) and Paul Guichard (one boy and, yes, one girl). I guess I really am the odd duck. But this is the first time I've ever thought about it. Isn't it strange that we literally all had exactly 2 kids?



Solo picture is Tony's lovely wife, Becky. Don't you miss California, Becky? Oh come on, we know you do. They have great bases here in NorCal! Goin' back to Cali, Cali, Cali, Goin' back to Cali ....


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Turkey Day on Christmas Eve

I had to show how wonderful of a Mommy Tania is. We had a relaxed Thanksgiving at home with Uncle Map and Aunt Adrienne.

Here's proof that she cooked a turkey for us. We were too tired from our recent travels to San Diego (2x for me), LA (Jill's wedding) and SF (Ron's 40th birthday party).

Tania & I announced, "we're not traveling anywhere this year!" On Saturday we went (just the two of us) to a spa in Pebble Beach and on Sunday to the Ritz Carlton at Half Moon Bay. Sunday brunch was $75! per person but worth every penny. Sushi, caviar, eggs bene, made-to-order omelets, every kind of meat, Gordon Ramsey-like small plates of everything imaginable an a dessert bar with AT LEAST 30 different choices (we can recommend any of the top 7 we tried ;-)

Here's hoping that next year Jacob will actually eat some turkey, stuffing, potatoes or even pie! He settled for pretzels and milky. Very festive, Jacob!




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Halloween 2006




December 24th. No chance for any work situations to distract me today! Jacob's watching the Backyardigans, Andy's sitting in his high chair eating graham crackers. So I thought I would finally clear off my big camera from the past 2 months. 177 shots! At 2-3 MB / picture that is a lot of work to get them on the computer, look through them, delete the bad shots and upload them to the Internet! And ... to put some on the blog. Here are the first shots.

This was my first Halloween in the US in 12 years! I think I had as much fun as Jacob did. It was his first proper Halloween. He was very timid at first and wanted Daddy to come up to each house with him. After getting candy bars at the first 5 houses Jacob rapidly became a champion trick-or-treater! "No Daddy, I want to do it by myself!" Aunt Eileen and Sophia came over as did Uncle Map and Aunt Adrienne so we had a great family affair. Daddy went dressed as an Eagle's fan.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Chanukah 2006

Okay, so I know it's been a month since my last posting. What have I been up to? Well mostly work. I have been busy raising $4 million for my new company, Koral, to get it off the ground and have been keeping a work blog, which seems to suck up a lot of my time as well. I have a whole backlog of pictures to still load here - I haven't stopped snapping pictures. Here's one of Jacob showing how excited a 3.5 year old is opening presents!

Just haven't found the time to post. And ... lucky me. My lovely wife bought me digital photography classes for Chanukah! Cool, hey? She's the greatest. Anyway, you can celebrate our last night with us by clicking on the video below. More posts soon - I promise!

 
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