pilgrimage, inspired by ice cube

you see the house in the background there? that was charles and ray eames home in pacific palisades. hopefully when amelia grows up, she'll brag to her friends that she got to swing on the swing at the eames house because her parents were super cool and brought her there to play. or she'll reject us entirely and furnish her home with heavy, ornate baroque furniture.

the cousins wong

take one:

take four (let's try to have andrew hold him):

take nine (let's try to have ryan hold him):

take 15 (okay, that didn't work):

take 37 (seriously, no joke), a decent picture finally:

the christmas report

this is what santa brought amelia: a groovy girls doll and a mini-american girl doll, because he wasn't sure which one she wanted:

santa brought gaby at least four separate elmo-related toys (including gaby's favorite toy of the season--an elmo jack-in-the-box-type toy from big yiyi), but this has to be the best picture of gaby (and a ski hat from nancy yiyi):
amelia and her ski hat from nancy yiyi:

fancy dress from annie yiyi:

hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

self-portraits

pool bums

what we did today

amelia milked this goat:

while i (and other drivers/chaperones) enjoyed these views during our children-free hike:

future dentist

this one is for uncle david:

the annual tree hunt

since we've moved here, we've forsaken trees at tree lots in favor of chopping down trees at tree farms. every year after the first, we've said that it's our last, but then christmas approaches, and we are drawn to the siren call of tractor- drawn hay rides, walking around a tree farm with saw in one hand, baby in the other, and the anxious drive home, wondering if there are any needles left on our tree after an hour-long drive on a highway, just under the speed limit. this year, i think we actually found a perfect looking tree (tree lots are better if that's what you care about), though the tree nearly got the best of poppa bunyan, and there were pony rides. and so i suspect we'll be doing it again next year.

the testing begins...