Our final days in California

We had another 2 beautiful days in San Diego with the Paul family. Our first stop on Thursday was the Scripps aquarium, where for some reason Evie loved posing inside this giant shark mouth. She and Andrew ran from one fish tank to the next, saying "Wow!"

The kids also love playing in the aquarium's tidal pools, where they touched a starfish, a lobster, a sea anemone, and a sea urchin.

Mommy and Evie are captured by the shark - yikes! After the aquarium, we ate lunch in La Jolla and then went down to the beach to see the sea lions basking in the sun on the beach.

We finished the day with a trip to the playground after naptime and then a trip to an amazing toy store dedicated to Thomas the Train! Evie got to pick out one gift and she selected a Thomas dish set.

The kids in their Thomas pajamas, all ready for bed.

The next day it was off to the beach in Coronado. Evie couldn't have been happier than when she arrived. She ran straight into the cold ocean and then made some sandcastles with Daddy before it was time to leave.

our little beach bum...

Auntie Jen and Andrew enjoy the sun!

Evie didn't want to leave...

Balboa Park Adventures in San Diego

Our first day in San Diego was spent in Balboa Park. We started our morning at the San Diego Zoo and took a bus tour all around the zoo. Evie's favorite animals were the giraffes, elephants, and hippos. She ran all around the zoo looking for dragons... luckily we were able to find one Komodo Dragon in the reptile house.

Evie and Mommy enjoy the tram across the entire park. What a view!
After checking out the petting farm, where Evie wanted Mommy to pet all the sheep for her, the two posed as a spider and a fly.
After a nap in the car, the family checked out the Model Railroad Train museum. Evie loved the exhibits of the Pacific area railroads.
Evie got to push a button that would make the trains go around the track.

We say goodbye to Hollywood...

As a last stop in LA, we checked out the Gramman's Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame. But perhaps Evie's favorite part was the fountain that she could run through. Luckily Mom and Dad had a change of clothes and a blanket to towel her off with!

At first she just enjoyed running around the edges of the fountain...
...and laughing in delight...

... but then she soon gathered up all her courage and ran straight through the spray.


It wasn't long before she was standing directly on top of the spray...
... and as you can see it only took 5 minutes to be soaked. The people on a tour found her to be quite amusing. Thank goodness it was in the 70s!
After a costume change, we compared our handprints to famous stars including C3po and R2D2 (they were filming an Extra TV segment with Billy Bush too... eh, not too exciting).
And Mommy and Evie pose by Harrison Ford's block. Evie's sandals are still being dried in the sun...After that, we hit the road for San Diego. After a stop to settle in at Aunt Jen's and Uncle Tom's and a play session with Andrew at the playground, we had a lovely dinner in La Jolla with cousins Tanja, Jimmy, little Audrey and Aunty Karin. What a beautiful sunset by the beach!

A Day at the Pier

After a delicious breakfast of waffles and eggs, the family headed to the hotel's pool where Evie displayed her kicking and splashing skills.
The next step was to the Santa Monica pier, where Evie got to dance to the one-man band, eat Dippin Dots, and go high in the air in the giant ferris wheel.
Our final stop was at the carousel... but Evie didn't want to ride on the horsies! She went straight for a sleigh just like we sat in two summers ago when we rode in the oldest carousel at Martha's Vineyard.

Evie's L.A. Story

Mommy, Daddy and Evie had a wonderful California vacation this past week. Our first stop was Los Angeles to visit Uncle Patrick, where we stayed in the West Hollywood neighborhood, just steps from the famous Chateau Marmont. Uncle Patrick was a great tour guide of the city, driving us around in style. On our first full day, we checked out the beautiful grounds of and views from the Getty art museum. As you can see from the pictures, Evie loved running around outside in the delightful 70-degree weather.

Daddy, Evie and Uncle Patrick pose in front of the blue sky and city skyline.

The family portrait (mommy needs sunglasses!)

An artistic shot taken by Daddy. Evie loved playing by all the fountains and would share her water droplets with everyone.

Evie had some hands-on time with the art in the family section. In this room she got up and close with the mirrors while Daddy watches.
Evie also got to participate in her first installation art project by moving the tubes around to form a sculpture in the next room. She really had a blast playing with the black "noodles" to create her own masterpiece.

Speaking of masterpieces, Evie used nearly every crayon to create her own mask to take home. What a blast!

Air, Space and Bebe

The weekend after New Year's (Bebe's birthday), Bebe came down to Alexandria to take Evie to the Air and Space Museum in Dulles. But the night before Evie and Bebe's adventure, they celebrated Bebe's birthday. Evie is helping out BeBe blow out the candles.

The next day it was out to Chantilly!

Evie loves rocket ships!

Throughout the day, Evie was pointing out other planes and rockets that she wanted her picture taken with other than the Space Shuttle.

Here's a picture for Opa -- what a fine German flying machine!

Evie takes a secret picture in front of the stealth plane.

It's a biplane!

Finally, BeBe gets a picture with Evie!

If there is one thing Evie loves to do more than anything else it is running...

...far away...

...from adult supervision!

Backlog of Holiday Photos!

Hi all -- sorry we are so behind in updating the blog. Rather than doing several blogs, we did one long one. We just posted the pictures and hope to add more text soon.

Below pictures from the National Botanical Garden and its holiday toy train exhibit.

It is getting closer to Christmas in Alexandria and Mom and Evie can't wait!

The family took a trip to Yorktown to visit Evie Ruth middlenamesake's house, which has been beautifully renovated by Katrina's cousins. The tradition has been for the kids to hold candles while singing the German version of Silent Night.

Christmas Eve in Fairfax Station at Ba's and Opa's with Aunt Amy and Uncle Karl.

Looks like Santa made an early visit to Fairfax Station but couldn't fit in the chimney so he had to leave the presents outside.

Christmas morning in Alexandria!

Christmas afternoon in Spring Lake with BeBe, Popi, Uncle Dave, Aunt Casey, cousins Julianna and Stan. Unfortunately, we had to leave early due to the upcoming snow storm before we could see Uncle Wally, Aunt Karen and cousin Molly.

During the holidays, Evie takes a trip to the National Air and Space museum and checks out some toy rockets!

New Year Day is here and that means cleaning out the closet. Evie found a new best friend, the Caddyshack gopher!