Dwayne had the day off today, so we decided to drive up the coast to see the elephant seals. Simon likes wearing his sunglasses in the car.

Their breeding ground is about 80 miles north of Santa Maria, near San Simeon and Hearst Castle. It was a beautiful drive, mostly along Highway 1. The seals come every winter to have their pups and to breed for next season. There are something like 15,000 seals along a 3-mile stretch of coastline. I think 3,500 pups were born this season.

The boys enjoyed hearing the funny and almost crude barks, yelps, burps, coughs, grunts, and clicks of the seals. The males are especially vocal and ugly, with what looks like an amputated trunk of an elephant hanging over their mouths.

They're not dead, just minimizing energy expediture since they fast during the months they are here. On the right is a male, with his "trunk" sort of tucked under his face.

Simon's 3rd birthday was on Friday, January 12th. We went to the Santa Maria Museum of Flight with our playgroup that morning. The kids loved seeing all of the planes, and even got to sit in a tank and some play planes. Incidentally, the hangar that houses the museum was built for the movie, "Rocketeer."

Simon chose pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, and orange juice for his birthday dinner.

We asked him what kind of treat he wanted for his birthday--pumpkin pie. I wouldn't recommend trying to frost one. You can see that my talents lie elsewhere.

It was hard to make Simon wait until after dinner to open his presents, but he made it! He received the rocking chair he's sitting in, some small construction trucks, coloring and tracing supplies, and several other fun gifts. On Saturday, Dwayne took him to a John Deere store to sit on some of the equipment.



They also test drove a Mini Cooper that day, which I'm sure was more Dwayne's idea, but Simon talked about being in a "Mini" for several days afterward.

We spent Christmas in Kansas this year at Dwayne's parents' home. Grandma Boitano was also able to visit. Simon enjoyed her help as they made reindeer cookies.

Stuart decided he was able to eat this apple all by himself, and surprised us by actually doing so....until his bigger cousin Spencer decided he wanted some, too.

We decided that Stuart's pajama-sock combo was supposed to look like Santa after a long day of work, just sitting around in his longjohns.

A baby's favorite part of Christmas--the ribbon and wrapping!

Stuart started walking at the beginning of December and has been so excited with this new element of independence. He loves helping with housework (one of his favorite Christmas gifts was a child-size broom) and feels it is his personal responsibility to assist with the vacuuming.

Santa came to our church Christmas party. Simon was hesitant to approach him, but not nervous enough to forget, when asked, what he wanted for Christmas--a tractor. He was likely referring to a $200 one we saw at a hardware store, but didn't seem to mind that he just got a set of little ones for Christmas.

We got a full-sized tree this year and enjoyed Simon's increased awareness of all of the traditions and excitement of Christmas. Both boys loved the lights and were mostly kind to the ornaments.

Another favorite gift of Stuart's was a soccer ball. He can often be found walking around the house carrying the biggest ball he can manage. One way I've found to keep him happy on longer car trips is to give him a ball to hold.

Our friends, Dan & Myndi, invited us to spend the day down in Santa Barbara with them in November. We spent the morning at the zoo, which is just minutes from the beach. The animals have a beautiful view!

I was especially impressed with the interesting plants at the zoo.

Dan works with Dwayne at Vandenberg and their boys are about the same ages as ours, so we've all become great friends.

We went down to the beach afterwards to fly a kite.

Stuart really liked the tail.



We were honored to host Scott and Shannon and their children here in Santa Maria for Thanksgiving. Simon was thrilled to have his cousins around. Daily trips to the park with the dads gave me and Shannon time to get everything ready for the dinner.

Everything turned out well and tasted yummy.

The kids were all so excited one night to realize they each had what they called, "puffy jammies."