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."

We have had a few visitors and many good times in the last couple of weeks. Shauna, Dwayne’s sister who lives in Mesa, came to see us on her Fall Break from teaching school. It was a long drive for a short visit, but we really enjoyed the time we had together and Simon is still talking about it. She and Kara were able to take the boys up to Avila Beach and Avila Barn one day. Both are about 30 minutes north of where we live. The boys had fun walking on the pier, swinging at the beach, looking at pumpkins, and taking a hay ride. Kara appreciated the extra help with the boys and enjoyed having an adult around during the day for conversation.


























A week later Kara’s parents arrived in town for a weekend visit. We spent one morning visiting Solvang and Buellton, where we were able to eat lunch at what Dwayne and I were informed was the legendary, “Pea Soup Andersen’s.” That evening we had some friends over and celebrated Stuart’s 1st birthday with a barbecue and cake. He had a good time mushing up the small cake we made just for him, but he didn’t eat much. The older boys (Simon and his friend, Josh) had fun with the cardboard box from one of Stuart’s gifts and pulled it all around the backyard. Stuart’s favorite gift was a little talking chair from one of Dwayne’s co-workers.































On the day of Stuart’s birthday we figured we’d indulge his clearly-expressed preference to have good Italian food for dinner :-). Kara’s parents took us out to “La Botte,” a family-owned place in Lompoc. The food was delicious and Stuart ate a serious portion of baked masticolli. Simon used the bit of Italian (though we have no idea if it’s correct Italian) he knows and told the waitress, “Prima pasta, mama mia!”




At the beginning of October we asked Simon what he’d like to be for Halloween, and without any prompting on our part, he responded, “a big fancy combine harvester truck.” We thought he’d change his mind by the next time we asked him, but he was quite determined to be a large piece of farming equipment. Fortunately Dwayne has a very creative streak and went to work on it. It turned out very well and Simon wore it most of the night. We borrowed a cow costume from some friends for Stuart and it completed the brothers’ ensemble. Dwayne wore brown pants and an A&W t-shirt, pinned an over-sized homemade pop can tab to the back of his shirt and was a can of root beer. Kara opted to be the photographer. Simon did some neighborhood trick-or-treating, then went around to the trunk-or-treat at church and came home with more than enough candy.

Per Janelle's request, I'm going to start a blog for our family. I can't guarantee very regular upkeep, but it should be a fun way to chronicle our little family's history. The last time we saw most of our family and friends was before we moved to California, so I'll start with our arrival here and tell a little about our new home and situation and what the boys are up to. This is a picture of the lovely home we found to rent. The landscaping is beautiful, and while we don't have a lawn to mow, weeding and trimming are keeping us plenty busy. We were also excited to find a home that has many, many mature fruit trees. We've already enjoyed a plentiful harvest of peaches and nectarines.

The backyard has abundant pavement for tricycle riding, and there is also a built-in picnic table and benches which have come in handy when having friends over for dinner. Pictured are our three citrus trees--orange, tangerine, and pumelo. The oranges are just getting ripe and are perfect for juicing.




Dwayne recently celebrated his 30th birthday. I hadn't quite realized we were entering that age range, but luckily he's there before me. We had low-key celebrations, spread out over conference weekend. Simon keeps asking if we can hurry and celebrate Stuart's birthday (October 30th) so that he can have his OWN "happy birthday."

Simon and Stuart seem to love the new house, and Simon has finally stopped asking to go back to the hotel or eat at a restaurant. Being "on the road" for about 2 months this summer definitely took its toll on the boys as well as on me and Dwayne. One of Simon's favorite parts of the house is a very long hallway that runs down the middle. Every evening when Dwayne comes home, they race down the hallway, and I've even found him by himself during the day saying, "mark, set, GO!" and running back and forth. Stuart can't participate in the running yet, but Simon was nice enough to challenge him to a crawling race after their bath.

Stuart has started to balance, standing on his own, so his first steps shouldn't be too far behind. In the meantime, he makes use of anything he can find to help him walk. Favorites are the red stool, Simon's training potty, and our canister vacuum when in use.

So far Dwayne is enjoying his new assignment at Vandenberg AFB. The commute is about 15 minutes, all 65 mph and just long enough for him to enjoy books on CD. He's been taking advantage of the almost-always-perfect weather by running in the mornings, and we have several projects we're working on once we're kid-free in the evenings. The latest is that we purchased a new dining table and six chairs, all unfinished. We're enjoying a project that allows us to be a little bit creative, to work together, and to save a little money by doing it ourselves. Hopefully it will be done in time for a visit from Kara's parents.

Simon is on his way to independence--he's about halfway potty-trained! We thought that we could help him go for the first time in his training potty if he would just sit there long enough, so one day we all sat together and watched an hour-long movie--parents on the couch, Simon on the toilet. It took lots of patience before he had his first "success," but since then, he's been very excited with each step forward. He's also really enjoying his nursery class at church. They've been learning, "If You Chance to Meet a Frown," and the other night at dinner he wanted us all to practice our frowny faces.

On Monday (Columbus Day) we were able to take our first trip to the beach since our move to California. It was an overcast morning, but perfect for digging in the sand and the first flight of the helicopter Dwayne received for his birthday. Both boys had a great time--you can't go wrong in the world's largest sandbox! We're finding that there aren't enough weekends to visit all of the interesting nearby places. In the next few weeks we are looking forward to visits from Kara's parents (for Stuart's birthday) and also Scott and Shannon and family for Thanksgiving. We have an extra bedroom and would be thrilled to welcome visitors! I'm still learning how to do these posts, so you'll have to forgive the formatting mishaps. Hopefully it will look better next time I post.