Sliding by herself now!

Our little hiker

Here are some photos and a video from our hike in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. She hiked about 1/4 mile before she started straying off the trail, and then we had to put her in the back-pack.

Gonna miss hiking out here

This is so sad...we went on our last California hikes for a while. On Saturday we went to Castle Rock State Park, and on Sunday we went to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. Both of the hikes were a couple of our favorite trails in the bay area. It's so fun to experience these trails with a little hiker. Claire can identify what is a tree, rock, or bird. When she's set free from the backpack carrier, she runs down the trail and babbles in delight. After our dusty hike on Saturday she got to wade in a stream, which is one of her favorite things to do.

We'll post photos from the other hike on the next blog entry...

Last weekend in San Francisco

We don't drive up to San Francisco very often, but we had to go one last time before we move! Plus our friends Tyler, Trish, Tim, Christine, and Maya were in town and staying in the city. Even though it was cold and foggy, we had a great time in Golden Gate Park and Land's End, two of our favorite places.

The weekend was topped off with a going-away party for us, hosted by our friends Steve, Victoria, and Sophia. It was so good to catch up with friends, reminisce about old times, and guess what the future holds for us. We're so lucky to have an amazing group of friends here in the bay area! You all shall be dearly missed.

Daddy's Birthday

We celebrated Brian's birthday by going down to Monterey for the afternoon. We went to the aquarium, lunched at Sly McFly's, and then splashed around on the beach. It was a great day topped off with a spaghetti dinner and cake at our new "home" at the hotel. Daddy was so sugared up, he pretended he was a toddler that night! Claire was highly amused watching Daddy crawl around, shaking maracas and throwing dolls. Happy birthday Daddy! We love you!

At home...in a Marriott suite

This past Thursday was a busy day for us! The movers showed up at 8 am and packed up the house in a matter of 8 hours or so. Claire was stunned to see the big truck parked in front of our house and she had fun marching up and down the truck ramp. We have moved into the TownePlace Suites in Campbell for the next three weeks. So far everything is good! It's a little strange living in such tight quarters, but we're also being forced to relax for once since we don't have hardly any of our belongings with us. Claire couldn't be more happy about all the extra family time. She's picked up a new skill: ball throwing with one hand.

Uh-Oh the Dairy-O

Claire has been using "words" for a couple of months but these "words" aren't usually reconizable to people that aren't her parents. That is not the case anymore, her vocabulary has exploded a million-fold and she nows speaks over 100 recognizable words everday.. Ok, that's not exactly true. Its true that she speaks over 100 reconizable words everyday, it just happens its the same work over and over and over. So I guess you can say that her official first word is none other than "Uh-Oh". At first she'd use it when she dropped something on the floor. Then she started periodically using it when she pooped her pants. (Unfortunately she still doesn't reliably tell us when she soils her undies, but we're working on it). But now she's got a whole new game and although it does show some creativity and intelligence, she's still not smart enough to know that saying "Uh-Oh" and THEN throwing something on the floor is a sure sign that she's doing it on purpose. It was cute at first and is only kind of cute now.

A Light Mist

In celebration of America's 234th birthday, the Sivitz clan headed up to Yosemite and spent the weekend with Sarah's cousin Mimi and her family. It was a wonderful time. Aside from the wonderful BBQ birthday party for Mimi's daughter Syndey's 6th birthday, we had a wonderful time sharing the company of family and hiking in the park. For our lone day in the park we had a nice picnic in the meadow and choose to hike to the top of Vernal falls along the "Mist Trail". The weather was perfect and because of the ample amount of winter rain and snow the waterfalls and river of snowmelt was still flowing impressively stronger making for some excellent views. Unfortunately the strong flow also made the mist trail more of a downpour trail and as we ascended the spray from the corresponding falls became so strong that Claire quickly became extremely wet. To make matters worse it was a fairly cool day and we quickly realized she was shivering and unhappy. You'd think we'd have figured this out before she started wailing, but alas her parents aren't the brightest individuals in the world when it comes to knowing Claire's limits. Needless to say we than quickly reversed our course and got Claire to some dry land in the sun. Lucky for us she quickly perked up and began chasing one of the parks many squirrels. Later in the day Claire also got to experience her first 4th of July fireworks (we were in London last year) from a lovely vantage point on a hillside in Mariposa, CA. Claire showed now fear and simply stared and pointed as the loud bangs continued in the background.