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This past weekend we went once again to Green Valley Lake with our friends Ed, Jamie, and their daughter Celia. The trip up there was torture with whiny babies, heavy SoCal traffic, and the main road up the mountain being closed. We took a detour, while beautiful, took longer and didn’t help the whiny baby situation. In all it was almost a 6 hour trip instead of 3 hours.

Once we got there, it was great. GVL is so relaxing and we love spending time with the MacBellys (MacBean + Kelly, their last names). Tim joined us on Saturday, and while there was no tater-tot casserole this time, we did eat VERY well. Here are some great photos that Jamie shot.

Crossing the dam

We love lunch!

How much does Celia love GVL?

Still lots of snow in the mountains

Noah and Jesse have begun to play together and they are now very much aware of the other. The way they make each other laugh is great, and they are such boys with all the wrestling and head-butting. Click through for more photos and video.

They know what the good toys are

Smiles!

Today the boys are 11 months old. This past month has been huge for them. They both cruise around on furniture, Jesse now claps when you ask him to (I’ll try to get a video of that and share it later) and they started opening drawers and climbing into the dishwasher whenever it’s open. They have become much more curious and know a lot better what they want. They now feed themselves food that we cut up and put in front of them and they are really good at biting off and eating crackers and biscuits with their front teeth.

This weekend we went with them to Tidelands Park on Coronado Island and let them loose for the first time to crawl around on the grass. Jesse loved it, as you saw in the video, and Noah hated it. Noah was so freaked out by the grass that he wouldn’t touch it and didn’t want to sit on it. Eventually, Rachel was able to get him to stand on it after we put socks on him.

Who likes the grass?

That's right boy, get used to it.

Click through to see a video of Noah and Jesse crawling. Read more…

Today was a beautiful, 72 degree December day in San Diego and we took the boys to the San Diego Zoo for the first time. To be honest, it was much more about me wanting to get out and go to the zoo, since they really have no idea where they are. Rachel and I love the zoo. We’ve been many many times, but each time there is something new. Today we saw a monkey hanging out on top of a hippo. The kids were more interested in their chew toys teething rings than the animals, but we all had a great time being outside and visiting a beautiful place on a warm sunny day.

What Snowstorm?

While I know that you all much prefer the candid shots that Rachel and I get of the boys, what with their authentic poor lighting, iPhone graininess, and subpar framing—I thought you might want to see some professional shots anyway. These were taken by Whitney Tampien, who is a good friend of the Hornor family, as she describes in her post. Click on to see the post and more photos.

For months now, Noah has been making this horrible noise. We can’t get him to stop. He mostly does it when he’s happy, so I guess it’s okay, but it’s a horrible noise. Sometimes it even makes Jesse cry.

We flew up to Spokane last weekend to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with the Hornors. This was the first time that we flew anywhere with the boys. Wow. Those of you that have traveled with children know what I mean by that. The Alaska Airline people were really great and the boys were as good as can be expected, but it was still really hard. We had to carry around with us three carry-ons (one a diaper bag) a car seat to put in the seat we bought for the boys, two strollers, and two babies. They needed to be fed and changed and entertained. And we get to do that all again on Tuesday when we head home.

Once we got here everything was great. We are having a wonderful time staying with Susan and Rick, and we got to spend time with Rachel’s siblings Gwen and her fiance David, Sara, Alex, and Neil and his wife Tiffany and their 3 month old daughter Nadia. We also saw many of the Hornor family friends including, but not limited to, the ever popular Judy Potter, the Kendalls (happy 70th birthday to Jay!) and Bob and Claire. From the previous generation, Rick’s twin brother Randy (yes it’s Rick’s and Randy’s fault that we have twins) and Randy’s wife Sherry visited and I think that today we’re going to see Rick’s brother Greig and his wife Annie. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious thanks to Susan, Rachel and Tiffany who are all amazing cooks, although I will never understand green bean casserole. Also, I think Rick’s OCD deserves a special thanks for keeping everything so clean and tidy.

The unfortunate part of the visit is that Noah got a bad cold and subsequently gave it to Rachel and me. This is the first time either one of them got sick and as you can imagine, we had no idea what we were doing. Poor Noah was so miserable. He’s used to sleeping with a pacifier, but he couldn’t breathe with one, so he had a really hard time sleeping. We took turns sleeping with him upright on the sofa during the first night. On the second night he did better and Susan held him all night and the two of them slept pretty well all cuddled up. Last night Noah slept in his pack-n-play and amazingly slept through the night. He’s still not feeling well, but he’s much much better.

Rachel and I are exhausted and not feeling well ourselves. Still, we went on Friday to see The Lion King at the Spokane Opera House and it was undoubtedly the most amazing show I’ve ever seen. We both loved it and we’re so grateful to Susan and Rick for taking care of Jesse and ill Noah while we were living it up. They have been so generous, loving and caring that we feel overwhelmed by it.

So it’s been a great visit so far. And as a reward for your reading this long ramble, Jesse, who miraculously has not caught this cold from all of us, is going to make you laugh.

While Noah still hasn’t quite figured out how to roll over, Jesse is a man on the move.

Another benefit of the boys being able to sit up on their own is that we no longer need to use a special newborn/infant tub for them and we can bath them right in the kitchen sink. I bought a little rubber mat to put on the bottom of the sink so that they won’t slip and we gave it a shot. It seems like Rachel and I aren’t the only ones happy with the new bathing arrangement!