Van's First Easter

We went to the early Easter service.

My two favorite guys:

Van's first Easter goodies:

The service was excellent. I am not sure if this joke will be as funny written as it is spoken, but our interim minister started off the sermon with this story:

"I have ministered so many places, that anywhere I go, I am bound to run into someone I have ministered before.  Well, first thing this morning, I run into a woman...and I say--'You look like Helen Brown!' and she replied 'You don't look so good in black yourself.'"

Say it outloud to yourself a few times and you'll get it. He gave such a nice light-hearted sermon and relayed that Easter is supposed to be a light, enjoyable day.  So we made the most of it!

After church, my personal chef started the leg of lamb for our parents:

Surprisingly, the parsley and rosemary from our neglected garden withstood the winter and early spring.

Finished product (before cooking)

My contribution:

Van sort of joined us for the green beans:

Not many leftovers.

We tried to capture some good Easter photos but the sun was very bright!

Gifts.

Hope your April fools day was as funny/lame as ours! And--happy Good Friday/start to Easter celebrations. Thanks to our awesome family and friends, Van seems to constantly receive gifts. Good Friday seems like an extra good day to be thankful for them. Here are a few I have not blogged about:

Silver monogrammed cup from the Sharpes:

Name plate from Drew and Justinann

Monogrammed Lousiville Slugger from Jared and Jenna! (I never would have thought of this--what a cute gift!!)

Nightlight from Evans's Aunt Lisa (who painted the Noah's Arc painting)

Van blankie from the Willards (blankies are important around here!)

Last but not least, his hand-crafted silver spoon from Auntie Snags! So precious.

Sophie's gift:

Lately, Evans and I have become suckers for letting Van fall asleep in our arms. {Baby books will say no to this} but sometimes it is the best gift of all!!

And I am very grateful to be going to Vermont to visit Auntie Snags at the end of April!! :):)

Moving on up!

Van has graduated from the bumbo to the highchair!!

Lots of other firsts...

He has graduated from oatmeal to his first real food --green beans!!

I hope they don't taste as gross as they look.  

Our doctor said offer him vegetables first because they aren't as tastey as the fruits, and if you can get him eating veggies-- he'll eat anything.  {But we got a little of everything}

Here it goes!

hmmm...

YUM!

Bite #2...

Nope.

Maybe if I close my eyes...

Not so much.

We made it all better with a bubble bath!

Last night Van had his first babysitter outside of our family! Luckily it is someone we know and trust and could not be any sweeter! Evans and I celebrated our jet-lagged date night with some sushi and delicious cupcakes from The Cupcake Shoppe.  {Snags--we felt weird at Sushi Blues w/o you and Bo!}

Also--have not seen evidence yet--but we believe Van is getting his first teeth! He sticks EVERYTHING in his mouth and bites down really hard.  (Including his vibrating corn-cob teether!)

I think he definitely qualified as a "wumpus" this morning. Look at those jelly rolls!!

Crickets.

I used to think we were brilliant parents conditioning our child to sleep to the sound machine Auntie Snags sent us.  Unfortunately, we chose one of the rather loud noises to condition him--the crickets...

Recently, I have noticed, the droning, high-pitched sound blasting through our monitor is disturbing my sleep because I am waking up feeling more lethargic than ever. {or maybe thats the jet lag}

Van naps to the "thunderstorm" which is more pleasant, but once you get a baby sleeping through the night--you are scared to alter anything.

Naturally, I am blogging when I should be reading.  Van attempts real food tomorrow--funny pictures to come!!

Carmel, CA

I hate it when I'm looking at someone's photos from a wedding and there are no pictures of the bride & groom! But it is difficult to get a picture of them since there is usually a photographer following them around already. So I'll start with Wynne & Francis:

And where they were married (notice the beautiful flowers!):

My three favorite parts about the wedding were:

1. The artist who painted the reception as it occured. (My husband decided he wanted to prove that it was being painted as it occured, so he stood in the very front with his friend, Jamie)

2. The "catch the moment" photo booth.

3. The location:

Now here is where this post probably gets boring, so stop reading. Other than the wedding, the highlight of our trip was touring Robinson Jeffers's home.  

The foundation doesn't allow photos inside the gates (but our tour guide cheated and took one of Evans & I...probably because I may have known more about Jeffers than he did from my poetry class).

 If they had allowed photos, perhaps you would understand why I am so intrigued by Jeffers and his wife Una......or maybe not.  Una was very drawn to unicorns (her name is pronounced "uni") and all things Irish. (weird, right?)  Jeffers knew French, Latin, Greek, and a few other languages and learned stone-masonry.  So he subtlely inscripted poetic verse in the above mentioned languages throughout the house that he built.  (In the beams of the ceiling, over the fireplace, on random walls) and you had to look for them around the house. 

I WISH I could have taken pictures of all of these inscriptions and translate them because our guide didn't even know what all of them meant!!...boo) Some of the verses he knew were something like "be quick to enter, quick to leave" which was in French over their bathroom door... "Live your life, let them gossip" over their bedroom door, and "Live the dreams you imagine" over the fireplace.  {Hopefully more eloquently stated than that}...

 Their house was so cozy and all of the furtiture was preserved. (Including the bed Jeffers passed away in). The views were spectacular and in each room we visited, the tour guide read an applicable verse of poetry.  After touring the house, we climbed hawk tower (which Jeffers built for his wife, Una. It took him 5 years!)

Flowers, apple trees, and rose bushes were blooming everywhere and the sea blew salty air over them which was refreshing to inhale. 

Lastly, here is where Evans & I stayed. There was a bakery attached to our Inn which allowed for some delicious jet-lagged a.m. coffee and frittatas.

Such a great trip! Now its back to Van, Sophie, and thesis. :)

I passed!!

The spanish competency exam. What a relief. Now I am all scheduled to finish my Masters August 4th. What a crazy summer this will be!

I also passed at successfully leaving my 5 month old sweet heart for an entire weekend to travel across the country.

The wedding was amazing, pictures to come soon. Here is Francis's and Wynne's announcement in the N&O in case you are searching for some eye candy. Francis was a beautiful bride!

Also--Robinson Jeffers's house was more fantastic than I could have imagined. I have never experienced fulfilling such a big literary fantasy of mine...the Tor House was more beautiful than any of the photos. Jeffers + his wife, Una were officially the quirkiest people ever. You know thats my style! Major props to Evans for touring the property with me (which came with our own jean-shorted tour guide...)

Sorry this was supposed to be a short post. More to come!