J'aime le traineau - I love sleds!

We're up in Quebec, listening to the snow and eating poutine chez Ashton.

We flew to Montreal to stay with friends and arrived for a wonderful dinner party, then N's parents picked us up for the drive to Quebec City. We completely missed the storm that hit the East Coast of the US, as you can see, the weather has been great up here, if a little cold!

la neige!

Finally, the firefighter

Alec got home yesterday from a busy day at school, and decided that he was finally ready to be a firefighter. It was his Halloween costume, but he was vehemently opposed to dressing up on October 31st.

Even better, once his fire hat and boots were on, he wanted to go out the door, "to work".

Au travail!

Alec and the ladies

So we had our annual family photo shoot on Thanksgiving, which resulted in lots of silly pictures, like these:

but going over recent photos focusing on Alec, the theme that stood out is his girl friends. Friends who are girls, that is. We've been enjoying getting together with friends the past few weekends for burrito lunches,

excursions down to the 'burbs,

and another trip to Rossotti's. With a beer,

And Miss E.

Rock a bye baby

Many of you know about Alec's propensity to climb; here's another example. He has a wonderful rocking horse that was designed and made by Auntie Ceevah. The technique for riding it has changed over time, here are the latest ones!

And of course, while A. is singing "rock a bye baby". Very appropriate, we just hope that he doesn't fall!

Gilligan adventure

Last Sunday we decided to go on a hike in China Camp. Figured out a small loop, and figured that we'd be back in SF by around 1:30 or so.

It took a little bit longer, however, and instead of a "3 hour tour," we ended up getting back to the car at 3:30. Some of this was due to Alec's valiant "climbing up" the hill. I think that he walked about a mile, all the uphill part.

But some was also due to our taking a wrong turn, somewhere, which put us on a much longer loop. No problem, it was a great sunny day. And we were especially grateful for the leftover pizza waiting for us in the car.

Au parc

Nous nous attendions à une journée de pluie, mais il fait un beau soleil, alors nous sommes allés au parc.

Les longues phrases

Récemment Alec fait des phrases de plus en plus longues: par example "grand-papa grand-maman partis avion"



Il est 7 heures du matin et vous dormez. Où est votre fils?



Il lit son livre, bien sûr.

Do you like seafood?

(Joke compliments of Grandma)

Halloween No!

Even though Alec loves pumpkins, he didn't quite get into the Halloween spirit. Given his documented appreciation of firetrucks, we had a firefighter costume all ready, thanks especially to Auntie R. (who always is on the lookout for dressup clothes). But Alec refused to dress up. And didn't want to go trick-or-treating, either.

We did have a fun afternoon anyways, running along the Embarcadero with N's parents, here from Quebec visiting their grandson and his wayward pirate father.

Pumpkins!

Today Alec and I returned to our favorite pumpkin patch, just north of Half Moon Bay.

Lots of pumpkins to choose from, but guess which one Alec chose?

At least he can carry it.

transporting pumpkin #2

Last week we also had a "rural experience" - the Potrero Hill Festival had a great petting zoo, and Alec got to feed the rabbits, goats, and other animals. Quite the treat!

Cro-cro

Would you like a crocodile as your breakfast partner? Alec would! Especially if the croc is a present from Auntie R.

Question: How do you feed a crocodile?

Answer: Very carefully!

And always invite the crocodile's friends.

Stormy weather

On Tuesday we had a major rainstorm here in NorCal - I got drenched walking to the train, and was glad that I didn't have to drive.

Alec was glad for another reason. He got to wear his new frog boots -or as Alec calls them, "les bottines grenouilles!"

After raining and gusting all day long, by 6pm all was calm and the air became warm. We watched the sunset with quickly moving clouds making way for patches of clear skies. Alec helped his papa rake the sidewalk, and then took a break to model his footwear.

Thanks, T, for the boots - Alec hopes that you are wearing your "bottines chiens" in Paris!

Hardly strictly

bluegrass!

Each October there is a great and huge (awesome?) free bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park . We started out the afternoon attending the Dirty Hoe Hoe-down at China Beach - merriment, gorgeous views, great food and homebrewed beer, courtesy of Bernie.

Then moseyed (according to Merriam-Webster, this is how you spell it) on over to the Park for some music at - Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. We met up with uncle D and his friends near the Banjo stage to listen to some music under the trees:

• 3:45pm Songwriter Circle with Tom Morello, Dar Williams, Steve Earle & Allison Moorer
  
• 5:25pm Richie Havens

We left right before Robert Earl Keen, since by 6pm it got cold and windy. But not before some dancing and jumping.

More than just gelato...

Of course we only had one gelato (divided 3 ways) per day, there was much more going on.
Here are some more photos of our explorations in the Veneto region earlier this month:

Caorle, the afternoon of our arrival

Outside the Villa Barbaro, Maser
Alec didn't like the villa, with its Veronese frescoes, but he didn't want to leave the small museum of horse-drawn carriages that was in one of the outbuildings, among the vines.

Running around Venice

Or getting a lift!

Checking out the gondolas

and helping with the harvest of Prosecco near Valdobbiadene

Where's Alec?

We've been on a trip - can you guess where?

Still can't guess?

We spent 10 days in the Veneto region of northeastern Italy, exploring Venice, Treviso, Padova, and many smaller towns. We had a great time, and you can see one reason why! More photos to follow soon.

Party time!

After surviving the heat wave on Friday and Saturday, we had friends over on a foggy Sunday afternoon for cake and ice-cream to celebrate Alec's 2nd birthday.

We brought his new toys - police moto and red trike - out to the garden for some fun, and set up the teepee, sidewalk chalk, balloons, and bubbles.

Alec hasn't been napping lately - here he is before the party

so by the time 3:30 rolled around, he was pretty mellow, just hanging out on the bike sucking his thumb and watching the surroundings.

A good time was had by all!

I'm 2!

I'm 2 - watch out!

Alec turned 2 on Wednesday, and everyone survived!


We spent some nice time in the garden before dinner with Andy, visiting from England for a few days.And since then, Alec is much bigger and much more mature. Of course.