Tahoooooooe

We spent last weekend en famille at Tahoe, where brother/uncle D lives. Everyone arrived Friday evening, and we had an early birthday cake for the almost-birthday boy!

And some early presents, too.

Saturday morning had us hiking on the Tahoe Ridge Trail, followed by a late afternoon trip to the beach. The weather wasn't very sunny, but the water felt great. Alec had fun in the lake, and was very serious about moving sand around.

Sunday we awoke to rain, but by noon the weather had cleared up we went on another hike, along a stream.

As you can see, some people slept through it all.

Cena italiana, 2009

As last year, our friends Moto and Sarah are here from Milan to spend the summer. And as in previous years, Moto made us an amazingly delicious dinner -
On the menu - tuna carpaccio with zucchini; eggplant and ricotta pasta - unfortunately they all disappeared before they could be documented - , and of course

the traditional ollalieberry pie for dessert.

Here are the dinner guests:

And the chef and his most difficult client:

Chapeau!

Our friends are visiting from Paris, where they've been living the past year, and we're enjoying having them stay in the garden apartment. Alec is particularly taken with Tillie, who is about a year older, and so much fun. This afternoon was gorgeous, and the end of it was spent hanging out in the garden. Alec and T found many things to amuse them, including deck chairs, sunscreen bottles, and the ever popular - chapeaux!


To the kids' delight, N. was a willing and eager participant in their games.

Mendocino

Alec on the farm!

Last weekend was busy! We went up to one of our favorite wineries, Navarro, for their annual barrel-tasting afternoon. This was probably the third or fourth time that we've gone, and as usual, it was a fun, glorious day filled with great wine and food, music, beautiful views.


Alec's curiousity about this new place meant that I couldn't focus on the glass at hand, but we had a fun time checking out the animals - goats, llamas, and miniature sheep that they use for weed control.

Engineer or librarian?

Multiple choice question -

A:

Or B:

Either way, he likes to figure out how things go together...

Social butterfly

On Saturday, our social butterfly (or popeye, as he calls them, for papillon, French for butterfly), had a few engagements. After the farmer's market, we zipped down the Peninsula to meet Sophia for a trip to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose - very cool -

And then off to see Eva and Audrey for some backyard pool time followed by a raclette dinner for Swiss National Day.

le shopping

Alec has been really into kissing lately...

A bashful couple after a makeout session on the couch.

All aboard!

We're all back from our various travels, and last weekend we went down to Los Gatos for a 1st birthday party. It was at Oak Meadow Park, which in addition to having the usual playground and field, also had a carousel and train!

We went twice on the carousel -


And twice on the choo-choo.

And then went swimming to cool down.