why we don't go out to dinner with him

this video says it all.  this is why we don't go out to dinner with cashel.  but beyond all that take a listen, especially cashel's cousins.  listen up.

papa's birthday

papa was here during his birthday this year!  so, of course we had to celebrate.  cashel, however, probably had more fun than anyone else and we let him.  he didn't enjoy his first birthday cake, but as you'll see, he really enjoyed papa's!

the birthday boy.  he makes 29 look good...again...

we (mama and i) refuse to actually make him fried chicken but that didh't stop us from buying it for him.  everyone else ate mexican.

the cake...don't make fun...i worked hard to make it look just like that.

cashel is either surprised that papa can blow out the candles or he thinks the blowing caused the cake to fall.

yes...i'll have some of that.  the pictures above show just how much!

oreos

when mimi was here she bought cashel some oreos and vowed to have his first oreo with milk with him.

whatcha doin' mimi?

oh...i see...

mmmmm....

thank you mimi.  i love you!

mimi and papa part 3

are you tired of the collages yet?  last but not least.....almost....

these are pictures from the music class cashel and i take together.  the pictures are compliments of mimi.  we're looking forward to our new class that starts this week!

these are some miscellaneous pictures.  some are self explanatory, others are not, allow me to explain. the wells fargo picture is there because both mama and daddy were curious about whether or not wachovia was wachovia out here or wells fargo.  mystery solved.  mama says she has heard lots of things about hollywood like sunset and vine...so we took a picture.  the picture below the wells fargo sign is one that mama took during our drive in malibu.  jason was driving fast. the picture below that is one of about 20 houses we took pictures of during our drive through beverly hills and bel air.  i can't believe i don't have a picture of the traffic...i'm sure we took a few of those.

this is pinks.  a famous hot dog place.  we went by thinking there was no chance we could get in - the line is normally sooooooo long (as in the bottom left picture)...but when we went by it was only a 10 minutes wait!  holla!  it was awesome.

mimi and papa part 2

it's official.  one month ago, yesterday, i, sadly, drove my beautiful mom and awesome dad to the burbank airport, gave them both tearful hugs and kisses and wished them safe travels back to north carolina.  we had such a great time with them on their first trip out to california.  we stayed super busy but did manage a couple of days of relaxation...if that's possible with an almost 2 year old.  here are a few more pictures from their trip.

we live in southern california.  los angeles to be exact.  home of movie studios!  we had to do the super touristy studio tour.  while i generally don't enjoy touristy things,  this was really, really fun.  the reason i have the picture on the bottom right is because this is tommy.  he was a radio dj in raleigh when we lived there!  i couldn't believe it.  jason and i remember him being the side kick for a g105 in raleigh.  they made him do all sorts of crazy things.  when jason and i were in miami a few years ago we heard him on the radio there!  now he lives in socal and is a studio tour guide?  nice guy though.  back to the tour...this is/was where true blood is filmed, shows like the gilmore girls, ghost whisperer, dukes of hazzard.  it's pretty amazing.  it's amazing how the camera can make a place look a lot bigger than in person.  

griffith observatory.  what an awesome place.  it's also super close to where we live...about a 5 minute drive.  i could take the time right now to google griffith observatory and tell you about the history of this great place but i'll leave that to you.  i don't have time.  what it is to me is a great place to get a great view of the city.  i was so excited that we had a clear evening.  you've probably heard there's a lot of smog in la so lots of times when the skies ain't so clear...but this was not one of those nights as you can see.  

the last day they were in town we headed to santa monica.  we almost didn't go because we were all pretty tired from being so busy but we were so glad we went.  the pictures say it all.

mimi and papa part 1

we had such a great time when mama and daddy (a.k.a. mimi and papa/toby and ted) were here.  here is part 1 of their visit.  by part 1 i don't mean these are in order.  seriously, who has time to be that organized?  not me.

malibu.  malibu is beautiful and rugged.  it does have fancy pants houses but you can't see much of them as you drive by.  east coast beaches and west coast beaches are totally different and this is proof.  no one would believe that california can be as cold as it was on this day.  i'm wondering how malibu barbie got her tan since it really is kind of a chilly place!

here we are at the la zoo.  i finally succeeded in getting cashel to pet a goat!  look at the bottom left picture.  as we were headed out cashel spotted a "truck" that he just had to sit in.  he's a heavy boy and insists on being carried a lot.  thank god for mimi and papa! 

this is the getty.  it's a museum.  we only experienced the outside part of the museum.  the botanical gardens were beautiful.

granddad

the summer has come and gone and i am back at work. this summer was filled with lots of visitors. granddad, april and my parents. it was a wonderfully busy summer with lots of great memories, many that i am still in the process of "processing" for the blog. long story short...more to come...somehow...someway...although i am back at work. i think the biggest lesson i learned from this summer is this...never put off til tomorrow what you can do today. otherwise i feel like i get nothing done! one thing i have finally done is organize and put together another (hope you're not sick of them) collage. this one of granddad's trip out from back in june.

he came out the first week of summer vacation and we had a blast. it was filled with train rides, horses, the zoo, goats and more horses. this was when we first discovered that cashel only liked (past tense) animals in books. once he sees them move in real life he totally freaked out and wanted nothing to do with them. in fact, when we went to a place close to the house to look at horses he would clamp on, turn away, and say "bye bye" to the horses! he's much better now and i've even succeeded in getting him to pet a goat at the zoo.

but these pictures don't reflect that. this was back in the day when he was totally scared. granddad was very patient with him and inched his way closer and closer to the horses one day. granddad will be back out again pretty soon and we'll have to go to the zoo again and see the horses again!