Snow Success!

Claire has voluntarily stepped in snow! This was during our 2 night stay at Glacier Point.

Morgan, Robert, Rachel, Kim & Claire went on a trip to Glacier Point from Thursday Dec 27 to Saturday Dec 29. The trip was 10 miles. There was only a couple hundred feet of elevation gain, but it was up and down.

On the way in, Robert carried a pack and pulled the chariot. It took us 4 hours. He said it was one of the hardest things he had done. It was hard for the rest of us too! When we got to the cabin, Morgan said he felt like he had felt after he had finished the marathon. Claire was quiet most of the trip, but about halfway she started crying. So we put her in a sleeping bag in the chariot and she settled down.

The cabin was a lush accommodation in winter, including a view of Half Dome from the kitchen window. (see pictures, link above left "Glacier Point.")

On the second day, we did a day trip to the Glacier Point overlook with Morgan pulling the chariot. There was a new layer of snow so Morgan had to break trail, which was hard work. We had a good view. Then we stopped in the Geology Hut at the overview and Claire stepped in snow by herself, which was a big breakthrough. Robert & Rachel even helped her get over her fear of snow by making a snowball, which Claire eventually was happy to kick around.

On the third day, we headed back. We made it in a record 3 hours, with Rachel pulling for the first 6 or 7 miles at a record pace! Morgan pulled the last 3 (uphill) miles. There was hardly a peep from the Claire Bear - especially with Frito and gummy candy snack!

All in all it was a great trip.

Christmas in Yosemite

Claire, Morgan, and I have been enjoying the hospitality of Robert & Rachel in the winter wonderland of Yosemite. One of our Christmas gifts (Thanks Pat & Bob!) was a ski attachment for our bike trailer/stroller and we have been skiing with Claire in it.

Morgan pulls Claire and does a good job of it. We have been on two ski tours and seen some lovely vistas. She loves going downhill and generally motoring around in it. The only snafu is when it comes to getting out of the stroller in the midst of a ski journey. Her feet must not touch the snow -- in fact, no part of her, without screams and tears. sigh.

We met a guy in the parking lot of the Badger Pass ski resort, and I think he said it best, "As the parents ski, so shall the child." We will keep enjoying ourselves with the ski-stroller. One day, I believe Claire will change her mind.

We have been enjoying the evenings hanging out with Robert & Rachel. It is very nice to sit by the fire and have beer while getting our butts kicked in Taboo.

Check out the Christmas time photos! (Link above left - "Christmas")

Autumn in the Bay Area

Saturday was a big day for the family. We headed for the coast because we were headed for Half Moon Bay to pick up Robert and Rachel's car, where they left it at the start of their bike ride down the coast, and decided to make a day of it.

After pancakes, we headed up to San Francisco to go to the zoo. Claire had a good nap on the way up. The weather was really nice - it was sunny. We decided to ride the the Little Puffer train that goes around the zoo. Claire was not too terribly impressed. She enjoyed walking up stairs and playing with the statues. The tigers were very noisy this time, and the penguins as well. We had lunch at the zoo. Claire ate her first french fries (garlic fries) and peanut butter & jelly sandwich.

Claire had another nap as we drove to Half Moon Bay. Our mission was to find Robert & Rachel's car which they had given us directions to. We located the car and had a coffee. Then we headed to the Marine Reserve to look at the tidal pools. It was high tide, so instead we watched the seals play off the beach. Claire loves rocks and there were plenty of rocks.

The next stop was to see the state's biggest pumpkin at the pumpkin patch in Half Moon Bay. It was big! The Wall Street Journal had an article about using giant pumpkins as boats. This probably would ahve been big enough for a small person.

We headed home. Claire had dinner -- cheesy eggs, peas, pears, yogurt. But she wasn't ready for bed yet by a long shot. So we went to the park. She was Very excited to be back in her old stomping grounds. She goes to the park 3 times per day. There are a couple of videos of her running around the park like a madman. When she started falling down we knew it was time to go home.

Check out the pictures added to the October 2007 site (link above left)!

This weekend we had a fun time. On Saturday we went for a hike on Sweeney Ridge. The day was very clear and you could see the Farralon Islands in the Pacific Ocean, Mt. Diablo, Mt. Tam, the Golden Gate, the Dunbarton Bridge, and San Francisco in the panorama.

Claire did very well in the backpack though there was some back and forth on the sunglasses and hat question. All in all, about 3/4 of the hike was with sunglasses, which was good because it was a sunny day.

On Sunday we met up with Bob and Marie, had lunch, and went to Rancho San Antonio park to go to the Deer Hollow farm. Unfortunately, the farm was closed, but getting there with three kids was an adventure in and of itself.

New pics of Claire at Sweeny Ridge and Claire playing with the bear that Rosa and Adriana got her are up in the October photos. Enjoy!

Fall is in the hair (hat)

Rosa and Adriana sent Claire a really adorable bear and Halloween outfits. I have not put up the pictures of Claire with her new gifts, but Rosa and Adriana I will do that soon!

Claire is picking up new words like lightening. Word list is now:
bird
ball
car
cat
daddy
dog
hat
fish
frog
light
plane
rock
socks

She also understands a lot. For example, if you say, Claire, what do we do with flowers? She will breath in (or out!) through her nose, making the "smell" noise.

Please check out Claire's new pictures. She got the water table for her birthday but it was kind of cold so we wore a hat. In the next series, Claire is carrying Grandma's picture and kissing it! She grabbed the picture off the refridgerator (it is a magnet) and made off with it.

See above left for link to pictures.

Claire turns one year old

Claire's one year birthday was September 5, 2007. That was a Wednesday. So we decided to celebrate on Saturday, September 8. Claire also opened presents in Ohio when she was there over Labor Day weekend.

Claire's birthday stash was huge. She really enjoyed the new toys and books, and she will grow into the really cute clothes that she got.

Now that she is a year old, we are packing away a bunch of her other toys and putting those in storage. We also switched her to a new car seat, and it is installed in the front-facing direction. She seems to like it a lot better than the old one and it certainly fits better than the old one, where her feet have been hanging over the edge for a month now.

Enjoy pictures & video of her birthday (see link above left).

Claire Walks!!!

Mark the day - August 6, 2007. Two days into her 11-month birthday, Claire Brown takes her very first steps! Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma were all on hand to watch Claire take 4 steps, from an end table into Mommy's arms.

Video now available! See the slideshow (or use link to August photos, above left).

Claire has a tooth!

This has been the pattern over the last couple days:

6:30pm -- Claire goes to bed

7:30 pm -- Claire awake!

12:00 am -- Claire awake!
4:35 am -- Claire awake!

Why oh why, lord? Well, this morning Morgan discovered the reason why. Claire's first tooth! It will be on the bottom of her mouth. We tried to get a picture of the tooth but she's very protective.

Today was also Claire's first bike ride! She enjoyed it very much as you can see from the picture below:

Check out the link for July photos for more.

Claire in California

The big move has finally happened. With the help of Pat, we settled into 839 Sevely Dr. There is a great park across the street. Pictures of us in our new home and at the park are in the June 2007 pictures (link above left).

We also made our first trip to Yosemite, where we stayed with Uncle Rob and Aunt Rachel.

Claire did several hikes. Grandpa Lewis was the mule, Grandma Fen was, as always, the teacher.

1) Base of Yosemite falls
2) Happy Isles
3) Mirror Lake
4) First lookout of Vernal Falls

We also really enjoyed going to Cathedral Beach, where Claire loved to play with the rocks; and Discovery Overlook, where Claire did her first granite slab hiking. Pictures are in the June 2007 pictures. Enjoy!

Claire Crawls!!!

A weekend with daddy has motivated Claire to learn how to Crawl.

Witness the magic!!! (link above left).

Claire video in May

In the link for May 2007 photos (above left), there are some really cute videos of Claire, including one of her playing with Lefty using a feather. She is really growing fast -- she can stand unassisted for a couple seconds at a time.

Both grandmas should be getting some Claire time in June, which will be great for everyone and we're looking forward to that.

We've got Claire's housing set in California. Here's the new place:


The address is:
839 Sevely Dr.
Mountain View, CA 94041

I will head out to California on Saturday for an interview at the library. I will also do my first California hike in three years! Can't wait. Morgan will be alone with Claire!

Side by side comparison

A Shared Site - Download Picasa

We've made a change to Picasa from Adobe Picture Gallery. You can order prints from Picasa, and you can also post and view movies for free (versus for $$$ on Kodak).

At Bob's suggestion, the blog is set up so that we can all post pictures to it through Picasa. I will put a tutorial up on how exactly to do that. (see below)

How to Upload your pictures to this site

Step 1: Download Picasa to your computer (If the link doesn't work, google search: Picasa). Remember to use the gmail email account clairedepot@gmail.com and the password that I sent you by email.

Picasa will then look through your computer for all your photos. We'll do the upload to the web in the next step.

Steps 2+: to come!