Added Pictures from Apple Picking

http://ohanatales.blogspot.com/2005/09/apple-picking.html

SNOW!

SNOW!

I've been looking forward to the day the kids see snow for the first time. Well, it came a lot earlier then I expected. Its only October and it already started snowing! This is Lilo and Stitch's first time seeing snow!
Lilo is excited about building a "pumpkin" (she means snowman), but I don't think that's going to happen this time around. I told her the snow wasn't sticking on the ground, only on the cars and some of the grass. She says, "I have an idea! We can get the snow from the car!"
The kids are bundled up in their jackets, but they don't have gloves or snowpants yet. Lilo has the boots that Mocmoc gave her, but Stitch is still in tennis shoes. 3 seconds before this shot was taken, Stitch's rear was on the ground in a puddle!
Here are some more pictures...

YO!

Don't Mess Wit Me


Psyche!

Rachel Ray is Everywhere

Rachel Ray is everywhere. She's got like 3 shows on the food network. Apparently, she's starting her own clothing line, and has a talk show coming.
Even Lilo knows who she is....we were looking at the Tivo list for "seasme Street", but there was none on the list. I was about to turn off the TV when Lilo says: "Rachel Ray! I want to watch Rachel Ray! 30-minutes..food! See its right there (as she points to 30 minute meals on the Tivo list)

New Posts/Updates

Big blogging day! New Entries and updates all the way back through September 24. I backdated them to reflect the dates of events, so they're intermixed with some already existing entries. Be sure to read all the way down!
- CB

Update from Boston

So, we've been in Boston for a month now. Things have been pretty crazy, but I think that we're finally settling down a bit. I haven't been in town for more then one weekend!
Here's a brief overview of what we've been doing:
Week of 09/03 - The big move!
Weekend of 09/10 - Friend Slo visited
Weekend of 09/17 - Went back to California b/c of Grand Council woman's grandmother's stroke
Weekend of 09/24 - Took the kids apple picking (Great Pictures!!))
Weekend of 10/01 - Cobra bubbles went to visit his parents
Weekend of 10/08 - Went to Stowe, Vermont to see the leaves change
Weekend of 10/15 - Our friends the Wolfkill's came and we went down to Newport for a day. It was pouring rain for the first 2 days.

This coming weekend, will be one of the first ones in town. I can't wait just to sit around and do nothing..well, not really... Lilo has a photo shoot, and then she's going to see the Cinerella ballet with mom and some classmates. I think I'm going to have a "date" day with Stitch. We'll find some guy thing to do. On Sunday, Lilo has another birthday party, and then we're having my mom's sisters over for dinner. One of their husband's is an amazing cook and owns a restuarant (which he just sold). We're going to have to shine in our cooking. We have no idea what we're going to make.
Hopefully things will settle down and we can relax a bit!

The Wolfkills Visit Boston

During the weekend of October 14-17, our good friends, the Wolfkills, came out with their son. Jayden, to visit us in Boston. Since this was Julie's first time in the East Coast, we had a packed itenerary. The plan was for them to come in for the day to Boston, go down to Newport for a day together, and then for them to head up to Maine for the weekend and see the leaves.
The weekend didn't start well ...... as it was pouring rain (its been the wettest October in the last 100 years for Boston). In addition, Jayden arrived with the runs. Throughout the weekend, he went every two hours, and it didn't get better. After consulting books, trying to call doctors, doing to MGH and then leaving, being given the run around by Clinics, we finally saw a Doctor on Monday in Newport. They told the Wolfkill's to keep feeding him Pedialyte and let him run around naked because the top layer of his rear had come off.
Of course, as soon as we let him run around naked............
Luckily, it was a hotel..
The most memorable moment was probably the last 30 minutes of the drive back... 7 of us squeezed into our MDX:
Jayden was in the middle row, screaming at the top of his lungs...angrily...in pain.
Lilo was whining loudly from the back of the car the whole time that she had to pee.
Julie wanted to get on a plane to go home.
Stitch screamed and whined from the last row, just to add to the fray.
John, who happened to be driving then kept telling everyone to hang on.
Of course we hit traffic in the tunnels, during the last mile.
And of course, I had a 6pm deadline to get my taxes in...
Absolute Chaos

The Wolfkill's ended up going home early, and skipping the Maine trip. After they got back, they found out that Jayden had gotten e-coli from the farm they went to visit in Oklahoma before they came out to Boston...

All in all, it was a good time catching up with them, and John and I had a nice run along the water, but we decided next time we get together to avoid going anywhere, so we're thinking..."Cruise", especially since they have 'dem babysitters.
Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Busted!

Stitch has been sleeping now in a toddler bed, graciously lent to us by one of my coworkers. A toddler bed is one of those beds where there are rails along the side halfway, so the kid won't fall out of the bed, but can still get out.
On this night, Stitch went to bed around his usual bedtime of 7:30. Around 10:30 or so, I heard a crash from the room and went running in to find him sitting on the bed, surrounded by all their books, a guitar in hand, and all these shirts wrapped around his neck! Guess he had too much freedom!

Updated View

Updated pic of the view from our Boston apartment

Stowe, Vermont

We went up to Stowe, Vermont for the weekend of Oct 7-9 to see the peak Leaf-turning season. Of course, it was raining all weekend. Hey, I finally got to use the timberland boots I got like 5 years ago. Too bad they're a bit dirty now. Anyway, we left at 9pm from Boston and arrived at the "stowehof inn" around 1am. I don't recommend it. The room was so small, it makes rooms in New York or Tokyo look enormous. Literally, it was the size of my den in LA. And there were no towels. On the other hand, the lounge was quite nice.


Day 1
We got up the next morning and went to the annual "Stowe Leaf Autumn Arts and Crafts Faire" or something like that. Not usually my cup of tea, but they had some interesting stuff. There were these jugglers for the kids. And there was a tent of ...condiments. I guess it qualifies as Crafts. Condiments. Dressings, Hot Sauce, Syrups, Chocolates, Fudges. Killed my diet. Luckily it was my free day. The GC bought some Mayple syrup and dressings, I got some Hot Suace from Vermont Pepper Works. We put that stuff on everything now (try it!) Need to get some more. I also got a 15 minute massage for my strained neck. The other areas were more of what you'd call crafts, although there were a lot of photographers. There was one guy who took photographs of scenery and would edit them in Photoshop and make them look like Picasso paintings. Pretty cool. I couldn't tell at first. Another guy did panormaics by stitching photos together. You could see some of the seams, but it was still cool, and it reminded me how much I like Panoramas. In fact, I've decided to pick up Photography as my next hobby just because we get to travel to much and we should learn to photography well so we can get good shots of the kids. You'll see in the photos that we ended up taking more pictures of scenery then the kids, cause we were developing our skills and testing out a new camera I got at a Garage sale. I got it cheap, and share it with Lilo, who is becoming quite the photographer. In fact, check out some of her photos from the trip. (Yes, we have conceded that she has an obsession with Birthdays)

After swimming back in the mud to the car (got to off road the MDX! Kinda), we went to the Ben and Jerry Factory. Yum!
Before dinner, we me a family in the lounge from Western, MA. Had a great time chatting with the couple. They were complaining about their room too, and in fact left early the next morning because they were so fed up.
We had dinner that night in the Stowehof inn. I have to say it was actually really, really good. Try it. Then we squeezed back into our shoebox. At least there were towels now.
Day 2
The next day, we arose and went to the Trapp family Lodge. We were told that it had the best view. We arrived, only to discover that the Trapp actually was Von Trapp. This was a lodge opened by the Von Trapp family (of Sound of Music Fame) after they fled Austria. Yep, they traded Austria for Vermont. The family still runs the place. The GC got so excited about it, she went to the library when we got back checked out Maria Von Trapp's autobiography.








Afterwards, we went to a cider mill where we watched them making apple cider. There was this little girl next to us who said, "Mommy, when I grow up I want to make apple cider"
The last stop before we headed home was the Cabot Cheese Factory. We got to sample of ton of different cheeses. This was really a killer on my diet. But hey, how many times do I get to go to Stowe?




We took the scenic drive home, and on the way passed a Ski shop having a major sale before the season started. We got some good deals to keep us warm. By the time we got home, the kids were KONKED out.
Check out more pics.