Oregon 2014

Posted on October 26, 2014 by Mdfrisco

We planned our yearly trip up to visit my parents in Oregon a little bit later this year. It is usually pretty warm when we go in the summer and since we have had such a hot summer in San Diego, I was longing for some cooler fall weather, so we planned our trip for the end of September through the first week of October. Justin already had a business meeting planed in North Carolina for a couple of days, so we were able to arrange flights leaving within 50 minutes of each other on the same day to avoid multiple trips to the airport. Justin left for North Carolina and Jake and I flew to Oregon. Jake did great on the trip, when our 1 hour layover turned into a 3 hour layover at LAX I was a bit worried that I didn’t have enough stuff with me to entertain him for that long in one place, plus all the air travel time. But it seemed to go by really fast and he provided lots of entertainment for the frustrated and weary travelers at our gate. By the time we got to my parents house it was dinner time, then bath and to bed. The next day is when the fun began! And I will warn you in advance this trip is going to span over a few posts heavy with pictures…

First up on the agenda was feeding the cows.

And while seeing real live cows that close was fun and all…Jake was much more interested in driving the Kubota around. So Grandpa let him drive all over the ranch, and he was one happy boy!

After all the morning chores were done, we had lunch and a nap before heading into town to find Jake a pair of real cowboy boots. Our shopping trip was a success and he loves his new boots and wore them every single day we were there.

The next day my mom and I took Jake to the Children’s Science Museum in Eugene. They had lots of hands on things for kids to do. Jake was immediately drawn to the floating boats in the water.

Then he found this contraption that had a powerful suction that pulled these balls into the tubes and spit them out at another station at the other side of the room. At first we couldn’t figure out where the balls were going, but once we did, I sat at the other station for a bit and Jake and I sent balls back and forth to each other.

There was an area that was full of these red balls and he and my mom played in there for a while. He loved the pulley system and kept winding up the bucket full of balls

One of his favorite things to do is shout the word GO after counting to 3. Here my mom was lining up balls on a slanted track

And she would count 1…2…3… Jake would yell GO and chase the balls down the track

It was a fun place to go and let him run around and play. Late that evening after Jake went to bed, Justin flew in from his meeting in North Carolina. The next morning he was happy to see his daddy! That day my parents invited some of their friends over to practice cow sorting. This was something new to us, but apparently it is a pretty big sport among some parts of the country. Basically, there are two round pens set up side by side with an opening between them. There are 10 cows in one pen that have numbers on them and two people on horses. A number is called out and one person/horse is guarding the opening while the other person/horse is trying to get the cow with that number away from the others and into the other pen without letting any other cows in as well. It is actually pretty entertaining to watch. First everyone saddled up the horses and rode around to warm them up. Jake didn’t like being on this side of the fence, he wanted to join the big boys.

After the cows were rounded up in the pen the games started.

We wrapped up the day with dinner at the Dexter Lake Club. Jake was really loving all the new sights, sounds and things to play with. He quickly learned how to pick up the grain bowls from the horse stalls and where to put them. As you saw from the picture above, he loved pushing the broom around the barn and fell in love with the barn cat! I have lots and lots more to share so I’ll be back soon.

A visit from Grandma

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Mdfrisco

Last month my mom came to visit for a while and man it was nice having her here! It was nice having someone else (an adult) to talk to as we went about our day, it is amazing how much more I could get done with an extra set of hands to entertain Jake. I was able to make appointments and we ran all kinds of errands and got stuff done! And of course we were having fun along the way with plenty of trips to the park, shopping and lots of giggles.

One afternoon we went to the Del Mar Races. First we stopped at the paddock to watch the horses saddle up and parade around before heading out to the race track.

Then we went to the infield to watch the races so Jacob would have room to run around. Justin got some drinks for us and my mom let Jacob have a taste of her lemonade.

And that was it…she hardly even got any, Jacob wouldn’t give it back and drank the whole thing.

When it got close to being empty I added some water to the cup hoping he would drink it and he wanted nothing to do with it. Pure lemonade only for this little boy! We lost a few bucks and won a few bucks, it was a fun afternoon.

On another day we drove to Oma’s house for a visit. After Jacob got Oma comfortable in her recliner by pushing all the buttons to lift her up and down and lean her back and forth he discovered all the fun things she has to climb and ride around on.

After Oma took this for a spin around the hall he decided it was his turn and kept making his vroom, vroom noises

Oma…what does this button do?

After we had In N Out for lunch (yum!) we went outside to run around for a bit before we headed home. Jacob found some pretty flowers

and decided that Oma should have them.

Just a few days after we visited Oma, we were walking up the stairs and at the top of the stairs I have a picture of Jacob on Oma’s lap during Christmas hanging on the wall and he started signing Oma! It is so awesome to see him recognize faces and learn who people are and be able to sign who they are. When it came time for my mom to go home, Jacob walked around signing grandma, grandma, grandma everywhere he went for a few days. He still signs grandma wash whenever he goes into the guest bathroom. I just love seeing the wheels turn in his head!

It was a fun time with grandma and we look forward to next time!

Beaching in Balboa

Posted on September 13, 2014 by Mdfrisco

We were a little disappointed in the weather last year when we went to Balboa Island, it was overcast and chilly and too cold to play on the sand. This year the weather was perfect! And Jacob has had lots of beach time this summer and loves playing in the water and the sand, so when we arrived we didn’t waste any time and headed right out to the beach.

Jake loves running up and down the beach

and to and from the water, to fill up his bucket for building sandcastles.

Then daddy showed him how to fill up the moat with water

But he was more interested in playing with the water

and dumping it on himself…

He loves to point out the airplanes he hears in the sky, and there were plenty of planes flying overhead that day.

Then everyone got in the water with the rafts to cool off.

It was a fun couple of days with friends and family and I am so happy our little guy loves the beach as much as we do!

The Wedding

Posted on August 2, 2014 by Mdfrisco

After the two fun days exploring and learning more about the area of Sonoma County we came to the reason for our trip, the wedding! The morning of the wedding we visited some of the vineyards close to the house. The first one had some of my dad and Jacob’s favorite things, dogs and tractors. So they spent most of the time playing outside.

Then we went to Martin Ray vineyards where they had a pretty garden area so we could do our tasting outside.

Then it was time for Jake’s nap and time for us to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was a beautiful ceremony in a church in Occidental and the reception was at the Vine Hill House which was a gorgeous venue.

The lighting coming through the trees was so pretty and I was wishing I had my camera with me, but I think this is a pretty good shot for an iPhone!

The day after the wedding, we went on an adventure that none of us had ever done before…Zip Lining! The Sonoma Canopy Tours zip lining adventure through the Redwoods is one of the top ten in the nation and we had so much fun!

Afterwards we celebrated with a drink!

That evening we went over to our friends house for a relaxing BBQ dinner. The house they rented is on a golf course and had a huge deck where we sat around and visited and chased Jacob around,

We had a delicious dinner!

And then just like that, our vacation was over. The next day we all went our separate ways to make the journey home. It was really a nice getaway and to spend it with friends and family made it even better!

While unloading Jake’s car seat and all our luggage at the airport, Justin thought it would be easier to leave Jake strapped in so we didn’t have the chase after him while getting all our things. Wonder what the other people thought when they saw this on the side of the street 🙂

Wine Country

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Mdfrisco

July was a pretty busy, but fun, month for us. I’ve been taking pictures along the way, but haven’t had time to go through them and post them. Partly because Jake is now down to one nap a day so my “free time” during the day is even less, and partly because we have been so busy I am exhausted at night and working on the computer is the last thing I want to do, and to be honest… a big reason is because Justin and I are now on Season 3 of Game of Thrones and it is safe to say we are addicted and can’t wait to watch an episode (or usually two) every night after Jake goes to bed. So, little by little I will get them all done.

For now, I am going to start with our recent trip to Sonoma County. The main purpose of the trip was to go to a wedding for a good family friend, but of course we made a vacation out of it! So Justin, Jake and I packed up and flew to Santa Rosa to meet up with both my parents and Justin’s parents for a little vacation in the wine country.

We spent our first day at DeLoach vineyards. One of the guys Justin works with has a friend who works there so we got a wonderful private tour and tasting.

The grounds and gardens were beautiful! But I think my favorite part was when we got to the barn where they keep the sheep and the chickens.

Jake was absolutely captivated by these animals and did not want to leave

We had already moved onto another part of the grounds and Jake was still watching those animals.

My parents got Jake a Radio Flyer wagon, it was the perfect way to tote him (and all of our stuff) around when he was getting tired and even when he wasn’t tired he loved riding in it, eating his lunch in it, playing with his toys in it and getting out and pulling it around himself.

It was a fun day!

That evening we drove to Bodega Bay in search of some good seafood for dinner. First we wandered around and looked out over the bay.

Then after a few stops and some driving around we finally found a place to eat. Jake doesn’t sit still for long at all these days, so Justin and I traded off and once I finished my dinner I took him outside where he kept busy organizing the oars outside the surf shop next to the restaurant.

After Jake went to bed that night, my parents went to visit with my mom’s friend (the parents of the bride) who were staying in a house just a couple of miles away from us. So the rest of us took advantage of the game room! Now before I share these pictures…I feel that I need to do a bit of explaining about the place we stayed at. It was called “The Castle”. I intended to take a picture of the house, but never did…the outside was all stone and there were little towers which made it look like a castle. The story goes that the original owner was a big Harley Davidson biker guy who was also a big party animal. Picture the 1970’s with 200+ Harley Davidson’s parked outside, a disco ball with a dance floor, the back yard was carpeted, the inside was all black lacquered walls and red carpet, etc…Well the current owners remodeled the place and turned it into a nice little retreat in the redwoods. They did leave a few of the original touches, like the secret tunnel that goes from the house to another building, which was the game room. And the game room still had some of the black and red theme as well as the original bar and jail and a burned Harley Davidson mounted on the wall.

It was wild, fun and kind of creepy at the same time! We played pool and the winners of each game had their pictures taken by the Harley with some crowns that we found in the bar.

It was definitely a place to remember!

The next day we had a wonderful day with Karen & Charlie (Joyce’s niece and her husband) and family on their vineyard. Charlie’s family has been on their land for over 100 years! He gave us the VIP tour of the grounds in his 1946 Jeep.

After the tour, Karen had made a delicious lunch. We really enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at their house and Jake loved running around with their kids and checking out all the different toys they had.

That evening Justin and I went with my parents to Starks in Santa Rosa for the “after party” after the rehearsal dinner to see our friends before the big day. Sorry, didn’t take any pictures that night. We got there a little early so we sat at the bar and ordered some appetizers and wine. The food was amazing and I highly recommend this place if you are ever in the area!

I think this post is getting long enough and my eyes are getting blurry, so I’ll stop here and post the rest of our trip soon. Good night!

The Fab Fair

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Mdfrisco

Summer is in full swing and we have really been taking advantage of all the fun things San Diego has to offer. And one of those things is the county fair! I’ll never forget during my senior year of college, Justin and I played hooky one day and decided to go to the fair on a Monday hoping to avoid the crazy weekend crowds. We drove all the way to Del Mar and kept commenting on how the traffic was not bad at all and how it seemed we were going to have the place to ourselves. Well, we kind of did since the fair is closed on Mondays…oops! It wasn’t until about 4 years ago that we finally did go, on a day that they were actually open. We didn’t play hooky that time, but we had tickets to one of the concerts so we went a few hours early and enjoyed the fair before the concert. Now with a toddler in tow we thought it would make for a fun family day. So we packed up Jake and gave him his first county fair experience!

First up, we looked at the animals. The baby goats were so cute and a favorite for Jacob.

Then we got to the cows.

This was Jacob’s face when I told him that is where his milk comes from 🙂

Every year the fair has a theme and this years theme is the Fab Fair to celebrate the 50 year anniversary that the The Beatles (the Fab Four) first visited the United States. They had a large area that had tons of pictures, posters, headphones to listen to their music, videos playing, records and pretty much everything involving the history of The Beatles. We gave Jacob a break from the stroller and let him explore a bit.

We even got to walk Abbey Road!

By then we had an appetite and started exploring the countless food vendors until we found just what we wanted. Yum!

Then it was off for more exploring which included Jacob’s first carousel ride, which he loved and kept signing more, more, more when it was over.

Then daddy played some games to win some stuffed animals for Jacob.

When I saw this guy it made me think of the movie Mary Poppins, and I’ve been wanting to watch it ever since.

Then we went to the family adventure part of the park, where they had more areas to let Jacob out of the stroller to play and explore.

We went into the butterfly emporium and had a very up close experience with thousands of butterflies, which was really cool! I think Jacob’s favorite part was this wrought iron musical contraption thing. He spent quite some time banging around on it.

I’d say it was a very successful trip to the fair and Jacob is enjoying his loot!

Father’s Day Weekend

Posted on June 29, 2014 by Mdfrisco

On the Saturday of Father’s Day weekend, we went to a farmers market at Old Poway Park. This is such a great park and we have spent lots of time here. They have a large grassy area where you can picnic or just let your kids run around, they have old trains to climb on and they have working trains that take kids for a ride around the park. There are so many great photo opportunities and I’ve done a few photo shoots there. Their farmers market is great as well! When we finished our shopping Jake wandered around the barn area for a while.

And he watched the trains go by

Next time we go I have a feeling we will be buying a ticket to ride the train instead of watching it…

On Sunday after church Papa J, Nonnie and GiGi came for Father’s Day. We went out to eat at a great restaurant and enjoyed our time celebrating the wonderful dads!

Hope you had a great Father’s Day!

Fun with Uncle Terry

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Mdfrisco

Every year around the end of May, Justin’s Uncle Terry comes to California to visit from Kentucky. So we spend a few days at Justin’s parents house so we can visit with him. The guys always have a great time golfing for a few days, and then we pretty much spend the rest of our time in the pool.

Lots of family came over, including Justin’s cousin Lisa (Terry’s daughter) and her family.

Lisa’s boys were great with Jacob and played with him all day long

Papa J and Nonnie got Jacob a cute little chair and table for outside. It was perfect for dining poolside!

I love this picture of Apollo who looks like he has had a few…and is about to fall into the pool!

Not to worry though, he is saved by the raft

Told ya the boys were great with Jacob!

Jacob had fun playing in the misting fans

The Frisco men, BBQing ribs for dinner! Not sure why Jacob doesn’t look too happy…maybe because he had to stop playing in the misting fan to take the picture?

The next morning I had to take pictures of Jacob with his balloon. We had celebrated Lisa’s husbands birthday the night before and Jacob attached himself to one of his birthday balloons. He just loved dragging it with him everywhere he went.

He also loves his popping walker that he got for Christmas from some cousins

But rather than walking with it, he prefers to spend his time trying to figure out how to get the balls out of it.

And even though Apollo didn’t fall into the pool, he did fall into the fountain which resulted in giving him a bath in the middle of all the craziness.

It was a fun time with family and we always enjoy seeing Uncle Terry!

Mother’s Day

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Mdfrisco

Since Father’s Day is two days away I figured I better share about our Mother’s Day first! We drove to Temecula and met Justin’s parents and grandma for brunch. I didn’t take many pictures except for a few on our walk around Old Town after we ate.

Jake loves sitting on his daddy’s shoulders and he also loves all the attention and waves from strangers looking up at him. Such a little ham!

3 generations

Me and my baby boy

After wandering through some of the shops and Jake started giving me this look…

I put away my camera and we headed home. It was a fun afternoon celebrating three moms, and I feel especially blessed to be a mom to this little monkey.

The Mission

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Mdfrisco

Last September I did a post about our visit to the Mt Soledad Veterans Memorial, which we checked off on our How San Diegan Are You? list. Another thing on the list that we have not done yet was visit the Mission San Luis Rey De Francia in Oceanside. On the Saturday before Mother’s Day we didn’t have any plans and didn’t want to spend the beautiful day indoors, so we took a day trip to the mission.

When we arrived, the guide in the museum gave us the layout of the grounds and told us where we could go and the things we could see. We started out walking through the museum. Jake didn’t really seem impressed…

We ended up in a courtyard behind the museum and let Jake roam around. That was much more interesting to him!

Sometimes the simplicity of a bench or chair is my favorite kind of photo opportunity.

Jake is in a phase where he wants to touch everything, and I mean everything! He is always sticking his finger out and reaching to touch something. On our walks he likes to touch the different plants and all the poles for the street signs or street lights. Even when driving in the car if he sees a stop sign, he will frantically point his finger like he expects me to pull over so he can touch the pole. And the big bell hanging in the courtyard is no exception.

I always take my camera with us when we go on these adventures, but don’t always take pictures. Sometimes, I just want to just relax and enjoy the moment. But sometimes, like this day, there are just too many good photo opportunities to pass up it ends up becoming a mini photo session! Especially when Jake is having such a great time exploring the area.

When I was completing an online profile a while back for a MOMs group I am a part of it required a photo of me and Jake. And I thought, pshhh no problem, I have plenty of pictures! After spending several minutes going though my photo archives, I realized that I do have plenty of pictures of Jake, and Jake with daddy, but I have very few of us and the ones I have are older pictures, nothing recent. It is hard when you are always behind the camera to force yourself to hand it to someone else so you can get in front of it. And I am working on that…So when we went down these old steps that led down to the pools where women used to wash clothes and bathe, I handed the camera to Justin and played with Jake on the steps for a few minutes.