Saturday, July 20th, 2013
We had a super fun day at Lula’s B-day party. I wish I had a pic of Page and Arielle, the mermaid that came to do a magic show, Page was mesmerized! Page had a great time with her buddy Phoebe on the swings.
Lots of cute pics of Dad and Sienna in her summer skinny jeans…
All finished packing, whew, that took forever. Gotta be out the door by 5:30am…
Thursday, July 18th, 2013
Hard to believe its been 12 weeks already! Sienna is the sweetest baby. Mornings are the best, she just smiles and smiles…
Monday, July 8th, 2013
Whew, we made it home. It was a long haul, but totally worth it to see Page and Sienna meet new friends at each stop. We didn’t spend more than a day in one spot, lots of driving, but the RV made it a fun adventure.
We left Los Gatos on Wednesday night and stopped in Tahoe at the Naylor’s house. Brendan roughed it in the RV while the girls and I snuggled inside.
Thursday we awoke early and made the long haul to Logan, UT where the bike ride was taking place. We made a lot of little stops along the way so Page could get out and run/ride around.
We made it to Logan before sunset and scored a RV spot in the fairgrounds where the ride was taking place. We had all of Friday to take it easy, swim, fix up the bike, and greet friends as they arrived. The ride on Saturday was for Kelley, a good friend from Park City. She has recently been diagnosed with MS. I chose to ride 75 miles. Kelley’s sister brought along her 3 year old, Gage, so Page had a blast hanging with him while we rode. They went to the zoo and lounged around waiting for the Mama’s to get back… The ride felt great, didn’t reach 100 degrees until the last hour, thankfully most of the ride was under cloud cover which kept things cool.
After the ride, we loaded up and drove to Park City. We parked at Mike’s and pretty much moved into his house for 2 days. We got to catch up with some friends from Backcountry over a BBQ and Brendan got in a ride of the Flying Dog loop, a PC favorite. We took a walk down memory lane and hit up the Park Silly Market for a monkey puppet show, took the girls for a too hot hike and hit the High West Distillery to cool down. Maybe its the hormones but I found myself crying a few times missing the PC life…
We left PC early Tuesday and tackled the long drive to Silverton. We stopped in Fruita, CO to check out the dinosaurs. Then to Ouray to soak in the hot springs. We stopped off at the top of Red Mountain to pose for a pic, Page was soaking in the beauty of mountains, she wanted to stop everywhere and take pics… We spent the night at an RV park in Silverton. Brendan woke up early and tackled the bike climb on Kendall Mountain, he has some great pics on his Instagram account, @bshenanigan (mine is @ippygibby). We quickly cleaned out my storage unit, grabbed my diaries from when I was a kid through post college years and my cherished box of pictures and all the dishes Mom brought us from Mexico. Feels good to finally have my belongings out of that town, but I am sure we will be back. The San Juans never truly leave you…
Now onto Durango!!!! Oh, how I love Durango and all the people in it. We took a quick dip in the Animas River and then headed up to Kennan and Cheryl’s place for a little get-together. Nan, Rob, Sailor, Mark and Dylan came up and there were lots of laughs. Its fun to see all the kids grow up and what a cool bunch of kids they are. We crashed in the RV and woke up early to head to our final destination, Pagosa Springs. But not before a quick stop at Bread to say goodbye to Nan and Rob, Rob generously loaded us up with a couple bags of fresh goodies from his Bakery.
Oh these two are too cute. So many RV snuggle sessions…
Last stop, Pagosa Springs to visit a good friend from my high school years, Dawn and her family, Gary, Marlowe and Harper. They own a pub in London, The Marksman, but spend time in CO every year to be close to Dawn’s parents. Fires have been raging all throughout this area, but Brendan and Gary hit the Pagosa River trail for a mountain bike ride. I took a 4 hour nap with the girls, how did that happen? We caught up over a lovely dinner and reminisced over some local Honeyville wine… Our last day was jam packed with a 4th of July parade on Main Street Pagosa and then off to Hidden Valley Ranch where Dawn’s parents have an amazing *cabin* at the foot of the Wimenuche WIlderness. It was also sweet Marlow’s 5th B-day. Page was introduced to pinatas, baseball, bucket walking, but best off all, she was able to spend some quality time with her new BFF, Marlowe. After the picnic, it was time to leave. The long 17 hour drive was ahead of us…
Thursday, June 27th, 2013
We rented an RV to take all our bikes and the girls on a whirlwind trip to Logan and Park City, UT and then down to Telluride, Silverton, Durango and Pagosa Springs, CO. We are so excited to see the mountains and good friends!
Sunday, June 16th, 2013
What a fun trip to NYC! It was a bit of a whirlwind but we had a great time. We took the redeye and arrived early Wednesday AM. We were able to get into the hotel early which was a relief, pumping and traveling can definitely be tricky. We had a few hours to kill before dinner with the NBC people and other couples, so we walked to Chelsea and had lunch.
The Today Show experience was very sweet and fun. The other Dads were really great guys. We made some new friends, Julie and David also live in the Bay Area and have a 2 year old daughter. We hit it off right away. David is a film producer and Julie works as a consultant. We are psyched to meet up with them again up in SF.
The Today Show was a bit silly, of course, but fun. It was really interesting to get a behind the scenes look at the production. You will have to ask Brendan what he thought, but he was definitely relieved when it was over. But its a Father’s Day we will never forget. You can get a glimpse of the other winners here. If you want to watch a recap of the show, click here.
We had a nice nap after the show and decided to walk to the Lower East Side to catch some dinner at the Fat Radish. About half way down, we got caught in a nasty rain storm, but we made it. Yummers!
Friday we ventured back to Chelsea to check out the High Line. Just a block away from our hotel, we ran into JIMMY MAC! So awesome…
We walked through some great neighborhoods, day dreaming about living in NYC.
We ended up at the Chelsea Markets and met cousin Ben for lunch while on his lunch break from shooting a TV show. It was great to catch up and talk babies, as they have a little boy arriving in October. Then we cruised back to the hotel for one more pump before getting on the plane.
The car service NBC scheduled was an hour late so we ended up missing our flight. Such a bummer but we made it home a day late and I have never been so happy to see Page. Sienna was a great traveler, such a fun trip!!! Thanks to Grandma Sam for watching the Pagie back home!!
Sunday, May 19th, 2013
After last weekends craziness, we had a relaxing, fun birthday weekend planned. We started out on Friday catching the Tour of California roll in near our house in Morgan Hill. Brendan was excited to see Jens (Shut Up Legs) Voigt.
Friday night Brendan and I headed our for date night to meet up with the likes of George Hincapie and Phil Liggett (Phil likes his ladies and booze), photo evidence to follow.
Saturday we rested…
Saturday afternoon we went over to the neighbors for a fun BBQ. Page rode circles around the yard with the boys and then they all decided to take a dip in the bath.
Sunday we went to Hidden Villa Farms for a birthday party for Baby Hannah. Page was so tired and cranky so we headed home a bit early. The rest of the day we just relaxed, our last day of Brendan’s paternity leave. It has been so great to have him home these last 3 weeks.
We got adventurous and gave Sienna her first bath. She wasn’t too chuffed.
And best of all, I got the cake I asked for and a beautiful “Happy Birthday” song from Brendan and Page. Could life get any better than this??
