Dinner with Anthony & Tevi

One of Reed's best friends from college hails from a hometown only 45 minutes away from us, which is lucky, because it means we get to see him when he visits his parents. We had a wonderful visit with him and his wife Tevi, along with their adorable daughter. It's wonderful to reconnect and stay in touch with this awesome family.

Reed's Birthday Week

We started the week off with Sunday dinner at Heather's house, in honor of Reed's birthday. We always love visiting her in Palo Alto. Look who was hoping for a piece of London broil:

Reed and I have been trying to go on walks in the evenings.  He has even been waking up and going into work earlier so that he can be home for dinner at a good hour, with plenty of time for a family walk afterwards. I really appreciate how seriously he takes his role as a husband and father. He is always willing to do whatever it takes to be there for all three of us, and it makes a huge difference to our family.

On this particular night, we wore the boys completely out!

Tuesday, I took the kids to our weekly park day. I send an email out weekly to all the young moms in our congregation, and we meet up and let the kids play while we talk with other adults. Cal has been practicing his pedal bike, and is getting really confident. The one thing he has yet to master is starting on his own; I ended up chasing him all over the park so I could launch him on his way every time he stopped. His friend E.J. (3-years-old) was really excited that Cal had a Lightning McQueen bike, and in his excitement, kept accidentally riding straight into Cal's trajectory. He'd yell, "Lightning McQueeeeeeeeen" and zoom right into Cal, who was, by then, also screaming. Nonstop comedy.

Even with the dive bombs, Cal was very good to his little friend, who followed him around the entire morning on his own red bike.

Tuesday night, Reed and I continued our semiannual "fancy feast" tradition at the Plumed Horse. We'd been once before, a few years ago, on Valentine's Day, and didn't have the best experience. We decided to give it another try, and we're so glad we did. This time, the food (and our experience) was fantastic. I tried abalone and antelope, and we both enjoyed copious offerings of amuse bouche from the chef (he was apparently in a very good mood that night). They even brought Reed his own supernova dessert with a candle for his birthday.

It was a great evening. I'm so glad this wonderful man was born.

We continue to enjoy our stay-at-home summer. Wednesday, we had an ice-cream social at our friend's house in the afternoon. The look on Cal's face can probably tell you how he felt about it:

Cal and his buddies enjoying their ice cream:

Cal picked out Reed's birthday present this year, and when it arrived, he begged to play it all day. Reed, good dad that he is, got Robot Rally all set up, and played through it with Cal.

Friday was miniature golfing with friends. This little golf course has been very good to us this year!

We partied nonstop this weekend. It was the first time we've left Elliot with a babysitter, and it went really well. We went out on a date (to see Guardians of the Galaxy--loved it!) Friday night, and then went to a Clue-themed housewarming party on Saturday night. I went as the maid, and Reed was Mr. Green. It was a hoot and a half. We laughed ourselves silly!

The baby did great with sitters both nights. Looks like a lot of date nights are in our near future!

The Week in Pictures

Elliot is a very happy baby. We can always make him squeal/giggle, and he often returns a smile with a big, bashful grin before hiding his face in my shoulder.

 Hie is also pretty interested in being held nonstop. Thankfully, I can usually get some things done by wearing him around in the carrier. My back is sure getting strong!

 Emergency trip to the laundromat this week. We misplaced the key to the laundry room at our apartment complex, so Cal helped me take everything to a laundromat when we ran our of clean clothes.

 Bowling with friends. The worker was so nice and brought the kids two special bowling balls that only weighed 6 pounds. It was still a struggle for either of the kids to lift them, but each of them did manage a spare -- all on their own!

A cooking class with good friends at Sur la Table this week. The theme was "Summer Fiesta." It was so fun spending time with these two girls. (And I even smuggled some pork home to my husband!)

 Dinner and swimming with friends. They made us pizza on their grill (fantastic!), and the kids ran around changing in and out of swimsuits.

 Reed got to try out their new drum set. Look at that smile!

 The kids had a dancing contest while Reed was drumming.

 And finally, ending the week with a splash in the pool with Dad and friends.

 Just a cross section of our summer. :)

Reed's High School Reunion

Our second night in Boston, we went to Reed's 10-year reunion. One never truly knows what to expect, but we had a surprisingly great time. They had a great turnout -- more than 50%, I think -- and it was so fun for me to finally put faces to the names I've heard about over the past decade. 

Reed had a very positive high school experience, so I think it was fun for him to reconnect with some of these great people from Boston.

I am very proud of Reed. He has accomplished a lot in the past decade: serving a mission in Brazil, graduating with his Bachelor's and Master's degrees, landing his dream job at Apple, getting married and starting a family (not to mention leading said family with courage and love!), traveling to India, Dubai, Germany, England, and New York… he really has accomplished so much in the last ten years.

Here's to the next ten! So glad I threw my lot in with this guy.  :)

Hangin' With Dad

Can you tell who loves his dad? :)

Paramore Concert

For my birthday, Reed surprised me with tickets to the Paramore concert at the Warfield in San Francisco! We had an awesome time. I even chalked my hair blue for the occasion, but it all rubbed out before the night was over. 

The Warfield is an amazing, historic theatre that is unfortunately located smack dab in the middle of the tenderloin, which is filled with homeless people, drugs and trash. It was a disturbing experience waiting in line outside, but once we were in, the concert was a total blast. 

Handy Husband

Reed has been having some trouble with his car lately: the windows won't stay rolled up! The driver's side window has been completely broken for years, thanks to not one, but two break-ins during our time in Provo. It's pretty awkward for Reed (and hilarious) when he rolls through a drive-through in a bmw...and then has to open his door to pay and get his food because his window's busted. Haha! He's had a pretty good sense of humor about it, but when two other windows started having problems--including rolling down overnight-- we knew it was time to fix the problem. The trouble with having a German car is that parts and repairs are sooooooo expensive! It was going to coast $500 to replace each window regulator! I was not excited about that, but when Reed told me he was planning to do the repairs himself, I was...concerned. He is a grade A, white-hat hacker, but I never think of him as being exceptionally handy. He watched a youtube video and assured me that he'd disconnect the car battery so that the side airbags wouldn't deploy while he worked on the window. I was having visions of my electrocuted, unconscious hubby covered in the remnants of an exploded airbag. 

Thankfully, Reed proved me wrong and did and excellent (and completely safe) job repairing the car! Here he is with his eager little helper:

Can you tell which regulator is broken, and which is new? (I could not.)

And finally, here's a video of me attempting to sing with Cal to distract him from "helping" too much. Unfortunately, this is the response I often get:

Thanks to my handy husband, the repair ended up costing about $150 for all three windows!

Exploring Santa Cruz

Saturday, when a playdate fell through due to a surprise case of chicken pox (feel better, Bryson!), we decided to head down to Santa Cruz for an impromptu family outing. Since Reed spent two years in Brazil for his LDS mission, we've been wanting to try out a Brazilian restaurant that I've driven by several times on my way to the beach. 

Behold, Cafe Brazil, in all its green-and-yellow glory:

We were not disappointed! I got the feijoada, and Reed decided on the acebolado. Both were delicious, and we followed up with smoothies to go. They had avocado, but I wimped out and went with maracuja (passion fruit). Next time, I'll wax bold. Anyway, Cafe Brazil was a big hit -- we'll definitely be back!

Next, we took a leisurely drive down Cliff Street, which offered a fantastic ocean view. We stopped off at the Santa Cruz lighthouse and surf museum, which was very cute. I loved all the old pictures of the surfers who made this place famous. 

The wind was crazy! I had to tie my hair up to keep from going hair-blind (yes, it's a thing). Cal and I watched the boats, but I swear the one in the picture below was actually having trouble. At one point, I thought it had capsized due to the wind, but I think it was okay. Scary!

From the lighthouse, you could see the natural bridges at the state beach "around the corner". Beautiful, no?

California certainly shines in the summer. We love it here. I wish we could spend every day with Daddy!

I Did It!

When we moved to our new apartment, Cal quickly discovered a lot of fun things to do. Specifically, he discovered how fun it is to throw things down the stairs. As much as he loves it, we have strictly enforced a "no throwing down the stairs" rule.

Last week, I heard a small toy bounce down the stairs. I began to stomp slowly up the stairs to let Cal know that he was in trouble. When I arrived at the top, Cal ran out of his room holding his stuffed dog, Jellycat and shouted, "I did it! I did it!", as if Jellycat were accepting responsibility for throwing the toy.

Jellycat often "helps" us wash dishes, eat dinner, or put away toys. Now, it appears as though Jellycat has become Cal's personal whipping boy. Meg and I got a good laugh out of the whole thing. It's kind of hard to get mad at Cal when he does such funny things.

Having Fun with Daddy

I'm so grateful that Cal has Reed for a Daddy. The reasons are many, but one that I've been thinking about a lot lately is the fact that Reed is good at being fun.

I am not good at being fun. At least not to a two-year-old. In general, I tend to be a very task-oriented person. I like a clean house and getting errands done. And unfortunately, Cal gets dragged around to lots of un-fun places in my quest to keep things running the way I'd like them.

I definitely play with him (my specialty is snuggling and tickling), and his needs are completely met, but Daddy brings something special into the mix. When Reed gets home, it is the most exciting part of Cal's day. The moment he hears Reed's keys jingling in the lock, Cal gasps, jumps off the couch and yells, "Daaaaaadddeeeeeeeeee!!!" Reed runs through the door and Cal races over to him, beaming. Reed picks him up and throws him in the air, and then they run upstairs and start some heavy duty playing with toys. I try to sit down with Cal and play with his toys, but Reed does it like it's the funnest thing he's seen all day. Cal shows him stuff, and they build things, and knock stuff down, and laugh and scream and the whole time I'm usually downstairs getting dinner on, grateful for the break and legitimately amazed that Reed can be so immediately and effortlessly fun.

The picture up top was taken a few days ago. Reed's mom sent us a very cool digital advent calendar that features wonderful little animated clips and Christmas carols. I had shown Cal some of the clips, but Reed got Cal's stuffed dog, "JellyCat", and pretended that JellyCat was controlling the computer mouse and picking the different clips. I thought Cal was going to bust a gut laughing. It was another example of how Reed and I are different in our fun factor. And lest you get confused, I'm not jealous, just amazed. And so, so grateful that I'm married to such a fun person.

Disneyland!

Just before Thanksgiving, Reed and I took Cal to Disneyland. We were so excited about it, but we were trying not to get our hopes up. With a two-year-old, you never really know how an activity is going to play out. Tantrums? Disinterest? Exhaustion? It's a gamble, to say the least. Fortunately, it turned out to be a very fun day.

The joke in the Richey family is that every one of us kids has been ecstatic just to ride the parking lot shuttle. My mom always wondered if she should save herself $300 and just let us ride the shuttle back and forth to our car. The picture below doesn't capture it, but Cal was no exception to the Richey-family-parking-shuttle rule. He loved it.

First stop inside was the Tiki Room, which my family lovingly calls "the Freaky Room", as it has frightened a couple of our younger members in yesteryears.

Cal loved the bright lights and the singing:

After the Tiki Room warm up, he was very excited for what was next. Here's a shot of him running to the jungle cruise:

When Reed and I were first dating, we went to Disneyland together, and split a Mickey-Mouse-shaped strawberry shortcake. We decided that if, after his mission, we ended up getting married, we'd come back to the same place and order the same thing and split it. I thought it was so romantic when Reed brought it up the morning of our Disneyland trip.

Then we got to the restaurant and realized there have been some cost-cuts in the happiest place on earth:

We had a good laugh about our tradition-in-a-cup. (And btw, it was still pretty delicious!)

Then it was off to Dumbo, which I haven't ridden for years. (For family members who remember, the last time was actually that rainy day where everyone in the park was wearing the same yellow Mickey Mouse poncho. Good times, right?)

Reed showed Cal how to control Dumbo's altitude:

Cal caught on and LOVED zooming Dumbo up and down.

Here is the one shot we got of the three of us (Cal is still trying to use the joystick):

Then it was off to Small World:

King Arthur's carousel (one of the only non-terrifying rides in Fantasyland):

Cal loved the submarine ride, which I have never been on:

Tomorrow land astro orbit. I got so motion sick on this ride (yep, I'm that cool):

Cal was ecstatic to see the train coming. He was yelling out "Choo chooooo! CHOO CHOOOOO!" when this photo was taken:

At this point, it was close to dinner time, and Cal's exhaustion was starting to show:

So Reed and I put Cal in the umbrella stroller, where he immediately fell asleep. Reed took me to dinner in downtown Disney, and since Cal was asleep, it felt like a night out without the baby! All in all, the three of us each had an awesome day (and night) at Disneyland.