James Martin Wright

While we were chasing after butterflies with Alice, Rosie and Jay got the news that it was time to head to the hospital.  James Martin Wright was born shortly after midnight on January 16, 2016.  And so a few hours later the cameras were clicking.

Rosie and Jay took Jimmy home on Sunday and life got back to normal.  I arrived Monday morning with camera in hand and found Jimmy sleeping peacefully in a basket while everyone else had breakfast.

 and then more camera time...

On Wednesday at age 4 days Jimmy got his first visit to the beach.

and more sunset beach pictures

We are so lucky to be able to spend time with our children and grandchildren.

Alice on the butterfly trail

Calvin had a week of vacation in January that we tried to coordinate with the birth of Rosie's baby in Santa Barbara.  That is always a little challenging, but we managed pretty well.  We also had to plan the trip around Sierra storm windows, and we had a window on Thursday, so we drove straight to Santa Barbara arriving Thursday evening. Friday morning we took Alice on an outing to the Ellwood Beach Butterfly preserve while Rosie and Jay went to an OB appointment. 

It was just a delightful morning and Alice is a great adventurer.  

We saw some butterflies before we even got to the eucalyptus grove. Look closely and you can see a couple of orange blobs in the picture.

 Alice was equally interested in the butterflies on the trail signs.

 The butterflies are cool....

but watching a tree hugging Alice was even more fun.

Forest Hill Divide Loop Trail

A week ago we got tired of the gloomy gray cold weather in Reno and decided to try a quick trip over Donner pass and down the other side to a little warmer weather.  We had a little gap between snow storms, so it seemed like a safe trip.  And it was, no tale of misadventure, we just had nice little outing.  We decided on Auburn for our destination and looked for something to do.  I found a hike in the Auburn State Recreation area called the Forest Hill Divide loop trip. 

 The trail is available to hikers, mountain bikers and horses, but it was mostly being used by mountain bikers.  It is supposed to be spectacular in spring with all the wildflowers, but January is not spring and I was happy just to walk on dirt instead of snow.

We did see some weird puff balls and interesting bark.

Calvin spent most of the hike examining the trail for mountain bike suitability and he gives it a thumbs up.

I think we will be back

Christmas 2015

Christmas was a little simpler at our house this year. We had a few decorations, not as many as usual, but enough to feel like we had some Christmas spirit.  We didn't chop our Christmas tree until mid December, and even whether or not we would chop the tree was is doubt.  Our lovely snow this year made tree chopping a little trickier, but we chose a chopping location closer to home, enticed Peter and Roque to go with us in case we got stuck in the snow, and chopped a Ponderosa pine because they grow a little lower down the mountain.

 It was not the giant expedition of years past but still fun.

And we still found a pretty big tree

We enjoyed Christmas Eve dinner with Peter, Roque and Sylvan, the Gabbarts and the Stutzs. We observed all traditions, the nativity, fiddling, peppermint ice cream with chocolate sauce and opening presents.  This is my favorite present.  Vance gave Calvin a hat with a beard so he wouldn't complain about his face getting cold on early morning bike rides.

Christmas morning we moved present opening to the downstairs living room and opened an embarrassingly large pile of loot.

And finally we got to visit with everyone enjoying Christmas in their own homes.  Clare got a new camera, so I took a picture of her taking our picture while we Skyped.

Another great Smith family Christmas

December visit to Santa Barbara

Every once in a while I get the urge to take a road trip.  Even if I have just returned from a trip I still get this urge to go somewhere, and Rosie's baby shower in Santa Barbara was just the excuse I needed.  Calvin and I made a long weekend trip from winter in Reno to sunny Santa Barbara.  ( We had to dodge snow storms on both ends of the trip. Hooray El Nino) Perfect excuse. While we were driving through winter in the Sierras I was thinking how much it looked like Christmas to me, but then I realized as we got to the green central valley of California that this probably looked a lot more like Christmas to Calvin. I must admit the concept of "going to the snow" instead of having it come to you is sometimes appealing.
Any way, we had a fun weekend and although I took over 50 phone pictures, mostly of Alice, very few are worth showing. Still I love having pictures to remember a fun trip. 

We frosted gingerbread men, a Smith family tradition. Alice liked squirting on the frosting and didn't immediately figure out that it was edible.  She is used to paints that are not.

I am not actually a great fan of cookie decorating, but I love watching other people do it.

Calvin and Jay got to enjoy a couple of bike rides, but no pictures were taken. On Friday I got to play in the park with Alice while Rosie had an appointment.

We had an afternoon at the beach and then dinner with Jay's parents.

Saturday we played with Alice at home before the shower.

Alice was happy to play dress up with us. 

I tried to replicate the picture of Rosie and Kelly in front of the Christmas tree in preschool, but we were missing Kelly and Alice was not in a mood to stand still, so recreating that picture might have to wait a while, but it is still cute.

And the reason for the visit, the baby shower.  It was hosted by one of Rosie's friends, in her backyard, in December.  There is reason people want to live in Santa Barbara!

Now we are just waiting for that sweet little boy to arrive.