Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Nick and Maya love spending time together. Now that there is more distance between them, they seem to enjoy seeing each other even more. Lucky for them, we've been able to plan some outings with the two families.

Laura acts as chaparone for Maya and Nick in Sausalito.

A couple days later, Maya and Nick at the Marine Mammal Center in the Marin Headlands.

Hugs.

Firetruck!!

Maya and Nick take the truck for a spin.

Maya's turn.

Picnic on the beach.

At the end of a fun day, Maya practices her WWE body slam on Mommy.

"Knock Knock" video

Maya enjoys playing knock knock games. As you can see, she doesn't have time for most visitors unless you are the UPS guy...

Glasses

Four eyes never looked so cute...

Mathilde's B-day

Maya and Daddy escaped from the house of boxes to party with Maya's friend Mathilde. Maya had a great time celebrating Mathilde's 3rd birthday in a grove of redwoods.

Mathilde blows out her candles (with Gabriel helping).

Maya, Brooke and Mathilde, with Julie.

Maya swings with the birthday girl.

Old Friends and New Adventures

On the first day in the house, while Mom and Dad were scampering around trying to find...well...everything, Maya was finding her own use for the hundreds of moving boxes.

After a few days of move-in madness, our friends Laura and Nick came by as a welcome distraction.

Where's Maya?

There she is.

Maya gets to see her old pal, Nick.

Maya and Nick.

Mommy and Laura

A walk to lunch through the new neighborhood.

The New House

Well here it is!

We bought this house in San Rafael after about a year of looking in the North Bay. It's a 1903 craftsman house in a nice little neighborhood right near downtown. We bought it in December and we've spent the last few months doing some remodeling. The pictures below show just some of what we've been up to for the past few months. It's hard to really show you everything we did so if you want to see more, you will just have to come and visit.

One of our first visits to the house before we bought it.

Another view of the house.

Kitchen, dining, and living room area.

Backyard.

Kitchen during partial remodel. We tore out some of the cabinets, built a new island, replaced the wooden countertops, and redid all the lighting.

A few weeks later... with new cement countertops.

New lighting and backsplash.

Remodel of the upstairs which was originally an open carpeted attic master with a bathroom. We added walls to create a separate master with two closets, we added a center landing with a washer and dryer and a heating system, and we created a small 2nd bedroom.

A few weeks later, with more framing

Nearly done with finished walls and a wood floor.

Saying goodbye to the koi pond.


"Goodbye!"

The new layout.

Done!!

Complete bathroom remodel.

New walls.

New tile.

New bathroom.

Momma and our fearless leader, Ray.

Come on in...through the new door.

Boxes, Moving Trucks, and Tape...Oh My!

On a fine Monday morning, we decided to move. We bought a house in San Rafael in December and we spent 3 months doing some serious remodeling. We couldn't believe when the big day arrived where when we were saying goodbye to our wonderful Victorian cottage in the Castro and moving to our Craftsman home across the Golden Gate Bridge. But today was less about reminiscing and more about boxes, tape, movers, and one extremely happy little girl. Who knew that moving was so much fun?

The movers arrive for some rain-drenched moving fun.

Maya greets them.

Movers refer to these as 'boxes.'

Maya still having too much fun.

Maya and the dust bunnies hang out in the empty living room.

Us and our stuff make the trek across the bridge.

Stay tuned for the next part of the moving adventure...

Easter Fun and "Egg Hunt" video

This Easter Maya discovered the glory of the egg hunt. Lucky for us, our friend Melissa and Alec invited us to their home for their annual Egg Hunt on Easter. After enjoying some delicious brunch treats, we locked all the kids in the garage and hid a huge number of eggs in the yard. Mayhem ensued as the garage doors were opened. Later in the day, Sarah, Eric, Leo and Rosie came over for more egg hunt excitement and dinner at our house. Of course, for the next few days we had to hunt for eggs at least once a day.

Let the hunt begin.

Searching for eggs.

Aha!

Easter girl.

A little video of the endless egg hunting at home...