Our 2-year Anniversary - June 16, 2008

In June, we celebrated 2 fabulous years of being married!  Neil took me to Forever Fondue restaurant in La Jolla.  It's been a fun, event-filled and joyful 2 years.  We love each other, we enjoy spending time together and we can both truly say that we married our best friend.  We are so grateful that we have each other after so many years of being single!  Two years is just the beginning and we look forward with excitement to what the coming years have in store for us.

Memorial day weekend in Utah 2009

     We took a trip to Utah for Memorial Day weekend to visit Neil's family.  The trip included a visit to La Caille restaurant, a fancy French chateau next to Little Cottonwood Canyon.  Neil carried Elaina all over the beautiful grounds of this place in her trusty backpack.

     We went to Trolley Square and ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory with the other Carters (Neil's brother Paul).

     We went to Gardener Village and got Lainie some finger puppets. 

     Maddie and Lisa introduced me to necklaces with pendants that have your initial on them, the latest craze in Utah.

     Neil's brother Paul hiked with us to a waterfall in the mountains east of their house in Sandy.

     I liked this little stream at La Caille restaurant.  It reminded me of the song .....Give Said The Little Stream as it hurried down the hill.  I am small I know, but wherever I go the grass grows greener still....

     The last picture is of the view of the Wasatch mountains that we saw on our hike near Paul's house.

Anacapa and the Channel Islands May 2009

     For Neil's birthday, we decided to take a trip to Anacpa Island, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of Ventura, CA.  This island was definitely other-worldly.  I felt like I had gone to a foreign land.  The vegetation was different from anywhere else in the area.

     It was nesting season for the seagulls.  Here are 3 seagull eggs.

     There were seagulls everywhere.  They were very protective of their nests and squacked at you when you walked by.

     We also stopped at the Ventura pier and had some of the best clam chowder I've ever eaten.

      On the way back to San Diego, we went to Gladstones, a famous seafood restaurant on the beach near Santa Monica.  Overall it was a fun birthday for Neil.

May 2009

     May was a big month for us.  In the first picture, you see my favorite babysitters, Elaina's cousins Haylee and Rachel walking with her along Del Mar Beach.

     Elaina loves books.  Here she is the Sunday before her 1st birthday.

     The next picture shows Elaina at her one year old birthday party.  Her friend Juliana is helping her with the wrapping paper.

     This is the first time Elaina got to eat cake, ice cream, eggs, peanut butter, and cow's milk.  Turning one is a big deal. 

     The next picture is of the one year old birthday party for Elaina with the family. The best part about turning one for Elaina was going swimming in Grandpa's jacuzzi.

     We ended the month by going to the cow parade in La Jolla, and Elaina got to take a brief ride on a fiberglass cow.