Espens first ever visit on a beach

... in slow motion!

Bodega Bay Trip

Why not take a nap? 101 was horrible on a Thursday night.. Accident up ahead and rush hour makes for slow driving - added 30 minutes to our 2 hour drive :(

Dinnertime! We arrived at the house just after dark, 7PM-ish, and had great foods waiting for us.  

Next morning art time! 

View from our bedroom. Not bad. 

 The back yard is huge and has great ocean views. 

Great weather this weekend. Usually this place is lost in thick fog, but we lucked out and can't spend enough time outside. Tonight hot tub time!

New Bay Bridge Opening - Maiden Voyage

Late evening of September 2 we were among the very first to go over the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge! When we heard they were planning to open the new bridge nearly 6 hours early we decided to go check it out that night. We got in the car and waited close to one of the onramps and then a few minutes after 10:15PM traffic started slowly moving. The first thing you notice when you drive over the bridge is how nice and clean it is. The pavement is smooth and even the lighting is super even, I think they did a great job setting up all the lights because you are never blinded by them, yet there is plenty light. As you approach the main tower the whole bridge tower fills the view and it almost looks like a cathedral.

Somebody we know didn't last to see the return trip.

A little update

Its been a while since I wrote anything on here, so heres an update.
With work things are as always crazy busy, the cases are now going to be manufactured at two different companies and thats a split that makes a lot of sense, and we also see a huge drop in time wasted sitting around waiting for the manufacturer to get their asses in gear. The main issue now is just how to adjust the case to that the band can fit snuggly and precisely and I have found a plan that is being implemented now.  The first cases will go to our wonderful supporters on Kickstarter and to sellers in Europe that hopefully will kick off more sales over there.

The trip to Norway was very nice, it was lengthy compared to my previous trips but it had been two years since my last trip and I think it is important to stay a little when traveling so far, it took us 2 weeks to wake up from the jet-lag.. Norway is rainy, cold, and not much daylight to speak of so there was not much to do besides sleep anyway. We did have some awesome days though and lots of good food.
One of the big events this time was celebrating my grandmothers 90th birthday, which happens to fall on the same day as Christmas. With a new internet connection I hope to see her on Skype and stay updated email, who knows, maybe even Facebook?

One of our best days was visiting my family in Voss. (see images below) We took the train and had a nice journey through winter Norway. Most of my mom's family lives in Voss because my great grand father moved there due to the war in 1940s and this is where he started Sølvsmidja, a silversmith company. We got a tour the new factory and see how they make the jewelry, it was pretty awesome. This was also the first time Heather got to meet my mom's extended family and I think she really enjoyed her time with them. It was pretty clear Heather now is in love with Voss and its safe to say we will be back for more.

Another noteworthy occasion was when the clouds cleared one morning and we decided to go to Ulriken, the 2100ft mountain in Bergen.

We also got to see some of my friends, one of my best friends, Frode, managed to invite 30 people to his house for a big party, just like in the old days, except everyone seemed a bit older/more tired than last time we were all gathered.

Heather flew home one week before Lucia and I so for one full week while Heather slept in her own bed at home Lucia heard nothing but Norwegian. Obviously it was during this week she started picking up a lot of norwegian words, and she still use them randomly. Now she may say a full sentence in english but then one word will be substituted with a norwegian.

On the way home we stopped in London due to a flight mismatch and we got a chance to spend time with our good friend Kelly who now lives in London. We all took a little tour of London and saw the London Eye, closed for maintenance :( and walked down along The Thames. Lucia was super excited to see the London Bridge which she keeps singing about from a TV show called Barney. We had dinner at a pub and it was awesome.

The flight home next morning was OK, but the sleep I planned to have was torpedoed by the ridiculous short childrens shows on the inflight TV, being woken up every 20 minutes makes no one any less tired.

 Overall a great trip, and it is great to be back too!

I will post pictures as they are ready

Art Center Car Classics 2011

Finally a weekend all to myself. I can't remember exactly last time I had a weekend without company of any sort and it was a nice break. I stayed with David out in Venice and I am super grateful for his hospitality. He lent me the sofa and the keys to the Jetta. I was also struck by how nice that part of LA is, just a great neighborhood.
I came down to LA to go to the annual car show at Art Center where I went to school a few years ago. This car show is not like any other, its quite unique. Most car shows are either centered around new and coming cars, or vintage classics, or race cars, or hot rods, which are all exciting on their own, but the show at Art Center tends to bring the best and most significant and unique cars from all these genres together in one show. Usually there are other vehicles as well such as aircrafts and motor cycles, but I have also seen u-boats and spacecrafts there. This year was no exception with a very cool amphibious plane on display and although Jay Leno and Chip Foose was not there I met up with old friends and caught up on the latest.
I now have several hundred photos and videos to go through but in the mean time here are a few pictures from the show:

The impressive new concept car from Cadillac: "Ciel"

Very rare Ferrari #1 

Very rare Ferrari #2

Vay-Gus!

My good friend Megan, who I met in Annapolis at a Christmas party 10 (!) years ago this year, celebrates her 40th birthday this week. To celebrate, her husband gathered a group of us to make merry in Las Vegas for the weekend. It was great, great fun. I shared a room at the Monte Carlo with her niece, who I cannot seem to fathom is almost THIRTY; I still imagine her being a mere teenager. The hotel was nice; not lavish but definitely nice. Mad props to Shannon for selecting it. I arrived very early (maybe too early?) Saturday morning and the rest of the gang wasn't scheduled to arrive until 3 or so, so I lollygagged around, which mostly consisted of trying to find a spare outlet in the casinos to charge my phone. Then! On Facebook, one of my sister's high school classmates happened to be in Vegas and said come by and see her. And so I did! I haven't seen her in about 20 years, and it was wonderfully fun to catch up. She has a business making baby bibs and burp cloths and sent Lucia a gorgeous set when she was born. So sweet.

The gang arrived and soon we were off to celebrate. I was really thankful they were on East Coast time, as I had gotten up at 3:45 that morning to head to the airport. We had a nice dinner at a burger place, then headed to bed. At 10 p.m. On a Saturday night. In Las Vegas. But what can I tell you? We were tired. Sunday the girls went to the Spa at the Monte Carlo; I had forgotten my bathing suit so I dashed across the street to Ross and unbelievably, found a cute suit for $20 so I could properly soak in the hot tub. After we cleaned up, we headed to the Venetian for an impromptu lunch at Bouchon, which was so unbelievably amazing. I had quiche and housemade sausage (with veal!) and a crisp glass of Sauvignon Blanc. After brunch the server asked if we'd like a private tour of the kitchen. UM YES!! It was absolutely gorgeous and fascinating, despite the hairy eyeball we got from the head chef. 

Making croissants

The Birthday Girl

Head chef way in the back

MMMM Butter! 

Afterwards we did a mini photo shoot with a friend Megan met from launching her photography biz. We then headed back for a very long walk to the hotel, where I may have whined because I was tired. I managed to squeeze in a quick nap before dinner -- yay!  We headed to the Bellagio for an amazing birthday dinner at Sensi. Our table was amazing with a full view of the kitchen: see? 

Afterwards we played a little blackjack and I won $100! Wheeeee! Both nights I was in bed by midnight -- a definite Vegas first. But it was nice to take a medium speed; there's massive pressure once you're in that town to PARTY HARD and we just weren't up for it. We focused on laughing, eating great food, and making memories. I had forgotten how HILARIOUS Megan is and several times I giggled uncontrollably at her quips. She funny! 


The last day I went to the MGM Grand Spa, which ahem, is a mere 48,000 square feet. For $25, I soaked in the hot tub, took three showers, and sat in the steam room, and snuggled on the chaises with trashy magazines and an extremely comfortable robe. I have dreams of that robe. We had a nice lunch afterwards, and I headed home. It was such a fun weekend; I'm so happy to be included in Megan's posse. 

The Trip In Pictures

These are horribly out of order. Forgive me. 

Fells Point after meeting up with my friend Stephan and his kids.

Can't imagine why the fire department was called to check on our bonfire. Yikes!

Sledding with cousins Will and Grayson

Christmas Morning Cinnabons (yum!)

Helping Big Papa with his gifts

Lucia opening her gifts from Santa

Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens

On our way home

Playing with amazing vintage Fisher Price toys

Seeing Anna and Bruce in Baltimore was really special; we hadn't seen each other for 5 years and it was like no time had passed at all. I love them so much. We met through our dogs; Max tried to eat Baylee back in the day. The two were basically inseperable, and so we got to know each other and became great friends. I'm so thankful for them. Pete really loved meeting them too, and Bruce was charmed by Lucia. We walked around Federal Hill park and thought of Baylee. It was a bittersweet moment, caught above. 

Wedding in Florida

We had a wonderful time in Florida. We enjoyed the warm water almost as much as Lucia, and we are looking forward to next time we have the opportunity to spend time there with the Harrisons. The rehearsal dinner, ceremony and reception was very nice, and spending an extra day really topped it off,

Flower Girl

Without further ado:

The Trek Down South

We headed down to LA last weekend to see the very pregnant Mary and tickle Danny. She and Mr. Pants are up to their eyeballs trying to finish her film for this um, film festival you may have heard of, so it's been crazy busy. Plus she's giving birth in 5 weeks.

At any rate, we arrived around 1:30 a.m. Friday night and spent as much time together as we could. We went out to eat THREE times which is commendable even once with toddlers. We sat and talked at their place, and the kids played together nicely. We walked on the Venice promenade, which is always my favorite part. We saw a plane overhead have major issues including um, flames shooting out of one of the engines, and make a quick detour back to LAX. Whoa!

In all, it was a great but short visit. Sigh. In my perfect world, San Francisco is the epicenter, with Hockessin, Norway and Los Angeles right on the perimeter.

Enjoy the pictures HERE.

A Fantastic Trip!

We had a wonderful time in Norway. It was cold, but so cozy and lovely. We loved getting spoiled by Nina and Leif, and meeting new and old friends along the way. Christmas, or God Jul, was intimate and special. Thank you Nina, Leif, Ole Morten, Helene and our friends for hosting us and showing us a very memorable visit. We love you!

Walking in Da Snow

We ventured out on Christmas day for a walk through Gamle Bergen, which translates to Old Bergen. There were a lot of people out, actually. Little Miss did not like getting her hands cold, which apparently changed yesterday when she ate tons of snow. At any rate, here's a quick video of Pete and Lucia walking. Also, there's new pictures at the album link below (previous post). Enjoy!

Pictures

Check out our pictures here.

We're Here

And we learned some lessons along the way:

1. When you get print tickets for your infant traveler only, put them with your passports immediately so you won't have a mad dash at 11 p.m. the night before your trip trying to remember where they are.
2. If you happen to call the airline to ask for assistance in this particular case, DO NOT trust them when they say it's no problem that you don't have them, as long as you have the booking code you're good to go.
3. When you wake up late and think, whew we've got another hour to get ready, USE THAT HOUR WISELY. i.e. not on Facebook.
   
4. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES fly into JFK. Just don't. DON'T. If you do, you have to LEAVE SECURITY AND WALK OUTSIDE in 20 degree weather WITHOUT YOUR COATS (even on the baby!!) to take a decrepit train and then proceed through security all over again.
   
5. DO NOT forget to change the baby's diaper regularly, even if baby seems perfectly comfortable and fine. Set timers, whatever you gotta do, just get that done regularly.
   
6. DO NOT pack any less than 7 diapers. There's a good chance you'll get poo or pee on you.
   
7. Do not pack any less than THREE backup outfits, cause you'll have to recycle previously peed on outfits when #2 bites it, you can't find the socks, and oh yeah, there's poop on the blanket.
   
8. DO NOT pack all of your clothes and the baby's clothes and for crying out loud, the baby's formula all in one suitcase. Because if you happened to not listen to Rule #4, you will be SO shitouttaluck when that suitcase doesn't arrive.
   

The good news: Christmas gifts, all my stuff for showering, etc. made it, and we didn't lose the baby in NY. It could have been worse, although I'm not sure we'll do a two-stop trip again to try to find out.

Say a prayer my suitcase makes it.

Making Our Lists and Well, You know...

We're plotting the last-minute details for our trip to Norway. We're taking the train, then taking the subway to the airport, since parking is now $15 a day. OOF.

Our to-do lists are insane, and they start with getting us feeling better. Lucia and I both shared the distinguished honor of having chest x-rays today (hers was clear, mine we're waiting to hear back from).

Hers

This cold has snowballed into bronchitis for me and then snowballed further into asthma problems. Yikes. We've pulled out the big guns and hope to have me turned around and feeling like my old self again by Thursday, understanding that the trip will be tiring. I plan on sleeping a lot when we get there. Like, a LOT.

We celebrated Christmas with my parents tonight; well really we just opened the gifts from them. They were super lovely, and we can't wait to use some of them. :) Hooray.

Pete and I celebrated (har har) a very long day spanning three hospitals with make-your-own pizza night, complete with delicious prosciutto and fresh basil. We were low on mozzarella, but our friend parmesan stepped up and we were impressed.

More to come as we are counting down...

A weekend in Pasadena

I went to Pasadena last weekend to be at the yearly car show at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. This is not a normal car show or concourse, but an event focused on designs that push the limit for what is bold, beautiful or innovative, and this year they not only focused on cars, but boats, airplanes and more.
There were cars of all ages, one-off prototypes, experimental airplanes and space crafts, a u-boat, a bat mobile, boats, motorcycles.
This year Burt Rutan received a lifetime achievement award and held a keynote about his planes and hobbies which included figuring out how the pyramids were built, efficiency (home and automotive), the JFKs assassination, and global warming.
He spoke mostly about his hobbies and it was incredibly interesting to hear how he tried to solve each problem like a flight data engineer using the raw data and drawing his own conclusions. Very cool.
I drove down with Christian Morsing and we had a great time. We got stuck in traffic more than a few times and didn't get to do all the things we intended, we also had 43C (110F) driving through San Joaquin Valley. Definitely not a top-down environment. Thank you A/C!
I took a lot of pictures this time and I will make them available soon. I even have a video!

Chillin

It's Sunday a.m., Pete's in Pasadena for a car show and I'm handling things just fine, thankyouverymuch. We got a new high chair yesterday, courtesy of Craigslist (whoo-hoo!). Here's are the full specs on it, in case you care (three reclining positions??).

Little Miss has decided that puffs trump everything, and bananas are no longer interesting. Or avocados. She ate puffs for a good hour this morning, and I was so impressed with how many she was eating and figured, hey at least she's eating. Then I removed the tray and realized where at least one-third the puffs had gone, all over her lap.

I have had some challenges putting her down for naps; she wants me to pick her up and in the past I have; I've created a monster! I'm getting better at it, and though she cries everytime, it's getting easier each time.

We're headed up to the city to see my girlfriends, and I've packed banana and oats with me for her. She'll be eating it, for sure.

I hope Pete is having fun -- it was his birthday yesterday!

Nice weekend

We had a great weekend get away / honeymoon to Carmel and Big Sur. We drove down with the top down and loved every minute of it. I have been to Big Sur several times and was excited to show the sights to Heather.

We headed west up the sinuous mountain road and stayed on HWY 1 all the way to Monterey where we stopped for cookies, then we followed the coast to Carmel which was at its loveliest. Searching Yelp we found a great italian restaurant and had a very memorable dinner before we headed to the ranch.

The Carmel Valley Ranch was a pretty swanky place beautifully located on a golf course. The Suite was so large I wish we had more friends with us to share, but the next morning we headed down the coast to Big Sur all the way to Julia Pfeifer State Park. Here we could have stayed longer, but time was running out and we had to get home.

The day of the Zoo

I had an extra day in L.A. after Heather went back to San Francisco, and I was invited to go to the L.A. Zoo with Mary, David, Danny and his grand parents. Located near Glendale, my old neighborhood, I had actually never been to the zoo before and was happy to finally be able to see it.
The L.A. Zoo was much larger and nicer than expected, and it had animals you could actually see. I really enjoyed the primate exhibits, but I felt like I was kind of intruding on their home, and felt a bit awkward taking pictures of them. There was nothing awkward about the tigers:

Dannys 1st Birthday Party

The Big Day finally arrived! We went over to The Pants Department early to help out and have a great time. We picked up birth day cake, parked a car, filled up the kids bath ring with water, made salad, hosed the concrete down and quality controlled the snack food. At least I did.

Too soon the shadows grew long and the night was again signaling sleepy time for some of us. Lucia kept it going until she just stopped moving on the carpet.
Heathers step cousin Janice also came by for a visit coming all the way from Oceanside near San Diego:
with gifts! She had the cutest clothes for Lucia and a gift card to Babies-R-Us. We were sad to leave, the weekend went too fast, we hope to see them again soon!