The Nutcracker

Ella's debut as a mouse in Marin's Nutcracker performance.  She's so grown up!

Celebrating NYE 2015

Another beautiful trip, this time down to Paso Robles.  What an undiscovered gem.  Great wineries, lots of good food, and of course the beach.  And we stopped at a festival in Monterey before to see a NYE family festival.

The house also came with two beautiful golden retrievers - Daisy was the favorite.  We had a little bit of a scare when Cole forgot to come home for a few VERY LONG minutes, but all turned out OK.  Great fun to share this special time with Jill and Pete along with Stella and Cole.

Christmas 2014

It's that time of the year again - but this time we got to celebrate Christmas twice.  Once in Sioux Falls with Granda and Grandpa an then again back home (double the presents).  Always a favorite in this house...trying hard to limit the gifts a bit, but only partly successful.  Got to get on skis once and explore cold parts of Sioux Falls. Really nice to enjoy this special time.

Thanksgiving 2014

Dinner at grandma's followed by our first family trip to Yosemite.  Lots of rock climbing, visits from Santa, general exploring.  The kids participated in a ginger-bread house contest which they won in their category!  There was no help from mom and dad who were busy drinking bloody mary's.  In general one of our best Thanksgiving trips yet!

Fall Pictures with our photographer :)

It is Christmas time again - so of course that comes with the holiday picture session.  Sometimes painful, but with a little bribery doable.  Hopefully 10 years forward we'll be thankful for these.  It did make  fun Christmas card.

Mommy is turning 40!!!! Ouch!!!! and so much fun at the same time.  Very fortunate to spend a beautiful weekend with my closest friends in the wine country...lots of drinking, playing, and eating really good food.  Love these women who came from all over to celebrate with me.  And to top it off, we had a great dinner at the Slanted Door in the iconic Ferry Building in San Francisco with great friends sharing time, stories, and delicious food together.  Feeling grateful. 

Fall 2014

Mommy's favorite time of the year always gets so busy - but is full of colors and fun.  This year the Smith family decided to go all out with costumes (thanks to Daddy, really, who did the creative and the production!).  A fun night of trick-or-treating as a family, we'll have to keep it up now!  Of course there was the annual pumpkin patch excursion to farms up north, and lots of opportunities to get dressed up - some of which we've captured here.

BELIZE!

Mommy and Daddy got to sneak away to Belize for five days for a solid diving trip.  Celebrating our 9th anniversary and mommy turning 40 (ouch!) was not so bad with the turtles, sharks, and eels.

And the fun with the Krimmels!

Whether we're skiing, camping, or doing little day trips (Russian River - YES!) - it's been fun spending so much time together.  Cole and Stella are amazing...The camping trip to Mt Diablo turned out to be a little hotter than anticipated (no running water and major heat!) - we survived, but I would not recommend last-minute reservations!

But of course we need to squeeze in one more little Tahoe trip!

With Brody (and Jeni and Derek) we had some fun in Tahoe this summer a few weekends.  Just a few pics...

Summer's coming to an end....

And check out Ella, the very proud first grader!!!

Daddy's birthday

check out this amazing photo series Kamila finished!

Auction

So...the Ross Valley Nursery School has an auction every year so we decided to go all out.  We question the need to donate cash to a pre-school that seems to be doing just fine (vs. public schools) - but could not skip out on the fun!

Southern CA

We took a week to spend some time in Santa Cruz, Carmel Valley, and then to visit Captain Steve in LA.  We got to see Kelly and Fletcher as well.  Great driving adventure that included lots of swimming, kite flying, first amusement park adventure for the girls, and of course lots of sun and beach.  Great trip!

fun times....just a little when kids get a hold of our camera! and daddy does the Death Ride

some cute pics of one morning :)  and daddy bragging!

Ballet, Ballet....

Beginning of June and it was time for the cute ballet performances.  It is the last performance for Maya from the Tutu School (where both girls have been going for several years) and Ella's first performance at Stapleton.  Both were adorable and had lots of fun with their friends (Maya danced with Annika and Ella and Rori had some fun too).

Mexico 2014

Over Memorial Day week we were lucky enough to fly to Mexico - Punta Cana specifically to enjoy some sunshine, ocean and really good food!  We rented a villa with Kelly and Darren and their adorable son Fletcher who turned 1 while on the trip (there was definitely some cake involved).  The villa was lovely mostly because it came with lovely ladies and a chef who took care of all of our needs the entire time.  It should be the definition of vacation while having kids.  There was lots of sun and lots and lots of beach and pool time, but we also found plenty of excuses to play games with the kids (Maya is amazing at memory games!).  I don't know if I can play another 'sequence' tournament, but it was great while it lasted.

Mother's day and Father's day 2014

So we did a little hiking.  First to Sonoma for a farm visit...and then up to Mt. Tam for Father's Day.  Hard not not take advantage of the weather and the outdoor space.  Kids seem to be getting older and older...

Kuba turns 2!!!

Our 'buba buba' turns 2!  Yes, that's his nickname...as it's the first way he learned how to say his name.  It was too cute not to stick.  We had a special guest - uncle Adam came to visit which was so sweet.  So we all went to Calistoga to hang out in the hot springs and enjoy the spring. 

Our very first camping trip

I guess it wouldn't be right to be in CA and not go camping.  It feels like the kids were too young before (or is that an excuse), but all of the sudden, we wanted to start exploring.  So our first trip was to the edges of Mt Tamalpias (why venture so far from home?  I mean there was always a huge possibility that this was going to be a disaster!) where we stayed for only one night...the kids loved it.  It was COLD even in June.  We went with our friends Jill and Pete (and of course Cole and Stella) who were pros at camping and showed us the ropes.  It was a large group as there were 20+ people altogether but it meant that we had lots of help.  And even in his pack and play, Kuba did great.  Here are some pics: