Happy Birthday Elliot!

Elliot has had lots of fun celebrating his birthday this year. Just wanted to share some pictures. The first party is at my mom's house with my parents and Eric's parents.


















The second party is at Chuck E. Cheese's with the mom's group gang.
Thanks to anyone and everyone to made this year special! We love you!

Will You Marry Me?

Four years ago today Eric made a surprise visit down to Mill Valley from Redding and sent me on a scavenger hunt all around my campus that ended at Pelican Bay - a restaurant on the water in Sausalito. I walked in and was told the man at the bar was waiting for me. I looked over and saw a hairy, older Asian man drinking beer... the waiter laughed and apologized when he realized Eric had been seated and I was NOT excited to see the guy chugging beer at the bar. Eric gave me the best hug ever, bought me crab cakes, and so sweetly and nervously got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. Less than five months later we were married in beautiful Kauai. Less than a year later we found out I was pregnant. Nine months later Elliot was born and added to the joy that is our family. And next week we'll get to celebrate two years of baby kisses. What a beautiful life.

ZUMBA!

So I went to the gym today for the second time. It was a mixed experience. After finding out that the Hartley's and the Bram's are members there, it was fun to watch Nate walk out as I walked in. Looks like that is the gym of choice for the Stirringites. Perhaps we can find workout buddies. One notch on the "yea" side.

I did ZUMBA for the first time today and loved it. I didn't wear enough deodorant though, so that didn't help me make any friends while I was there. Cei la vie. (Wow, spell check didn't pick up any of those words - did I really spell that right? Cool.) Zumba was so much fun and I loved seeing women in their 60's shake it next to women in their 20's. And boy was it a workout! Who knew!?!? One more notch for "yea" with a note to bring more deodorant.

I went to see how Eric was doing and while we were talking near the kid's area, we saw Elliot escape with another child after an older kid left w/o closing the door. The supervisor didn't notice immediately but when she did she corralled the Elliot and the other child back into the room. No go for Elliot though, he saw his freedom get taken away and I'm pretty sure saw his parents too. Letting our child escape gives one notch on the "boo" side of our tally sheet for the gym.

I think working out there could be great, but we are still rather undecided and only have about a week left on our free pass. I really want a place to workout that has childcare so I can go anytime I want and this place could be free if I help in the kid's area once a week for 3 hours. The tallies equal themselves out there: free membership but more time away from the house I'd like to keep clean and the family I'd like to be with.

So tell me what you think. Membership? Time in the kid's area? No exercising and only watching tv with cookies and milk? Wanna come exercise me and we can encourage one another?... ZUMBA is a lot of fun! Give me your feedback. Thanks.