Cape Cod and Father's Day

It all started, when Mindy came into town. Returning from Malawi for a visit home, Mindy stopped over in Boston as her portal into the United States. The one in the hat below is Elliot.


We took a walk in the cemetary on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and sat near the pond so Elliot could take a load off. Below Elliot and his Mom are practicing their synchronized swimming routine (of course, with no water).


The next day, for Father's Day, we made our way down to Cape Cod. Mindy's friend from Malawi, Diane, who you will see in later pictures, was there visiting her parents (who you will also see). But below, you'll see Elliot and me clamming. That's right, Elliot is a big fan of shell fish - despite the kosher thing. I'll have a talk with him later. Anyway, here we are (not really) looking for clams.


After a time, we returned to the house and prepared our Cape Cod meal, which included fresh clams (quahogs, steamers and razors), clam chowder, and lobster. And with a view like that, who could complain? You might notice that Elliot is complaining in the picture below, but that's only because we told him he could only eat one lobster con leche. He was upset.

To work off our dinner. Elliot suggested that we take a walk on the beach. He set out before us, but we quickly caught up.



"Gotcha!" His mom caught up to him and picked him up. He didn't seem too upset.

And after some coaxing, he even started to laugh about it.


Once I emerged from my shell fish coma, I joined them on the beach for a picture. This is a north facing beach, so we have some nice light on our cheeks.


And alas, Justeen jumps behind the camera to snap a photo of Mindy, Diane, me and the bean. Soon after this picture was taken, we got in the car and drove in hideous traffic for our seventy mile trip back to Boston. I suppose we weren't the only ones with the bright idea to retreat for the cape on Father's Day.


And quite without warning, Elliot jumps in front of the camera!

Photos from California trip

As promised, here are some more photos from California. We, unfortunately, have very spotty photo documentation of the days events. Although, we did capture some good moments. Like, below is Elliot's great-grandmother greeting Elliot for the first time.

It was pretty great for everybody. Elliot was overwhelmed with the love after a long flight. But I could tell he was feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

Now he's back in his great grandmother's arms experimenting with a funny monkey (and no, that's not a euphemism).


Here's father and son posing with the grandparents. I believe this is the morning we left, so this picture is out of order. But for consistency's sake, I'm going to leave it here.



Then, we went up to visit Justeen's dad in Morro Bay.



And of course stopped off to visit 'good ol' Terry and George' in San Luis Obispo. We saw their beautiful garden and snapped some photos. Elliot is either getting tired here are acting cool in his fancy fresh lid.

Elliot Does California

Elliot took his first trip to California to visit his family and friends. It was quite a whirlwind affair. We arrived in the afternoon Wednesday May 31st. Upon arrival, we went straight to Elliot's great grandparent's house, where he was greeted by my entire family, including parents, brother, niece, nephew, cousins, sister-in-law, and of course, the great grandparents. After sleeping for about six hours on the flight over, Elliot was wide awake and awaiting the shower of love he received. Luckily, the shower was so powerful, that he fell asleep only about five hours later and almost slept through the night.

We slept at my parents' house (Elliot's grandparents' house), but soon after waking up, we headed out for our next adventure. We stopped in to see Justeen's sister at her groovy salon, Suburbia. After passing the bean around to various well wishers, we headed out to Morro Bay to visit J's dad - about 3.5 hours north. Once there, Elliot got his fair share of lovin' and mom and dad and bean enjoyed the reprieve from the 100+ degree temps in Los Angeles. It was a cool 65 at the beach. Thank goodness for the marine layers.

The next day, we said goodbye to the beach, J's dad and his girfriend Josie and made our way back to "the southland." We arrived home and my grandparents, or the bean's great grandparents, were at my parents', or the bean's grandparents' (is this making sense yet?) house. We had a lovely time chatting and eating pizza and the bean, passed from loving embrace to loving embrace, stared as we ate his future food (pizza con leche).

Later that night, we went off to Jennifer's house (J's sister or the bean's aunt) to meet J's mother, her husband, j's grandmother and j's niece (or the bean's grandmother, grandfather, great grandmother and cousin), who had just driven six hours to visit from Sonora, CA. We chatted and the bean was again, passed around.

The next morning, we went to visit my brother and family (or the bean's uncle, aunt, and cousins) and had a nice ol' time eating biscuits and talking about things bean. We said goodbye and made our to jen's house, where we were having a little party to see all of our old friends. A few hours later, the friends arrived and the bean was passed around again. Happy as a clam, the clam bean made his way from smiling face to goofy smile and impressed everyone with his coy glances and intense stares. We poured margaritas and avoided the heat. It was really great to see everyone again - it made us realize that we still have good friends on the other coast.

The next morning at 8am we left my parents' house (or the bean's grandparents' house) and drove to Long Beach to catch our plane. Justeen told him before we got on the flight that because he's been so good the entire trip, that she didn't mind if he cried all the way home. I promptly corrected her and told him that I minded. And that he should probably take a long nap again. Well, I was victorious in our first parenting disagreement. The bean slept until someplace over Kentucky. When he woke up, he just stared at the man sitting next to us until about Indiana. Then he found some other hapless victims to stare down. With only a few fussy moments during the entire flight, as we were deplaning, several people told us what a great baby he is. And I was overtaken with my first feelings of pride for the little guy. I was a proud father - his behavior was stellar and I felt so pleased that we were related (I'm the bean's father).

We arrived home around 9 o'clock on Sunday night, and all of us, exhausted from our travels, crashed. We had a great trip and the bean is still glowing from his visit. Of course, his eyes are now permanently open.


You might be wondering why there are few pictures posted here. Well, the camera is in Justeen's bag, so I won't get to posting the pics until I get back from Cleveland this weekend. Oh yeah, I'm leaving for Cleveland today for a conference. It'll be my first time away from J and the bean, and I'm not so happy about it. I know that J isn't either. But, I promised to return home with a smile and maybe a little something from the rock n' roll hall of fame.