Summer months in SoCal

Here is SoCal land we wonder where the past two months have gone. The magic of digital photography provides a glimpse.

The top story of the recent past has been the addition of Miles' new cousin Gavin Alexander Willis. For those of you who have not met Jill's brother-in-law Lee, his son is a perfect replica minimized to 5%.

 

Here is Jill, Jill's sister Leslie, and Leslie's husband Lee, in the moments before Gavin's arrival.

In the wave of visitors, Jill and her sister accidentally grabbed the wrong babies to pose for this picture.

When we were not oohing and ahhing over Gavin, we returned to our old standby of wandering aimlessly throughout Santa Monica. On this day we covered approximately 15 miles by foot, stopping here at a park for a diaper change, snack, and photo shoot.

Miles, Pedro, and El Che enjoyed some time in the shadow of democracy.

Miles then climbed a tree, which is to say that we picked him up for a picture so we could later say that Miles climbed a tree.

On another weekend we drove up the coast to Oxnard to attend the beach wedding of JT and Kelly.

Here is the UCLA Anderson crew posing with the bride and groom. Miles enjoyed his shiny spoon while the rest of enjoyed the open bar.

In an effort to maintain his status as a ladies' man, Miles wowed the bride with his dance moves, which include goofy grins, happy screams, and the occasional drool.

Not wanting to drive the hour plus home to Santa Monica after the wedding, we decided to stay at the haunted Bella Maggiore bed-and-breakfast in Ventura, which meant a sleepless night for Jill.

The next morning we took a ferry to Santa Cruz Island. On the way out of the harbor, some seals serenaded us from a red buoy. Later we saw a pod of dolphins and two blue whales.

Miles stretched his legs on the tabletop during the ferry ride.

On the island, we christened the baby carrier that Peter's Aunt Bonnie sent us. The picture highlights how little rain we have had in SoCal this past year.

When we stopped for a diaper change and a picnic lunch, Miles enjoyed the smooth taste of plastic on his gums.

During our break we realized how easy it is to clip on the plastic sun shade, which brought a nice smile to Miles.

Here Jill enjoys one of the many scenic breezy spots on the island.

This shot is looking down from the cliff to Potato Harbor.

In the past 13 years together, we have mastered the art of the self-portrait, but now we need to learn how to angle our shots to include Miles.

Near the end of our 10ish-mile hike, we see the final marker for the pier/beach with Miles completed zonked from a strenuous ride in his carrier.

On another weekend we returned to oohing and ahhing over Gavin, which meant a BBQ in Studio City. Here Jill's parents bask in the presence of their two grandsons, Gavin and a goofy-grinned Miles.

After lunch Grandpa Pete took Miles into the shallow end of the pool for some splashing and all-around baby fun.

Miles then stripped off his clothes for a nice skinny dip in the pool with Peter.

Here Miles is working on his head shot for his acting/modeling career, which to the dismay of his non-homeowner parents has not taken off yet.

On yet another weekend BBQ in Studio City [Leslie and Lee set a record with 9 BBQs in the first month after Gavin's birth], Jill's grandparents Al and Elaine drove up from Palm Springs.

In this picture Miles and Gavin are so excited to see their great-grandparents that they fell sound asleep.

Miles later replaced his fancy clothes for a palm tree leaf, which was adorable until Miles stood up on the table to pee.

On another day, we invited Jill's parents over to Santa Monica for fun at the beach and a picnic featuring Peter's homemade hummus and some wine cleverly concealed in a nalgene bottle.

Miles and Peter enjoyed some time at the water's edge, on a day when the Pacific was remarkably warm.

In an effort to experience all that life has to offer up close and personal, Miles can now say with confidence that he loves the sand.

After some time playing in the sand and ocean, Miles enjoyed nothing more than a nice hug from Jill.

Two weekends ago all the new babies in Jill's family from LA, Dallas, and Phoenix reunited in Arcadia. As luck would have it, the four little ones organized themselves in a nice arrangement on a red blanket for this picture.

Clockwise from the top is an upside down Ava of Jill's cousin Roger and Kimberly, Gavin of Jill's sister Leslie and Lee, Iliana of Jill's cousin Marcela and Rodolfo, and Miles of the SoCalAllens.

This past weekend we ventured to see the NorCalAllens because we no longer knew what Miles' cousin Daphne looked like after our brother blog decided to abandon family pictures to preach patriotic [see link to the right].

Here Daphne enjoys her truck and an uncanny ability to pose.

Daphne introduced Miles to her play area to his great delight. If you enlarge this picture by double clicking on it, you can see Miles' two front teeth starting to pop out.

Apparently nothing feels better against new teeth than the purple pull of a Crayola crayon.

Miles even enjoyed a ride on Daphne's prized rocking horse assembled by hand by her great-grandfather Papa, though in this picture he looks a little less than thrilled.

In Berkeley, we caught up with our great friends from college Amy and Cyrus. Here Peter is teaching their kids Olivia and Mark how to hang upside down.

Later in the weekend Cyrus returned the favor by making Peter feel like he was hanging upside down after Cyrus, Ben, and Peter put a minor dent in Cyrus' wine cellar.

 

Miles enjoyed swinging with Jill while Amy snapped this picture on her super slick iPhone.

 

The next day we walked around campus. On a break, Peter's brother Uncle Ben teaches Miles a little something about the Oakland A's while Miles shows off his ability to wave.

Later in the weekend we took the kids to the Edible Schoolyard.

Here Miles is either utterly captivated by the heirloom tomatoes growing around him or he is filling his diaper with something that we could later use to make the tomatoes grow better.

At the very end of our trip before heading to the airport, Daphne mysteriously turned into the baby of Frankenstein and goofy stepped her way to the camera for one last farewell.