On Christmas Eve, we were able to bring our little Hazel home. Shelley is already walking around and put Hazel into the carseat (thanks Krystina) for the ride home.
Sleeping at home for the first time.
Shelley eats Christmas morning breakfast with Hazel while Cayman licks the baby gate.
Shelley is now in labor and we are expecting the baby today. We'll announce the name when the baby is born, but here are some hints.
it's a girl
the name is both that of an island and plant
the following is the distribution for the name's popularity in the US (the higher the shape, the more popular the name was that year)
Email Kendall your guesses (if you want) or reply to this blog post.
Update:
Thanks for all the name guesses. Hazel Island is Located Here Hazelnut Tree
The name Hazel peaked in popularity in the 1890's (an 1890's typical Hazel shown below)
Shelley is now past her due date and very ready for the baby to come out and enjoy an external Christmas. Shelley has been awesome. She has been walking, cleaning the house, and even doing Pilates, via Jessie her sister/instructor.
We also got a zoo membership and Cayman and I went today and checked out the petting zoo. Cayman first made sure he pet each animal exactly once in frantic around the stable frenzy. He then found a beautiful white goat sitting on a box and quietly climbed up and sat next to it. He sat there with the goat for almost 10 minutes. He occasionally pet it and even kissed the goat a couple times. The goat gave gentle goat noises of approval.
At the zoo, Cayman also got to go on his first Marry-Go-Round. He choose a fiberglass panda, but that turned out to be a slightly scary experience. Cayman was brave, however, and made through all six revolutions.
So Shelley went to Big Bear with the girls so it is just Cayman and Dad this weekend. Here are our adventures.
Friday afternoon we went a 6 mile bike ride and played in the park. Cayman went down the slide so many times he turned red so we headed home to get some water. After changing we headed to BJ's to eat good food and watch the Dodger game.
Road Trip!
More Pizza Please
More Burger Please.
More French Fry Please.
No Lettuce Please.
More Ketchup Please.
Why are we out of Ketchup?
Awesome shop Dad, buy more Magic cards.
Saturday we got up at 5:00 AM and did some laundry and watered the yard. Then we headed to the Burbank High dance programs pancake breakfast. The pancakes were great and we even got to see a dance performance and sit with the principal. Cayman fell asleep on the way home:
After Cayman's long nap we headed to a rock yard to look at large rocks, trucks, and forklifts. Then we went to Bob's with Sparkey.
Sunday morning we played in the yard and then went on a bike ride and Cayman fell asleep.
I thought it would be fun to keep an ongoing list of which species of birds visit our backyard. I am only counting birds I get an image of on our property and if the birds are sexually dimorphic I will count each sex as a different bird. Here are the first four.
At 1:30, on a windless afternoon, one of our large birch trees fell. It fell in the perfect spot stopping short of damaging our light, weather-vein, and roof. This is the second time we have gotten lucky with a tree (see the first time here). The day after the tree fell, I bought a cheap chainsaw and Spencer came over to help me take care of it.
As you can see. The tree just missed the light.
We first lifted the tree off the roof using a large 6x6 (right in photo). Then chopped the tree into small pieces.
Once it had cleared the roof. We tied a rope to it and Spencer pulled it away from the house. Above is Spencer's Panorama photo of the aftermath.
Special Thanks to MaryAnn for watching Cayman (and prying for us) throughout this process.
Now we have a ton of birch which I plan to make stuff from and sell.
Last year I won an underwater photography contest in Maui. The top prize was a gift card that I was able to buy an underwater GoPro type camera. The last few days I have been sinking it, then retrieving it to see what swam by. The first three videos below were shot at a depth of 70'. The reef is actually quite colorful, but at that depth there is not enough sunlight for many of the colors to be visible.
This video is of a different location and a depth of about 110 feet. The camera is facing down a slope and the rocks in the bottom of the shot are resting in about 150 feet depth. At 29:40 you can see me retrieving the camera.
My dad was on the islands for business and got to come visit us. We hiked down to snorkel at Captain Cook Monument and found a pair of one of my favorite fish, the Saddleback Butterflyfish. I have not seen any of these fish since the last time I snorkeled at Captain Cook two years ago (it is probably the same pair). What a treat!
Dad
Dad takes great photos and makes videos. Here is a video he made of Cayman:
