The Big Apple

I had such a great time in New York this time. Although I go there often, I usually spend most of my time with my nephew Jonathan. This time I had a whole week and was able to get out a bit. I went to the MOMA and saw some of my favorite artists. It was incredible seeing Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly and for the first time Helen Frankenthaller. Their paintings were bigger than I imagined. It was an overwhelming experience. I put on my headphones and listened to some of my favorite music and blocked out the chitter chatter of others and entered my own world.

I also got to see Pollock's giant drip paintings. It was the first time. I was able to get up close and examine what he accomplished. It was fun to see some of Andy Warhol's and Jasper John's creations that they made right there in NYC 40-50 years ago.

The next day I headed to the MET to see an exhibit on Robert Rauschenburg. It was incredible. I spent an 1hr and 45mins just on his exhibit. There was so much to look at. I was so overwhelmed. I just stood there and stared at his paintings forever. It was amazing to see the paintings in real life after staring at them in my humungous book for the past 5 years.

This experience engulfed me into a new world. I wanted to take photos of all the paintings to capture that moment but had always thought it was disrespectful to the artists. I scoffed at the other tourists who would just take photos and move on. They never enjoyed the moment. It was like seeing an incredible sunset and you want to capture every moment of it, however you know a photo could never do it justice so you just have to live with the 10 minutes of satisfaction (or in the museums case) several hours and enjoy it while the experience lasts. That was experiences are, moments in time. You can't make every moment hold still forever.

Here's a shot of me walking through central park on Christmas Eve and enjoying the fresh air. I wanted to roll around on the grass but they were preserving it for the winter.

So cute, baby Hudson curled up.

Addam's family.

Lee, Jonathan (2), Emma and Hudson (2 weeks)

Taste Test

I made a cake for Lee's birthday and Johnny helped with the taste testing. When I handed him a beater full of frosting he reacted with, "mmmmmmm, yummy." A very enthusiastic and reactionary boy.

Fun with Jonathan

I had a lot of fun with Jonathan. I loved waking up in the morning to him calling my name despite being so tired. He always knew exactly what he wanted to play when he got up. It sure is fun being a mom but terribly hard and tiring. I'm going through major nephew withdrawel right now.

NYC Dec '05

Emma had a new baby. Little Hudson. He is a cute new addition to the family. I was in heaven for a week with my 2 nephews. It was exhausting but very fun.

















Hudson is often drunk from so much milk. He's a milkaholic just like his big brother.
















Very cute baby. So much fun to sit and watch and wonder what he's thinking.














Wearing his Kiwi hat that G&G Petty brought back from New Zealand.
















"No, no, no" Johnny clearly did not want to hold Hudson. We tried.

Awesome Music and Fun Dancing

Friday night Jenny, Michelle, Brad and I headed to San Francisco to see Death Cab for Cutie and The White Stripes play.












Jenny and I smiling after our yummy burritos in the mission.














Brad and Michelle eating before the concert.












After the concert we headed to a club and danced until the wee hours of the morning.

Some spider

Here's a spider that we found in the library at school. It's inside a large water pitcher. It was posing for me at the moment.

Santa Cruz

Brad and I set off for Santa Cruz on Saturday so he could catch some waves, which turned out to be non-existent. I wanted to take some more photographs for my postcards. As we went to pick up Derek who also wanted to hit the beach this is what we saw when we pulled up to his apartment....








...he and Rick sticking out of the back of Rick's car. They were "working" on Rick's car but we have yet to get the full story.






















My two buddies. Brad, me and Derek enjoying the sunset with Heather in Capitola Village.
























Derek, jumping to try and be as tall as Brad. Also, notice Brad is smiling. It's another rarity for a photo.























What a beautiful state we live in.

Silly ones.

Heather met up with us in Santa Cruz. It was fun seeing her again. We always have lots of laughs together.

Let the festivities begin

Jenny and her roommates had a Christmas party this weekend. It was a lot of fun. Jenny and I made peppermint bark and hot cider. We listened to Christmas music and then around 10pm we really got the party rolling and opened up the garage and played a sweet dance mix that Jenny and I stayed up really late the night before to make. We strong lights all over the ceiling and create a fun dance floor effect.





Here is Jenny testing our peppermint bark for the 5th time and a shot of the beautiful decorations. I'm trying to get into the Christmas mood.












Jared, taking a pause from mingling to get a shot with me.

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving was very relaxing. It was just Jeremy, Mom, Dad and I. We slept, cooked, ate and lounged by the fire.











Jeremy carved the turkey.

My beautiful parents

Don't Mom and Dad look darling?

Brad turns 27

Brad rarely smiles for photos. (Guess how old Brad really is...I'll give you a hint, if you add the two digits it equals 7.)











We had a little celebration for Brad's birthday last week. Just a simple surpise.

Jared clearly didn't want his photo taken.