Washington DC

I had the wonderful chance to go to DC for the weekend. Unfortunately Shonda and Renae could not :(. I was attending a PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America) national conference.
We left early Friday morning October 15th and returned on October 19th. The conference was held at the Marriott in Wardman Park.
I wont bore you with the details of my trip, but here are a few pictures of the places we went to.

Dancing Daisies

We were watching an episode of Pushing Daisies on Netflix instant view two nights ago. When the end credits came on, Renae started dancing to the music. (Too bad she almost tripped over the camera case.)

Trip to California

We just came back from a wonderful trip to CA. We loved being with family and catching up with friends. We were especially glad that baby Jillian decided to come early so we could meet her while we were there.

In typical Craig and Shonda fashion, we brought our camera but took very few pictures.

We spent the first few nights at Uncle E.J.'s. He lives on a ranch near Graeagle, CA. That area is so beautiful. It felt like we were staying at a cabin in the woods. It was nice to spend some time with him and meet his girlfriend Kim, whom Renae warmed up to so quickly. Nana and Poppop and Jackson joined us for the weekend. (Carrie and Jake wanted to come too but little Jillian decided to change their plans.) We went on rides on the quads, went to a concert in the park in Portola, had an impromptu water fight with Jackson (where Jackson had the hose, the adults tricked him to be looking right at it when they turned it on, so he brought the hose after all the adults) and explored the old barns and firetruck. It was fun and relaxing. Thanks again, Ernie and Kim, for your hospitality.

Next we got to meet baby Jillian. I forget how tiny they come.

We met up with some of our friends from church on Monday evening, with some of my old co-workers on Wednesday, and a few other friends on Friday and Saturday. When we were with them, it didn't feel like two years have passed.

On Tuesday, we went with Nana to Santa Cruz. As soon as we set Renae down on the beach, she zoomed straight for the water. We quickly took our shoes/socks off and let her play in it for a while. She loved it! After cleaning most of the sand off her and changing her into dry clothes, Nana took her on some rides on the boardwalk. It was great fun. We loved being with Nana.

Wednesday thru Friday, we stayed in San Francisco. Craig and I got to have a date night when Nana took Renae home with her one night so we could go to the musical "Wicked".

Thursday we had lunch with Nana at Boudin's on Fisherman's Wharf,
went to the Exploratorium,

and had dinner with the Carrie and Jake and their two kids at The Cheesecake Factory.

This is Renae helping Daddy check out of the hotel.


We spent Saturday with Nana helping out with the Icee booth.

On Sunday, we started our drive home. Thanks to the Laytons for letting us stay with them that night to break up our drive.

There are so many other things we did. It was a wonderful vacation. It was so nice to be able to spend time with my husband that was not interrupted by stresses and everyday concerns. I loved that we were able to hold hands more frequently. I love that man and his good family.

Cute Renae

Here are some pictures of cute things our little miss has done in the past two months.

Renae reading comics.(I didn't realize the camera was still on video.)

Trying on Mommy's shoes

Helping Mommy crochet
(I would give her an extra crochet hook and some of the flowers I already made and they would end up like this.)

Hugging Dan while watching Daddy's fireworks show Trying to get a good picture with Mommy of Missie's cute pony-tail
Taking pictures of Daddy at the computer


Trying out a binkie, since she never used one as a baby

Helping Daddy with his project


Showing off cute hair because she spent the morning with Shalee

Opening the drawer in the fridge to eat raw asparagus (Once again, the pig-tails are thanks to Shalee)

Her Walkin' Today

We thought I was an idiot. Me like bananas in gravy. Here me post:


Here is Renae walking today. We also got a toy from Renae's Grand Uncle Sam.

Here is her walking with it. She loves to ride it and push it around.
Luv Ya All!

Toddler

Here are a few pictures from the last two months.

This is Renae emptying my purse. She loves taking things out of any bag or drawer. She has just recently learned that it's also kind of fun to put things back in. The problem is that she usually puts the wrong things back in. In the kitchen, we often find pens in the lid drawer and lids in the pen drawer.




I found the following pictures on my camera in this order.

Yep, these are the first pictures that Renae took on her own. I love the second one, how she caught the light on her blond hair.

I realized my daughter likes to dip food when she was eating baby food green beans, set her spoon on the table, picked up a graham cracker, and dipped it in her green beans. I like to dip foods too but I think I've developed better taste of what goes well together.


Renae is walking! This was on Sunday, June 6. She was just starting to walk back then. I haven't taken a video more recently. She's a great toddler now. She walks all over the place.

Easter Time

On Wednesday we got a duckling and chicks from some college students. We kept the chicks but gave the duckling a home on Saturday.


The two chicks here are California whites. On Saturday, we also bought three Rhode Island reds. (not shown in the picture)

This afternoon, we brought Renae into the living room to find what the Easter Bunny left for her. As soon as we set her down, she was off in the right direction.

But by the time she found it and we began taking pictures. She was more interested in the camera than what she had found. (see next picture)



Finally she found the contents and began to pull them out to show us. Shonda went to put the basket back up for the picture, but I took it before she could.

The Easter Bunny gave her some banana and strawberry munchies. Which she is waving around in this picture.

Renae also received a Kiwi stuffed animal. She thought it was fun to grab the Kiwi by the beak and love it. She also received a banana which she tried to eat: peel and all.

Renae Crawls

Last night as Craig was playing on the computer, he made a woohoo! For the first time this winter he beheld Renae D'Ann Hayes crawl! Yes folks she is on her way to world domination. One small step for parent kind, one giant leap for Renae. We caught her tonight on film so you could watch her do her thing. Enjoy!