Stinson Beach



We packed up the car today and hit the beach!  The drive across the Golden Gate is always amazing and as we head up the "1" it just kept getting more beautiful.  We keep pinching oursleves that we live here.



We had a picnic on the beach while Sophie played in the sand and we built sandcastles.  

Sophie LOVES water - bath, pool or ocean and she's in! She'll even splash in a bucket if given the opportunity.  She took off straight for the water. 



Sunday funday has a whole new meaning these days! 



1 Year Old.

Sophie turned 1 on Friday, September 10th.  We can't believe it's been a year and we still feel so blessed to have such a healthy and happy baby girl.  She has such a good heart and is so friendly to everyone she meets (she waves at everyone). 

Since we already had a small celebration in Chicago before we left we honored the day by taking our baby girl out to dinner downtown for gourmet burgers at Burger Bar in Union Sqaure (did I mention that Tom met the chef/owner Hubert Keller while holding our table).

The birthday girl dined on sliders and sweet potato fries and then polished off her celebration with a HUGE banana split with stawberries and fudge - she loved it!

Days later, I am still finding fudge in places it shouldn't be...

New Friends - Old Friends

We couldn't be happier that one of my oldest and dearest friends lives here too and couldn't wait to hang with them.  Thanks to Becky, John and their baby girl Ellie (who is adorable) for living here and giving us tons of tips already on the area.

Sophie is so very excited to have a new friend and Guinness and Cole reunited as if they never missed a beat!  We can't wait for many fun times ahead together with the girls (and dogs too). 

Monterey for the day!

We took our first day-trip this past weekend and drove down the  "1" to Monterey.  Sophie is now facing forward in her big-girl car seat so we know she enjoyed the ride even more because she can finally see where we are going.  The drive was spectacular and for the first time in longer than we can remember the "drive" itself might have been the best part.

We enjoyed an afternoon at the beach with Nana and Sophie was quick to point out all the boats, seagulls and pelicans (Sophie says "bird").  Then we had a late lunch on the water followed by ice cream on the beach.  

We are in awe of how beautiful it is here and can't wait for our next outing...

California Girl!

Hello Everyone!

As we get settled into our new digs in San Francisco we decided to join the blogging bandwagon since so many of our friends and family are now more spread out than ever - we wanted an easier way to share our journey as we start our lives here out west.

This move has been a whirlwind.  First, kudos to Tommy on his new gig - we are super proud of him and the opportunity he has for himself and for his family.  It has all happened so fast but with a surprising calm to it which has validated our decision that this is the right move for us.  Everything just fell into place with such an ease. As you all probably know it has been a dream of ours to live in this part of the country since our first few trips out here about 4 years ago when we decided to throw this little party in Calistoga.

As soon as we got the news we tried to pack as much Chicago in as possible.  We squeezed in Sophie's first game at Wrigley where she hung on for 8 innings and was handed a game ball by the bullpen coach!   Then with Sophie's first birthday just around the corner we decided to combine the festivities with a quick birthday/farewell party just days before the movers would arrive!  We were so happy to see so many of you before we left - it meant the world to us.

The movers came, packed us up and moved us out, cars and all.  We checked ourselves into a hotel downtown MI ave for one last night (Guinness & Sophie too) and went out for one last Chicago steak dinner with Tom's parents....the next morning we flew out of ORD ONE-WAY!

SO - we are here!  We have settled into our corporate housing where we will be for the next 2 months until we get a lay of the land and our own place.  Sophie decided to wait until we landed at SFO to take off walking!  She's a California girl now!

We hope to have many visitors out here!  Stay tuned....