Happy Easter From Forest!

Forest wants to tell y'all a little bit about the story of Easter:

Roughly translated from baby language that means: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so that whoever believes in him may have everlasting life." 

Except for the fart noises. Those don't really translate into English but basically mean:"My mom dressed me in yellow which is kind of a unisex color so I just want to clarify that I am, in fact, a boy." I hope y'all are having an awesome Easter weekend!

California Livin'

This past weekend left me feeling somewhat adjusted to the many life changes we’ve experienced over the past 5 months. We are finding our sea legs with this whole parenting thing and are feeling much braver and confident with Forest. 

And I think, despite not having our shipment yet, we are starting to settle in to California life. If this past weekend was any indication, I think we are going to really like it here. Saturday morning started with an early run; my first 6+ miler in over a year. 

It’s a bit sad that I had to push myself and work really hard for something that was second nature to me before getting pregnant, but when the GPS tracker crossed that 6 mile mark I felt like I was finally getting a bit of my groove back. I even ran it in less than an hour, which with these California hills is nothing to scoff at. 

The day turned into a gorgeous one so we decided to head out for an afternoon wine tasting. You know, because that’s just what you do when you live in northern Caifornia…

While San Ramon is reasonably close to Napa Valley (about 1-2 hours depending on your destination), it’s even closer to Livermore Valley, a lesser known wine region East of San Francisco. We decided to give it a go on Saturday afternoon.

My new friend Sara and her hubby and baby joined us at Wente Vineyards for our first California wine experience. 

They were super knowledgeable about wine while Jonathan and I usually indiscriminately and enthusiastically drink whatever is put in front of us. I guess we should educate ourselves since we have some of the best wine in the world at our doorstep. We don’t want to waste this precious time drinking mediocre wine! Jonathan and I have already decided that we will celebrate our 6^th anniversary in May by joining a winery club so we better get busy discerning our pallets.  We weren’t overly impressed with the wine at Wente but I found it all pleasant enough, especially for being just a 30 minute drive away. 

A few of the samples were actually fairly good. We paid $5 for a tasting for the less expensive wine and $10 per tasting for the more upscale bottles. Each flight consisted of 5 different wines. The best part about it was the large courtyard where we partook in our tasting. 

The weather on Saturday was perfect for lounging in the sun so we found a shady spot and some comfy chairs and spent the afternoon enjoying  good company and perfectly drinkable wine. 

Forest was mostly an angel despite skipping his afternoon nap. Why that child won’t just drift off to sleep in his stroller like a normal baby is beyond me…All in all I would call it a successful outing. We didn’t leave with any bottles of wine, but Jon did buy two jars of mustard featured at the winery. He was pretty excited. 

After a full afternoon we headed home to put the baby to bed and watched Colbert while sharing a bottle of wine….seriously. Good thing I went for a 6 mile run that morning! 

Sunday was another lovely day so we headed to the nearby outlet stores. In true mother fashion I spent all my time and money shopping for Forest while Jonathan racked up at Ralph Lauren and Banana Republic. Just kidding, I got some new things too. After moving from Scotland we are not equipped with a summer wardrobe so were desperately needing a few things.  

 Then we headed to Whole Foods to buy some things to throw on the grill for dinner. Jonathan cooked us some beautiful Tuna steaks with crab meat and hollandaise plus some scallop skewers. So yummy.

After dinner Jonathan got Forest ready for bed while I spent some QT with Bailey girl at the dog park. 

It was the perfect ending for our lovely weekend. I hope y’all had a good weekend too!

A Dog's Life After Baby

I’ve been pretty silent on the whole dog issue since we’ve started the moving process. When we were moving to Aberdeen, shipping the dogs was about all I blogged about, and both rascals continued to be a frequent subject my Scotland blog. 

For instance, this is the post I wrote when they were delivered to us in Aberdeen. I still remember the joy I felt at being reunited. 

Two years later, when we were being reunited in California, I felt anxious and overwhelmed. What a difference a baby makes.  

I remember my friend Talia telling me that when I had a baby I wouldn’t love Bailey and Samson as much anymore. I argued with her saying that while of course I would love my baby more, my love for my dogs wouldn’t lessen at all. Turns out I was wrong. I do actually love my dogs less than I did before Forest was born. 

I often think of them as just one (or two) more things to take care of on my already full plate. Forest takes most of my love and attention and energy. What scraps I have left at the end of the day are reserved for my husband. Therefore, I was relieved when my parents offered to keep our dogs while we got settled in California. 

The original plan was for them to drive them up to us, but with my grandmother’s passing, that evolved into flying them here solo. United has a PetSafe program in which you can ship your pets for about  $250-$500 a pop depending on their size. Unfortunately there was not enough room on the New Orleans---->San Francisco flight for both pups so they had to fly separately. My parents sent Samson off on Monday afternoon and Jonathan picked him up at the airport that night (about an hour drive without traffic). Bailey followed the next day. 

I have to say, re-incorporating Samson into Forest and I’s daily life was pretty easy. He’s gentle, calm, quiet, and sleeps 20 hours a day so he’s really more like a friendly cat than a dog.

Bailey on the other hand is hard work! She’s full of energy, desperate for attention, mischievously brilliant, and is overcome with joy anytime someone comes to the door, insisting that she jump all over them no matter how well she’s been trained to NOT DO THAT. She’s a bit rambunctious and clumsy so she worries me a bit around Forest. 

However, I have to say that she’s been really well behaved since coming back to us. I have a feeling my mom had both of them in doggie boot camp. She’s an excellent dog trainer so I definitely notice a difference in both of their behaviors after being with their Nana for a month and a half. Hopefully I can keep up the good work despite being really distracted taking care of a baby. 

I know that the juggling act will get easier as the months go by.  I definitely feel like I'm in a better place to care for them now that Forest is 5 months old than when he was a newborn. It doesn't hurt that the weather here is much better for getting out and about with a baby which means the dogs get way more excursions during the week.

And it’s already so sweet to see Forest’s fascination with the pups. When they left Scotland he was still too young to interact with them but now he loves to watch them and reaches his hands towards them if they walk near by. 

Samson and Bailey are both a little wary of him for the time being so they are keeping a carefully measured distance away from him, which is probably best for now. I’ve been taking them for walks one at a time with Forest in the Ergo, and plan on running Bailey on the weekends, but that gets so time consuming! There is a dog park in our neighborhood so I will probably start driving them up there in the afternoons so they can both stretch their legs at the same time. 

I know that eventually life will balance out and I’ll be able to fulfill their needs again, but for now I just feel so terrible for them! We’ve even discussed re-homing Bailey because we feel so guilty for not being able to give her the time and effort she needs and deserves. Any of y’all have any tips or stories about how this ‘dog-after-baby’ lifestyle works? 

This blog post on the subject really spoke to me. It’s worth a read if you have fur-babies and human babies.

Mount Diablo Summit

Mount Diablo is the iconic landmark of the Tri-Valley area. It’s visible from most points in the community and can even be seen looking east from the Golden Gate Bridge.

source of photo

I love me some good mountain views and I’d been itching to get my hands on Mt. Diablo ever since we arrived. We spontaneously tried to make the drive up on the day Jonathan got his jeep, but Forest was a bit cranky and it cost $10 to enter the state park so we figured we’d try again another day when Forest was more well rested. 

That day presented itself this past Sunday. Our plan was to drive up close to the summit and then hike a portion of the summit trail up to the top. However, since Sunday was a beautiful Spring day, we were not the only ones with this idea. The road to the summit was steep, curvy, and back-logged with bicyclists. 

It was slow going. We stopped for photo ops twice on the way up and by the time we were close to the summit we’d been on the road for an hour. 

Because we spent so much time on the drive, we had to scratch the hiking plans and ended up parking about 500 yards below the top and hiking the rest. So technically, we did hike to the summit of Mt. Diablo. Just saying...

There is a nice observation deck at the summit for viewing the entire Bay Area. 

I was a bit spooked at first but overcame my fear of heights to take some photos and appreciate the view. 

The vistas were incredible. 

We were surrounded by the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains and everywhere we turned were curvacious valleys and canyons. 

We could see the Bay Bridge and San Francisco to the west. The day was clear but not optimally so, so we couldn’t quite see the Golden Gate Bridge.  

We could see down to several well maintained hiking trails so hopefully we can go back and explore some of those as Forest gets a bit older and able to venture away from home for longer periods at a time. 

It’s a beautiful state park and definitely worth a gander if you’re visiting the Bay Area and have some extra time on your hands.