The Murphster's Scoot...

Murphy can crawl (though that is a rarity) -- yet has decided to resort to scooting across our tile floors to save his knees. I thought I would capture it on video before he takes off walking soon!

JP sings Happy Birthday to Auntie Mollie...

We were having technical difficulty with the audio....hence JP yelling into the camera :-) He was a little shy on the phone yesterday, so we thought we'd give it another shot!

We can't wait to sing to everyone in person very soon :-)

Happy 1st Birthday, Murphy!

I know everyone says this...but time has flown by this past year! I'm in disbelief that Murph is already 1 year old!!! It has been so much fun watching his personality develop and even more fun watching him interact with JP. I can tell that they will grow up to be "best buds"!

We spent the morning with our Friday playgroup buddies...Murphy loved eating his cake (though he was rather careful with it) and enjoyed playing with all of our friends. We're heading off to the pool this afternoon to continue Murphy's birthday fun so that the boys can splash around for a while!

Here's to a year filled with many firsts Murphy -- We love you!

Keukenhof -- finally!

After six years of saying I wanted to see the tulips, I finally made it happen. With Matt in the states, I figured it was as good a time as any to get away for the weekend (Matt has no desire to drive 4-5 hours each way to look at tulips!) The boys were awesome on the trip...10 hours in the car, and barely a peep was made...the Freeborns were tons of fun to travel with, and Willem and Mariann's apartment in The Hague was perfect! Unfortunately, the weather made for a pretty disappointing trip :-(

Wind, rain and 40 degree weather + not a lick of rain gear = miserable experience at the Keukenhof! You live and learn, right? I think Murphy's face says it all -- poor thing, it was torture for him!

With that said, all the flowers truly were stunning! I would go back in a heartbeat -- just next time I would reschedule if the weather wasn't looking great. Despite the bad weather, the pictures still capture the beauty of this place -- truly a wonder to be seen! Enjoy!

Bonn Marathon!

After months of training through all the elements, we trekked up to Bonn for our much-anticipated half marathon (Megs) and marathon (Matt). The weather turned out to be too nice for us (is that possible??) -- yes, we hadn't trained in heat and sunshine at all for the last 4 months, and so we found ourselves not hydrated enough to brave the elements. (I know, once we return to LA, this will be "normal" -- but until then, 75-80 degrees is a scorcher for us!)

We had a BLAST! The boys loved cheering us on from the hotel balcony (we even got lucky and were upgraded to the Presidential Suite...not too shabby!) and Matt and I loved the whole experience. (Being able to train together made it a lot of fun!) You can tell JP was anxiously awaiting Matt's arrival at the finish line :-)

We are enjoying some much-deserved rest right now...but I'm sure we will dive back into the training for a new race once the dust gets settled in CA.

Enjoying the sunshine...

Though it may have been short-lived...we enjoyed getting out and enjoying the nice weather the past couple of weeks (it is now back in the 40s with lots of wind :-)). JP is loving his big-boy bike, known in Germany as "Puky bikes" and Murphy is just happy to be in the mix!