welcome lucy forrest

one week before my official due date our little girl decided to join the forrest family. we weren't quite prepared for her early arrival and made a mad dash to the hospital after dropping william at the neighbors. i'd been laboring at home for about 5 hours without realizing it was labor. if i hadn't needed antibiotics she would have arrived within 30 minutes of our arrival, but they slowed me down and she was officially born on october 2 at 11:24pm. here we are moments after her arrival!

she weighed in at 6 lb 13 oz and 20 inches long. she also came with a head full of dark hair. we named her lucy.

grandma shafer was invaluable help during our first week with two kids. she and big brother william were our first visitors. 

william wasn't too interested in lucy but did hold her with help for a brief moment. he was really interested in the trucks she gave him!

grandpa shafer, aunt katie & uncle kurt also visited us. we love being close to family.

she was even chosen as stanfords baby of the week. we love our little lucy and are thrilled to have her join our family.

summer wrap up

our first summer in california treated us very well. among all our travels we also had lots of local outings. we ventured to various parks in the area at least a couple times a week. one time a 'dig dig' was visiting and william couldn't get close enough.

we also became members of the oakland zoo so we made frequent visits. it was fun to watch williams interest in the animals and exhibits grow each time.

the best thing about california may be being close to family. william loves playing with cousin jacob, especially when it's at grandma and grandpas house and involves water.

near us is an aviation museum we decided to check out one day. william cried lots of tears when we had to leave.

another day we went up to san francisco, over 'the big red bridge', to the bay area discovery museum.

william also has lots of friends his age and we love getting together with them at local attractions. happy hollow and claire are favorites.

and because summer lasts a long time here we went to the beach with claire and jabe on october 1, the day before lucy joined our family.

yeah for summer!

lake tahoe

post labor day the shafer family all gathered for a week in lake tahoe. it was my last summer trip before baby #2. we did a lot of relaxing, game playing, eating, and chasing around little boys. i loved seeing the cousins become close friends. some highlights from the week included beach visits to lake tahoe and fallen leaf lake.

william and jacob weren't too interested in getting wet, but cal would have crawled right into the lake had cory let him. he was in heaven and provided lots of entertainment.

another day we took a beautiful drive to visit emerald bay.

we also took the gondola at heavenly ski resort up the mountain. the views were impressive.

grandma spoiled the boys, as always. here she is sharing treats - they all gathered around like little chicks begging for food.

other activities included bike rides,

the fastest round of mini golf,

nervous airplane flying,

and lots and lots and lots of running around with cousins.

 

thanks mom and dad for organizing a great trip! i hope we can make lake tahoe a tradition.