The first weekend in October, we headed up to Monterey to hang out with my niece Meesa, her husband Trevor and their three adorable children. Meesa was running the San Jose half marathon that weekend and we crammed every possible sightseeing adventure in the two days we were all there: Beach, Tidepools, Giant Sequoias, Apple.. yep.. we did it all.
For Halloween, our little munchkin was a terribly cute dragon. I was going to make the rest of us matching costumes (knight & princess) until I found out we weren't having a Ward Party and Halloween was on a Sunday.. but we dressed Zach up to go 'trick or treating' on Saturday night at Grandma's house.
In early November we went up to Monterey where Sam was kind enough to take our family pictures.. and we got to hang out again for a bit, get some Christmas shopping done and generally get away from it all.
We were in Phoenix for Thanksgiving.. we drove there stopping in Kingman to see Grandma and Grandpa Johnston and then went onto Pinetop where we stayed in a friend's cabin for a couple of days and then drove on into Phoenix, making a small pitstop in Prescott. Whew.. We saw most of Northern AZ in that week and poor Zach thought his new home was his carseat. BUT.. we had loads of fun in every place and enjoyed being home with the family for Thanksgiving.
Zach turned 9 months old during our trip to Phoenix. It's amazing to think it's already been 9 months.. sheesh. Here is his 9-month 'portrait' (actually.. photo by Dad, photoshop by Mom).
At nine months he was starting to get into everything and had his patented 'swim crawl' down
I know.. I know.. it's terribly inefficient, and although he had actually crawled correctly, he preferred this method for months..
Right before Christmas, Chad's sister Sharon and her family flew in from Texas and we all headed up to a cabin in Big Bear to spend a couple of days enjoying the snow. It was so beautiful up there and just the thing we needed to get in the Christmas Spirit.
We had a lovely Christmas here at home in Lancaster. Zach LOVES to tear paper, so he was definitely into the whole gift opening thing. He also loved all his new toys.. and actually played with them instead of the wrapping or the boxes.. so I think we can definitely count it as a success.
Since Christmas, we've been lying low and trying to recover from the craziness of the holidays.
Somewhere about mid-December Zach finally figured out that if he crawled correctly he could get.. well anywhere FAST. He continues to be a happy little guy.. making friends everywhere he goes. It's hard to believe that in one short month he'll turn 1!! Where has the time gone?? (Obviously not to writing on the blog, eh?)
OK.. caught up we are.. and now we start afresh.. wish me luck.
