Gilroy Garlic Festival

Last weekend we went to Gilroy for their 30th annual Garlic Festival. Gilroy is about 30 miles north of us. It was amazing how many people were there. Traffic was backed up for 10 miles. Apparently hundreds of thousands of people go to the Garlic Festival. And our little angel is no exception. He wasn't as thrilled as his father and I were. It was hot! But Drew and I ate well and had a great time. There was garlic ice cream, garlic french fries, garlic bread, garlic chicken stir fry, garlic scampi, garlic calamari...you get the picture.

Gilroy is very pretty and the drive there reminded me a lot of Idaho. Next weekend is the Strawberry Festival in Watsonville. Should be fun too.

Aunt Karla and Aunt Colleen

Brody's God mothers and my aunts (Karla and Colleen) came to visit us in Monterey. We had a wonderful time. We went to the Aquarium, the farmers market and to Cannery Row. We cooked dinner a lot and they introduced me to Peet's Coffee. Oh my gosh. I never knew coffee could be so good or so strong! I love it.

Brody had a lot of fun while they were here and it was nice for me to have so much help. We also went to Trader Joe's which is a must when in California.

4th of July

Brody and I just returned home from Washington DC. We were there for 12 days. We had a wonderful time. Diane, Dave and Annie came out on the 2nd with Brody and I. Drew came out on the 3rd and Jen and Geoff came out on the morning of the 4th. We all met my parents and brother Jeff who were already there. We spent the 4th of July on top of the Department of Interior watching the fireworks over the nations capitol. The DOI served hot dogs, ice cream, pop corn and apple pie. Brody loved the fireworks. He watched the whole thing. My Uncle Mike and Aunt Sue from NY were there as were my cousins Ava, Evan and Jayna.

While in DC, we stayed on the boat with my mom and dad and brother. My brother was there for a whole week and was able to spend some quality time with Brody. My dad took us to lunch at the White House and some of us went on a tour of all of the monuments. One of the biggest events however was Brody swimming for the first time! We got him a baby pool and set it up on the bow of the boat. He loved the water! He is my little pisces for sure!

Drew went home on Sunday and Brody and I stayed another week with my parents. Brody did very well and I think was glad to have some quiet time. We swam in the baby pool and relaxed on the boat. We flew back to CA on the 12th. Brody slept for 3 of the 4 hours from Chicago to San Jose. He is such a good baby.

While in DC we hung out with family. All of the Kempthorne's and Myklegard's were there. We went out to dinner and talked all night long. It was so much fun to be with family and friends. Ari and Andrew from San Diego were there and so were Ken and Suzanne from Centreville, VA. I miss being around friends and family. Drew's buddy Richard and his wife Becky came and so did his good friend Sarah from NY. We all had a great time.