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President's Day Trip

It has been our tradition, for the past five years, to take a trip to the snow with our college friends over President's Day weekend. We used to call it a ski trip, but with so few of us actually skiing, it has since been dubbed the "No-Ski" trip. Activities consist of off-road sledding, some gambling (at the Nevada border), lots of wine (thanks to Greg!), and tons of fun.

Usually we stay in the Lake Tahoe area. We hit horrendous traffic last year, so we decided to head further East, rather than North, to avoid the skiing masses. We rented a cabin at Bass Lake, near the Southern entrance to Yosemite National Park. We knew we were taking a chance of there not being any snow nearby, but figured we could just drive to higher elevation for our sledding escapades.

Due to uncooperative, non-winter-like weather and a general lack of interest - there was no sledding this year. We opted for a 5 mile hike to the Mariposa Sequoia Grove instead.

For the most part, we just hung out at the cabin and played games - Apples to Apples was a crowd favorite and there was a poker table going on Saturday night. Mather enjoyed sitting around with the group and getting passed around for playtime...

We planned group breakfasts and dinners - the Fearless Ransom Threesome was in charge of Saturday's breakfast. We made fruit salad, sausages and made-to-order pancakes with blueberries, bananas, chocolate chips and walnuts. Mather helped coach me through the fruit salad and then promptly crashed for a nap during the real cooking. Greg brought a case of wine from Rosenblum Cellars (he used to work there and still gets the employee discount!). There was much merriment... except when I forced Mather to display her Olivia Newton John - Jazzercise - Eighties-era outfit...

pink onesie, black tights, stripped socks

Gotta love it, or, in Mather's case, hate it!

Thanks to Adriane Brown for the photos.

Mather is Always Happy

Unfortunately, that's not quite true...


Too bad this update didn't come with a sound file!

Happy Valentine's Day

Will you be my Valentine?

Thanks to Grandmather for the Valentine's Day outfit.

This week in Mather's world

This picture was taken last Friday. Mather is in her car seat.

She is about 3 hours in to an 8 hour sleep, the longest ever!

Riding high on papa's shoulders.

Mama can't get enough of the tiny feet!

Finger puppet story with dad.

Thanks for the stocking stuffers Auntie Elsa

Daddy's big triumph, she's starting to hold her own bottle.

Mullet status=BIZZARE

Mather is losing her "newborn hair."

It shouldn't be long before her new hair makes its debut.

I think it's coming in a bit more blonde.

She loves this flower. It's the perfect size for her tiny grip.

With her expert neck control,

Mather can now face out into the world while in her Baby Bjorn.

The Queen Mather II

This weekend the Queen Mary II, a grand Ocean Liner in the tradition of the Titanic, cruised through the Golden Gate on her voyage around the world. She's the largest ship ever in the San Francisco Bay. She carried a surprising, but hopefully inspirational, figurehead.

photo courtesy David Ransom

Lunaversary #3

Mather is now a delicious three months old, and getting bigger by the day. Not that you can tell.