First Official Haircut

Been a long time since I put out an update, and I'm sorry for that. Though we've trimmed Zac's hair a few times now, Katy had an opportunity this afternoon to get him an actual haircut after hers was done. By all accounts, it went very well and the ladies at the shop just loved him! Katy tells me he kept taking his hands out from under the smock and clapping his hands. He is indeed a lot of fun!

I Don't Understand

OK, so I realize this isn't the most pleasant picture in the world, but Katy did capture this "moment" Monday as Zac had wedged himself between the kitchen chair and the table. See, lately if a chair is left out away from the table, Zac sees it as an opportunity to climb on, stand up and then play with Katy's computer. But this time, I guess he still felt he could have the same fun, only to find himself somewhat trapped between the chair and the table. Poor little guy! He'll figure it out soon, I'm sure. :)

A Wonderful Birthday Weekend With Katy

I'm writing this, effectively putting words in Katy's mouth, but I think she would agree this has been a very nice birthday weekend. Not only did we get to see each other for the first time since last Sunday morning, but we've gotten to do so many different things we couldn't have otherwise.

Friday night, my boss and his wife graciously took us to a steakhouse in Pleasanton, CA, called Hap's, in part if not in whole as a way of celebrating Katy's brithday. I should preface things by stating that you know we know beef in Nebraska, right? Hap's understands that, and serves "...Angus, Midwestern corn-fed beef, aged 21 to 28 days", which means that it likely came from Nebraska, or maybe even Iowa. Now, we've had some great steaks. There are two spots within Omaha, Cascio's and Gorat's, that are both extremely good, old-style Italian steakhouses. In my humble opinion, they couldn't hold a candle to Hap's. The Filet Mignon was far and away the best steak I've ever tasted. And that was only after having lamp chops and tempura-battered shrimp as an appetizer and then a red pepper dungeness crab bisque that can only be described as heaven in a bowl. I've never had soup like that.

It was an amazing evening filled with great conversation, great food and a meal finished off with a ridiculously good chocolate creme brulee. Are you kidding me??? Wow! I must say that today as we discussed last night several times, I couldn't help but smile in my enjoyment of the memory. Katy and I have had two dates since Zac was born and the last was for a few hours in advance of our anniversary last November. To get to spend an evening with a great couple, with great food and atmosphere and the conversation and all of that was just wonderful.

Today, Katy's birthday, we decided to drive south of San Jose down to the coast, headed for Carmel, which is a bit south of Monterey. While the weather on the coast was cool, cloudy and foggy in many places, the view was still something to behold and we very much enjoyed getting out a few times to hear the waves crashing. We started the day by doing McDonald's for a quick breakfast, then headed south. We stopped first in Capitola, a bit south of Santa Cruz. That was a bit disappointing in many ways, but we did spend some time walking above the beach and watching some surfers catch some small waves.


We then headed toward Carmel, driving through farmland along the way, which was a big surprise to both of us. We knew California had large farming areas, but it hadn't occurred to either of us that any of those areas would be so close to the ocean. It's too bad we didn't have a way to buy some of the fruit, which was all priced better than you'll see in any store. So just after Monterey, we caught what's called 17-Mile-Drive, which is this twisting, winding, very hilly drive through the Pebble Beach area. There are, I think, four golf courses and a bunch of homes, and once you have driven over to the coast, the views are very enjoyable. We stepped out of the car along here to get a few pictures and watch the waves crash against the rocks. Many people were doing this and all of them were apparently willing to pay for the drive. We obviously did as well, but it was a shock when we shelled out the $9.25 to do it.

Fortunately, we got that money back. Along the road you go through the famed Pebble Beach golf course, which hosts major PGA events every year. They even have a shop on the grounds named "2010 U.S. Open", where everything has that theme. Spyglass Hill is also along this stretch of road. Now, I love golf, but at my skill level, I'm not willing to pay whatever their greens fees are to shank one into some $3 million dollar home along the coast. :)

So Katy and I stopped and ran through a few shops on the Pebble Beach course campus there, then ate at the Gallery Cafe, which sits with a view of the first tee box and from which you can also see the ocean just above a building to the west. By spending at least $25 in one of their restaurants (not hard to do), you get the initial $9.25 back in cash, which was nice. We drove the rest of our piece on this road, exiting at the Carmel gate. We'd been told that'd be a nice place to visit.

The beach did not disappoint, though with the sand being so fine and so soft and so deep, and the hill getting down to the beach being fairly steep, it was a bit taxing for us going down and then back up. We did walk along the beach for a bit and get very unexpectedly wet when a wave crashed in further than we thought it would. We had water up to our knees and it was not even a little bit warm! But, we really enjoyed it and then headed up into the town to see the shops. While the town is very quaint and has pretty architecture, I cannot possibly imagine living there. However, if you like a constant traffic jam and tons of people all trapped inside one square mile of space, this will feel like home! Way too busy, way too touristy, just not a very relaxing space. No wonder we found so many people jammed into the beach parking area and at the beach. That said, we found great souvenirs there and it was the one spot where we stopped and got our feet wet, which was a goal for today.

We then headed back to San Jose and dinner at Genji downtown, which is a Japanese steakhouse, the kind where they cook dinner for you at the table. The food was OK, nothing special, but we still enjoyed ourselves and really just had a very pleasant, relaxing day despite the travel. I think Katy felt this was a unique way to spend her birthday and even though it didn't feel quite "normal", it was fun nonetheless. :)

We Need An Update!

Wow. Has it been this long since an update? I suppose it has, and I apologize for that. Since I haven't grabbed any new video or pics of Zac recently, mostly because I keep forgetting to recharge Katy's camera, I thought it might be fun to post an older picture today along with a more recent one. I mean, sure, he's only 18 months old and a "now and then" comparison isn't a huge difference, but in his case, it kinda is. :)

Guitar Idol

Well, we've overdue for a new video or pic or something. How about one of each?

The video I took today is of Zac playing with a kid toy they give out in Taco Bell kid meals. It's in the shape of a guitar pick and plays music of sorts with movement, so he finds it to be great fun. How quickly we get tired of hearing the guitar strums is yet to be determined.

The picture I'm putting up today is apparently how Zac feels about pull-ups. We'd been working on seeing if we could potty train him, since he had shown some interest. Right now, we've decided to hold off a few weeks and try again as he's determined it's just not something he wants to do at the moment. This moment was captured this past week and sums up his opinion on things.

And The Beat Goes On...

Thought I'd post a few more videos on YouTube today and include another here. For the time being, this is just great entertainment for us!

More Walking Videos

I just wanted to get a quick post up today alerting you that I've added four more videos from last night of Zac walking around the house. I didn't have enough lights on, so they aren't the easiest to see, but hopefully they are OK. As always, you can click on one video, then the rest will show as an option after you've watched it, or you can click on the Family Videos link on the lower right to access all of these as well. Enjoy!

We Have Liftoff!

I know. I know. You're thinking, "What the heck?" Well, I try to be clever on this here blog and grab your attention with the titles so you'll be intrigued. Intrigued yet? Well, maybe you should watch the video below and see how you feel. :) This is our first actual captured video, taken yesterday, July 19, 2009, of Zac walking. He's been taking some steps and then Thursday night he walked about 8 or 10 feet on his own initiative. We finally caught it on video yesterday. Now, here's the funny part for us. We've been waiting all this time for him to walk. And often times Zac will do something we think is funny or we want to share with others, so when we go to Gary & Nell's, we'll try to get him to do it but he never will.

Yesterday, however, he decided to change all that. He wouldn't walk to Nell when we first got over there, and we thought perhaps he just wouldn't or that maybe we'd have to get him on the carpet in the living room first. But nope, he had other plans. As I went to sit down, behind me Zac decided to just start walking. He walked from their dining room area clear into the kitchen, and then he was off. We were there for about 2 hours and he just walked and walked and walked. I know this will get old at some point, but for now, it's great to watch! Nell caught a really good one yesterday with her camera and as soon as I get that, I'll post it as well.