The Love and Laughter Gazette

Long overdue update

2009-05-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we've updated anything at the Love and Laughter Gazette.

The San Jose Sharks had an amazing season, but disappointed in the playoffs. Quinn did a really great job cheering on the team. He has a new sharks hat he likes to wear for the games, and we hope to get him a cute little jersey soon.
"I can make the Sharks Win Mommy"
"Oh really, How?"
"Go Sharks, Go Sharks!"

We took a fun family vacation to Kauai in February. Grandma Sharon came along for most of it and Grandpa Bill stayed with us the entire time. We had a luxurious pad for the first week down in Poipu thanks to Laurel's bargaining skills and taking advantage of a time share pitch. We saw a sea turtle hanging out along the shoreline and a monk seal resting on the beach adjacent to the hotel. The last part of the trip we spent on the northshore, near Princeville. It was right on the cliff's edge. Super windy but what an amazing view. We saw whales from our living room, and Laurel swears she saw a turtle or two.

We ate very well, saw whales and dolphins and lots of chickens everywhere. Quinn had a great time feeding the chickens bits of bread or leftovers and I think the chickens really looked forward to when Farmer Quinn came around. Maybe we'll get him some chickens of his own someday. :) Laurel and Mikey went on a Helicopter ride which was breathtakingly beautiful. Highly recommended. It's so hard to leave Hawaii. :(

We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary down in Monterey. Quinn stayed at home with his Grandma Elvia and Grandpa Bob. We had a lovely time, stayed at a very nice hotel, ate great food, saw some fun music and laughed a whole lot. Unfortunately our camera stopped working, and we have been unable to take any new pictures for the last month.

Mikey has been playing lots of shows with his band, Five Eyed Hand, and they released their first CD this year. Another one has been recorded and should be ready for release this summer. And Laurel has been very supportive in making sure mikey, the artist, gets a chance to be a musician. Best Wife and SuperMom EVER!!

Laurel has been very busy at work and taking care of Quinn. She has created presentations at work for some of the largest groups she has encountered, including an international audience from Japan, and presented them extremely well.

Quinn has switched day care providers and is now in the transition program at the Tamien Bright Horizons Childcare center and preschool. With lots of engaging activities, more kids his own age, caring teachers and a great program, we believe Quinn really enjoys his new day care.

His language skills are developing faster than we could have dreamed, using words like "quite" and "option" correctly. As in, "This flower is quite pretty." and "That's a good option, daddy." He has been growing a lot in the last few months, so don't be surprised when you see a big boy who looks like Quinn. He's definitely not a baby anymore. :) :(

This past weekend we made a visit to Packwood to celbrate the life of Laurel's friend Backy Galentine who passed away 10 years ago. It was a great gathering of old friends, most of whom now have families themselves. Quinn made a few new friends, Ali and Brian and others, and mikey got a chance to meet many folks that Laurel has talked about for years. All great folks, great weather and wonderful time was had by everyone. The beauty of Mt Ranier, the disconnection from cell-phones and internet was a welcome relief. We spotted deer from our cabin, and elk on a short walk from there. Quinn had a great time hiking in the woods and playing with his new friends.

Mikey's band will be playing the Bobolink Music Festival nest weekend, and the week after that, we will be visiting Spokanne for Sara's graduation. Then more travel, more events, more music, more love and more laughter.

We hope to see you somewhere along our travels. Be sure to check out mikey's band's new CD, Churned Alive, now available for download on DigStation and iTunes and CD's at CDBaby.com (or from mikey).

Love and Laughter,

laurel and mikey and quinn

Spokane trip delayed

2008-12-22T19:33:00.000-08:00

We made it as far as the San Jose airport and were turned back immediately because the Seattle airport was closed for the remainder of the night last night. The next flight they could re-book us on is on Christmas Day--on a less than stellar itinerary--leave San Jose around 9:00am, fly to Reno--hang out for about three hours--and then get on another plane that stops in Boise and then on to Spokane. So--we're hoping that works for us and we're hoping that we don't get stuck in Reno on Christmas due to more snow. We're adventurous and willing to give it a try.
If we actually make it to my grandma's house in time for Christmas dinner and my family's traditional homemade raviolis--I think I'll be in heaven!

We did such an excellent job of using all our food before our trip, we had to head out and get some groceries for the next few days. It was nice to spend a whole day at home together doing nothing really--we played, we laughed at Quinn. Daddy and Quinn played "hockey" with plastic pork chops for hockey sticks and a plastic sliced tomato disk as the puck. (his new play food from Santa!) This was Quinn's idea and highly entertaining.

Quinn also has random encounters with an imaginary spider. He told us tonight that it is a green spider--and it a mean spider--but it is nice to him. He was pretending to scream and freak out and run around the house today after one particular imaginary spider sighting. It was pretty funny!

My Dad said he spent his entire day today dealing with snow--blowing snow, driving people around who can't get around due to snow, helping people get unstuck, fixing the snowblower, shoveling etc. My grandma said in some places they can only see about 1 foot of their six foot fence in the backyard. My mom had two greenhouses collapse at her nursery last week, and my stepdad bought snow shoes to try to be able to get around near the greenhouses. I'm curious to see all this snow in Spokane and make a snowman, but driving around sounds totally crazy!

Check out the snow in Spokane:
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2008/dec/22/driving-not-good-idea/?photos

Well--we're happy to be in our home, happy, warm and safe and not stuck in some airport somewhere. We'd like to be visiting family in Spokane, but we have to have patience and be thankful for where we're at anyway.

Ear Infections, Cookies and Snow

2008-12-18T22:27:00.000-08:00

We're counting down the days before we're done with work for two weeks, and off to Spokane to visit family. Things are busy busy--packing, shopping, baking, work projects and daily life. Quinn has been sick with a cold these last few days and last night he took a nasty turn for the worse. He woke up with a 104 degree fever and kept us up a lot of the night. Turns out, Quinn has an ear infection in both ears. Ouch! He's on pain meds and antibiotics and we're hoping he'll feel better for our trip.

Spokane has been getting record amounts of snow and very cold temperatures (even below zero!)--it's a little daunting for our thin California blood. We've heard reports of 26 inches of snow in the last 24+ hours, closed roads, no mail service, no garbage service, many businesses closed and many cancelled flights. We're excited about the prospect of making a snowman--as long as we actually get there in time for Christmas due to weather and illness.

We're still in the holiday spirit though! We're making cookies--Laurel's first biscotti making ever!! The battery operated cookie machine stopped working after the first batch of cookies, but we'll figure out a way to make the rest of the dough into cookies. All in all we're enjoying our time together and our festively decorated house.

Tonight I think we're going to bed earlier--despite all of the tasks on our list. We never know when we'll be getting up again in the middle of the night!

Hope you all are warm, healthy and safe!

Holiday Preparations

2008-12-15T22:05:00.000-08:00

Well we've just finished preparing our Christmas cards which have the link to our new blog on it, so I figured we'd better post something!

It's exactly 10 days from Christmas and we're busy little bees. We enjoyed a nice weekend together going to Gilroy Gardens--a local botanical themed amusement park in nearby Gilroy on Friday night. They had a holiday dinner and big light display, rides for the kids and even Santa. I think Quinn was most excited about visiting Santa and driving the 1930's car ride.

Saturday we all went to the annual Enchilada Pinata party here in San Jose which is always a fun time. Yes there was a pinata and enchiladas. People were stuffing Quinn's little overalls with SO MUCH candy! Oy! Sunday we went to Mikey's cousin April's wedding here in San Jose. That was a fun event and we enjoyed catching up with the Henderson clan.

Quinn is very excited about Santa, although the whole Naughty vs. Nice thing doesn't seem to have him fooled. Apparently--he's very nice at daycare, but has been testing out that naughty stuff at home.

It's been raining here in San Jose and we think it is very cold--although as I gather from friends and family in other parts of the U.S.--we've got it very easy. We just hope it warms up a bit before we arrive in Spokane!

We still have many more things to do before our week ends--Five Eyed Hand is playing in San Francisco at the Boom Boom Room with Eric Levy of Garaj Mahal on Wednesday! Mikey is excited about that!

Well that's all for now..welcome to the Love & Laughter Gazette--thanks for reading!

Love,

Laurel, Mikey & Quinn