Awesome visit with Arthur

We spent Labor Day weekend, and our 11th wedding anniversary, with a trip to Burbank to visit with Aunt Summer & Uncle Dev, Beatrice, and assorted dogs, meet our nephew/cousin Arthur, and see their new house. See Summer's September 2011 posting of our visit here, with many more pictures, stories, and videos. In the above picture, the three cousins are at this amazing new pirate-themed playground in Pasadena on a ship that rocks, and screaming in delight. Somehow their screams are all directed towards Arthur, and, as usual, he is completely nonplussed.

Dev & Summer's place is really neat, and Arthur is the smiliest, chattiest three month old baby you've ever seen. It was really a joy to see the cousins play together -- Beatrice took Rosemary's bossiness pretty well, and Louis was just giddy all weekend. It's going to be really fun to see them grow up together.

We visited our good friends Maria & Larry, whose son Alejandro (below) is insanely cute and good natured. I also got to see Way-Ting and David and their adorable boys (August is like Louis's twin, I wish I got a picture of them together) but unfortunately the rest of the family had to stay in Burbank, since Rosemary got sick.

Rosemary and Beatrice eating ramen with their new "chimp sticks" (training chopsticks). (See how Louis has perfected his noodle-eating technique -- check out the June 27, 2010 post with a video of Louis's noodle-eating)



And now, we're getting into the swing of things with SIGNIFICANTLY cooler weather in Austin -- its like, down to the 90s! Outdoor living! Below you can see the shrine that James built to his smoker, to get it off the ground. Rosemary helped him paint it, and suggested that they do the inside a lighter color, "to make it fancy." Clearly, Amity, our friend/interior designer, has made an impression! You can also see his sandbox below, which has been keeping the kids busy for HOURS (brilliant!) and my masterpiece, marinated pork skewers with fresh figs.




Blast from the past: Mina and James's rehearsal dinner, September 1st, 2000!