Eli will be a busy guy this month. He is spending 9 days in northern California visiting his maternal grandparents, Jerry and Rikki, while his dad was in Japan earlier this month. He will be bringing both of his parents to Colorado next week for 10 days so his dad can go fly-fishing with grandpa Jay. So part one will be pictures from California and part two will be pictures from Colorado… duh!

He went to San Francisco one morning to see his granddad’s office and have lunch in the city.  I am sure he was the big hit of the day and the center of attention. Another morning they went to a toy/teacher’s supply store and the toys selection is similar to Terra Toys in Austin. They were there a lot longer than expected because it was like Disneyland to him. They had a train table set up at his height. He made car, train, and airplane noises and lots of OOOOOOH’s. Of course, there’s a whole store full of cool toys and he LOVED the shopping cart and push broom his size. Just like Terra Toys the toys are good quality, but big $$$ too. Best part of the week was that Eli gave his grandma Rikki a hug at the toy store and again after he got up from his nap. These were hugs that he initiated. I know it made her feel SO good.

Wallace reports that he knows all of his body parts and can make all kind of animal noises (Eli, not Wallace). Julia reports that Eli now has the skill to string more than one “sign” together and is making baby sign language sentences.

Jay and I are really looking forward to having the kids here with Eli. I have collected the child gates from the storage unit, hopefully they will work and keep him from tumbling down our wood stairs. We are anxious to see how he gets along with Amber and Lacey. Jay has several fishing trips planned for Wallace and some hiking and or float trips with Jen later in the week, after Eli gets comfortable being leflt home with Grandma. Part 2 will come later in the month, yeah!