Philip, Jen and Peyton's Pages

VMworld 2009 and San Francisco family trip

I was fortunate to get the opportunity to travel to San Francisco for work to attend VMworld.  It was my first trip to the West coast and we had a great time.  Jen has family living just north of San Francisco and visiting the area has been a trip we’ve been talking about since we got married.  So, we decided to join the two events.

My conference ran from Monday, Aug 31 until Thursday, Sept 3.  Jen, Peyton and I flew in a couple days early and we were able to meet a college friend, Tammy, and enjoy the San Francisco Zoo.  We were also able to spend an afternoon playing in the park at Moscone Center and getting ourselves familiar with the section of the city we were staying in — Union Square area.  I was impressed with the area.

Our hotel was on Powell Street, one of the cable car lines in the city — which runs all the way to Fisherman’s Wharf.  On the same street as the cable car turn-around, we had the electric street cars and BART available for transit.  I think we used all of the above at some point during our trip.  We used the BART to get to our hotel from the SFO airport.  It was no DC Metro, but it got the job done — cheaply.

Jen’s parents joined us for their first trip to the West coast in nearly 30 years.  They flew in on Tuesday and stayed at a hotel in Fisherman’s Wharf.  Jen and Peyton could take the street cars or cable cars there during the day and they had a lot of fun site seeing and touring the area.  Jen’s aunt — Jim’s sister — Jeanette picked up her parents from the airport and took all of us on a tour of the city.   The whole family, minus me, spent one day visiting UC Berkley and that area across the bay.  Jim graduated from UC Berkley with an engineering degree, so it was good for him to see his alma mater and for Jen to get to visit it, too.

My conference wrapped on Thursday afternoon (coverage on the conference and my experiences are over on my tech blog).  We took a tour of the city a bit, were able to take some photos and then we headed to family dinner in Tiburon — at Jeanette’s house.

We took a boat tour from Fisherman’s Wharf one evening.  The trip took us from the wharf out the bay to the Golden Gate Bridge, under it briefly and then back to Alcatrez and back.  The bridge and the ‘rock’ were very cool to see – up close and personal from the water.

We moved hotels from the city to Tiburon, too, that day.  We stayed in the The Lodge at Tiburon, where Janet and Jim stayed after their wedding 34 years earlier.  It is at the foot of the mountain where St. Hilary’s Church, where they were married, and Jeanette and Bill’s house is located next to the church on the hillside.  The Inn was a nice place with a pool, fireplaces and a great restaurant.

Tiburon was fantastic.  I think we all enjoyed our time there.  It was relaxing and beautiful.  We were lucky to be in town for the annual Labor Day parade and music in the park.  We enjoyed a beautiful Saturday afternoon with music and the local parade.

We had a great dinner one evening at a restaurant on the bay with Jeanette, Bill and cousin Merrill.   Merrill also treated us to a home-cooked dinner at her and Tinman’s beautiful townhouse.

As for sites, we visited Muir Woods one day.  It is a redwood forest just north of San Francisco.  It was really cool to see these huge towering trees.  It was peaceful and serene.   The trees were amazing.

Of course, we visited and took photos with the Golden Gate from the Marin Headlands and the visitor’s center just on the Sausalito side of the bay.  I noticed on a couple trips back and forth across the bridge that they were painting the bridge.  I’m told that once they finish, they have to start again painting the bridge – its a constant process.

We attended the Sausalito Art Festival on Monday with Merrill and got to see some of that area too.  There were lots of great artists and the festival was great – more music and food.  We also got a chance to see the San Francisco Bay model – a several acre model of the tidal basins and San Francisco bay.  It was used by the US Army Corps of Engineers to simulate changes in the bay and ecological impact of changes to the bay.

Jen planned a special trip for me one day and we traveled south of San Francisco to Cupertino – home of Apple, Inc.  We were able to visit the company store and drive around the campus and see the buildings where all these wonderful Apple products I enjoy were designed and created.   We also drove through Mountain View – home of Google – on our way down.  It was my first visit to Silicon Valley and was pretty cool to see headquarters for many of the major tech companies that we use at work and home.

All in all, it was a great trip.  We enjoyed getting to see family, friends, the sites and enjoy life.  It was an excellent break from things and maybe it was the thousands of miles in between, but we really got away from everything…

Summer update

Wow, I can’t believe its been almost 2 months since I’ve updated the site.  We’ve been really busy!  This past weekend we held our annual summer party and we had a great time.  I think we had around 35 or 40 people show up throughout the afternoon and the kids definitely enjoyed the pool.  Peyton enjoyed playing with all of the kids that came out.  She tried to keep up with the much older kids and with no nap, she was worn out by 9pm.

In other news, we have been busy doing some improvements around the house.  We have cleaned out our two front flower beds and we’ve put in new bushes.  I had some friends help me paint the house back during May and I’m sad to report that there are still a few places I haven’t finished… gotta get those soon.  But for the most part, we have cleaned up the yards pretty well and clean out most of our flower beds.  Most of the beds had kinda gotten out of control.  All of the bushes had over grown and we’ve been trying to tame them for a couple years now.  We also have been busy painting and freshening up the inside of the house too.

Peyton has had a few birthday parties to attend lately with friends.  She always enjoys herself at those.  We had one in June at a farm in Calabash and though it was hot, Peyton really enjoyed some of the animals.  She wasn’t crazy about the pigs or the goats, but loved the horses and the sheep.

We enjoyed fourth of July activities around Conway this year.  We hung out with friends on their boat for the annual Riverfest festival.  We had a great time that afternoon and we watched the fireworks show from the boat – that was really cool!  We hung out with the same friends again on the fourth and enjoyed food, a few more fireworks and lots of fun again that day.

Peyton is also really enjoying the pool now too.  She loves to get in and go swimming.  She can float on her own (well, with the help of inflatable arm floaties) and she likes to kick.  She doesn’t venture far from me or Jen when we’re in the pool, but she enjoys switching between the floats and splashing around.

I’ve talked about how social Peyton is and that definitely hasn’t changed.  She has moved up into a new classroom in the daycare.  She is back with all of our friends (who are older – but only by a few days) who had already moved up.  She loves being back in the class with them and talks about them all constantly at home.  Peyton has also started asking to see some of her other friends from time to time.  I guess we’ll be busy arranging play dates soon enough so that they can get together.

We haven’t taken any trips since our trip to DC in May, though we are planning a trip end of August for a work conference.  I’m excited and we’ll be visiting family in San Francisco area.  I’ve never been to the west coast – Las Vegas last year was the furthest west I’d ever been – so I’m excited to see something different.  We’ll spend 5 days in the city and then the next 5 days a little further North in Tiburon.

So, that’s what’s going on in our world right now.  I’ll try and post some photos soon from some of our recent events.

Kayak adventure

Jen and I had our first kayak adventure.  We went out on the Waccamaw River with friends in their kayaks.  Our friends Greg and Annie own kayaks and actually do some tours and rentals for anyone interested.  We put into the river just underneath the old Conway bridge and we went north on the river just a little ways up past the train trestle.  From there we floated back downstream a ways and went up into Kingston Lake.

We had a great time and I can’t tell you how relaxing it was to be on the water.  I was the first to flip my kayak.  To make a long story short, another boat was approaching  in a narrow section of the lake and I was trying to get out of his way.  I lost my balance and over I went.  The boater helped me out of the water and back into a drained kayak.  Fortunately, I didn’t lose anything either.

Here are some photos from the day…

Washington DC trip to see the grands

Sorry for my updates being few and far between.  Life with a two year old is pretty hectic, but I’m just making excuses.  We spent the end of last week in Washington, DC, visiting Jen’s parents.  Peyton had a great time and Grandma and Papa Coffin’s house.  On Friday, we visited the National Zoo and Saturday we visited Gravelly Point Park and National Harbor in Maryland.  We had a great time seeing the grands and spending some time with friends in the area.

I’ve edited together a couple videos from our trip – one from the National Zoo and one from Gravelly Point Park.  I’ve posted them both on YouTube and on our MobileMe gallery (links at the top of the page). Photos from the zoo are here…

Peyton is doing really well.  She’s expanding her vocabulary every day – sometimes to her mother’s and my dislike.  She’s learning a lot and she continues to be very social at daycare.  We have had a couple incidents where she has bitten another child at daycare, but hopefully that won’t be happening again.  She was disciplined both a school and at home and we believe she learned her lesson.  Even when playing now, if Jen or I even seem like we’re biting, she’ll stop us and say “no bite.”

Our baby girl has also developed a big love for animals.  Elephants are her favorite.  She saw her first elephants several months ago at the circus.  We visited the circus again the following month after she begged to see the elephants, again.   So, the visit to the zoo was nice for her to see the elephants.  She also liked the tigers and panda bears.

She’s also mothering her dolls now.  She likes to put them to sleep (under every kitchen towel, sheet, or blankey she owns).  She’s also been heard disciplining them.  I came into the living room one day to find Tigger, her doll, the elephant and a bunny all in “time-out”.  I asked what they had done and they’d bitten (ding, ding – I think she got it!).

There should be more things posted soon.  Jen and I celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary on June 1.  We don’t have any special plans, as of yet.  No special trip or anything planned, though we’ve got our fingers crossed for maybe making a trip to California in the fall…

Fall update

The leaves are turning outside and fall has officially arrived – colder temperatures and all.  The time change has thrown the family for a loop…  Peyton’s schedule hasn’t adjusted.  So I guess, we’re adjusting to her.  Though, she has gotten better as the week has progressed.

We’ve had a busy month in October…  The last weekend of the month, we went to Cheraw for a BBQ at my parent’s church on Saturday.  Everything was delicious.  The following day, my mom threw Peyton a birthday party with the family.  We had a great time.

We’ve had a lot of visitors over the last few weeks, too.  Marolyn and Harry came into town for a week while Jen was in Columbia, SC, for work.  Peyton and I were able to go to dinner with them, although, I dont’ think I was good company – I was too busy keeping up with Peyton.  We know next time to block Peyton into a booth – works out much better…  The same week, one of my friends Leigh Ann came in from Chesterfield too.  I was able to have dinner with her and, let me tell you, booth is the way to go.

Jen’s parents came in this past weekend for Peyton’s Conway party.  They were able to stay with us for several days and spend time with Peyton.  She’s grown a lot since they got to see her last time. We ate out at Outback with Brett and Trina (Peyton’s Godparents) as well as Janet and Jim on Thursday for Peyton’s birthday.  Friday night, we went to Brett and Trina’s for trick or treating in their neighborhood.  Sharon and William and Brianna (B&T’s Godchild from Cheraw) came in town and they all got to go around the entire neighborhood.  Everyone had a really great time.

Janet and Jim went back on Monday…  Janet will be very busy now through Inauguration.  She’s going to be swamped with paperwork for the transition at the federal DOT.  Jim is keeping busy  working some and with his model airplanes.  Both of them are doing really good.

Jean and Emily Crawford came into town, also, last weekend for Peyton’s party and for a visit.  They were able to see where Jen works and Jen gave them the grand tour.  They also got to spend time with Peyton.  I visited our PF Chang’s for the first time with Emily and Jean on Monday night.  They stayed at our local bed and breakfast, The Cypress Inn, and loved it.  I think Jen and I will need to reserve a room sometime for an anniversary or something.

I start a new work schedule on Monday.  I’ll be working 7am to 4pm.  I have traded schedules with one of my co-workers who was previously working this schedule.  It didn’t work out for him because he was working too many evening hours in addition to his normal business hours.  So, hopefully it will work out for me.  I volunteered for the schedule change.  I’m hoping it gives me some more time in the evenings to do some things that need doing around the house or around town.  By the time 5pm rolls around now, its dark and I can’t accomplish anything.  Wish me luck!

Peyton’s TWO!

Peyton turned two on the 30th and she’s changed a lot in just a year.  She is walking and talking now.  She’s actually more at a run speed than walk these days.  She’s into everything. The talking is a great thing, so far.  She’s able to tell us what she wants most times and she’s able to finally let us know what she’s thinking.  Its really cool!

She is doing amazing at her day care.  She’s learning so much every day – from the teachers and other children.  She’s doing pretty well with colors.  She knows her numbers up to 10.  She’s got her ABC’s down too (well, except that LMNO letter…).

Our little girl is a singer, too.  They’ve taught her “the Wheels on the Bus” and “Tinkle Tinkle Little Star”.  She’s also learned the ‘Barney’ song.  So, I’m hoping she’ll keep those musical genes that she got honest.  Granted, they passed over me once puberty hit, but I’m hoping she’ll take after both sides of my family and their musical abilities.  No one in my generation seems to be using that talent – so maybe we’ll have a little superstar come out of Peyton’s generation…

She’s inquisitive, too.  She loves to learn about every little thing.  Forunately, its not “Why” followed by “Why” with a little “Why” on the side…  But she will ask you questions trying to learn about the world around her.  “Where’s the air-pane going, daddy?”  – “Look, mommy – a toot-toot” (a train…).

She celebrated her birthday with two parties.  We had one with all of my family in Cheraw and a second with family and friends here in Conway.  Some photos from the parties are posted below… Hope you enjoy.  Videos to come!!