Big Bear B-lake

Our first family vacation together!  We headed up on Thursday and stayed through Sunday.  The timeshare we stayed at was perfectly located.  We were about 5 blocks from The Village which contains the main strip of shops & restaurants in Big Bear.  On thursday night after we checked into our place, we ended up finding an amazing restaurant to have dinner at called Peppercorn.  We basically drove all around to see what options there were and then decided on this spot thinking it should be "ok".  Well it was FABULOUS!  Matt had the Halibut (what for?) and V had the filet mignon!  Yummy!  Oh ya & the best part was that Blake gave mommy & daddy time to enjoy their wonderful dinner by taking a nap for the WHOLE DINNER!  He is just ridiculous...best baby ever!  We also ran into a friend sitting at the next booth!  Small world.

This is blake all bundled up on our way out to dinner.

The next day we woke up and went to The Grizzly Manor, a very small diner recommended by our timeshare, for "brek"(breakfast).  It's basically a local favorite just one block from our timeshare.  Check out the pancake size at this place!

Then we decided to walk around the park at Boulder Bay...what a great photo op!  Once we saw this location, we decided we had to see all all of Big Bear Lake and drove around it.  Such a beautiful drive...especially when our child was being so good!  

Here we are just enjoying our vacation and our cutie-potootie!

Then it was off to B's Backyard BBQ for the lakeside view of the sunset before heading back to the timeshare to make dinner and enjoy the fireplace.

The next day we decided to learn more about Big Bear B-Lake by taking a guided lake tour aboard the Miss Liberty.  Captain Jack gave us so many fun facts about this place that we were unaware of...did you know there are two dams?  One is still underwater and construction was never completed on it.  The current dam was built instead and they never took down the previous attempt.  Pretty cool to learn. Anyways, here we are enjoying the sights from the marina & the boat.

  Just playing with our little boy...what a ham!

All in all we had a great first family vacation.  Blake was such a good boy...we couldn't have asked for a nicer, more relaxing, weekend together.

Ringsfest 2011!

This was the 3rd Annual Ringsfest and the 1st with Blake in attendance! He didn't throw rings since he's still learning about the game...but next year it's on!  The weather was great, the beer was cold, the food was yummy...but most importantly the company was FABULOUS! With a few substitutions and a lot of patience, the winners were crowned "later" in the afternoon.  We're looking forward to RF 2012...you thought scoreboards were a great addition...just wait and see what MnV will think of next!

Being cute is pretty easy for Mr. Blake

Here are some shots of Mr. B "hanging" around with his family.

The box said "4 mos +" but we got it out and tried it anyways.  

Our BIG boy is almost ready for the chair swing!  Still needed a little bit of mommy's help.

What else can we say but..."passed out!"

Blake's newest seat...pretty cool to have him sitting up!

"Mom, no pictures please!"

Gigi & Blake spending some quality time together!

"Daddy, I'm glad you like this book.  It's a cool story, huh?"

Seriously, being cute is just so easy for these two!

Havin' fun with GP & Nana Bart

Of course, spending the afternoon with GP & Nana was fun!

Hangin' with my Aun"T"

The smiles say it all...

Blake Bonding with GnG Willems

How lucky we are to have such great technology.  Below is our regular call with Johnnie and Shirley where Blake gets to hear AND see them on Skype.  He really perks up and concentrates on their faces.  It's such a fun time where we all get too oogle over him and show off the latest learnings and tricks.  You can't see his face in the pics, but I don't think you will have a problem believing that he smiles most of the time.  We just love our time with Grandpa and Grandma Willems.

Our latest visitors...all the way from Switzerland!

Here are a few pics of dinner at our house with our friends Jerome & Nathalie visiting from Switzerland.  Of course dinner followed a few games of Rings, where EVERYONE got at least one ringer!  And it was Nathalie's birthday that week so we celebrated that as well!  We thoroughly enjoyed their visit and can't wait to see them again soon in their neck of the woods!  (Seriously!!!)

Congrats to you both for the exciting news about your own expanding family!