UW Graduation Ceremony

Although Orb won't be an official graduate (Doctor) until he gives his defense (which may be at the end of summer), we celebrated yesterday with the rest of his department and school. Orb looked quite "regal" in his purple robe and hood. Aurelia and I were (and are) so proud of him. Here are some pictures from the day!
Orb and his adviser Dr. Jen.

Beach weather

We had a beautiful sunny weekend for Mother's Day. We packed up the towels, buckets and shovels and headed for the beach! Aurelia was content scooping sand into her bucket, emptying, then doing it again. Orb was content building the largest sand mountain on the beach. Allison was content laying in the sun on her beach towel.

Tulip Festival

On Saturday Aurelia and I and our good friends Amy and Ellie traveled up north to La Conner, Wa to the Skagit County Tulip Festival. It was a beautiful blue sky day which made the tulips even more vibrant. The little girls had so much fun running around in the grass and tulip fields!

Easter

Aurelia went on her first egg hunt and came out with 11 eggs! We colored real eggs at home and had a mini egg hunt in the living room. It was a really cold and muddy morning but it warmed up a bit for Easter pictures in the garden next door.

Cherry Blossoms!

UW campus has the most amazing cherry blossoms. We took a family walk today to check them out.

Aurelia's 2nd Birthday

Aurelia turned 2 on March 3! We had a special family birthday celebration with Elmo cake and presents. Aurelia was a little afraid of her cake as she thought she was actually eating Elmo.
Then on Saturday we had a party at the neighborhood park with her little friends from church. All the children had lots of fun!

Update:February

We took a trip down to San Francisco mid-February to attend Allison's friend Christina's wedding. We made the most of the weekend and were able to spend time with Kyle, Jen and Keira in Mountain View and see Orb's parents for a day in SF. It was a magnificent weekend: beautiful weather, beautiful friends/family and beautiful wedding. We are trying to move down to the Sf/Bay area after Orb finishes his PhD - we'll see. Let the job hunt begin! On the 18th Allison celebrated her 27th birthday with a visit from her parents and amazing Cuban sandwiches at Paseo's. And Allison also finally finished her homage to Monet in-the-style-of Seurat painting that has taken 3 years to complete (30X30 of little Q-tip dots). It was a good month!

Update:January

Finally, we are writing an update...long overdue.

January was a wonderfully busy month for Orb as he was preparing for his General Exam taken Jan 27th - which he passed with flying colors. I started a new and exciting quarter into my Flash Application Development program. And Aurelia discovered the joys of jumping/rolling off the couch into a pile of pillows, dancing to music, wearing training pants, playing dress-up, and splashing in her her mini-tub in the shower.