We have been having lots of fun with friends and enjoying our newly re-done downstairs.

Daniel & Lynn’s Visit

Last weekend we had a really fun visit from our friends Daniel & Lynn with their baby girl Arianne who is 3 months. We had fun playing at our house but my highlight was going to Montaña de Oro. I got a really sweet picture of them in front of the water.

Lynn, Laurie and I hung out a bunch together during the weekend with our babies in tow. We managed to get a picture where all of us were looking at the camera.

There are lots more pictures of the cute babies in the album Daniel & Lynn Visit.

Home Improvement

I’ve been meaning to post this now for a month, but during January and February Joe and I with some help from friends transformed our downstairs. We painted all of the walls a really beautiful blue and it makes everything really stand out so much more. We have a bit of touchup to do, but that will come later. Painting was prompted by us putting in an entirely new entertainment area to make things safe for Samuel. We did a bit of decorating to match the color by getting a photo I took in the backyard of the sunrise printed and hung with two sconces on the wall. Here is a picture of what that part of the room looks like:

Joe and I only completed the living room side of the wall and didn’t have much energy to finish the other side of the room (kitchen/dining room). A few weeks later I had the day off of work and was able to get some friends to come over to surprise Joe with the other side of the room being painted. He didn’t even notice it when he got home because it just seemed to fit so well!

For the techno-geeks here’s what we did with the entertainment area:
New LCD TV that is mounted on the wall with a speaker bar and the subwoofer is on the ground. The component cabinet is actually a TV stand that we use just on its own. Inside the cabinet is a component switcher, Blu-Ray player, Mac Mini (we are borrowing) that is connected to the TV and controlled using Mouse Mote, DVD/VHS player, printer, Wii, and PS2. As you can see from the outside it doesn’t look like all that is in there since we got some cable management devices behind it that are painted the wall color to blend in. The TV mount swivels and extends and our speakers are hooked up also to the Airport Express. Everything is controlled by our Harmony remote. Phew. There are times when I wish we didn’t have any electronic devices at all.

Even though all of these changes and techno-gadgets are nice – especially now that the TV is the appropriate size for the room – it still doesn’t compare to being able to let Samuel roam around the living room and have his playthings available to him. He seems to really like the new setup and the extra room he has to play. Joe and I are really enjoying it, even though it was a lot of work, it was worth it.