December 2005 Photos
We were quite busy in December and took photos on many occasions. Such occasions include a trip to Utah to visit my family. We saw Santa there and did some sledding. The kids went on field trip to a local zoo to see some reindeer. We attended some family parties here at home, specifically on Christmas Eve. And, of course, there was Christmas. All of these photos can now be reviewed on-line.

Here are some sample images:

You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "December 2005" links on Berkeley's web site or Eliana's web site or you can access the galleries directly:

Berkeley's December 2005 Gallery ... (3 years, 5 months old)
Eliana's December 2005 Gallery ... (1 year, 9½ months old)

(Mon Jan 9 12:13:32 PST 2006 // fixed a spelling error)

Christmas Morning 2005 Photos

The full gallery can be accessed here:

Christmas Morning 2005 Photo Gallery

Christmas Eve 2005 Photos

The full gallery can be accessed here:

Christmas Eve in Seattle

November 2005 Photos
November has come and gone very quickly. We didn't snap too many pictures this month, but what we did snap I have now posted to Berkeley's and Eliana's photo galleries.

Here are some sample images:

You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "November 2005" links on Berkeley's web site or Eliana's web site or you can access the galleries directly:

Berkeley's November 2005 Gallery ... (3 years, 4 months old)
Eliana's November 2005 Gallery ... (1 year, 8½ months old)

Thanksgiving 2005 Photos

The full gallery can be accessed here:

Thanksgiving in Seattle

October 2005 Photos
I have completed Berkeley's and Eliana's photo galleries for the month of October. Highlights include the yearly family portrait and Halloween.

Here are some sample images:

You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "October 2005" links on Berkeley's web site or Eliana's web site or you can access the galleries directly:

Berkeley's October 2005 Gallery ... (3 years, 3 months old)
Eliana's October 2005 Gallery ... (1 year, 7½ months old)

(Wed Nov 23 06:03:39 PST 2005 // fixed a grammatical error)
(Thu Dec 1 06:30:20 PST 2005 // fixed a bad reference)

September 2005 Photos
I have just completed Berkeley's and Eliana's photo galleries for the month of September. Most of the pictures were taken during what became the last opportunity for the kids to play in the wading pool for the year. Kristy snapped lots of good ones while they were playing in the water.

Here are some sample images:

You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "September 2005" links on Berkeley's web site or Eliana's web site or you can access the galleries directly:

Berkeley's September 2005 Gallery ... (3 years, 2 months old)
Eliana's September 2005 Gallery ... (1 year, 6½ months old)

(Tue Nov 22 10:46:56 PST 2005 // fixed a grammatical error)

September 2005 Preschool Class Pictures
Kristy, Kathy, and Angela have started preschool for Berkeley, Eliana, Elizabeth, and Isabella. They hold class twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday) for two hours. The preschool schedule that they have mapped out spans from September to next June. Every preschool session has a unique lesson topic, a letter of the day, a number of the day, a color of the day, and a shape of the day. Field trips are also planned. Nice.

Preschool started last tuesday (September 13) and on the first day, they snapped some class pictures. Here are some sample images:

You can review the full gallery by access the link below:

September 2005 Preschool Class Pictures

September 2005 Park City Vacation Photos
We have now been back from our trip to Park City for a week now. It was great fun. I'm glad I was able to capture some of the memories in writing. I was also able to preserve a few moments in picture, here are some sample images:

It may be helpful to provide a link between some of my blog entries and the corresponding trip sub-galleries.

Sep. 3: Evening with Berrett Cousins   (blog, gallery)

Sep. 5: Labor Day   (blog, gallery)

Sep. 6: Day Two   (blog, gallery)

Sep. 7: Day Three   (blog, gallery)

Sep. 8: Day Four   (blog, gallery)

Sep. 9: Day Five   (blog, gallery)

Sep. 10: Day Six   (blog, gallery)

The entire set of sub-galleries can be accessed from the parent link, here:

September 2005 Park City Vacation

August 2005 Photos
Berkeley's and Eliana's photo galleries for the month of August are now available. We didn't take many pictures in August, so the galleries are somewhat sparse.

Here are some sample images:

You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "August 2005" links on Berkeley's web site or Eliana's web site or you can access the galleries directly:

Berkeley's August 2005 Gallery ... (3 years, 1 month old)
Eliana's August 2005 Gallery ... (1 year, 5½ months old)

July 2005 Salt Lake City Trip Photos
We spent the last few days of July and the first few days of August down in Salt Lake City (as noted previously in blog entries during that period). Here are some sample images from the trip:

Since it has been some three weeks since we returned, it may be helpful to provide a link between some of my blog entries and the corresponding trip sub-galleries.

Jul. 29: Berkeley Birthday   (blog, gallery)

Jul. 30: Utah County Fair and Mark's Pizza   (blog, gallery #1, gallery #2)

Jul. 31: Sunday Dinner   (blog, gallery)

There are some sub-galleries which I did not directly blog about, but they can still be accessed by reviewing the complete Salt Lake City Trip gallery here:

July 2005 Salt Lake City Trip

July 2005 Photos
I have just now completed Berkeley's and Eliana's photo galleries for the month of July 2005. The galleries only include those pictures taken before our family vacation to Salt Lake. I'll post our vacation pictures later this week.

Here are some sample images:

You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "July 2005" links on Berkeley's web site or Eliana's web site or you can access the galleries directly:

Berkeley's July 2005 Gallery ... (3 years old)
Eliana's July 2005 Gallery ... (1 year, 4½ months old)

July 2005 Kitchen Repainting Project Photos
Since we moved into our current home back in 2000, we have been slowly transforming the kitchen space (who am I kidding? ...our whole house!) into one that is more compatible with our own personal style and taste. There wasn't much wrong with the out-of-the-box components of the kitchen per se, the look just needed some tweaking here and there.

In fact, now that I think about it, I believe the first project I completed in our current home was that of hanging a pot rack over our kitchen island. But that project (or even the project of installing the instant-hot water tap) pales in comparison to the monumental task I undertook in early summer of 2004 of painting all of our kitchen cabinetry black. Now that was a major endeavor.

More recently Kristy completed (just in time for Berkeley's Birthday Party) a makeover of the wall treatment in the kitchen. She applied a Ralph Lauren chocolate brown glaze over the walls and painted a mural over our range top. The result is a warm, rich, and cozy look. Here are some sample images of the kitchen that I snapped today:

I have posted large versions of our current kitchen photos together with some I took last year (2004) and some that I took back in 2001. You can find them all here:

July 2005 Kitchen Repainting Project

(Update Fri Mar 10 09:55:56 PST 2006 // changed URL to Berkeley Birthday Party)

July 2005 Berkeley Birthday Party Photos
We celebrated Berkeley's third birthday today since it coincided with "A Day Out With Thomas". Berkeley is a big fan of Thomas the Tank Engine. So, when we heard that a life-sized Thomas was coming to town and found out that the visit was to be in July, we decided that we had to plan Berkeley's third birthday around the event.

The tickets sell out well in advance, so we had to buy the tickets back in March or April. So today's party was a long time in the planning process. In the afternoon, Berkeley and a few friends and family went to the Snoqualmie railway station. Berkeley got a big grin on his face when he saw the life-sized Thomas for the first time. It was cute. We snapped some pictures (see below for link) with him standing in front of Thomas with the whole family.

We took a little ride on Thomas and he pretended that we was on "Annie" (one of the passenger cars that Thomas pulls around). Then he and the rest of the kids jumped around inside an inflatable bouncy train (see below for link to pictures). They seemed to like jumping better than anything else.

Immediately following the afternoon activities at the railroad, we hosted a small dinner. The Sorensons, Thurmonds, Sharps, and Gendreaus were able to attend. The kids played on the grass and at "Berkeley's Park" and in the sand and had a great time running around while the adults had a very pleasant evening chatting and eating. It was threatening rain in the afternoon when we left for the railway, but it was perfect weather in the evening.... nice, sunny, and mild. It was very relaxing.

Berkeley was quite happy to receive several presents at his party, including some Thomas-themed toys from Kate and Isabella Schei, the Gendreaus, the Sorensons, and (of course) Mom and Dad. He also got a new trike, some basketball warm-ups (with matching arm bands) from the Thurmonds, and a tee-ball set from the Sharps (he has already clocked Elizabeth with the plastic bat... oops).

Here are some sample images from the party:

You can review the full Berkeley Birthday Party gallery here:

July 2005 Berkeley Birthday Party

June 2005 Photos
Berkeley's and Eliana's photo galleries for the month of June are now complete. Some of the notables include Eliana leaning back against the ottoman and looking like a big girl, Eliana with a "don't mess with me" look on her face, and Berkeley caught in mid-laughter.

Here are some sample images:

You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "June 2005" links on Berkeley's web site or Eliana's web site or you can access the galleries directly:

Berkeley's June 2005 Gallery ... (2 years, 11 months old)
Eliana's June 2005 Gallery ... (1 year, 3½ months old)

May 2005 Photos
In May, the weather started to become much more inviting. This is evident in the amount of May pictures that were taken outside (especially toward the end of the month). You'll note that a few of the pictures indicate that I finally got around to finishing the lid on the kids sandbox.... almost a year later. And yes, in that picture of Berkeley where he is standing next to the chalkboard with the letters B-E-R-K crudely scrawled across it, Berkeley drew those letters himself. Impressive... no?

Here are some sample images:

You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "May 2005" links on Berkeley's web site or Eliana's web site or you can access the galleries directly:

Berkeley's May 2005 Gallery ... (2 years, 10 months old)
Eliana's May 2005 Gallery ... (1 year, 2½ months old)

April 2005 Photos
I have just finished building Berkeley's and Eliana's April 2005 media galleries using pictures and video taken during that month. I'm very close to getting caught up. My goal is to actually post pictures in real time (i.e. the day or the day after they are taken)... only a couple more photo albums to go, and then I'll be right there.

There were some excellent pictures taken in April... most notable among them is the Kristy/Berkeley picture. Very nice. Here are some sample images:

You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "April 2005" links on Berkeley's web site or Eliana's web site or you can access the galleries directly:

Berkeley's April 2005 Gallery ... (2 years, 9 months old)
Eliana's April 2005 Gallery ... (1 year, 1½ months old)

April 2005 Laura Birthday Pics and Video
(I'm still trying to bring my photo albums up-to-date. I'm up to April 2005, so I'm only 3 months behind.)

On the first Sunday in April (the 3rd), we had a small party to commemorate Laura's Birthday (which is on the 5th). The Corays came over for dinner, as did the Thurmonds and the Sorensons. We had a great time. However, I only have one picture from the event:

We did capture some video of the cousins dancing around... Laura was leading them up in the bonus room. It was very cute. There are two 30-second video clips of the dancing available here:

April 2005 Laura Birthday

March 2005 Photos
My pace of updating our on-line photo albums was slowed somewhat while browsing through the pictures taken back in March of 2005. We snapped quite a few pictures... most of them were either taken during Eliana's 1st Birthday Party or taken during our family vacation to Tahiti.

Outside of those two events, there wasn't too much photo or video content to speak of; just one or two photos here and there. But what we did have for March 2005 I've now posted to two new photo galleries (one for Berkeley and one for Eliana). In each of March photo galleries, I've created links to the the Birthday Party and Tahiti photo galleries.

Here are some sample images:

You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "March 2005" links on Berkeley's web site or Eliana's web site or you can access the galleries directly:

Berkeley's March 2005 Gallery ... (2 years, 8 months old)
Eliana's March 2005 Gallery ... (1 year old)

(Update Fri Mar 10 09:54:12 PST 2006 // changed gallery URLs for Tahiti and Eliana Birthday Party)

March 2005 Eliana Birthday Party Photos
We hosted a "flower-themed" birthday party to celebrate Eliana's 1st birthday. All of the usual suspects attended (the Thurmonds, the Corays, the Sorensons) as well as our good friends and neighbors, Jerrod and Tracy Schei (and daughter Isabella). Kristy did a fine job with the decorations and the preparations (we held it in the garage). And Eliana did a fine job making a mess of her first birthday cake. She was spoiled with plenty of presents including a doll and a stroller which have turned out to be her favorites.

Here are some sample images from the party:

You can review the full Eliana Birthday Party gallery (which includes one video of Eliana destroying her cake) here:

March 2005 Eliana Birthday Party

March 2005 Tahiti Trip Photos
Our good friends Stacey and Val Son invited us to travel with them to Tahiti. Stacey and Val were planning on getting sealed in the temple there and spending a week vacationing. We accepted their kind invitation and made our plans. The Sons invited several other close friends and family. We later found out we would also be accompanied by our good friends, the Sharps (Dave and Lisa) and the Clarks (Mike and Lori).

We decided immediately that we would take Berkeley and Eliana and we made a two week vacation out of our Tahiti adventure, spending a couple of days before and after in San Diego with Kristy's parents and family. So, we flew down to San Diego on the 18th of March, and then drove up to LAX on the 19th to catch the plane to Tahiti.

Flight time was scheduled to be 8 hours. We had 2 kids and 3 seats. You get the idea. Eliana was up walking in the aisles the whole flight. She was quite active. Berkeley, by contrast, was pleased to confine himself mostly to his seat watching movies, reading books, or doing other activities that Kristy has prepared. But we made it. It really wasn't that bad... it was a day flight, so neither of them were cranky. It definitely could have gone a lot worse.

Tahiti Island. Our first stop was Tahiti Island, the main island of French Polynesia. We spent one night there and stayed at the InterContinental. On the morning of the 20th, Berkeley and Eliana woke up at their normal time - which was early for Tahiti time (Pacific time is 2 hours ahead of Tahiti Time). Once up, I decided to walk with Berkeley and Eliana down to the pool from our room. I snapped a few pictures while we walked around. Pretty much no one else was up except for the Sons (Val snapped a picture of the kids and me by the pool... the one where Berkeley is holding a coconut).

Here are a few sample images from Tahiti Island, all of which were taken early the morning of the 20th (between 6-6:30 am Tahiti time):

You can review the full Tahiti Island gallery here:

March 2005 Trip to Tahiti: Tahiti Island

Later that morning, after breakfast, all of the adults went to the Papeete temple to see the Sons sealed. It was quite nice... however, we forgot to bring our camera to the temple. Fortunately, the Sons did not forget and snapped plenty of pics on and around the temple grounds. Check them out.

Moorea Island. After the ceremony, we returned to the hotel, collected our gear (and our kids) and headed back to the airport. Once there, we island hopped from Tahiti island to Moorea island (almost literally, it was only a 15 minute plane ride to Moorea Island). We stayed at the Moorea Pearl Resort. Though we didn't stay in an over-the-water bungalow like the rest of the couples in our party, our accomodations were more than satisfactory. Our "family room" had two levels with one bedroom up (where Kristy and I stayed), and another bedroom down (where the kids stayed). It was very roomy; this gave the kids plenty of space to play around... and it was air-conditioned.

We spent two days on Moorea island. We spent most of the time either on the beach or at the pool (or in the room taking naps). However, one evening we attended the Tiki Village Theater for dinner and the dancing show. It made for a late night for the kids (it went well past midnight Pacific Time), but the show was so lively with lots of dancing and singing (and fire handling) that the kids never once looked like they were going to nod off during the show. And I must say myself, the show was quite captivating. The singing performances alone (mostly done by the entire cast) were mesmerizing.

Here are a few sample images from Moorea Island:

You can review the full Moorea Island gallery here:

March 2005 Trip to Tahiti: Moorea Island

Manihi Atoll. On the 22nd, we transferred from Moorea Island to the Manihi Atoll.... roughly a 1½ hour flight. The Manihi atoll (iirc) is populated by less than 1000 people. There is only one resort on Manihi, the Manihi Pearl Resort (which is where we stayed of course). When you look at the pictures, the first one listed is that of Kristy and Berkeley standing in front of the Manihi Terminal. It is basically a glorified lean-to hut. There is no screening, no wands, no ID check to speak of. You show your ticket, you get on the plane (the hotel took care of all of the baggage... nice).

At the Mahnihi Pearl Resort we stayed in an on-the-beach bungalow. It was small (one bedroom, one bathroom), but it was quite nice to be just 10 feet away from the water. Unfortunately, it was not air-conditioned (harder on the kids than on Kristy and I). I snapped a few pics of the bungalow which you can review below.

We spent quite a bit of time at the pool at Manihi (and had some great fun). But the resort also offered some other diversions. We took a boat ride over to a pearl farm and took the small (very small) tour and learned about pearl farming. We fed fish with the kids (something both of them loved to do), played billiards (see pictures), and went on bike rides (Val took some pics of our bike rides).

Kristy and I did manage to get out snorkeling once in Manihi. We saw a shark and quite a lot of fish and coral. The water was quite comfortable... almost warm to the touch. The water was a bit turbid however. Meanwhile, the Sons, Clarks, and Sharps did a lot of diving (twice a day, each day we were there).

Here are a few sample images from Manihi Atoll:

You can review the full Manihi Atoll gallery here:

March 2005 Trip to Tahiti: Manihi Atoll

We had a great time in Tahiti. The kids did wear us down by the end of the week (Eliana never did adjust to Tahiti Time the entire time we were there) and on some of the pictures we snapped (which I didn't care to post) it shows. But, I wouldn't have gone on the trip without them. They had a great time too and played hard... because they slept like rocks on the plane ride back to LAX.

February 2005 Photos
Another month of photos is now compiled... just a few more months and I'll be caught up. I've posted two photo galleries (one for Berkeley and one for Eliana) using pictures taken in February 2005. Here are some sample images:

You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "February 2005" links on Berkeley's web site or Eliana's web site or you can access the galleries directly:

Berkeley's February 2005 Gallery ... (2 years, 7 months old)
Eliana's February 2005 Gallery ... (11½ months old)

January 2005 Photos
I'm making good progress on my goal to catch up on our family's photo albums, I've posted two photo galleries (one for Berkeley and one for Eliana) using pictures taken in January 2005. Here are some sample images:

You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "January 2005" links on Berkeley's web site or Eliana's web site or you can access the galleries directly:

Berkeley's January 2005 Gallery ... (2½ years old)
Eliana's January 2005 Gallery ... (10½ months old)