First Mountain Hike

yes, another first, this time the first mountain hike with Anouk. We took her to Desolation Wilderness in Lake Tahoe 2 weeks ago; the drive there was rather long, with breaks for feeding and picking up food for the trail. Anouk started crying right before we got to the trailhead, and we had to feed her 10 minutes into the hike. It had been so long since we were in the mountains, we forgot about the darn mosquitos, and as soon as we sat down, they were feasting on us (especially Sabine). So we moved away from the creek and sat near a nice big tree to feed Anouk and ourselves:

2 minutes later, we came to the waterfalls and enjoyed them before we headed on towards Grass Lake.

We had to cross a creek with fairly high water due to the season, but both Anouk and I as well as my mom did fine. We passed some pretty ponds on the way up.

Shortly after the intersection to Grass Lake, we came upon a creek crossing that seemed too dangerous for my mom and me carrying Anouk, so we decided to stop and enjoy the view. After some snacks, we also had to do another first: change Anouk's diaper in the mountains:



Very happy with our achievement, we hiked back down to the trailhead, and took one last picture of the beautiful setting before heading to get a nice cup of coffee at Alpen Sierra.

We checked in at our condo, which turned out to be a timeshare, and we just made it in time after dinner to watch the sun set at Lake Tahoe, which was very pretty:

Wine tasting

To celebrate Memorial Day, we took our little Anouk on her first wine tasting trip :-) You can never start too early on the joys of life.... We went to the cute little town of Glen Ellen and picked B.R. Cohn. The wines were good, and we were positively surprised to find a picnic spot at the winery, so I got some sandwiches and we spent our lunch on the premises:


Bruce Cohn is the owner of the winery and also the manager of the Doobie Brothers, and he owns some nice "ZZ Top" like cars:


After lunch, we went to Buena Vista in Sonoma, and we tried some nice Chardonnays and Pinots:

We also celebrated my mom's birthday at Ramblas last Friday with some great tapas, and of course a pitcher of Sangria :-)


OK, OK, I know it is all about the baby, here she is:

Grandma

Grandma (my mom) came to town on Wednesday to take care of Anouk as Sabine is going back to work tomorrow. She is obviously very excited to be around her first grandchild. She can't really take her eyes of her, and everything Anouk does is great :-)




She brought us eleven beautiful paintings she had painted herself (!) of Nijntje (or Miffie in US), a cartoon from my childhood days. They are incredibly beautiful:


We walked around the City a lot the last few days, to Ocean Beach, Ferry Building, the Marina, Alamo Square, and Golden Gate Park. And finally, I am on some of the pictures:




And, of course, some great pictures of Anouk; she saved her smile until grandma visited:

Mother's Day

Another first, this one really important for Sabine: her first Mother's Day. I bought her a diamond necklace and spent insane amounts of money on nick-nacks that nobody needs...... Oh, no, that was in the movies :-) We went out for a nice breakfast in the sun, and then headed out to the Marin headlands for our first hike with Anouk. Sabine got new lightweight hiking shoes (so she did get a gift after all....), and we started our hike in Tennessee Valley. I carried Anouk in the Baby Bjoern, and had the diaper bag as a backpack.

We saw a wild turkey, just as we were heading up the hill, and some nice California poppyseed flowers:


We had some awesome views from the top, where we could see the San Francisco skyline as well as the Bay and the Ocean. After a nice break, we headed back down and were very happy to have made it out to hike after 5 weeks :-)

On Saturday, we walked around the City with our friends Rob and Katie, and their son Oliver, who is 3 weeks older than Anouk. But first, Oliver and Anouk had their first play date.


We had a little break at Alamo Square, where we sat and enjoyed the 7 Sisters from the Full House TV series.


And as usual, here are some more random cute pictures:

First bottle

After a few days of pumping, we got enough milk for Anouk's first bottle feeding. It was very exciting that I could help with feeding, and she enjoyed it (Meaning, she actually drank all of it).


Anouk is getting a little curious after the feedings, and she wants to stare around and discover new things. She gets bored after a while, probably because she really can't see yet, and then will start crying. Moving her around usually calms her down, and she also seems to like the front room (it is actually called whiskey room, but that seems a little inappropriate....). Here are some pics from the last few days:

Another Video

Anouk sleeping / crying in her sleep and stretching arms and legs....

Academy of Science

I took last Friday off as part of my California Family leave (I get paid for 6 weeks, but decided to take one day every 2 weeks for the next year), so we decided to go to the "new" Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park. It was a nice but breezy day, and we walked the 3 miles to the museum. It is an amazing building, with a beautiful rain forest and an aquarium below. In the first picture, Anouk (who is crying) and I are being chased by a grizzly....


They had an albino alligator, which looked really freaky:


The rain forest had beautiful butterflies:

And the view up from the aquarium was amazing:


We checked out the penguin tank, and watched their feeding.

The view from the roof was pretty cool, with the De Young Museum in the background.

And here are some more random pictures of Anouk, most of them while sleeping (which is her most adorable condition :-) and one while being burped after feeding.