Last of 2009

Our traditional boxing day 'shootin' shit' is growing in numbers and fun. We shot lots of shit and got to break down on the way home in Matt's 1976 camper van ....

'make sure when loading you point the barrel at your dad'

I am still getting used to childrens activites but I have to admit the Chritmas lights at the little zoo we have were cool!

The dangers of hallucinogenics before the light show

I'm done with all this wrapping

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to everyone who reads our blog and all the best for 2010!

Clive, Kristy, Dylan and Stella.

Helter-Skelter

Still trying to decide if I need a decent camera, we took Dylan to the park with the camera I borrowed for the weekend. If I needed more convincing then the 'action shot' feature has to be a must. It was Dylan's first go down the spiral slide and probably his last for a while.

Stormy Waters

Last weekend I got to crew in a sailing race out of LA. Racing in my family results in a lot of yelling, capsizing and broken boats (but ultimately a lot of fun). Expecting the same level of intensity, I was glad to find that racing in America involved beer and much less yelling. Thanks to Brian for a great day. In keeping with Johnson tradition, I also got to tell my wife I would be home early afternoon and returned at 7pm .... I blamed the wind.

Keeping with the sailing theme, we would like to warn everyone that our marriage is heading for stormy waters. The front of the storm will be in June 2010 when England take on USA in the world cup. We are already arguing over what Dylan will be wearing but it does not really matter as he already has his England kit and thus, does not need a USA one (Note from Kristy: He will be too big for his England kit in June, so only fair his next kit is USA). We thank our family and friends in advance for their support through these difficult times.

Boats and oil rigs, what more do you need?

At risk of already being a mad camera dad, I borrowed a friends expensive camera to see if I need one ...... I think I might.

Thanksgiving 2009

You know you are in an affluent area when the homeless are drinking Starbucks and that's exactly what we saw on our Thanksgiving trip to Northern, CA. My first Thanksgiving spent on the beach and I was not disappointed as we ate well, relaxed, socialized and of course drank responsibly. Kristy's Great Uncle's family was kind enough to host us and we were made extremely welcome. We hiked on Friday and when Mack said we would know each other well enough for skinny dipping in the freezing cold lake at the top, I thought he was joking .... I chose to go in fully clothed, but that was more to do with the fact I slipped and fell in. We really did appreciate the warmth and hospitality of our hosts and we hope to get to join them again.

It was not technically Dylan's first trip to the beach as we took him to Felixstowe when we went back to the UK. As he had a melt down and it was raining the whole time we never made to the actual beach so we are not counting it. He loved Stinson beach and we spent many hours chasing him up and down the sand.

Tourist

Getting his feet wet
Bolinas Beach

Kristy pushed us, honest

At least she helped us up again

Hiking

Boy and guns

Zip me up, I'm ready to go home

Big Trees

We took advantage of a day off work and headed up to Sequoia National Park. It was a fantastic day but the one disappointment was General Sherman. By the time we hauled Dylan and pushchair down the toddler unfriendly path, he was asleep and never got to the see the largest tree in the world. To make things worse, Kristy said that it was not much bigger than the ones at the top of the path! On the plus side Dylan coped well with the long drive, anyone know the extended version of 'wheels on the bus'?

Sequoia National Park

'Hey dad, I found another big tree'

Early Thanksgiving

As we are going to be away this Thanksgiving we had an early one for Kristy's mum, step dad and Grandpapa. It was nice to have Kristy's grandpapa over for the first time since he moved here to Bakersfield. Dylan also enjoyed the company and even had his first Yorkshire pudding and gravy. Fortunately, mine were the first ones he had so he will expect them to be flat and wonder why English Gran's are light and fluffy. I did have to reprimand him when I caught him feeding the last one to Stella though.

Celtic music fesitival

It was only 6 months ago that we took Dylan to the Scottish festival and he had no idea what was going on. We took him to a Celtic music festival this weekend and he was dancing and running up and down the grass. Let hope Irish drinking songs are not too much of an influence on his young mind. The best news this weekend was working out how to get BBC iPlayer working in the US, now I can play Dylan all the British shows to help ease his American twang.

Is there a Doctor in the house?

I don't think I have dressed up for Halloween since our neighbor Dave decided to dress up as a cardboard box. Unfortunately he forgot the arm holes, tripped on his shoelace and ended up in hospital with concussion. Ozzy and Sharon seemed a much safer bet and we had a great time at Stefano and Heidi's party. Doctor McCutie got to go to the parade at Debbie's school and I hear he was a hit.

I also found out this week why Americans take such great care of their teeth, they don't have the NHS! Neither of us had been for, I'll just say a while and were surprised to get a $15000 quote for the both of us! I guess we have learned our lesson frequent dentist trips.

All aboard the crazy train

Is there a Doctor in the house?
Doctor McCutie

Lets hope Dylan is not a West Ham fan.

Birthday Boy

Thanks to everyone for the cards and presents, he would thank you himself if he could! We thought we had learned our lesson spoiling the dog but at the age of one, the little fella really does have everything a man can want.

Cleanin' Machine

One Today!, Well yesteterday but he does not know.
Mmmmm, Sugar!

Trying out for the Village People

Hopefully someone is still checking the blog and we are going to make more effort to keep it updated. My science mind could easily fit a correlation between time blogging versus Dylan's ability to walk. We made it safely back from a fantastic trip to England, although we did both feel like we needed a holiday after our holiday! Paul and Sharon's wedding was perfect and we would have posted some of the official photos ... if they could finally send them to us .... for the time being here are some of ours.
Dylan done really well on the 12 hours flights and we have to give thinks to the BA crews who were great. Dylan did get some dirty looks when he tried to sneak a peek into first class though. For the sake of Child Protective Services, he could not get the tab off the beer can in the photo. It also kept him amused for some time until he dropped it on his toe ... his first lesson on the dangers of drinking.

Thanks to Reece and Charlie for being great Cousins!

The memories of Dylan's interactions with his Great Grandma are something we will always cherish. He really took to her and put a smile on her face.

Today was Dylan's (and Clive's) first trip to the pumpkin patch. We got to ride on a tractor, pick pumpkins and get lost in a corn maze ... Kristy says I'll have to just get used to it.

Dylan helped me clean my bike chain. Working in the oil industry you would think I knew how hard it is to get off skin ....