Clive, Kristy, Dylan and Stella

Kauai 2010

2010-08-09T21:48:00.000-07:00

Kristy and I were fortunate enough to have our first week away without Dylan. Dylan done quite well (according to the grandparents anyway) and did not shun us on our return like when we left him to go to Vegas for 2 nights. Thanks to Greg and Debbie for taking great care of Dylan, we know he was in good hands.

I will bore you with some pictures and have to say that Kauai is my second most favourite destination only just behind New Zealand (and as pointed out today, Norwich). We had so much fun relaxing, eating, snorkeling, zip-lining and taking a Helicopter tour. The only negative was when I took the wrong trail hiking and turned up 2 hours later covered in mud and bramble scratches .... well I am a Johnson.

My parents went to Kauai and all I got was this louse shirt ... and a Ukulele

Alright, the Ukulele is cool but don't make me wear the shirt

Happy Birthday Kristy!

2010-07-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

I took the risk and bought Kristy some art work for her 30th Birthday and it seemed to have paid off, even after all my persuasion that she might prefer an iPad. The picture is in the background of the photo and my brother found the artist a while ago in London. He is reasonably priced, great to deal with and ships worldwide so I will give him a plug.

http://www.stephenleescontemporaryart.com/

I have been trying to learn Photoshop and was quite pleased with my first play with a picture I took at the zoo ... standby for the superimposed heads on celebrity bodies .....

Not many pictures of Dylan lately but I have to put a random one in.

Messing around on the river

2010-07-12T22:13:00.000-07:00

As much as we love the little fella, we had a Dylan free day thanks to the Grandfolks. A fantastic day was had thanks to my work friend Scott who took us rafting on the Kern. We knew it was going to be a good day when we made our first rescue from the river .... a full can of beer.

Monday morning and dad did not want to go to work. Thankfully Dylan stepped in until he realized he could not reach the pedals.

My little pony

2010-07-05T19:26:00.000-07:00

Dylan's conversation skills are getting better but he took it literally when we told him we were dog sitting this week.

Drowning our sorrows

2010-06-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

Whilst trying to drown myself in the pool after the football this weekend, I snapped a few pictures of Dylan. As you can tell by his face, he was also very upset about the football results.

Down by the bay

2010-05-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

We headed to the coast this weekend and celebrated one of our early dates. Morrow Bay was where Kristy and I had a scenic drive to the coast, a romantic meal at sunset overlooking the bay whilst sharing a bottle of our favorite wine 'Smoking Loon'. Fast forward 9 years and we had a frantic meal trying to get the little fella to eat his fish and chips then up at 6 am to fly the Elmo kite on the beach in the rain. We would not have it any different though and we loved our family weekend away!

Bumper blog

2010-05-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

I have managed to set a record for not posting anything, so I hope someone still checks this! I have many excuses though.

The first post I missed was Easter (or as we are calling it, the Celebration of Spring). Dylan was a great egg hunter and thanks to his Grandma, kept regular with the prunes in his self filled eggs.

It was great to have my brother Ian out with his family (Lisa, Reece and Charlie), although they did become VAV's (Volcanic Ash Victims) as Scott Mills calls them. I'm sure they will be seeking counseling for the traumatic experience of having to stay in California for an extra 10 days and then drive to Las Vegas to get home .... oh to be a refugee. We had a fantastic time traveling around CA and it was nice to be back at my favorite piece of coastline.

For those not in the US, Reece and Charlie got addicted to the game show 'minute to win it'. The premise being a series of tasks using household items which the winner can get a million dollars. Charlie was disappointed to discover that the Johnson version substituted the million for a toy car.

Stack 3 golf balls in 60 seconds

Empty a box of tissues in 60 seconds

The aftermath

Shake your sillies out

Alright, where is my million??

My last excuse is that I had to go to Oman to teach a course last week. It was great to be able to visit a new country and it is a great place (if not a little on the warm side). I became a VAV myself when travel routed me through Germany instead of the UK where I had a ticket waiting for the last Norwich game of the season. Obviously, I was more upset about not getting to see my family ... but the atmosphere would have been good. Come on you Yellows ... Premiership 2011?

Football on the beach in Muscat

Dylan is doing well and his speech is developing. Worrying, his first words were 'more' and 'Stella', so it seems he is learning from his dad. Most of rest is random, taught by his cousins ... 'Norwich', 'Condors' and 'Knock, Knock'. I will leave you with some pictures of the little fella ...

Where did you bury the keys son? In the sand

Like grandfather like grandson

2010-02-28T11:22:00.000-08:00

We asked Dylan to do his best English Granddad impression and I think he done well!

Not much new

2010-02-27T16:15:00.000-08:00

Not much to report but we thought someone might need a Dylan dose. He is learning life the hard way after impressing his girlfriend Lucy by providing some classy transportation (laundry basket and a belt), he will be gutted to hear she is moving to Pennsylvania. It has been great to have Chris, Shannon and family around but we really wish them well with their new life and adventure, it should remind Chris of Scotland a bit more.

I am trying to get Dylan an early introduction to cycling and even though he hates stuff on his head and being strapped to anything , the wind in his face seemed to make up for it. All was well until he discovered that chilly baby hands up dads back made the bike wobble.

We thought Stella's weight loss was all down to her having 'Valley Fever' but we think Dylan's new game of let chuck Stella's food in the bush is not helping matters. Also a great demonstration of how much he listens to his dad!

In preparation for the world cup, Kristy got me a new England shirt and a vuvuzela (South African trumpet) that I can blow loudly in her ear when England slaughters USA. Dylan (in his England shirt) has also been practicing and I am sure he will have it down by June.

Snow time!

2010-02-08T19:13:00.000-08:00

After 3 months of listening to my family complain about the snow, we drove 5 hours to find some! We had a great long weekend in the Sierras where we had 2 feet of snow. I got to relearn snowboarding after my last attempt 7 years ago which ended in the glamorous injury of a broken butt. This was much more successful and I had a fantastic two days. Dylan was a little unsure of the snow but we are putting that down to the shoe shop who sold him 2 left shoes .

I will also take this entry to apologize to Kristy for getting annoyed at her for not putting the kid safety top back on the headache tablets. I gave Dylan the test tonight and he got the top off in under a minute ... we will put his late speech development down to his commitment to problem solving.

Too early for the Iditadrod?

Think this is bad?, wait until I take you snowboarding

Alright, now take us back to the sunshine

Sympathy

2010-01-31T13:01:00.000-08:00

In sympathy for his mum having a cold, Dylan learned to blow his nose.

At least he has his English Granddads banana gene, this was dessert after a banana yogurt appetizer.

New Year Exercise

2010-01-04T20:39:00.000-08:00

In an effort to burn off some Christmas dinner, we went hiking with a friend at the weekend. Dylan got to play in a massive sandpit, the Mojave desert!

Last of 2009

2009-12-31T19:48:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-24T08:45:00.000-08:00

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

Clive, Kristy, Dylan and Stella.

Helter-Skelter

2009-12-13T20:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-09T19:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-29T18:43:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-17T19:22:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-16T19:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-08T17:32:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-11-01T14:30:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-24T23:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-18T18:17:00.000-07:00

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 ....

Homeward bound

2009-09-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

Here is an update before we leave on our trip to England. We are both excited to be going back for Paul and Sharon's wedding and also a little nervous about traveling with 10 month old Dylan. Thankfully we have been offered plenty of advice, mostly focusing on a heavy dose of Benadryl.

I was really pleased to find out I had ridden 500 miles since I started cycling to work ... then I did the math. My car used to get 23 miles to the gallon and at $3/gallon I saved $65. Thus, I should have paid off my new bike in 2.3 years!

Ready for England!

I had some DIY lessons from my father in-law last weekend and we tiled the bathroom. We really appreciated all the help and lending me the equipment, I am just not sure why I had to wear the Mickey Mouse ears

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

We have been dog sitting for some friends and as you can see, Dylan is happier to have a dog more his size .... I don't think he is too keen on the puppy teeth though.

Fetch!

Go on gimme a kiss

First steps

2009-08-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to catch Dylan's first steps on camera. Well maybe it was his 300th as every time we got the camera out he sat straight down. We are excited to see his development but know he is going to get into more mischief now. I'm sure that the other 250 passengers on our 12 hour flight are happy he can walk up and down the aisles now ....

Just some random pictures of Dylan too ....

2009-08-02T16:06:00.000-07:00

Something has to be sacrificed in a in a busy month and unfortunately it was blogging. We had our first weekend away without Dylan and both mother and baby coped well without each other (although he did seem a little mad with us when we got home). I took Kristy to Vegas for her Birthday but unfortunately we did not win big .... more importantly we did lose big either. The main reason to go was to see the Beatles Love show and we were not disappointed. This trip was a little different to our pre Dylan trips to Vegas and sleeping was higher on the list of priorities than night clubbing. As you can see in the pictures Dylan is growing up quickly. He took his first steps yesterday but we are not counting them as we did not get them on video. We are excited / nervous about our 12 hour flight to England in 5 weeks and we are not sure who is going to need more drugs, baby or mum and dad???

Bathin' it old skool

Flashy
I got here all by myself

Some Vegas Love

The mobsters new body disposal

Birthday Girl .... how many candles?

2009-06-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

Our apologies for not blogging sooner and we are going to make more of an effort. We had our first trip out for the day without Dylan and we hear he coped very well. We sailed out of LA for the day and had a fantastic time. Only one minor incident when we had to perform an emergency cigar overboard but all turned out well. Next adventure without Dylan will be a three day trip to Vegas to try and double his college fund, we will let you know how that goes.
Daddy was away for his first Fathers day but he got some cool gifts. Dylan is getting more adventurous, devious, talkative, independent ... and stinky.

How the rich live

and the wannabes

Cigar overboard!

Captain Kristy .. watch out

So the splokket connects to the dohikky?

Now I can fix dads flat

Lets put a smile on that face

2009-06-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

Who is the biggest joker?

Coming out of the cupboard

2009-05-17T20:13:00.001-07:00

This week we have been trying to find somewhere to store Dylan. Personally I think he looks best under the crock pot but Kristy prefers him in with the pasta. The worrying thing about crawling is that he made his own way into all these spaces, we are double checking every time we close the dishwasher.

mmmmm, Ramsay has nothing on my mums puree squash

Ready for the pool

Now that's a Black Widow!

2009-05-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

My catch and release spider program came to an abrupt end last week. I walked around the corner and found the wife of the male black widow that I released before. I'm not exaggerating when I say this spider was huge! After cautiously snapping the pic, I bravely killed it with a shovel .... sorry mum.

Dylan is doing great and we are trying to get him to eat real food with varying success. He had his first swimming lesson last week and the teacher said he did great . He weighed in at 18lbs 7oz and 28.5" tall at his six month check up.

6 months old!

2009-04-26T18:02:00.000-07:00

We were pleased to discover that Dylan's 6th month Birthday fell on St. Georges day and we felt the need to introduce him to the English flag. He is developing quickly and as you can see in the video, is starting to crawl. So this weekend was spent baby proofing the house ... which mainly involved me hiding away my entertainment equipment. In preparation for his swimming lessons which start next week, we let him have a splash about in the pool.

On Ya Bike

2009-04-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to find out how realistic my plan was to cycle into work once my company relocates into town. It was 95F (35C) outside, I have not ridden for 'a while' and heated the pool up by 10 degrees when I got back! Hopefully I can stay committed.

Baby Boot Camp

2009-04-19T14:56:00.000-07:00

Getting Dylan to sleep in his own crib has been long overdue so last weekend we started 'Baby Boot Camp'. We followed the Ferber method where you put him in his crib awake, then go back after set periods of time to reassure him without picking him up. Being the mummy's boy that Dylan is, neither Kristy or I had any faith in the little fella coping well on his own. We prepared ourselves for nights of no sleep and a weekend of stress but were very surprised when he got himself to sleep after 40mins the first night. The week got progressively better until he is now sleeping until 3 or 4 am and need feeding, then sleeps until 6. Admittedly, he does not look too impressed in the photo but we have been too scared to take one of him asleep in case we wake him up.

My mother taught me a lot of great things but I guess she did not know I would live in California when she taught me it was bad luck to kill spiders. Kristy often pokes fun at my attempts to rescue every spider and release them back to the wild. So when I caringly scooped up what appeared to be a little spider taking a nap on our carpet, I did jump a bit when it sprung to life looking like a lot like the black widow I had recently seen at the zoo. I still don't know if it was or not but, like my mother taught me, I still let it go in the garden .... I just hope it remembers me if we ever meet again.

Will not mention the football today, boo hoo.

Alright, now put me in my real bed

Mummy needs company while dad listens to the footy Playing the spoons

Itsy bitsy black widow?

Flight tracks

2009-04-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

After living half a mile from a major runway in Houston and then the same distance from a train station in Fort Worth, quiet location was top of our list when choosing our new home. To our surprise we found out the other night that we must live in the outbound flight path from Los Angeles. Fortunately we live 150 miles from LAX so the planes were high enough not to disturb us. They made some cool tracks in the sky though.

Scottish Festival

2009-04-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went along to a Scottish festival in Bakersfield. With similar popularity to Saint Patrick's day , I think a lot of the attraction seems linked to drinking and music. Even though Dylan did not believe my story about bagpipes being made out of little animals with hollowed out legs, at least his mum did ;-)

The highlands of Bakersfield

Don't worry we have not resorted to beer to get him to sleep

Random cute picture

Dancin'

Dylan's bath time

Summer is here!

2009-03-28T16:10:00.000-07:00

I am informed that people in Bakersfield would not even contemplate using their swimming pools until it is 120 F outside. Not the English, we decided to try mine out in March! I say 'we' but had my father not been calling me a wimp, I don't think I would have been getting my feet wet until June. It was surprisingly 'refreshing' and certainly helped me justify the $200 I spent last time I went to the pool store!

As you can tell, we have our first video recorder too so watch out for Dylan's first crawl / words / steps

Mad dog and English men

Crazy boy and grandad

One ... Two ... Three

Splish, Splash

Relaxing vacation

Relay For Life

2009-03-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

Our lack of charitable effort has finally caught up with us so we are going to Relay For Life in aid of the American Cancer Society on May 2nd. I am told it is a really fun event and we are looking forward to being able to take Dylan out and about more. The event is based around teams walking a track for an hour at a time, for 24 hrs. If you would like to donate to the cause, we would both be extremely grateful. Please click on the link to donate or find out more about the event.

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09National?px=10083673&pg=personal&fr_id=13826

Mothers day - take 1

2009-03-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

It is Mothers Day in England today, and Dylan's English half felt it needed to honor the occasion. Even after a pedicure, singing hamster card (due to the fact you can't buy Mothers Day card in the US yet), wine and chocolate, Dylan was reminded that this is only a 'warm up for the proper Mothers Day'.

Unfortunately Fathers Day falls on the same day in both countries :(

New chew toy

Brian Gunn's green and yellow army

2009-03-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

Dad does not like listening to the football these days, so I decided to get up and listen to Norwich battling to stay in the Championship. I think my support helped the lads to a 1-1 draw with promotion hopefuls Birmingham .... and dad was pretty chuffed when I told him the score!

Getting soft?

2009-03-15T19:31:00.000-07:00

It did not seem long ago that my idea of a good weekend was watching motor racing and drinking beer. Seeing as last weekend I went to the coast to look at rocks again and today we went looking for California wild flowers, does this mean I am going soft? In my defense, I have learnt that geological field trips are a great excuse to go to the beach in the name of work. Our organizers even managed to get us onto Vandenberg Air Force base, all in the name of science.
It was great to have my parents here last week and are looking forward to their return trip from New Zealand.

Offshore drilling
Again for Chuck, some fine siliclastic quartz phaze porcelinites

Vandenberg beaches

we have one without the placed flanel to show his future girlfriend

California wildflowers

4 month update

2009-03-08T16:45:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update. Dylan weighed 17 pounds 7 ounces and was 27 1/2 inches long at his 4 month appointment! Will post and blog more soon.

There was one in the bed, and the little one said ...

Headwear not my choice

Mummy kisses

2009-02-20T21:02:00.000-08:00

Dylan will have to get used to the mummy kisses, it wont be long until mummy is licking a tissue and wiping his face in public.

Christmas comes but twice a year

2009-02-11T20:38:00.000-08:00

It was the usual Bakersfield Christmas when we sat opening presents in shorts and t-shirts on the 25th. But it felt a lot more like Christmas this week when we had a decent snow fall on the 'Hill' where I work. To top it off, I got home to find a lost Christmas present from Dylan's Great Auntie Angela and Uncle Paul. Thank you very much and also Cate and Kieran for the baby presents.

Growing up fast

2009-02-08T20:44:00.001-08:00

Not much new this week but just wanted to post the pic that Kristy sent to me at work the other day. Another couple of weeks and I think he will be ready to pick up the girls. His development this week was to be able to roll over both ways, we will have him doing tricks soon.

Hello ladies ....

Butt buddies

2009-02-01T21:54:00.001-08:00

At risk of attack, I stand by my theory that you only need to watch the last 10 minutes of any American sport (and with time outs and commercials, that equates to last hour). The Superbowl today was no exception, but is still a great excuse to chill out on Sunday. It could also be argued that I watched two hours of Liverpool v Chelsea with the only goals in the last 5 minutes so I guess it is what you are raised with.

We are still settling in and as you can see, I discovered that owning a pool was not as glamorous as I thought it would be. Still, Stella appreciated it.

Dylan's main hobby is growing and already into his 9 month clothes. He did want to thank Kim for his new pet dog and he is glad this one does not slobber on him.

Do we need to feed this?

Bouncin'

Nice gloves

It's a dogs life

Moving In!

2009-01-20T18:14:00.001-08:00

We have moved a lot together, at least across a country and often across the world so it was a little strange to be moving less than a mile down the road. Thankfully the move went well and other than our bedroom furniture being victim to a ‘warehouse accident’ our stuff survived the move from Texas. We are really grateful for Greg and Debbie putting us up (up with us) and allowing us time to find the right house, but I did miss eating Cheetos in front of the TV in my undies (see Ron White).

We are loving the new house but slightly concerned by the amount of golf balls we have found in the garden. Dylan has enjoyed testing out his sofas. More pictures to follow as we get settled and we will send an e-mail out with the address.

P.S. I never want to see another piece of flat pack furniture!

Once upon a time......

Moving is tiring

Watching the inauguration

Enough with the black and white

14lbs 9oz!

2009-01-05T20:53:00.000-08:00

Dylan went for his 2 month check up and weighed in at 14lbs 9oz so he is still hanging in 96th percentile. At 10 weeks he is now sporting his 6-12 month clothes so we should be able to keep Babies R Us in business for foreseeable future. He had his first round of shots and has since been spotted in some of Bakersfield's finest restaurants. Dylan made a video wishing everyone all the best for 2009!

The kids playing

Dad tried to get artistic

Threes a crowd

Happy New Year!

Drinkin’ beer and shoootin’ shiiit

2008-12-26T21:55:00.000-08:00

In England we celebrate the day after Christmas with a peaceful day call ‘Boxing Day’ (which I now find out from a quick google is due to St. Steven being stoned to death in 34 A.D. ‘citation needed’) In America we now have 'Redneck Day' where I get to go out in the middle of nowhere with shotguns and find out if my father in-law really wanted me to marry his daughter. This year we got to test Stella’s hunting ability and she coped surprisingly well with gun shots. Unfortunately, she did not do so well with with the retrieving, but then it is hard for a dog to bring back a broken beer bottle.

Redneck Matt
Redneck me

Redneck Greg

This used to be a river bed

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

2008-12-25T08:20:00.000-08:00

Just to wish you all a very Merry Christmas from California!

Sure he will be more excited next year

Dylans new boppy

Happy holidays!

2008-12-22T19:48:00.000-08:00

Just some random stuff as we had not posted for a while. I had to share the photo of our 95lbs dog trapped in a bedroom by a 4lbs cat.

David and Goliath ... we know how that turned out

Dylan got dressed up for his Christmas pictures, which I'm sure wont be the last. Some great photos to show his girlfriends in years to come.

An early development of fashion sense?

Alright, I'll smile if you don't make me wear them

He also got invited to his first Christmas party for which he got to wear his 'little man' shirt. He was a real hit with the ladies ... well, his Grandma and mum.

Looking dapper with Grandma

We attended my company Christmas party last week and as you can see from the photo, Kristy was glad to release a years worth of pent up partying! We had a great evening and very thankful for the taxi service that took us home.

Get down!

Kristy asked Santa for a House for Christmas and we have had an offer accepted so we hope everything will go smoothly. Not sure how I am going to wrap it up though.

We also want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season and happy 2009! Thanks to everyone who sent us a card and sorry we did not get around to sending any out ..... we will make more of an effort next year!

Come on you yellows!

2008-12-10T21:49:00.000-08:00

Just a few pictures of Dylan and Stella. The highlight of the week was that Dylan and I got up at 5am (not that he really goes to bed to allow him to 'get up') to watch the Pride of Anglia beat the scum 2-0. Although we could only watch it on the Internet and Dylan was napping during the last goal, I think we bonded. That all makes up for the crappy season we are having and thanks to Paul and Sharon for his first green and yellow shirt.

We start our house hunting on Saturday so watch this space!

Dylan and his new play mat ... ah wait

Dylan happy with his pacifier .... ah nope

Having a whale of a time

Come on you yellows!

5am to watch the footy, are you kidding me?

2008-12-02T20:10:00.000-08:00

Judging by the number of complaints we have received for not updating the blog then someone must be reading it! Not that we really need to offer an excuse seeing as it is our blog and we should be allowed to update it when and if we want but things have been pretty hectic of late.

Dylan news: The poor little fella has had the second cold of his 5 week life so we are guessing that he thinks that not being able to breath through his nose is normal. The good news is that he is getting better. Our theory is that we are not going to worry until he loses his appetite and at 12lbs 6oz and 24 inches on his 1 month check up that’s unlikely. He continues to change daily and has started chatting away to the dog and even amazed Kristy by rolling himself over (probably looking for food). As most of you know, my job entails looking for sources of oil and natural gas miles below the earths surface but we have discovered our own little source of natural gas living with us. If we could only find a way to harness his expulsions then he should easily be able to cover his own carbon footprint and maybe the rest of the street.

My parents have been over from England which has been great. They enjoyed their first Thanksgiving, a holiday when Americans thank the British for coming over in the first place … right? I got to go ‘fishin with ma pa’ back up in the Kern river and although he was the only one to catch a fish the scenery more than made up for it. For the record, he only caught the fish whilst trying to read the alcohol content on the back of his beer can … we will make a redneck out of him yet.
Enjoy the photos of Dylan and we promise to post more often.

The Johnsons

Out and about

English Grandma and English Granddad

Anyone up for Vegas?

Dancin' with the dog

Gone fishin'

At least we caught one between 3 of us

Lake Isabella

One week down

2008-11-01T14:28:00.000-07:00

It was Dylan's one week birthday on Thursday, but it felt more like a year to Kristy and I. All in all he is a good baby but we have learned that one of his British parts is his body clock and it is unfortunately still set on British time. Kristy had the fun job of checking his rectal temperature which, to my concern, he did not seem to mind. We are also learning how not to get peed on and as you can see from the picture, how to avoid projectile vomit to the face. Even with all his bodily functions, we still love him. Thank you to those who sent e-mails, cards and flowers.

Me and my Nana

Perfect little angel

'Papa T' and me

Getting dressed up for the doc

The importance of sharing

Own personal protection

Day 3!

2008-10-26T12:39:00.000-07:00

Kristy and Dylan are sleeping. All is well in the world .... for now!

Proud dad

If I'm not poopin', I'm sleepin'

Thankfully he likes to swing

Made in the USA with British parts

2008-10-25T12:39:00.000-07:00

Dylan Arthur Johnson, 9 lbs 3 oz was born a 8:05pm (pacific time) Thursday 23rd of October, 2008.

I am so proud of Kristy and her attitude was great throughout, I knew I had chosen the right woman when she cracked a few jokes during labor. I have turned into mad camera dad overnight and find it hard to prise my finger from the shoot button …. wait until I get my video camera!

Dylan is doing great and obviously Kristy and I have a lot to learn. Considering he is less than two days old he is adjusting well to his new surroundings. ‘The pack’ (Stella, Maggie and Gracie) are still deciding what rank to give the new addition but I think they have all accepted him with a good sniff of his butt.

I am also going to put Norwich’s late winner today against Doncaster down to the extra fan they acquired.

Seeing as our social lives are on hold for the next few months, we will be sure to be updating the blog.

Mum and me

Still enough love to go around
Dylan Arthur Johnson

Ah, thats a dike

2008-10-11T10:54:00.000-07:00

When my manager asked me if I wanted to go and study some dykes, I wondered what relevance a gay pride march had on my professional responsibilities. As it turned out, he meant dikes in a geological sense and so I got to spend two days on the Pacific coast looking at rocks. It was a breath of fresh air to get out of the office and (although Kristy still makes fun of me) we did see some interesting rocks. For my old mentor Chuck, I will post some pictures showing some fine examples of sandstone injectites and dolotomized extrudites, or for the rest of you, some cliffs.
I have often wondered why we bought a four wheel drive SUV in Texas, where the terrain is as flat as my homeland of Norfolk. However, the field trip gave me a good opportunity to test it on the hills of California. After convincing Kristy to let me take ‘her’ car in case I needed to rush back, I thought the baby was going to arrive early when she saw the state I brought it back in.

Dumber than a bunch of rocks?

Pacific Coast

Rainbow on the beach

Spot the dike

Baby news: As you can see from the picture, Kristy has been practicing with Gracie the dog. She is little bigger and hairier than the real thing (we hope) but not a bad substitute. Taking a leaf out our friends book (see linked blog) who put their cat in a car seat, Gracie also volunteered to test out our BabyBjorn. Yesterday marks one week to due date so we are enjoying our sleep ….. and adding blog entries while we have time.

Baby Gracie

Doggy Bjorn

Gone Fishin'

2008-09-22T19:35:00.000-07:00

In preparation for my impending fatherhood, I have been researching ways to get out of the house ..... or should I say learning skills that I can pass along to my child. This week was fishing in Kernville with our friend Bruce. I had forgotten how nice it is in the mountains, not too far from Bakersfield. Unfortunately I did not know we had to stand in the river to catch the fish and hence the tourist turned up in his best jeans. Alright, the only fish I caught was a bottom feeder but I think I can get used to this fishing lark.

The only trout of the day

It's not the size that matters

The river Kern

Barry Update

2008-09-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

Kristy went for her latest scan on Tuesday only to find out that Barry has a striking resemblance to Homer Simpson. Fortunately the 3D scan revealed a lesser likeness.

Lets just hope he is not yellow

Still a thumb sucker

Along with starting our birthing classes and getting the crib and furniture assembled the impending arrival seems pretty close now. It took forever to find some furniture to perfectly color match our dog. I seem to be enjoying the birthing classes more than Kristy as I get to nip her arms to 'simulate' the pain of a contraction and see if she can tune it out .... I should probably not enjoy the exercise so much or I might need to find a way to tune out some pain.

GrrrrrSpot the dog

We took advantage of long weekend last week and took a trip up to Sacramento. Thanks to Tonya and PC for putting us up and showing us around.

Arnies House

10.0?

2008-08-24T21:49:00.000-07:00

It is obvious that our blog will be centered around either our kid or our dog and, seeing as our kid is not here yet, it is time for Stella to shine. She has settled into her new home and now training for the 2012 Olympics. We hope to have her doing the triple somersault soon. Greg and Debbie had the 'dog whisperer' around at the weekend to psychoanalyze the pack. She concluded that one was spoiled, one was old, one was shy and the other needed a heavy dose of Prozac .... she is coming back in a couple of weeks to analyze the dogs.

London 2012?

Not much baby news other than our discovery that he has more clothes than we do. Given his predicted size he will probably grow into (and out of) them pretty quickly. Kristy has been doing great job sorting all the stuff out.

How much stuff does a little person need?

We made it!

2008-08-12T20:58:00.000-07:00

We had a great trip and considering we drove 1500 miles with a 7 month pregnant woman and hyperactive dog, we were happy to arrive safely in Bakersfield. The only exception was my miscalculation on the amount of gas/petrol we had left and ending up in the middle of the 105F desert with the needle dangerously below empty. I would like to say that I managed to comfort my pregnant wife by telling her that everything would be fine but that was sadly not the case. Fortunately, a mirage appeared in the middle of my panic attack and I practically kissed the $5.79/gallon sign (for the record, I'm still blaming the sat nav).

I'm not sure that is has sunk in for either of us that we are actually living here as it still feels like we are just visiting. Make the most of the posts as it might be quiet until the baby is here here! Thanks to the two of you who voted for 'Barry' ... was it Charlie and Reece by any chance ?????

Travelling is tiring
Make yourself at home

Watching the world go by
Enough alreadyLife is good
When did we arrive in Europe?

Moving Day!

2008-08-08T11:29:00.001-07:00

Welcome to our first blog! Seeing as it is good to document important

stages in life, we thought moving house (Today), starting a new job (Monday) and having a baby (Sometime in October) deserved a blog. Please feel free to vote on the left for a name (however, we may totally ignore your advice). If you don't know, 'Barry' was the label given to the little one by our 8 and 4 yr old nephews. Being raised a Johnson normally involves the naming of your car, i.e. 'Sydney the silver Volvo', 'Marvin the Mazda' .... you get the idea. They just decided to take it one step further with 'Barry the baby'. I will also have to stop referring to him as 'the little one' as Kristy had a scan last Tuesday and they estimated he weighed 4.5 lbs ... that ment little to me until they said the average at 29 weeks was 2.5 lbs! Another Johnson trait that Kristy was unaware of when she married me. Hopefully we will be updating this blog as often as possible and keep you all up to date with the move/job/baby.