We arrived to the Princeton, NJ area last Friday and things are very, very lovely. We are actually staying with some generous patrons in a darling town just over the NJ border in PA. We are in the part of the home that was built in 1830 and are right on the river. We wandered around the Princeton campus yesterday and it is beautiful.

I just mentioned I should make a collage of friends we have seen recently. . . it is lovely to see people as we travel. SO many lovely friends, so little time.

We have been fortunate to see a lot of old friends recently (I should do a collage about everyone we have seen). Bethany and her beautiful daughters were in town and we were able to see them the day before we left town. Her girls are very, very beautiful children.

The new baby turned 6 months the day this was taken. She is a lot of pure baby goodness.

There is something about waiting in line at the Haunted Mansion that makes Colin extra cute in photos.
Above is from this week, below from October.

Colin chose a cupcake treat instead of cotton candy, a detail soon forgotten when he again saw the cotton candy.

We drove to California last Sunday to get a few days in at Disneyland. It was crazy since we travel so much (but maybe that is part of the problem. We had a chance to be in our own bed for an entire month and since we are not used to that we had to leave). It was fun to travel just for Disney fun. We stayed with the Zollingers and got to see Susan on our way home in Las Vegas. We are so happy they both would have us!

The above photo is of Colin waiting to talk to Mickey. Brian was in line but Colin had to go up at sit to watch him better.

He was so excited, but then a little overwhelmed.

Colin got a new pirate sword and can't stop singing "yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me''. He and Brian are making a pirate flag as I write this, and he has spent a lot of time in his pirate costume from last Halloween.

We kind of love Disneyland.

Some of our dear friends from college were in town for a family wedding and we were so happy to have some time to catch up. Colin and our friend's daughter are cute little friends. We are trying to make them get married some day. So far they like the idea and had a pretend wedding when they were visiting, but the 3 year old "bride" was frustrated that Colin lost interest in the wedding dance. They had a darling tea party (with water and sugar cookies). Then some jumping fun.

New baby twins! The babies are so sweet and happy. We only wish they lived closer!

Did we mention we loved Hawaii?

We are off to Disneyland tomorrow, with very special thanks to the Zollingers. Then off to Princeton, NJ the week after that for the Princeton Festival where Brian is in Britten's A Mid Summer Nights Dream.

Baguettes are Brian's new bread obsession (nice alliteration). Still using his own harvested wild yeast pets.

My brother Steve got married the end of April. His new bride is lovely and we are happy to have a further extended family.

Colin wanted to wear the tie he found in Nana's dress up box.

All our siblings came into town for the wedding (from Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago and Connecticut). It is always great to see everyone!

Congratulations Steve and Stacey!

I just barely downloaded some of the last Hawaii photos. (It's harder to blog at home, there are all these other things to do.) Above is one of our last beach days. Colin was using sticks to have Captain Hook/Peter Pan fights and to be a fire dancers from the PCC.

Can't remember the name but the Bradshaws took us on a hike to see this view. It was beautiful. We saw some whales too.

We got Colin this little outfit in Honolulu's Chinatown on our way to the airport. As a way to keep Hawaii alive, he literally wore it 24 hours a day from Monday night-Thursday the week we came home. It was very cute, and surprisingly did not get that dirty. It has just come through the laundry so we will see if it is still as popular.

Just trying to get the Hawaii posts through my system. . . after re-posting problematic photo posts, a few photos still do not show up on my mom's computer. Hmm. . . we came home Monday night on a red-eye that went amazingly well. We are still a little jet-lagged. Our kids were up until about midnight last night but it is now almost 10am and everyone but me is still asleep. Hopefully we all will be fully functional in a few days.

The above collage includes a photo from the Blue Water Shrimp Truck, a favorite of ours in both Waikiki and the North Shore (there was one right next to Ted's Bakery in Sunset Beach, we also LOVED Ted's Bakery). The collage includes a couple photos from the Laie McDonald's. It is a special McDonald's with no play land but a waterfall and lots of Polynesian artifacts. We did go there a few times for the ease of getting a Happy Meal.

The Bradshaws knew a lady who has a vacation rental on this beach. We loved it and typically had the beach to ourselves. (We were usually there in the early mornings before it got too sunny since we are not really genetically cut out for long days on the beach. We have all come home still fairly white, thanks to my over-use of SPF 70.)

Jane loved the beach, but it would wear her out. She happily took a couple of beach naps. Poor Colin, looking at photos last night when we could not go to sleep told me he wants to go back to the beach with his friends. We very much hope to get back to Hawaii whenever possible!

Waimea Falls is one of the Bradshaw's favorite places. They took us there the other day, and it is easy to see why they love it. It is in a beautiful valley at the end of an easy (stroller friendly) walk. The Bradshaws have been great hosts and they know all the kid friendly places.

Peacocks are crazy. One seriously charged us as we were leaving. This one was showing off and shaking his tail feather (which makes me think of the Blues Brothers).

Jane and Jane. The Bradshaws also have a Colin and have other strange naming similarities. We are in some strange naming vortex.