Day at the Aquarium

Today we braved the masses and went to the Aquarium on Saturday. We got to see the new Flamingo exibit, and the always popular Jellyfishes & Penguins. Ben also got to play in the "Splash Zone"... So glad we brought a dry shirt for him!

'Lion' around

The Sea Loins of the Monterey Bay have invaded Fisherman's Wharf! If you can tolerate their stench, these guys are pretty cute.

How Young is too Young to Follow the Greatful Dead?!

Many thanks to the Boulder Bolgers for Ben's tie-dye onsie - very fitting gift from Pat! Perhaps next year he can go to a Wide Spread Panic show with Uncle Pat, Aunite Shannon and Cousin Olivia?!

(This is Ben striking a pose. Future "America's Next Top Model??")

Caught in the Act!

Ben has become the ever curious toddler who investigates everything. He can now climb on furniture and hang from drawers so we are constantly chasing after him so he doesn't have a big accident. We've kinda come to the conclusion that the little 'owies' are going to happen whether we like it or not but it's our job to make sure there aren't big 'owies.' At the rate this little man is going, we literally have to follow his every step.

The incident below was one of his more innocent investigations but he definitely knows he is into something he shouldn't be!

Playing at the Beach

Here is a quick video of Ben crawling on the beach at Costanoa over this past weekend. He's pretty darn quick!

Ben's 1st Birthday Party - CAKE!

Although this is a bit late, this is a fun video of Ben's birthday cake experience at his 1st birthday party. (This is a 2 1/2 minute video so get comfy...)

Costanoa Play Day with SCU Friends

We drove up to Costanoa on Saturday to have a fun beach day with our good Santa Clara friends, Mike & Brie, Jason & Beck & their little man Will and Jenny, Josh & Jake. Costanoa is about 90 minutes from Monterey on the coast a bit north of Davenport. The sun was out, the beach was gorgeous and we took a nice 2ish mile nature hike.
We got to Costanoa a bit early so Ben & Jeff split a banana while Ben did a little baby yoga to limber up for the nature hike.

Here the boys and their babes get ready for the nature hike which was really more of a walk. The backpacks probably weren't necessary but Jeff & Josh felt pretty cool with their gear.

It was Jenny's birthday the day before so we brought cup cakes and sang to her ridiculously loud and got the girl scout troop on the beach to join in which really embarassed the birthday girl!

Ben had so much fun in the water and he loved playing in the sand. His friend, Jake, was literally running around the beach and he was just crawling but he sure had a lot of fun... and he sure had ALOT of sand in his mouth, in his eyes, down his pants, under his fingernails... you catch my drift...

Here Mama Beck plays with Will who was very busy digging a hole in the sand.

It was nap time and Ben decided he did not care where he was, it was time to sleep. Seriously... we're not joking, he is asleep.

What a fun day. More pics to come of Brie & Mike as soon as we get pics from Bella Brie.

Have a great week, everyone!

Roller Coaster 1st

Ben & I were invited to Gilroy Gardens with Jody, Lauren and Max this week (Gilroy Gardens is an amusement park for kids who are 1-5ish). Ben had never been to an amusement park and we were so surprised because Gilroy Gardens is really really cool. Ben went on his first 'Roller Coaster' ride which really was just a baby car ride but he loved it. Lauren took him on the first ride and they sat in the same fire truck. For the next ride, they each went in separate cars. I was a bit nervous that he would flip out a little but nope. He had tons of fun. We all went on the merry-go-round and the train. Of course I forgot my camera so these were the best pics I could get from my cell. For anyone looking for something fun to do this weekend... seriously go to Gilroy Gardens, it was that cool!

Ben's Birthday Party

We had Ben's 1st birthday party a few weekends ago (sorry for the late blogging, work & life have been nuts in the Bolger house) with lots of our friends & family and the house decorated in a pirate theme. We had people from New Mexico, Southern California, San Francisco and the Bay Area all here to celebrate this little man's big day. How loved did he feel?! All in all, it was a fantastic day... the sun actually came out in Monterey in early July... it was a miracle! Jeff & Ben had matching pirate hats on for all of 5 seconds... Ben wasn't so sure about the hat but his Dad loved it!

This is a pic of his cake while we were getting the food ready for his party. The pirate ship cake was for the party guests and the little treasure chest cake next to the ship was for Ben to taste and ultimately destroy... see pics below of the tasting and destroying...

This kid sure has a sweet tooth! He didn't waste any time digging into the chocolate icing.

We have NEVER seen Ben so exhausted as he was on the night of his party. He doesn't just fall asleep like this but he had such a fun day playing with his friends and eating cake that he literally could not stay up one more second.

Thank you to everyone who came, from near and far, to help us celebrate the big day. We are so very lucky to have the best family & friends in our life.

Ben's 1 Year Doctor Visit

Ben had his 1 year check up with Dr. Dwelle yesterday and here is a pic of him, before Dr. Dwelle came in the room, attempting to take down the picture off the wall. Nice, Ben. One Year Stats :
Weight - 21lbs, 20%
Height - 30.5in, 75%
Head - 47.5cm, 65%

Have a good week! (Birthday party pics to come as soon as we get a few minutes to post.)

Bolgers

Ben's First Cake Experience

Ben had his first cupcake on his actual birthday, last Thursday. We've seen babies who don't quite know what to do with this new, foreign object for a few minutes but not our Ben. As you can see in the following pictures, he took about 10 seconds to scope out the situation, put one hand in then the second hand and started shoveling cupcake in his mouth. Yep... we've got a sweet tooth on our hands...

BEFORE SUGAR... loving the attention from Mom, Dad, Sister Sophie Lou & both sets of grandparents JUST FIGURING OUT THE SUGARY GOODNESS : Both hands are involved at this point but it isn't quite the furocious shoveling that followed a few minutes later

AFTER THE SUGARY GOODNESS : Cupcake is done... not a scrap and crumb left... except the bits thrown on the floor that Sophie Lou is very happily eating

CUPCAKE REPORT CARD -

Timing - Not a second wasted, Ben is a true Bolger and hoovers his food, A+

Effort - quite a few crumbs wasted on the floor so a small downgrade to A-

Grace - very well orchestrated devour-ment deserves a big A+

4th of July in Rocklin

For 4th of July, we drove up to Rocklin to spend time with Jen's brother and his family. On Saturday, we took the boat out for a spin & Jeff wake surfed & Jen tubbed. As if this is hard to believe, Ben took a good long nap while on the boat. But... for the first part of the trip that he was awake, he was loving the boat and looking pretty comfortable with his "sea legs."

Jeff grew up on the lakes in Seattle so water skiing, wake surfing etc is right up his alley. Not lookin' half bad, either!

Ben is definitely a water baby. He spent a good majority of Saturday afternoon and 4th of July Sunday in Jon's pool just floating around and mingling with all the party go-ers who came to visit.

Jon's neighborhood has a huge block party every year to celebrate Independance day. Ben was in his first parade and Jeff was grill master. Rocklin is insanely hot so it was nice to drive back to Monterey's 65 degree weather after a weekend of near melting temperatures. Regardless, it was a super fun weekend and a great celebration!

Dinner with Super Sally & Jason

Jason & Super Sally were in town for a family reunion so we got to go out to dinner with them in downtown Monterey at Montrio. It had been WAY too long since we last saw Super Sally and Jason (he needs a moniker, too, but Jazzy Jason or Jumpin' Jason doesn't have the same effect as Super Sally) but as it is with good friends, we picked up right where we left off. Hopefully we can go up to Portland soon to visit their neck of the woods!

Happy 1st Birthday, Ben Bolger!

Somehow, our little baby is a year old today and on his way to being a little man. It is beyond amazing to think that a year ago, he came into our world and life has never been the same since... in a good way, of course! Yeah, super cheesy, we know. But still amazing. We have our 1 year appointment next week where we'll get his height/weight/etc stats but for the time being, here is what we can tell you about this little man:

BEN'S LOVES - all fruit especially raspberries, vanilla frozen yogurt, grandma & grandpa's dog stella, swings at the park, riding in Uncle Jon's boat, fountains & swimming.
BEN'S NON-LOVES - broccoli (I don't blame him), bed time, mom & dad having to work when he wants to play, the sound of sneezing... that's about it, he's a pretty mellow little man.
BEN'S SO SO THINGS - Sophie Lou (depends if she wants to play with him or not), nap time & long car rides (unless Dad sits in the back seat with him and plays).

Cheers to you, little man!

Koontz Fan Club in Monterey

Our good college friends, The Koontzes, came to Carmel for a little baby-moon before baby Koontz arrives in August. The Koontzes are all around fabulous and we always love our time with them. And, it was great to see Shannon & Zach so happy to almost be welcoming their baby girl! We can't wait to meet her and tell her all the bad and scandalous things her parents did in college! No, seriously... we can't wait. Watch out, Koontzes!

The Texan Bolgers Come to Carmel!

Our favorite Texan Bolgers came to Carmel for their annual Summer vacation and the fog was certainly here to welcome them, much like each and every summer they come for a visit! Welcome to the May~Grey & June~Gloom, Texan Bolgers! We always love spending time with Tommy, Jess, John-Thomas, Luke & Ella and this year was no different. We started by going to our favorite dinner/watering hole, the fire pits at Spanish Bay where the pineapple martini's flow like water and the bag pipers play at sundown each night! What would a trip to Carmel be without some beach days?! Well, unfortunately, the sun rarely made an appearance but the kids didn't seem to mind one bit. I suppose it is the adults with the thin skin that minded the chill.

On their last day in town, the sun came out for a bit in Monterey so we left Carmel and went to go paddle boarding on Lake El Estero! It was a great way to burn off the calories from the pineapple martini's!

Cheers to the Texan Bolgers & here's to hoping for another summer vacation together in 2011!

US Open with the Bolgers & Father's Day

Its been quite a while since our last blog post, it has been a busy second half of June and first part of July. So... let the back logged blogging begin... Father's Day this year also just happened to be during the US Open here at Pebble Beach so for Jeff's 1st Father's Day, we celebrated with his parents by going to the US Open on Saturday (no cameras were allowed so we don't have any pics to share) then the boys golfed on Sunday and we all watched the US Open finish up. A serious golf weekend. PS While the boys were golfing, Colleen and Jen took Ben to Dennis the Menace park because he loves the swings and the climbing wall!