Spring Family Photos - April 2011

 These photos are from April 9, 2011.  Aoife Roisin was nearly 3 years old and Aine Maeve nealy 18 months; Mommy and Daddy were both now full-fledged 30-somethings ; ).  It was a beautiful day, not quite spring, by Portland terms, but we got lucky.  It was hard to choose photos to post, I could have put them all up, but I managed to narrow it down.

Celebration!

Run, run, run!

Sweet-sissy-love.

What a fantastic moment.

Love.

Sharing.

More sharing.

Lucky in love.

Whee!

Daddy says this should be the cover of a Costa Rican travel brochure, too bad it wasn't actually taken in Costa Rica ; ).

A Beach Sunset: The Last of San Diego ...

 It was the perfect beach dinner : )!

 Yum!

 Gettin' some love.

 Her Royal Cuteness.

Even with pizza on my face I am the best sand architect on the beach.

I also do all my own demolitions.

 More love.

 The sunset we came for.

Seriously, our daddy is too much fun!

Thanks for tuning in for the highlights from our fantastic family vacation.  More to come, soon.

Love.

Beach - San Diego

This family LOVES the beach. We are actually planning a trip for Father's Day, and we're super excited.What Aine likes to do at the beach.

While Aoife loves to play in the sand, too, swimming in the water was a new exciting venture for her this trip. She was in the water up to her shoulders and kept running in for more. I think Daddy and cousin Gabe had a lot to do with her level of enthusiasm because that water was seriously COLD!

Super, dee-duper CUTE!

We hit tidepools one day. Mommy and Daddy were more excited about the sea-life than the girls, but I think that's because it was hard to find. Maybe there's a better time of day/year/location. Great spot, all the same!
Pretty baby -- not sure about this yet.
The pools and some anemones : ).

The Stuhan Girls.

Aoife and Daddy loving the rocks and the sand.

Stay tuned for our return to the beach ; ).

Little Italy - San Diego

One evening we rode the train into the neighborhood of "Little Italy" for dinner. In case you are wondering, it has pretty good Italian credentials! I heard the most Italian I have heard anywhere outside of Italy and we had some pretty darn good food in a rather authentic cucina. I think the highlight, for the girls, was the gelato -- although the calamari ran a close second.Sportin' our gelato spoons, we have (yes, HAVE -- still) many gelato spoons because the girls were so charming with the woman at the gelato counter that she couldn't help but give them taste after taste of the yummy-good-stuff. Pistachio, chocolate hazelnut, and raspberry won the day.
Clowning around waiting for the train to go back to the hotel. I just love this picture of Aoife!
"Plane -- fly -- fly plane!" Love this one of both of them!
One more of our cuties loving their treat ... and their daddy : )!

More to come, including tide pools and beaches, which ranked as all of our favorites!

Besos!

Our Little Traveler and Our Little Pilot? - San Diego

First, let me say that both girls are incredible little travelers. They couldn't make Mommy's and Daddy's lives much easier when it comes to long days on planes, renting cars, driving around unknown cities to find hotels, unpredicted fiascos (which there were) ... etc. They are beyond troopers, they were even excited!

Aoife, in particular, couldn't get enough of riding the trains in the city. She wanted to do it as our exclusive manner of transportation. That didn't work out everyday, but it was fun on those that it did.Two cute girls waiting patiently.
Monkeying around with Daddy (typical).
Great picture ...
... too hard to decide between the two.
Waiting, but this time, hmmm, pensively?!?

Enjoying the historic train station.

Even though we knew we wouldn't get to take the tour the way we might without children, we couldn't miss the opportunity to see the USS Midway, a very cool and long commissioned aircraft carrier. The girls ended up doing really well. Aine in particular was fascinated, particularly by the planes. She wanted to sit in every cockpit and "fly plane." When she wasn't able, for one reason or another, she was actually pretty pissed -- ha ; ).Busy.Flyin'.Okay, I guess I can take a minute to say, "Live long and prosper."

I like this!

Still too busy to look up at the camera : )!Aoife got into the action after a bit. Again, these two were too cute to decide between them.

Beaches and more fun to come!

Love,

Aoife and Aine XOXO