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We had a great Christmas, the kids had a
lot of fun. We visited the
Pelican Hill Resort in Newport Beach, which is a freaking
awesome 5-star hotel, and instead of waiting an hour in line for a
Santa picture at Fashion Island, they had a Santa sitting all by
himself in their lobby and he was happy for the company. They even
had a harpist playing her harp in the background. How cool is that? |
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Even Miles took a turn, but Desmond is
still too freaked out by Santa to get a picture. |
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Their pool is amazing. It's the largest
round pool in the world, 136 feet across and perfectly circular, and even though I was
shooting with a 24mm wide-angle lens I still had to take two photos
and stitch them together to fit the whole thing in. The pool has 1.1
million hand-cut glass tiles. How any company can deliver 1.1
million hand-cut tiles is beyond me. How anybody can afford to buy
that many is also a mystery. You can see their golf course in the
background.
The day we went it was raining a little and we were the only ones
there. We received great service in the restaurant, they even
brought blankets to the table since we were sitting on the balcony
outside. |
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We will definitely be going back,
especially during off-season. |
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This is the ginger-bread house in their
cafe. It has a lot of elements from Italy, you can see the
Duomo
in Florence in the center, along with the towers in
San Gimignano on top. |
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We visited the Elves Faire at the Pasadena
Waldorf again this year. They always do such a great job putting it
on. Here Amelie and Mia are digging for buried treasure. |
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Mia digging for treature. |
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Desmond looks a little unsure jousting,
but he did a great job and got the ring in the end. |
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Mia is getting ready for her turn on the
jousting, and she also got the ring. |
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Desmond had fun climbing all over their
boat next to the treasure hunt. I love this picture because soon
after this trip, Naomi cut his hair down to boy length. |
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This is Desmond post-hair cut. |
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Miles is about 16-months old, and he just
started becoming a pain in the ass. If we go somewhere, he wants to
run around and won't sit still, and this is happening just as
Desmond stopped being a pain. Desmond is getting pretty easy to take
places, but we're restarting the clock with Miles. |
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Also this month we did a weekend trip to
the
Disneyland Grand Californian hotel. That place is awesome. It's
kid-friendly as you expect, and their pool and jacuzzi is top-notch,
with a giant water slide. Since it's right next to Downtown Disney,
there's a lot to keep you busy. That was one problem with the
Pelican Hill Resort, there's just nothing to do there. |
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Amelie also enjoyed the pool at the hotel,
but mostly we spent time in the jacuzzi since it's so warm. |
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Miles is keeping up with the other kids just like Desmond did at that age. We were a bit nervous watching him
pull this off, but he did it over and over with no trouble.
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We picked up three new guinea pigs for the
kids this month, this guy is named Coco and he's Amelie's. |
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This is all three of them. They're just
babies and pretty friendly for guinea pigs, which are normally
pretty scared of everything. |
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We also got a new puppy named Sharkie.
He's a shih tzu/yorkie mix, a shorkie. He's only two months old and
very sweet and mellow for a puppy, not bat-shit crazy at all, and
the kids just adore him. |
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This is not a new pet, just a possum
passing through the yard. |
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When we did school photos of the kids with
Stephanie Hager, we had her take
a portrait of Miles as well. He's just such a happy baby, it's
crazy. So, until next time, we hope you had a great Christmas and here's
looking forward to the beginning of a new year! |
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