birthday ride

This past Saturday, Ashley organized a dream birthday celebration. I'm a simple man, of simple tastes. The key components to a killer birthday bash were:

Friends
Bikes
All you can eat Indian buffet.

If that's not a recipe for high times, I don't know what is.

El Nino had been in full effect all week, literally. Rained Monday through Friday. So Saturday, we were a little worried about what the weather might bring. Turns out, it was a beautiful, only slightly crisp afternoon. Perfect for bike riding. The first, and major x-factor during the ride was - how would a ten month old fare with a six month old in a bike trailer?

As if there were ever a doubt - Abe and George, cool as cucumbers

The ride was going along fantastic. There were a few helmet, hat, and clothing adjustments. Everything was going according to plan.

Concerned parents

Our friends Adrian and Naomi were our ride leaders - they set a punctual pace.

Just when it looked like we had the open road ahead... we hit our first snag. Locked out! The Ballona Creek bike path was locked due to concerns from flooding. The water levels were totally normal so we decided to "go rogue" and scale the fence ourselves. With such a willing party, it was no sweat.

Abe and Kimber looked with interest

Adrian did most of the heavy lifting.

George was dressed for an arctic expedition, with his NEW helmet

After we hopped the fence we had 3-4 miles of carefree riding... only to be met with another gate! Crumbum! No fear, we merely repeated the step again, hoisting our bikes over the fence. It was quite a scene. Bicyclists en masse were doing it, so everyone just kind of helped out the other.

It was a total stab in the dark on restaurants. We went on google maps, searched restaurants, and stumbled upon this gem. Tandoor A India. Great samosas. Great nan. Great chicken Korma. Fantastic service. Delicious desserts. Ample room for a large party.


After dinner... we painfully mounted our bikes, stomachs engorged with exotic meats and cheeses. The excitement was too much for Abe & George to handle, as you can see below. The napped for most of the way home.


Literal roadblocks aside, the event went off without a hitch. 14.5 miles of riding without a flat or mechanical failure.



Thanks to everyone who came out and made my birthday celebration amazing. I love you guys.

This Morning on his 31st Birthday

As you may remember from last year David started the morning of his birthday suited up for the rainy weather commute to work. I think it is his new favorite birthday tradition. It has been raining buckets and I am convinced he is the only bike commuter in all of Los Angeles this week-- I am very proud of him!

Happy 31st birthday David! You are a wonderful husband, father and friend.

Here is George -- he can't wait to go on a bike ride with his dad tomorrow!

new camera

For a while we've been wanting a new camera. When we were just looking at ourselves, we could deal with the blurry faces, I mean, do we really want to see ourselves in painstaking detail? But once George came along, and being in and around the blog world, we came to appreciate good quality pictures. Especially when they were of our little bubs.

For Christmas my sister Lashley gave us a generous gift certificate to Amazon, so we bit the bullet and entered the DSLR world.

While we certainly have a lot to learn about photography in general, one thing that has become evident this past week - good photography is made so much easier when you have a nice camera. I'm not saying... I could be Ansel Adams or anything, but it definitely makes me think twice about people being able to pass themselves off as photographers just because they have expensive equipment.

Without further ado - I give you pulsipher AD photography 2.0. A bathroom set and trip to the park.

Nice work with the lighting Ashley!

George and his pal Abe at Clover Park, Santa Monica

Abe perfecting Yoga poses

George wishing he could ride on the electric scooter he saw the older boys playing on

Action shot

Abe playin' it real cool like

The whole gang in the park

So you amateur photographers - any tips or tricks you like to share? Personally, I'm a fan of the sports-action-rapid shot feature. Takes tons of pictures, but it really nails that "candid" feel.

Nutrition

So lately I have been worrying a lot about what I should feed George. I have found that most baby books I have read are not particularly helpful in providing specific details such as, "will I give my baby weird food issues when I clap after he eats?" etc.

My good friend Marci Anderson is a nutrition consultant (she's really good if you need nutrition advice and/or need ideas for healthy meals--check out her blog) and provided me with some really helpful material and recommended some good books.

I guess my end goal is that I want George to appreciate and enjoy good healthy food. Do any of you have any life changing advice for feeding a baby?

winter vacation/christmas slideshow

a picture is worth 1000 words. so here's 28,000 words.



(slideshow hint, expand the slideshow to make it bigger and select the "always show title and description tab under options section)


despite some sleepless nights and some sick days - we all enjoyed being completely spoiled with food, attention, laughs, and love.