July started with Plunge and ended with a road trip...
After Plunge, Lacie stayed with us to visit and spend some time with Otis.
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| 7/3/12 - Otis and Lacie |
The following series documents Otis' first cheeseburger.
Here are two videos of Otis' first cheeseburger experience:
Otis and Sabina playing peek-a-boo.
Melissa and Dylan stopped by for breakfast on the 14th, while they were in town.
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| Melanie, Otis, Dylan and Melissa Yoches |
Later, we went to Seb and Amanda's wedding in Hopland.
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| 7/14/12 Kora |
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| Otis loves Elmo |
These three videos are a sample of typical time spent with Otis:
July 24th is Bev (Tony's grandma)'s birthday, many Stumbaughs descended on her house.
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| Grandpa Gregg and Otis |
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| Aunt Gianna and Otis |
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| Otis, Cousin Lee and Tony |
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| Aunt Talia and Otis |
Otis and Melanie's Excellent Adventure
Otis and I left on our road trip just before noon on July 26th. Otis fell asleep shortly after we left home and woke up just before we arrived, two hours later, for lunch in San Jose (Cupertino to be exact). We had lunch and then went to Memorial Park, so Otis could run around and go down the slide many times. From there we drove another three and a half hours to Los Osos. Otis was awake the whole time. With about an hour to go, he had a melt down. He wasn't interested in any of his toys. I resorted to making funny voices, singing songs and reaching back to tickle his feet. Eventually he calmed down. We arrived at Jill's place at six thirty. Otis had a great time redecorating for Jill and putting Sam (one of the dogs)'s toys in the dog's water bowl. Not really sure what the dogs thought of him, but I love this picture of him with Sam and Scout watching Jill through the window as she talked on her phone.
After feeding Otis dinner and putting him down for bed, Jill and I ate delicious lentil stew made by Jill, drank wine and talked for another few hours. Jill left for a meeting shortly after we woke up the following morning. It took me close to an hour to pack all of our stuff up and get out the door, after only being there for just over twelve hours.
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| Jill and Otis (looking like he could use a hug) |
I brought Otis to Celia's Garden Cafe for breakfast. I ordered food for us and then brought Otis out to the garden to run around until they called us in to eat. After rushing through breakfast, I brought him out again to get some energy out before getting on the road to my aunt Chris' house in Camarillo.
Otis slept just about the whole way from Los Osos to Camarillo. I was very pleasantly surprised to see my cousin Brent at his mom's place. It had been five years since we'd seen each other. He stuck around for an hour or so to catch up with me and play with Otis.
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| Brent and Chris |
My aunt Chris has a dog Skippy, who was not an Otis fan as much as Otis loved Skippy. Luckily my cousin Heather arrived later with her dog Max, who was an Otis fan. It could have been because Otis is a messy eater and Max benefited from his food throwing habits, no matter, Otis loved him nonetheless. We spent the next day and a half with Chris and Heather and their dogs, with a short dinner visit with Heather's husband Kurt. It had been three years since I'd seen Chris and five since spending time with Heather and Kurt. A VERY long overdue visit.
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| Chris and Otis |
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| Otis and his coyote (made by Chris) |
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| Max and Heather |
I'm so grateful to have had this time with Heather and Chris. We always have such an amazing and comfortable time together. I hope it happens again soon!!!
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| Heather, Chris and Otis |
My original plan was to leave Chris' house just after Otis woke up on Sunday morning and continue on with our journey. But after the amount of time it took me to gather our stuff together at Jill's place, I assessed the "stuff" situation at Chris' and decided to take a more leisurely approach to leaving. We had breakfast and then I started gathering all of our belongings. We left Camarillo at ten thirty on Sunday morning, Otis fell asleep almost immediately and didn't wake up until after we'd already arrived in Venice Beach to visit our friend Taylor, formally of the Pink House in Santa Cruz. Taylor lives close to the beach and it was a beautiful day, so there wasn't any parking on his street. I parked across from his house, blocking a drive way and didn't go far from the car. Otis woke up and ran up and down the street as Taylor and I chased after him. It had been three years since I last saw Taylor, a short but nice visit.
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| Otis and Taylor |
We left Venice and headed to Century City to have lunch with my friend Jason, who I hadn't seen for twelve years. He teaches acting at an acting school for kids. The school is in a building that connects to a fancy mall, we had lunch in the food court and caught up on life. After an hour, Jason had to return to work, so Otis and I continued with our adventure. We drove another forty five minutes north to Granada Hills to visit our friends Jim, Karyn and their baby son James. James is about a year younger than Otis, but weighs a pound more than Otis and is only about two inches shorter. I think this was confusing for Otis, probably wondering why James wasn't running around with him. Otis would hug and "pet" James. It was entertaining watching the two of them play together. Otis was having such a blast, we didn't leave until around 6pm. As always, it doesn't matter how much time has passed between Jim, Karyn and I getting to hang out, it always feels as if no time has passed at all.
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| James, Karyn and Otis |
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| Karyn, Jim and James |
After leaving Granada Hills, I took the 5 north and ended up in stopped traffic just before Buttonwillow. We were in traffic for about an hour and went three miles. The sun was setting and there was nothing I could do about not having it get in Otis' eyes. He slept from six thirty to seven thirty. We stopped in Buttonwillow just after eight. I changed Otis into his pjs, changed my own clothes into comfy driving clothes, grabbed a couple papusas and got back on the road. Otis fell asleep again around nine thirty. I decided wherever I was at midnight, I'd stop to sleep. Luckily, I'd been in contact with Jane (who lives in Sunnyvale) during my drive and she was prepared to let us in and sleep. We arrived in Sunnyvale just after midnight and after doing a little simulating in the room where we slept, Otis fell asleep and didn't really wake up again until just past eight on Monday morning. We had a quick visit with Jane, had some breakfast and got back on the road. We arrived home around noon. Four days, just over 1000 miles. A successful road trip and a serious learning experience! Thanks again to all those who housed us and took time out of their schedules to visit with us!!!
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| 2 Pacifiers are better than one? |
For garden and sunflower lovers, you can find a whole bunch of our garden photos here.
There you have it folks, July with the Stumbaughs. Hope things are wonderful in your worlds and your summers are going splendidly!
love,
~melanie.
(Tony and Otis)
