Spring cleaning

We've been busy the last few months, and are finally getting a chance to get some of our pictures up that have been collecting dust since January.

First up, some pictures from our vacation to Akumal in Mexico with Bella, Jeff, and Paolo. It was a relaxing break for Tracy and me, and so fun to see Lily on the beach by the water. I could tell the sound of the waves helped her relax too - we had a lot of good times just sitting and watching the waves roll in.



The next batch of pictures is from Tracy's mom's group in February. Every time they have a big get together they take pictures of the kids in these onsies with their names on them. So cute! They are looking forward to the one year reunion coming up soon.



Finally, a roundup album of the last two months. We've got some great pictures of Lily and her new friend Charlie (you wouldn't know from the pictures that Charlie is like 6 months younger than her!), Easter pictures, my good friend Sujit's wedding in Houston, and finally some pictures of Lily with her great-grandpa. I hope I'm crawling around on the floor when I'm 95 -- amazing!



Hope everyone is well -- love from all of us.

Akumal Vacation

We're still working on getting our pictures up, but Tracy, Lily and I recently got back from a great vacation to Akumal, Mexico. Highly recommended if you're looking for a chill beach getaway -- its a hidden little town south of Cancun that's tourist friendly without seeming touristy.

I put together a guide on nextstop of all the places we went -- and its a great excuse to show off our new nextstop embedding feature.

Rockin' In The New Year

Well it's already 2009, yes we know we are a good two months into it now but life with a 7 month old, starting a new company and a massive construction project tends to make time fly by fast. Lily will be 8 months on March 4th and we are just amazed every day at all her new discoveries. She was lucky and had two of her grandparents come to visit in January. Enjoy some of these new pics of the little lady.

Holiday Fun

Lily's first Christmas was so much fun - she attended her first holiday cookie party, went to see Jolly Santa (of course she was a good girl this year), visited with her family and opened lots of presents on Christmas morning. She liked the wrapping paper best of all. Lily is changing and growing so much every day, she is eating solid foods like a champ, laughing up a storm and even repeating the sound "bah" when mom and dad ask her to. We can't believe she will be six months on January 4th!

Wishing you all a very happy and healthy new year.

November fun and a tiny bit of December mixed in

November was a busy month in the land of Miss Lily. The month started off(well technically it was the end of October) with Lily rolling over for the first time and we caught it on camera. You can also see more photos of Lily dressed as Nemo on actual Halloween night. Lily got to witness first hand the election - we had a party at our house election night to celebrate. We went over to brunch at Pat and Alain's house and Lily got to meet up with lots of her girlfriends. Our construction garage project is still going on and we stayed up at Jessica's house in Sonoma for a week to escape some of the nasty jackhammering and concrete dust. There are some pictures of Lily with the boys - they are going to keep her entertained for years to come. We also tried solid food toward the end of the month and you can see some pics of Lily with avocado all over her face. So cute! We headed to Huntington Beach for Thanksgiving and had a great celebration with family and friends. Lily got to meet a friend of the family who is 99 years old. That is one massive age gap. There are also some pictures from my mom's group of the babies - they are all getting so old and growing so fast. Finally we picked out our Christmas tree and are all ready for the holidays which we will be spending in San Francisco.

Big Events in October

This October we have had a ton going and the fun never ever stops. For starters, Carl turned 30 and we surprised him at work with an ice cream cake from BiRite and also had a dinner party with close friends. Our good friends Peter and Chantal from Sydney came to stay for a week and we got to meet baby Liam. We headed to the pumpkin patch where Lily dressed as Nemo the clown fish. (Little does she know [because she was in my belly] that we were on the hunt for Nemo at the Great Barrier Reef before leaving Australia so thought the costume was perfect for her first Halloween)

Lily also got to meet her Grandpa Claes for the first time when he came to visit from New York earlier in the month. The first version of Carl's travel website launched in October http://www.nextstop.com/ he and his partners have been working their behinds off. Check it out when you have a chance and ask for an account so you can start adding your favorite recommendations. As if starting a company and having a baby all at once wasn't enough, we also broke ground on our garage construction project. That's right jack hammering all day and a baby trying to take naps don't exactly mix well but having a garage in the city seems all worth it.

Enjoy the photos and we hope you are all well.

Sunny September

This fall we have been busy with the little one. We had lots of visitors come and stay with us which has been fun. In September we went to see our goddaughter's soccer game which Lily loved to watch in the Bjorn. There is no facing in for this kid, it is all about looking out and checking out what is happening in this great big world. We also took our first family vacation up to Mendocino for a long weekend filled with coastal walks, beautiful drives and mom and dad even managed to get in some wine tasting in the Anderson Valley. You will also see some pictures of Lily right out of the bath - she loves the water and bath time is the best part of her day!

Busy Times

Hello all - Sorry for not getting up the many pictures we have taken the past few weeks of our little Lily on the blog. Things are busy at the house with baby time and Carl's exciting new start-up (www.nextstop.com) Lily is now 16 weeks old and growing bigger and bigger every day. We took our first family vacation to Mendocino and Carl turned 30 since we last updated our blog. Here are a few pictures taken two weeks ago to hold you all over until we get some time to make a new posting. Hope you are all well.

Labor Day and First Trip

This Labor day we headed up to Tahoe for a visit with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Steve. Lily also got to meet her great grandma Phyllis or as most people know her "Mucka". We took a lot of four generation pictures with Lily, Tracy, Kathy and Mucka. Lily was a champ in the car given the awful San Francisco to Tahoe holiday traffic. We had a relaxing weekend with lots of yummy food and a few competitive card games. Carl was victorious and liked to rub it in each time he won. This week ushered in Lily's 8th week of life. We can't believe she is already two months old.

Play Gym Love

Lily loves her play gym and can't stop grabbing and batting at all the hanging toys. She is 7 weeks old in these photos. We also have a few photos of our living room that we are almost finished decorating - we will also get around to taking other photos of the house now that we are finished with our move back in project.

Lily in the Gardens

This group of pictures are from Lily's 5th and 6th week of life. She is getting so big and smiles are coming all the time. Her Grandma Martha was visiting during this time and we all took a trip down to Filoli Gardens. Our favorite photo is Lily with the Lilies. For all the fans of the 1980s big shoulder pad television show Dynasty you will notice the house at the Gardens is the one you see in the opening credits.

Lily's Friends

These are the cutest photos from Tracy's mothers group. The moms made their little munchkins a onesie with their names on the front for a group photo. The babies were all lined up and believe it or not there were no upset babies during the photo. They all loved being stacked up like little human dominoes. Lily is 6 weeks old in this photo.

One Month Already

Its hard to believe that Lily is 5 weeks old already -- Tracy and I are still feeling like we are in a whirlwind, but we're loving every minute with her -- well, maybe not LOVING the 3AM feeds. ;)

We've had a number of visitors of late and some more additions to the many cute pics of Lily (including some from the hospital we missed on previous rounds). It was also Tracy's birthday so we had the opportunity for extra visitors, and finally, you'll see some pictures of our recently signed new office space.

Enjoy

2 More Weeks With Lilypad

Hey everyone -- here are some more pics with our little Lily. She got to meet a few more people, and we had grandma Kathy here to help us take care of Lily pad and us while we figure everything else out. Thanks so much Kathy -- we couldn't have made it through this time without you!

Week 1 with Lily

Well, its been an interesting week getting used to our gorgeous daughter. Tracy and I are still trying to figure out which end is up, and its a good day if we leave the house at all, but we're enjoying every minute with our little peanut. Tracy and Lily are recovering well, and we're starting to get our routine down. Here are some pictures of Lily in her first week where she got her first bath, had some visitors, and generally looked adorable as always.

Enjoy the pics.

Welcoming Lily Sutton

For those of you who don't know, we welcomed our daughter Lily Sutton into the world at 5:05PM on July 4th, 2008. She weighed 9 lbs 8 ounces (4.3 kg) and is 21.5 inches long (54.5 cm) -- one big firecracker! Tracy and Lily are both doing great.

We made it home yesterday and are adjusting to life with our new best friend -- here are the first pics of our darling little girl and the events around the delivery.

Love,

Tracy, Carl, and Lily

Back in the US of A

As avid readers of our blog I'm sure have noticed, its been a little quiet on www.tracyandcarl.com for a while. We arrived back in San Francisco in early April and its been non stop ever since. Between moving, doing some remodelling, setting up the nursery, Tracy's growing belly and Carl getting started on his new company there hasn't been a lot of time for pictures and blogging. However we found some time this weekend to get all caught up on the last few months of our Australia stay and some of what we've been up to since we've been back in Noe.

We're looking forward to seeing people we haven't seen yet, and are currently in count-down mode for the new arrival. Next time we post here, there will be three of us!

Love,

Tracy and Carl

40 Year Old Marriage

My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this year and it happened to be on Mother's Day so it made for a fun and eventful weekend up in Tahoe at their newly built house. The entire family had an amazing dinner at The West Shore Cafe on the lake and then the next morning we all cooked brunch for the moms and soon-to-be mom. The main attraction of the brunch were the ricotta pancakes from the Bill's Sydney cookbook. Yum Yum! Enjoy the pictures of the happy couple and also check out my ever growing basketball bump.

Leaving Oz

I guess all good things must come to an end. Saying goodbye is always hard but we made so many wonderful friends that we will see again so it was really just bye for now when we left Sydney. We had farwell drinks at a pub in Paddington prior to leaving and Carl had a going away dim sum (or as they say in Australia, yum cha) lunch with his co-workers. All the pictures are below as well as some additional ones from Chantal from our going away drinks that can be viewed here

We Made it to the Great Barrier Reef

Carl and I with our friend Michael spent our last week in Australia up in the great barrier reef on Hamilton island. It was an area of Australia we really wanted to see before we left, and Carl and Michael were excited to put their newly minted dive certifications to work while I snorkled (on the hunt for Nemo!). We also had the chance to hold koalas and go on a plane ride over the great barrier reef and to Whitehaven beach which is only accessible by boat or plane -- its the whitest sand we've ever seen. It was a very relaxing week before the chaos of the move, and a great conclusion to our Aussie adventure.

On A Different West Coast

Over Easter, we took a long weekend to travel to Australia's west coast and spent some time with friends in Perth and then spent a few days in the Margaret River -- one of Australia's well known wine regions. The scenery was fantastic with waves meeting the rolling vineyards along the coast, and Carl enjoyed having a designated driver so he could taste all the great wines.

Beach Baby BBQ

What better way to celebrate the upcoming birth of two babies than having a party at the beach. Our good friends Peter and Chantal were also pregnant and together we thought we'd throw a beach baby BBQ with lots of yummy food, beach games and friends. The weather was perfect for a mid March day and we had a fun time taking photos to capture the festivities. Our pictures are included here, and you'll find Chantal's masterful photos here.

Jane and Angus' Wedding Bells

On March 1, 2008 our good friends Jane and Angus tied the knot in Sydney. It was a glorious day with lots and lots of merriment, laughter and celebration. The speeches/toasts were among some of the best we have ever heard at a wedding. It was so much fun to be a part of their special day! Congrats again to Jane and Angus.

We Have A Bun In The Oven!!

We have some very exciting news to share and sorry if you are reading this for the first time on our blog we tried to tell everyone prior to writing a post. As you can probably guess by the title of the post, we are pregnant and expecting a little girl on July 3rd. We are both so excited and Carl already has big plans for her to be daddy's little girl. I am doing really well and all is great with the pregnancy so far, except for maybe those first few pukey weeks. I have all my energy back now and I'm enjoying the second trimester. Here are a few pictures of my belly as it continues to grow each week. I am now 20 weeks along so half way - woo hoo! We have also attached a few early scans of the little peanut as well as a video of the 18 week ultrasound you can watch below(the first 20 seconds are kinda screwed up, but fast forward, it gets better). Carl has already turned her into a Youtube star. :) This is such an amazing experience and we can't wait to meet her come early July.

Wedding Bells

We attended Nikki and Noel's beautiful wedding earlier this month and here are a few pictures from the festive day. Carl works closely with Noel at Google and it was so nice to be a part of his special day with Nikki. The reception was near Luna Park with fabulous views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. It was a very fun evening and we wish them all the best.

Summer in Sydney

After a year it is still a little difficult to get your head around summer taking place from December to March but in Sydney it's the time of the year when the flip flops and swimming suits come out. By the way in Australia they call swimming suits for girls "Cossies" which is a nick name for swimming costumes. We have been having a fabulous time this summer and here are a few pictures from some of the various activities we have managed to get up to over the past month or so. There are some pics from Australia Day out on Sydney Harbour with friends from Carl's work. On a different weekend in January we went to a place called Pete's Bite that you can only get to by a boat. This was such a fun afternoon with amazing food, great friends and lots of dancing. The owners of the restaurant actually get up and play the guitar and sing which you will see in the pictures. Enjoy!

Thailand Travels

Happy 2008 - the year of the rat (Tracy's year!). Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and very happy New Years. We realized that in the last 4 years we've been in 4 different countries (and 3 different continents) -- Mexico, US, Australia, and now with this year, Thailand.

We just got back last week from a restful and exciting trip to Thailand where we visited Krabi, Chiang Mai and Bangkok. We had some time on the beach, a day of diving, riding on elephants, learning to cook Thai food, visiting temples, traveling to the Golden Triangle (where Laos, Thailand and Burma meet) and finally New Years eve at a great restaurant in Bangkok. We paired our 700 pictures down to a scant 300 that I'm sure our loyal readers will pore over in detail -- or just look for the highlights.

We hope this year brings you happiness and success and that we get to see more of you throughout the year.

Thanksgiving in Kiama

This year our great friend Drew hosted us for Thanksgiving at his place in Kiama (where we stayed on our trip down the South coast). Alyssa and I cooked all day Friday and Saturday and put on (what everyone said) was a fantastic feast. We had two turkeys, one roasted the traditional way that Alyssa and I did, and one in a deep fryer that Drew prepared. We were all a little nervous that we were going to burn the house down, but it was pretty good -- who doesn't love fried food? It was a calorie filled but relaxing time with great friends, and a chance for us to hang out with Oliver (our friends Rupert and Poppy's baby) who you'll see in a lot of the photos. To add to the excitement it was election night, so not only did we celebrate Thanksgiving, but a changing of the guard in Australian politics.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family near and far -- even though we're far away from many of you you are always in our thoughts, and we're very thankful for your love and friendship. We hope all is well with you, and that if we haven't talked to you recently we can soon.

Love, Tracy and Carl

Waldemar Kolbusz's Morning

We happened a few months ago to notice an exhibit in a gallery around the corner from our house that had some great modern paintings, but unfortunately the one we liked the best had already been sold. The gallery offered to ask the artist -- Waldemar Kolbusz to do one for us on commission and it just arrived last week -- called "Morning". We're planning to put it up in our living room in San Francisco once we are home....its pretty crazy, but we think its very bright and cheerful (like the colors in Australia!) and will do well with the dark color in that room. We've got it in our bedroom now here in Sydney.

Kate, John, and Clara Visit Australia

A few weeks ago we were happy to host our San Francisco neighbors Kate and John in Sydney. They took two weeks to explore Australia with their daughter Clara, and it was great to catch up with them and so nice that they could visit. Although the weather was totally awful most of the time they were in Sydney, we tried to show them the sights on the few good days there were.