family resemblance

We haven't quite sorted out who Axel looks like, but check out our baby pics and decide for yourself.


Also a big congratulations and welcome to Axel's newest cousin. Stella June Meents arrived yesterday! She looks like a happy and healthy little gal, we are all so very excited she is here and can't wait to meet her!

monthly pictures

We Boots aren't generally known for our timeliness or punctuality and this blog is certainly no exception... My plan from the beginning was to post pictures of Axel on his monthly birthdays for the first year. Well, he's 9 1/2 months old (and thriving!) so I thought it's about time to git to it. Here's the first 9 mos. (more or less on the monthly b-days) courtesy of the nifty picasa collage feature. Click on the individual collages to see a bigger version.





Up next: family resemblance!

on the move

The traveling has continued for the Boot family. After our trip out to Colorado we settled back in at home for a couple weeks, then it was off to Minnesota for Axel's cousin Elliot's 3rd birthday party. More pictures from MN soon, but just before our trip Axel started crawling! Here's a short clip of the little man in action.

you got to move it, move it! from Claudia Boot on Vimeo.

Biking Colorado

We recently had the pleasure of heading to Colorado for 10 days of fun, wedding, babies being born (that's right, two babies were born while we were there - the Boots are like baby laxative, or maybe mommy laxative - whatever), work and biking (more to come soon). So as news to you new dads, you can have kids and still enjoy your vacations...

Rick and I got to head out to Buff Creek and ride to Chair Rocks and beyond. It was a great ride with sweet scenery. Apparently my lungs were not ready for the elevation (at least that was the excuse I made every time Rick passed me regardless of whether we were going up hill or down).

Then we planned to go for a quick ride around Elk Meadow in Evergreen but woke up to a nice blanket of snow. The ride was still fun and unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the snow so you will just have to trust me - it was really hard core, honest... I mean it was cold - look at the white specks falling in the picture above, those aren't Whoville and Rick isn't Horton trying desperately to save each one from the mean old kangaroo and the kangaroo in her pouch that always says, "Me Too."

A big thanks to Jason for the bike loner.

In fact, Elk Meadow was so eerie that morning that at some point I lost Rick and ended up getting a ride home from this guy...

Remember the scene from PeeWee's Big Adventure when the truck driver tells PeeWee all about Large Marge. Well, I lived it right after the ride on this cold October morning.

references for this post:
Horton Here's a Who
PeeWee's Big Adveture - Large Marge

Your Mamma Don't Dance and Your Daddy Don't Rock N' Roll

That's Crap...

Here we are at the Killers concert at the Santa Barbara County Bowl.
A big thanks to Jill for taking coming out to take care of Axel while we went out for a nice french dinner followed by the KILLERS.
Maybe french food isn't Rock N' Roll but it sure is nice.

Then it was time to restring and introduce Axel to heavily distorted guitar.

I think he liked it...

It was right about the time that Axel was realizing the guitar was a good way to win over the chicks at day care when Claudia pointed out that not all of our suburban neighbors (and especially the congregation of the catholic church down the street) fully appreciate the lessons of a heavy dose of distortion at 7:25 a.m. on a Sunday morning.

Then is was time to introduce Axel to his new favorite toy (seen below). Why spend cash on toys when a Vic Firth 7a drum stick will do the trick.

teton valley

Soooo... we're a bit out of date, but here's a quick post on the end of our, ahem, August trip to Idaho. We were there for our friends' Jason and Susan's wedding. It took place in the small town of Tetonia at Susan's parent's property. It was spectacular to be back in the mountains, especially after our infernal Albuquerque experience.

The bride on her day:

The wedding was gorgeous country affair complete with a bluegrass band, some delicious steak and an on location baby sitter for Axel! It was great to git down for a while to the bluegrass, go check on the baby, and resume celebrating without a baby monitor glued to the side of my head.

The wedding was in a rural setting so the Bob was in full effect.


Axel seemed to be enjoying all the off-roading.


The trip was excellent and we were exhausted when we got home. For some reason after his first successful experience with solid food at great grandma Connie's house, Axel refused to eat anything but breast milk for the rest of the trip. Perhaps there was something magical about the four generations of Meents' high chair (see prior post), perhaps he missed the great grandparents, or perhaps he just wanted a chili cheeseburger of his own, but he was determined and we acquiesced to demands for milk. from mom. only. It made the conference feel like a race with me doing 3 hour rotations between giving a/watching talks and the hotel room, meanwhile Rich was in the midst of launching FishChoice while simultaneously soothing an irritated baby. Thankfully Axel's prior eating habits returned when we got back to Santa Barbara. Needless to say, it was an interesting test of our abilities to mix fun with the unknown and for better or worse a lesson in the impermanence of all things baby.

New Mexico and great-grand parents!

We got back from our travels almost two weeks ago and have finally caught up enough to think about the blog. We made the mistake of having some vaccinations for Axel the day before we left so he was understandably irritated with us when we woke him up at 4:30 in the morning for a 6:00 am departure from Santa Barbara. His good nature won out however, and our flights to Albuquerque (via Salt Lake) were pretty uneventful as was the drive south the Alamogordo. We capped off our long travel day introducing Axel to his great grandparents, EJ and Connie Meents!
Axel made himself right at home and wasted no time snuggling up with Connie and EJ. It was lovely to spend some time with them and have the little guy get to know some more of his family. During our stay we took a trip to White Sands National Monument, and Axel had some of his first solid food in a high chair that has been used by 4 generations of Meents's (two asides: you're guess is as good as mine on that punctuation, and that was the first, and last time he has had solid food so far, more on that later).



We were sad to leave, but had a conference in Albuquerque to attend (the Ecological Society of America) so we headed back north and thought about stopping here:


but decided to carry on a bit further for some green chili burgers instead. The conference was good, but downtown Albuquerque wasn't exactly baby-friendly so we were happy to head north to a cooler climate and a mountain valley that felt like home. Coming soon: Jason and Susan's wedding in the Teton Valley!

tour de france

We've been on a tour of some western states (NM, UT, ID, WY) for about the past 2 weeks so and a post on that trip is in the works, but in the meantime here's an old one that has been neglected...

Every July we settle in for 3 weeks of guaranteed early morning entertainment: the Tour de France. It was only fitting to introduce Axel to this beloved event, firstly because he's usually up when it starts in the wee hours of the morning and secondly because he shares his name with cycling superstar Axel Merckx.



I think he likes it.

and now to the north

The weekend following our return from CO we decided that since being on the road with a little guy was so much fun we should go on another trip. Rich had a Thursday meeting in the Bay area and flew up north in the morning and Axel and I drove up and met him at Peter and Marianna's house that evening (aka Omi Marianne and Grandpa). We spent Friday in Santa Cruz visiting the old lab mates and introducing Axel to the world of marine natural products. Friday evening Rich cook a birthday dinner for his Dad, and Saturday while Peter was racing we spent some time catching up with Jason and Susan, some SB friends that moved to Woodside this summer (mind you Peter isn't actually in the linked video, but it gives you a good taste of what he's up to).

As anyone with an infant will love to tell you sleep is at a premium during this time (until when? he's 18? 35?). With all the running around the napping schedule got a bit crazy, so on Saturday when Axel decided he wasn't going to nap Rich opted to hike him around the yard in a backpack... while I caught up on some much needed zzzz's. The result, magical. I think Rich was tired too.

We followed this up with a Boot familly mainstay, the afternoon cup of tea. (I think the pic is acutally from breakfast, but you get the idea). Omi did the all important job of introducing Axel to the Financial Times (from their website: The latest UK and international business, finance, economic and political news, comment and analysis.) Someboday had to do it. He mostly reads Curious George at home.

we went mobile (part 2)

We went to CO to celebrate Grammy's 60th birthday! We had a great western BBQ complete with pulled pork and ice cream cake.


Here's a few more shots from the from our visit ...

super Axel with Rita


Cowboy Elliot on the livingroom horse

Playing lawn games

Grammy and Axel (he's hip).

We finished off our visit by re-living the world of GI Joe with some transformers thrown in good measure... this from my brother's treasure trove of childhood toys. Elliot (and Rich) wasted no time joining in the fun.
We decided that at some point the figurine designers must have run out of inspiration for new guys and turned to bands (YMCA anyone?).

we're going mobile (part 1)

We were a wee bit foggy when we departed Santa Barbara for Steamboat via Phoenix at 6:00 am a week ago Thursday. And, having just paid an ungodly amount to check baggage, we were feeling a little trepidation about Axel's first airplane travel. Will he scream the whole way? Will his ears hurt? Will he even notice?

Bound for the first (0f 3) airplanes:

The SkyMall catalog is generally great for entertainment the first time through which is also true for babies.


All that reading appeared to wear him out so he slept during the Phoenix to Denver leg (ignore the slightly scary looking woman in the background).

By the time we arrived in Steamboat he seemed no worse for the wear and was happy to see Grammy and the incredibly peaceful surroundings at her place.

One of the things we miss about Steamboat (and CO in general) are the afternoon thunderstorms. We weren't disappointed on our first evening there with a refreshing rain followed by a spectacular rainbow.

View from Grammy's front door (that's the head of 'Sleeping Giant' for you Steamboaters out there):

The next day was equally exciting with Axel meeting his cousin Elliot (and Uncle Matt & Auntie Mandy) for the first time. They had a good time getting to know each other. Elliot was super helpful, even helping Uncle Rich (aka Uncie Dick) change a diaper--a good lesson as he's in training for a little brother or sister of his own!



I imagine the thought caption for this being something like, 'hmm... if I charm him now maybe he'll by me beer later on.'

Summer solstice, Santa Barbara style.

Happy late solstice fans of Axel. Santa Barbara celebrates in proper style complete with a festive parade. Here are just two of many videos, we'll spare you the rest:

Hula Hoopers from Claudia Boot on Vimeo.

acrobat lady in bubble from Claudia Boot on Vimeo.

Axel and Rich partying at the end of the parade.

Goodbye my first love, hello best Dad ever.

As many of you know Rick, Leigh Ann and Lucy have departed Santa Barbara for the Mile High City. Axel was sad to see his first love, Lucy head for higher ground, they thought about maintaining a long distance relationship, but decided it would be too tough. There was a tearful goodbye but they've been keeping in regular contact with text messages.

Lucy tries to comfort him while Axel maintains his tough male exterior.


Last weekend we celebrated Father's Day, Rich went for a surf while Axel and Mom hung out at home then we made a big pancake breakfast and soaked up the sun in the back yard and ended the day with some slow cooked pork and cold beers. Heaven.

Let me explain... no, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Since the fire we've been busy. Visits from Grammy Linda and Big Anna were most welcome while we were preparing for the move. Then there was the move, heinous but totally worth it. Followed shortly by the beginning of daycare, much tougher on Mom than Axel I suspect. Then a trip to LA for Colin's 3rd birthday followed by a visit from Grandpa Mike and Grandma B. Axel has been a trooper through it all while turning 4 mos. old in the meantime.

So, from the top again but now with pictures! Grammy Linda wasn't quite sure about the whole velcro swaddle blanket thing...


but we eventually figured it out (I know the picture is fuzzy, but he's just so happy I couldn't resist).

This was the first installment of G-ma Daycare, filling the gap between when I went back to work and when 'official daycare' was to begin. Axel met Bob for the first time, they got to hang out at the beach while mom and dad went surfing. For the rest of the week Grammy Linda and Axel had a fabulous time playing together complete with tons of smiles and some of his first giggles.

Next up was Big Anna (aka Vivien) who was a champion babysitter/box packer while we were at work. We would come home and kitchen and bathroom cabinets would be empty and boxes stacked for loading into the truck. We would do evening trips over to the house and I think Rich and I could hardly sleep trying to figure out where everything was going to go. Here's a shot of the outside of the house courtesy of Vivien:

It's an adorable 40's CA bungalow with heaps of character. We are totally in love with it and love having the extra space and yard (!) for the little guy. Rick was a huge help in the big furniture moving day that followed.


Axel's first day of 'school' followed shortly afterward. Even though we did several visits to get ready I really wasn't prepared for what it would feel like to actually leave him for the day in the care of people that aren't my family. Needless to say it was a rough morning. Rich popped in for a hello at lunch and found him, much as I did, smiling and playing when I picked him up. The ladies that take care of him are wonderful but I definitely look forward to spending Thursdays with him (Rich has Fridays). Here' s a shot of him on the first day looking much more stoic than normally does, I think he was worried about mom.

A good time was had by all at Colin's dinosaur-themed 3rd birthday party. It took place at the same park Tim and Brook got married at and was followed by an excellent toy session back at the casa.

Boys being boys:

Finally, we had a great visit from my Dad and Brenda this past week. Axel had a good time getting to know them (I think he charmed them pretty good). We hung out at the house, watched the Lakers and did a little wine tasting in the valley.

...apparently a popular destination for babies!