Happy Father’s Day and Birthday Doug! We love you more and more every day!

Christmas was so much fun this year. Emma loved opening and tearing the paper off the few gifts she received. Santa brought Emma a new retro pink kitchen. She loves making the kitchen part of her daily routine. She spends hours each day cooking up who knows what, but it sure is good! Ask her for a treat, and she’ll bake you a fresh cookie each time.

We’ve been fortunate to see lots of family over the past month and a half. Grandma Bowman visited from Ohio over Christmas. Soon after Christmas, Emma’s Nana and Papa Bowman visited from Florida. Both times, we went to the Bay Area Discovery Museum, one of Emma’s favorite places to play. By far the best place to take little ones under 40 inches! Emma loves it there.

The weather in San Francisco hasn’t been great lately. Lots of rainy days which match the many sick days both Doug and Emma have had lately. Poor Emma had it rough most of January. She had Roseola for a week, then she was better for a week, then sick again. Doug thinks Emma got him sick, I’m thinking he got her sick. To top off the sickness, Emma’s molars have been coming in. Four new teeth are coming in as we speak.

We recently bought Emma her first baby doll, which was a huge hit. She carries it wherever she goes, gives it hugs and kisses, and pushes it around and around the house in a tiny stroller. This doll is the first toy over which Emma shows a little bit of possessiveness. This is a good thing considering she usually gives away her toys to other children, and rarely keeps them long enough to play with them herself. We love he giving nature – but a girl’s gotta have some things she keeps for herself.

We’ve had several play dates with her friends Charlotte and Tessa. Emma really misses her friends down the peninsula, but we’re finally getting involved with some of the children around our neighborhood. We have a big playgroup a block away from our house on Tuesdays. Then one here at our house with about 4 other children on Wednesdays. Makes for busy weeks, and gives us something to fill our days until Doug gets home from work each day.

Emma has come a long way in the last two months. She is signing like crazy. She really wants to communicate, but she isn’t speaking much yet. She’s very quiet and shy around new people, not surprising if you know Doug’s quieter personality. But you should hear Emma’s laugh – it’s the best sound in the world. She loves to be tickled by the “tickle monster” and will gladly let you chase her around the house. Hide and seek is becoming a regular activity around here too. As for her relationship with Jackson (our dog), it’s much of the same. She now puts his ear in her mouth. In return, he puts his tongue in hers. Yuck! We don’t encourage this, but this is how they choose to grow as friends.

Now that we are finally settled in, we really love our new home. The location couldn’t be better. We have a park a block away, play groups for Emma, and friendly neighbors. As an added bonus, we can walk less than a half mile to coffee anytime we want. Definitely an improved situation compared with when we first moved back to San Francisco. We’ll take it.

Happy 18-month birthday, Emma. We love you very much!

Emma walked in her first parade yesterday. She and her friend, Charlotte, had fully decorated Radio Flyer walker wagons that they pushed in the Menlo Park 4th of July parade. Actually, Emma rode in hers most of the time. These two little girls and their two wagons were the hit of the parade. Everyone who saw them gushed with adoring smiles. We heard lots of “oohs” and “aahs” and “isn’t that the cutest thing in the whole wide world?!” the entire parade route. Lots of fun had by all.

Here are a few photos and a couple videos that help capture the day. (Again, if you don’t have the video password, just email one of us to ask for it.)

Doug has been busy with his design job at Google and hasn’t had much time for anything else. However, he officially started speaking at conferences again, which is fun for Cam too, since she often travels with him to events. We flew to Austin in March where he spoke on a panel at South by Southwest. He also spoke at another conference in San Francisco where he nailed a well-received presentation that he worked on for months. He plans on speaking at both events again this year, and possibly a few more.

Cam changed jobs this year. She’s still working in recruiting, but no longer for Google. She is now at a rapidly growing company named VMware, and she loves it. We don’t get to commute together to work each day. But we are very fortunate with the careers we have. And we feel lucky that we get to travel together when conference organizers invite Doug to speak. The hardest part of leaving home is being away from our dog.

Jackson is now a year and a half old. He’s not quite a puppy anymore, that’s for sure. He’s HUGE! He loves to show off and fetch his ball. He could do that all day if we let him. Don’t say the word “park” around Jackson, or you’ll experience Crazy Dog! Cam’s mom found this out when she watched Jackson for three weeks in May while we escaped on our first vacation since the honeymoon.

For this year’s vacation, we spent fourteen days touring around Italy. We arrived in Milan. Then took a train to Venice. Venice was Cam’s favorite stop of the trip. She liked the romantic, twisting canals and small streets, and overall manageable size of the city. After Venice, we took a train to Florence. The heart of Tuscany was hotter than usual, but we managed to explore and conquer the dense, bustling city, finding plenty of Gelaterias for ice cream along the way. We even took a day trip to Sienna and a few surrounding towns, which required renting a car and navigating in and out of Florence’s confusing network of one-way streets and roundabouts. After a week in Florence, we made our way to Cinque Terre, a small set of five quaint villages along the Ligurian (Mediterranean) coast, and Doug’s favorite stop for this trip. We can’t tell you how relaxing and peaceful Cinque Terre was. We ended our trip by returning to Milan where Cam finally found the top Italian designer stores. She left empty handed because Gucci wasn’t having a sale!

Four months after moving into a rental house in Menlo Park, just as we had unpacked the last box, we unexpectedly found a little house for sale not far away that we fell in love with. We weren’t looking to buy a home yet. But once we saw this house, we couldn’t pass it up. Due to an unexpectedly short escrow period, we received keys and were moving in just three weeks after the open house. If you’re counting, yes, this marks the third time we moved within one year. Please… no more boxes to pack, move, and unpack!

We’ve been in our house now for about three months and we absolutely love it. Jackson has a large back yard and loves chasing balls back there. Our home, while small, is very warm and welcoming and we’d love to have you visit.

We hope you have a wonderful and reflective Holiday Season and a very Happy New Year!

Love and peace,
Doug, Cam, and Jackson

So much has happened this year. After months of planning and preparation we had a beautiful wedding in the Presidio of San Francisco on July 29th. We had friends and family come from all parts of the country. We’ve been told everyone who attended had a grand time. I know we’re biased, but it was, by far, the best wedding we have ever been to!

Two days after our wedding we flew to Kauai for our honeymoon. Not much activity. Just relaxing by the pool and the beach. We absolutely loved our little (big?) hotel resort. We highly recommend the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort, just outside of Poi’pu. It’s a beautiful place to stay, the connected pools are gorgeous.

Once we got back from our honeymoon, we packed all our belongings and moved to Mountain View, about 45 minutes south of San Francisco. Leaving the City was really hard for Doug. But with his new job at Google, the move dropped his commute time down to 5 minutes. Can’t beat that.

Not long after we got married, we took on a new addition to our family. Jackson Cocoa, a chocolate lab puppy, came to live with us at just 9 weeks old. He’s now a little over five months old. He has lots of energy and requires almost constant attention. But he’s so cute and worth every bit of effort. At the moment, we’re trying to make sure he doesn’t pull down our Christmas tree!

Just as we were getting settled into our new home, Google responded to Cam’s application. She went through a long interview process, and was finally offered a position in Staffing as a Technical Recruiter/Sourcer. So now we both work at the GooglePlex. Makes it really easy to share a five-minute commute to work. We can also have lunch together at any one of Google’s eleven themed gourmet cafes (!) just about anytime we want.

For those of you who live remotely, if you’re ever visiting the Bay Area, we would love to see you. We have plenty of room in our three-bedroom townhouse, and Jackson loves getting to know new people!

We wish you all a wonderful Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!

Love and peace,
Doug, Cam, and Jackson