Alex turns the big ONE!

Belated posting to share the news of this past weekend. We made it up to Vancouver for cousin Alex’s first birthday. Daphne, Gav and Grandma hit one of our favorite places – Granville Island – for fresh from the oven donuts (bran/blueberry muffin for Gav, most of which ended up on the floor!) then a quick stop at the Kids Only Market to play on the cool cars. Jeff flew in from Antwerp later that evening and despite the snow 🙂 he didn’t have to take the bus!

On Saturday we went for brunch at the Motions. It was great to see Chris, Steph and Pierson. Pierson is getting so big and has definitely inherited his parents “smarts”. He’s a wiz on the calculator, knows the definition of sublimation and likes his smoked gouda! We had a great time and Gav enjoyed playing with all his cool toys.

Later on we went over to 6th ave for Alex’s bday soiree where we got to see Uncle David and Aunt Anne! Gav had a few food firsts. He wasn’t super enthusiastic about the cupcakes but was interested in the brie and crackers.

On Sunday the boys had a first bday photo shoot in kits. The parents reluctantly joined in as the boys were lukewarm on the concept. Alex got into the groove but Gav had a wee bit of a meltdown. Let’s just say we’ll have to settle for candids of the two. We managed to get a couple of good “family” shots though!

GP and Grandma were amazing hosts as usual. All in all, a good visit!

 

Marchness…….

Its Madness time, and the predictions are in.  For the first year, the Wettlaufer’s are a 3 pick family, Gav was pretty insistent on sharing his ideas.  While he did stick to the safer side of his seed choices, there were a couple of gambles.  We think he saw Obamas picks while he was at Daycare.  Anyways,  as usual it wouldn’t be interesting without a wager.  

The winner gets a dinner at a restaurant of their choice, and a movie of their choice.  If Gav wins, well, he already gets what he wants, maybe he’ll just get more of it.  Like some extra avocado, or maybe an extra half hour of playtime at night, if he doesn’t melt down and shout his way into the crib. 

Anyways, Dad has UNC and L’ville in the final, and Mom has UNC and Michigan State.  Below is G-mans pick sheet.   Note the avocado marks, wet finger prints, drool, the torn decisions – March is a tough month for the little guy! 

 

TechDays Helsinki and Antwerp, with a hop through London

It has been a really long but enjoyable week of events and seeing our close friends in the UK. 

The trip started by heading to Helsinki via LHR.  Arriving later the next night, it was pretty much right into the hotel and a quick presentation, demo review before sleep.  Helsinki is 10 hours ahead of Seattle, so it was a really odd feeling. 

Helsinki was a fantastic event.  They had 1500 turn up, and had another 300 on the waiting list.  Great guys up there.  I had 2 sessions where I talked about the ‘Modern Client’ (Thick, thin, application and desktop virtualization and VDI) as well as a deeper technical dive on App virt.    The sessions went very well, with each having almost 500 in the room.  Speaking English to Finns makes for almost zero questions, but some polite applause :).  I also participated in a Desktop Virt session, but the speaker was Finnish, and told them at the beginning (in Finnish) that I was there for the tough questions.  All I heard as i sat in the front row was ‘tuk, yolk, schnappshell guir-del hoffen  JEFF WETTLAUFER’ .  Totally hilarious.  We wrapped the day with a ‘Virtualization BBQ’ that was a chalk talk full of beers.  Apparently the Finns like their beer, just don’t ask them about the Swedes.

It was freezing (-15C), but i got a sneak shopping walk about around downtown Helsinki.  Really tiny place actually.  Sat AM I was up bright and early to get a flight back to London, where it was LHR to Putney.  Dropped bags at hotel and walked via Starbucks on Putney High street to Vesta.  It was the Womens head, so it was packed with boats launching.  I met Barry there and at 1030 we had a Guinness.  We hung there and watched the boats come down the course., and then headed over to Twickenham for the Quin’s rugby game.  Great afternoon with lots of sun, a perfect come from behind win and back to Vesta.  By thhis time the lag was hitting and i was starting to shut down.  1 more Guinness at Vesta and it was time to sleep.

Sunday was another social mania day.  I was up and at Chris and Sara’s for coffee, and I got a chance to meet Eleanor their 8mos old daughter.  Gorgeous little girl.  From there, it was off to Putney and an afternoon with Barry and Lisa and Aoefe, for a Sunday Roast.  Just so awesome seeing those guys.  Then, an evening with Pauly B to have a quiet few pints at the Dukes Head and a pub dinner. 

Monday was a social day, we had planned some customer visits but nothing ended up being confirmed.  So, it was Imperial War Museum , Jermyn Street, Oxford Street and Carnaby Street, before a lap around Piccadilly circus and home.  Another highlight was then having a fantastic curry dinner with Rachel and Duncan, catching up with them was so much fun.

 

 

Tuesday AM was off to Belgium.  Into Brussels and then onto Antwerp.  An absolutely amazing city, with plenty of gorgeous architecture. 

That evening we met the Belgian System Center User Group in possibly the coolest restaurant I have ever seen.  The Het Pomphuis (Pumphouse) was a proper dockyard structure that was used to drain the dock to make a service bay for the ships. 

Victorian metal, massive structure, and decorated to VERY high end classy architecture.  We had amazing fish dinner and conversation with the guys.  It was then into session presentations as well as a run over to Brussels for a 4 hour presentation to the Belgian Post.

           

Belgian Beers Enjoyed on the trip so far: Duval, Orval, Trappist (Trippel)

Checked in online for my flight home tomorrow, cannot wait to see the little guy and of course Daphers…….

Playdates and Portholes

Gav and I (Daphne) have had some fun adventures this weekend. Saturday morning we met up with Gav’s buddy Matthew for a dip at the ProClub. It was Matthew’s first time in the pool and he LOVED it. So he and Gav had a good time splashy around and playing with the intertubes and goggles. In the afternoon we did some errands including a run to Costco where Gav learned about the Costco lunch. Let’s just say samples were in order. The colby cheese was a hit, the garlicky hummous not so much. In the evening, we went over to the Crannas for dinner. Issy had got out some toys especially for Gavin and he had a great time. The transition from dreamland to the car in snow was not particularly peaceful but he got back to sleep just fine in his own crib when we got home.

 Today, we had a bit of a late start and totally disregarded the time change. Gav spent some time re-cataloging the DVD collection before we headed to the new kidszone in Bellevue Square. It was a real hit. Gav was one of the youngest there but he figured it all out. His favorite was the big boat!

The poor neglected blog

Well it’s been more than 2 weeks since our last post. I’m sure there’s some kind of penance you’re supposed to do for that. So what have we been up to? Let’s do the Gav Top 5 List:

1. We’ve been trying some new foods. Blueberries, pash-ghetti and ham sandwich (er, what??) are the favorites. We’ve discovered that stuff doesn’t need to be bite sized. He’s perfectly happy to hold onto something and gnaw away. Last night – green beans. 🙂

2. We’re working on walking. He moves from stationary object to stationary object and likes to walk around holding fingers. No sign of him standing on his own or taking his first steps though.

3. We’re starting the transition process to the toddler room at daycare. This means shoes with soles, reducing the number of bottles during the day, working towards one nap around daycare AND some short visits to meet his new friends. Gav’s bud Spencer is moving to the same room with him so he’ll have an ally.

4. We’ve made a couple of trips to the park. Jury’s still out on whether it’s fun or not. (See swing picture – zero expression…)

5. We’re “helping” with the baby proofing. There is a lot of interest in what’s going on with the gate install and the cabinet locks. He hasn’t figured out the cabinet locks yet – just keeps yanking away then gives up. So it’s not been a source of tears… yet.

Alright, over and out!