What have we been up to?

Weston with his friends and their mommies. I love his tongue!

Ashton on a play date with his friends from preschool

Painting!

Getting into moms make-up

Climbing and the park

Enjoying 75 degree weather

It has been great having such a warm winter.

We can't get enough of parks, bike riding and our back yard.

Ashton is still beyond enjoying preschool. He can't get enough and has really excelled. He has made so many friends and I have really enjoyed the friendships I have made with the moms of his friends. He also is in love with sunbeams and likes primary.

Weston is still a little guy, but growing quickly. We have loved the Mommy and Me group that we are in (we go on the days Ashton is at school) and he loves his friends too! It's an extra bonus that he sees them in nursery too!

San Diego has been treating us fabulous and we are getting everything out of our time here.

We should know our next assignment soon-hopefully Tokyo, but we will keep our fingers crossed.

Thank you San Diego police, but most of all for Tommy

Who here is like me and can't watch their local news before bed (or anytime for that matter)?
I am a diligent G.M.A. fan and enjoy my morning updates on world matters, but hate hearing about what's happening in my city.
Recently here in San Diego a "groper" has been on the loose and has been singling out women joggers/walkers. I know these types of people are everywhere and can "strike" at any time, but hearing about it numerously and hearing that it's around close neighborhoods just makes me even more nervous.
So today when I returned from mommy and me with Weston, my heart skipped a beat when I saw an unfamiliar guy in an unfamiliar car sitting about 30 feet away from our house parked in a visitor spot.
In our neighborhood, it's easy to get familiar with the cars that are usually parked around and about, so that was the first red flag-unusual car, unusual guy.
This was at 10:30.
I told myself that he was probably just waiting for someone and would be gone soon.
At 11:10, I walked out to the driveway, put Weston in the car to go pick up Ashton from school and still noticed the car parked with the window down and the guy still sitting inside.
I then noticed that there wasn't a rear license plate on his vehicle.
As I pulled down the street, I glanced in the rear view mirror right after I passed him and saw that there wasn't a license plate on the front of his car either. Hmmm, kind of scary.
After observing that all I could think about was why was he there and why did he have an unmarked car?
My only answer was that he obviously didn't want someone taking down his plates to report him to the cops.
When I pulled into our neighborhood after getting Ashton (slightly hoping he was gone, but knew that would probably freak me out and keep me up at night even more) I rounded our street and there he was. Still sitting in his car, with the window down. As I passed he just kind of stared at us. No smile or wave or friendly acknowledgement whatsoever.
I got inside and started making lunch and decided to talk to Tommy about the ordeal.
Without any hesitation he came home, checked it out as he was pulling down our street and then decided to call the cops.
I forgot to mention that we could see the guy in his car from an upstairs window in our house, so as Tommy was talking to the dispatcher, he was literally telling him the exact description of the guy and car and what he was doing. The cops were concerned that he was casing the neighborhood and houses. After he got off of the phone Tom came downstairs to tell me what was going on then returned to the upstairs "lookout point" to see what the guy was doing.
He was gone. The window was now rolled up and the car was empty.
Great. Now what will the police do? I wanted to know why the guy was there so that I could get on with my day (and life) without being paranoid and scared.
10 minutes later the cops arrived and started casing the car.
Literally 3 minutes after they arrived the owner (a.k.a. creepy guy) came outside of a house 2 lots down from ours (I think) and the cops started talking to him. After the mystery man drove off, Tommy went outside to see what the story was.
Thankfully he was an "at home counselor" doing a house call and his couple never showed up. And about the unmarked Subaru? He had just bought it. I guess after checking the cars v.i.n. # and calling his office number found on the I.D. badge he presented the officers his story checked out.
The whole time I was hoping that this is what was going on. I was hoping that he was just waiting for someone. It just seemed a little strange that it was for 2 + hours.

I am really thankful that I have never really had to live in fear because of the neighborhood I live in. I'm thankful to have good friends and family who are honest and live good lives so I don't worry about scary things.
I know the world is filled with horrible things, many of which are happening right under our noses.
Today I am thankful for the good in the world. The policemen who came to check out some suspicious behavior and also for Tommy who kept me safe, calm and let me know everything would be ok. At one point while we waited for the police Tommy could tell that I was nervous and scared and immediately reassured me and told me that he had numerous F.B.I. friends and colleagues that would be here in 30 seconds with guns and haul the guy away if we needed it.
He never hesitated or ignored my concerns. Instead he took control and handled everything.
Thank you T. You keep our family safe and we love you for that.

Disney 1-1-11 (and San Diego Children's Museum)

These Disneyland pictures are mixed in with the boys at the San Diego Children's Museum.

We thought that we would wait until this next summer to take the kids to Disney, but while we were at the children's museum, we got a call from Tommy's boss offering us 4 free passes to Disney! How could we say no?

After enjoying a full day downtown at the museum, we rested up and headed out the following day (New Years day) to L.A. for some fun!

It was a blast to say the least! All of us had so much fun!

Ashton was tall enough to ride roller coasters and he couldn't get enough. I think all of our favorite was the Buzz Lightyear ride!

As it got dark, we got our seats for the Christmas parade. The boys were able to see a lot of their favorite characters.

We even spotted a celebrity (Teri Hatcher) on the train with us.

What a fun, full day. We can't wait to go back and see more.