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A week was spent in San Jose up with my in-laws and their larger-than-ginormous family.  The occasion was not a happy one, but everyone made the most of it and the comfort of family.

Mary Lois Moriarty (Jen called her Grama ) left us on February 18th, 2010 and she will be sorely missed.  She was such a great person, and you could tell how much she was loved by the people that came together to celebrate her life.  And you always knew if you were part of her “in” crowd if you were fortunate enough to receive  a Christmas stocking from her!

Safe travels, Lois.

So a lot of things have happened since the last post… and even before then.

Microsoft PDC (Professional Developers Conference) was last November, and I was fortunate to be able to go with a few other CygNet employees.

Christmas was crazy, shuffling back and forth between families plus a sick kid ridden with two ear infections…  New Year’s was just as crazy, down in Camarillo – Kai screaming his head off from 10PM to 4am in the hotel like someone was sticking him with needles.

Valentine’s Day was chill, with us hanging out at home and able to go out to dinner the following night (although Jen was really sick and feeling like crap).

And now… here we are… and Kai is almost 11 months old.  Can it really have been almost a year now?

I’m getting old.

It’s funny how fast he’s growing.  I know, it’s only been a month but it seems like he’s changing so fast!  He can smile on purpose now, he’s a master kicker and of course, he’s got lungs on him that let the screaming go on for days.  He looks around a lot more nowadays and still has the explosive concussive blast that lets us know it’s time to change his diaper.  

Jen has started a blog for him, detailing some random events in the Life of Kai.  Check it out!

There is a new addition to the youngest Pong family!  Kai Choi Pong was born on Friday, April 17th at 8:44am after a 12-hour labor.  He was delivered into this world at French Medical Hospital in San Luis Obispo, CA.

Jen’s water broke around 8:30PM on Thursday, April 16th and after a quick call to the doctor we headed down to the hospital.  Jen’s contractions had just started to kick in once we got to French and we had no idea what was in store for us!  Jen decided to go au-natural and went through the entire labor unmedicated – truly crazy, she is amazing!

What was in store for us after 12 hours of extremely painful labor was a healthy 7lb. 15 oz. baby boy!  He’s been such an amazing thing to come into our lives, although not without his share of keeping us up at all hours of the night!  Now, our entire lives are dedicated to his safety and well-being. 

Yay for baby Kai!

Jen and I went out by the golf course and took some pics – trees with shade are a definite plus!  The preggo belly is definitely getting to be large – growing a little Pongie looks like hard work!

There was a single flash camera left  on full power, about 45 degrees.

Mom and Dad came down to visit this weekend, and they brought/cooked a TON of food!  Yay!  Nothing like comfort food to help you along while your wife is pregnant… that doesn’t sound right.

Jen wanted a pic of us before the baby came since we most likely won’t have a chance to see my parents until after little Pongie is born.

You can see from the shadows, flashes were camera left and camera right, about 30 degrees (i think) from us.

We drove up to Prunedale today and met Mom and Dad, then caravan’ed to San Jose – dropped the truck off at Mike and Mary’s, and then met Gene and Kristine for lunch.  Had a little coffee afterwards then headed back home.  Quick little day trip, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

Stopped in Santa Barbara for the CygNet dinner party.  It was good, drunken times.  Well… not for me, I ran around and took pictures of everything.  And they let me!  

Here, Chris Smith took the camera from me.  I am flanked by Mike and Chris here (from left to right).  Good times, good times… there were hula dancers, their male equivalent, and a dude tossing around a fire baton.  He set his can of kerosene on fire… THAT was interesting.  

All in all, it was a great time between The Getty and this (the food was tasty) I had an excellent day.  My only wish would have been that Jen could have come along with us.

Took a nice trip up to Tahoe for a snowboarding weekend.  Marcia was gracious enough to let us use the cabin, so we all had a nicely affordable place to stay.  

We had a bit of a conversation trying to figure out who was going to get chains, if anyone had 4WD, etc. when Mike and Mary offered to let us use the truck to get everything up there (sweet!).  The truck worked out perfectly and had plenty of room to hold all of our stuff as well as all the people we were carpooling with.  I believe that I broke the brakes though.  Well, they need to be replaced.  I think.  I don’t know.

Du, John, and Zack had never snowboarded before so Dave, Phil, and I took them out to Heavenly on Saturday and showed them the ropes.  Not bad, they all had it down by the end of the day.  Just three of us went to Sierra at Tahoe on Sunday.  We finished and made it back in time to watch the Super Bowl.

Much Rock Band and Wii gaming was done, as well as alcohol consumption.  What a great weekend!

Thanks for taking the pic, Du.

Mike and Mary treated us all to a nice relaxing weekend at the Carmel Valley Lodge, the same place that we had a nice weekend a couple years ago.  Its out in Carmel Valley (obviously) and is close to a nice tiny downtown area, a lot of restaurants, and even more wineries.  Monterey County has some great wineries (not as great as Paso though!) and this place seems like a good place to start.  Just like last time we were there, it was raining pretty good but that didn’t deter us from having a great time.  Although we didn’t make it to any tasting rooms, I definitely did not miss out on “tasting” some good wine and some good beer.

We also got to celebrate Dave’s birthday, which is on Tuesday.  The big Three-Oh.  You’re gettin’ old, Dave!  I mean.. Happy Birthday, Dave!