The visit to Utah

We spent our brief trip to Utah visiting with family.

This is Zola's aunt Rachelle and her cousin Matt.


We thought the nexus of the Universe might come to a jarring halt when Zola Rae met Zola Rae. This is Jana's aunt and Zola's namesake. She's an artist - check out some of her paintings on the wall behind the two Zolas (Zolae in Latin).



We stopped briefly in St. George to visit Dirk's grandparents (Zola's great-grandparents), Par and Marme. We hope Zola ends up with Marme's pretty blue eyes and reddish hair.



A snowmobile ride at Oakley, but Zola wasn't invited. She was busy inside playing Guitar Hero with Mandy and Richard.

Ojai, California

Ojai might be the coolest place in the world. Ojai's mayor attributes the city's coolness to its favorite daughter, Nordhoff High School Hall-of-Famer Jana Rae.

One of Zola's favorite things to do was take a run in the late morning hours through town.


The Ojai Valley trail - where we did our running. It goes all the way from Ojai to Ventura (13+ miles). Notice the buzzard in the Eucalyptus tree


The post office tower is Ojai's best known landmark.


Zola liked the fountain in Libbey Park, as well as shopping in the arcade you see in the background.

Heading west for the holidays

Zola's an experienced traveler now, and handled the airplane ride to California with ease. She really enjoyed the in-flight movie, Rush Hour 3.



Zola's first Christmas was in Ojai.


After opening presents, we headed to the beach in Ventura.


We spent most of the time in California lounging around.





Zola really took a liking to Grandma Rigby


We spent a lot of time with the Dottls in Ventura. Natalie, who is less than 4 weeks older, is Zola's new BFF. Since Natalie's parents were better photographers than Zola's, we invite you to check out Natalie’s blog for more awesome action-packed photos of the young BFF's.


We did venture out one night and drove down to Hollywood to visit the Griffith J. Griffith (yes, that was his real name) Observatory in L.A. The view was spectacular and Zola liked staying up late. She missed Ed.

For those of you (Mandy) who like to see other kinds of "stars" in Hollywood, the Griffith is a good place to start.

Chow Time

Zola's a really good eater (so far).

Here's the first time she tried rice cereal.


Here's the first time she tried In-N-Out Burger (with Grandpa Rigby).


Sharing a sandwich at Oakley.

Rhett and Kim: Expert Babysitters

Rhett and Kim babysat while Dirk and Jana celebrated a five-year anniversary. They celebrated by going to Wal-Mart to buy some baby spoons and rice cereal. Is the honeymoon finally over?

How should we caption this picture?

Seattle

This is Zola's first airplane ride. Luckily we didn't have any neighbors sitting next to us. I think her worm she is holding onto kept her from getting too scared.



Zola loved her cousins Nick, Chase, and Zach. But she loved her Uncle Jeff most of all. Unfortunately we don't have any good pictures of Aunt Shauna, but she was there too.



Many of you might not recognize Bob. Bob is a friend of Zach's who took a liking to little Z-Rae. It was hard to keep them apart the whole trip.

What the elf?

Left-to-right: Chase, Nick, Zack, Zola

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1142548377

Be patient. It's worth the wait.

It worked better for me in Internet Explorer than in Firefox.