Walt, Leslie and Maya's 2007 Christmas Card

Shoveling snow in early 2007. Maya was a little too small to go downhill sledding, but she did enjoy having mommy and daddy pull her through the yard on a mini-sled. In summer she got her own green car which she liked get in and get out of, over and over.

We enjoyed visiting some of our old stomping grounds in San Diego in February, including lots of beach time and many fish tacos. This beach was a short walk from our rental place in South Mission Beach. Maya played a lot in the sand, but only a little in the cold water. (more about SD in the Travels section)

Maya really likes Yoga Kids videos and doing yoga before bedtime with daddy. Mommy already has a little tumbler inside her so she is passing on the diffucult yoga moves like 'Turtle' which Maya is currently showing you how to do.

In the late fall we took, Maya, a big fan of Thomas and the other trains, on her first real fall foliage train ride. The leaves were delayed in changing this year due to the dry summer and warm fall but it was interesting to watch the cars, people and houses passing by outside the windows.

Maya is getting to know the holidays better. Here we around Halloween heading to Zoo-Boo. Remarkably she was the only Monkey that we saw there, although we saw lots of other animals -- real and pretend.

Christmas at Grandpa O'Dell's house ended with Maya quietly reading a new Charlie Brown Christmas book, in contrast to the previous hour or more of helping everyone locate and open their presents!

We made it to Tennessee in July for the annual Zimmerman family reunion. This is at Falls Mill in Belvidere TN, near where Grandpa Zimmerman grew up. We spent a week there with Cousin Mary and had a memorable visit to Cousin Don Shadow's endangered/exotic plant and animal conservatory. It just occurred to us that we did not see either of Leslie's sisters for the entirety of 2007, but that should be rectified shortly as sister Wendy is planning on making her first trip out here in early March.

In February we went to San Diego for a Medical Imaging conference. We flew in and out of San Jose, visiting with Leslie's parents and old friends while we were out there. We drove with Maya down and back in Jim and Elizabeth's green van. We spent much time at the beach and eating every kind of favorite Mexican cuisine. We made a day trip to Torrey Pines park with the lab crew (L to R: me, Leslie, Maya, Dave, Rob, Anitha and Erika)

On our Anniversary we took a weekend trip to Uncle Roger and Aunt Diane's farm. Maya got to see real cows and chickens and we got to catch up on things with Maya's Great Aunt and Uncle.

We left the farm and went up to camp in the Adirondacks. We stopped by a new Adirondack Nature center and saw the park when the leaf colors were just about optimal. This was Maya's first camping experience, although we practiced a couple times earlier camping out and making smores in the backyard.

Although Walt thought that digging out this stump was a big deal at the time, this year's home project sheet was dominated by the big foundation-digging project (next image). On the inside of the house we did manage to install one new window in the guest bedroom, along with the usual new wiring, outlets, insulation and (best of all) built-in ceiling lights! Our plan for the coming year is to re-do the upstairs bath.

What was supposed to be a 3-weekend gig instead took 3 months, working most weekends and after taking several days off from work to go at it full-time it still goes on. The idea was to install a gravity-fed drain pipe leading from the basement floor to the lake to make the basement dryer, less humid, and, by insulating, warmer. While there, might as well run electrical lines to the boat house and to/from the to-be-installed windmill, and extra drain pipes from the roof gutters. Walt then dug, by hand, to and around the foundation, eliminating massive concrete and stone blocks as needed. Extending the trench to the lake will wait till spring and rented backhoe will help with that.

We found the strawberry picking to be very good at a local, Pultneyville farm: Lagoners. While the summer was very dry and many places had only small, and few berries, here they had irrigation lines for each row, plus it is farther from the city so there was no crowd and plenty of berries left for us. We then took them home for the annual ice-cream making and shortcake eating event.

Happily Maya liked riding in the back of the big bicycle. Walt and her took weekly trips down to the Pultneyville Pickle for a cookie and/or muffin, and sometimes a fresh apple along the way, although Maya fell asleep more than once on the ride back. A big storm in the early summer swept away our paddleboat and it was never found again. Our mini-dock was also washed away but was found and retrieved from 6 houses down.

Christmas at the O'Dell's was well attended, with even Uncle Brian making the journey for some snowtime. The annual Christmas day bloated waffles party was held at our house. We're taking reservations already for next year -- RSVP ASAP.

Maya is also more aware of holidays like Christmas and she seems to understand that everybody gets presents, although it is her duty of course to help open everyone's presents for them.

Grandma and Grandpa California (Zimmerman) came out for their yearly visit, giving a hand in teaching Maya important things and helping around the house and yard. The fishing was exceptionally poor this year as neither Jim nor I landed any bass worthly of eating. Grandma and Grandpa Dewhirst had one afternoon where they got several good sized fish, but it was pretty much limited to just that one day.

Click each wreath ornament above to see a bigger picture and read a story. If you make your browser as big as possible; you won't be sorry.
Year 2 of the Mayan calendar is nearly done. In it Maya learned how to throw rocks, climb, jump and run.
Although 2007 seemed to us pretty busy, when Maya's little brother arrives in February we'll really be in a tizzy :)
Leslie is a full-time mommy, and is looking forward to doubling her effort. Walt's lab now has 4 funded projects so spare time is short.
We did not travel much in 2007, apart from trips to San Diego and Tennessee, but in mid-May we'll be going to Italy for Anitha's wedding, and then off to gay Paris'.
We'd love to catch up everyone on our European journey, especially if you can accommodate 2 toddlers and at least one adult probably by then in need of a gurney.