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Anxious to take advantage of the my Dad’s great guest house, we headed down to Hermosa Beach again for another week of fun, sun and to spend some more time with our family and friends down there. We had a really good time. We went to Morton’s for my birthday dinner and had some great food and wine. My dad, Austin, and I took Elise and Chloe to Disneyland one morning for some rides and to see the princesses. I was able to surf most of the days we were there but it was really small. It doesn’t seem to break down there as well as it did when I was a kid. I guess the sandbars have washed away. All in all, it was a relaxing trip and a good way for Jenny to recharge before she goes back to work later this month.

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We headed down to visit the family and get some sunshine down in Hermosa Beach for the week of Father’s Day. Dad really out-did himself fixing up his guest apartment for us. He just had it completely refurnished, equipped, and stocked up for us. It was awesome.

It was great to see everyone and to enjoy some good weather. I managed to grill dinner for 12 on Father’s Day. I made Jamaican Jerk pork tenderloin with all the fixings. I even managed to get a brief surfing session in. We want to get down again soon to enjoy the guest apartment and see everybody some more.

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Lily turned 1 month old this week. She is doing great. Elise is enjoying having a little sister and she has been helping out. Lily is starting to smile a bit. I am still trying to capture it on camera. She still eats every few hours so Jenny isn’t get a lot of sleep at night but it is getting better.

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Lily Ann Van Huisen was born at 1:07 pm on Monday, April 14th. She was 8 pounds, 4 ounces. Jenny and Lily are both doing great! Elise is thrilled to have a little sister. We are now looking forward to when Lily will be sleeping through the night.

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Our second baby is due imminently so I am packing my bags for the hospital. I am bringing a gadget bag and a clothes bag.

We held our Second Annual Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday. Thanks to fact that Elise had not completely developed her long-term memory when we did this last year, we were able to reuse all of the same hiding spots this year. It was a lot of fun watching her excitement as she found, open, and ate the contents of each egg.

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I took Elise to the Koret Children’s Quarter in Golden Gate Park yesterday. It consist of a large playground and San Francisco’s oldest carousel (recently restored to its original glory). The playground was pretty amazing, a large network of steps, chains, platforms, hiding spots, and slides. There are climbing walls made to look like waves and two large concrete slides that the kids were going down on cardboard. We had a lot of fun playing there for a couple hours. Afterwards, I took her across the street for her first Happy Meal.

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I went to Napa with Jon and Jim yesterday. We started off with an appointment at Quixote Winery, a smaller winery that specializes in Petite Syrahs. The winery was brilliantly designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian artist.

After Quixote, we stopped for tastings at Miner and St. Clement, where I picked up a selection of half-bottles.

A day of drinking red wines made the three of us hungry for steak so we arranged a meeting with Jill at the Bing Crosby Restaurant in Walnut Creek. We started off with cocktails and then I quickly laid waste to a platter of Oysters Rockefeller and a delicious Bone-In Rib Eye.

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Jenny’s pregnancy is coming along nicely. She is seven and a half months pregnant now and looks great! The due date is April 14th.

I dragged Jenny and Elise to WonderCon last weekend. Elise was intrigued solely by the prospect of seeing Princess Leia (that’s my girl). There was some interesting stuff at the event, including some movie premieres and sneak peeks along with some previews of upcoming video games. Fun stuff for nerds like me.

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