Family & Friends

Arturo and I met up with Paul again in San Francisco and spent a few days there with my parents and neighborhood friends before hopping in the car and heading down south for some more visiting.

Grandma Grete and Turo having a stare-off; Paul, Arturo and Grandpa Fernando


David and Elias; Arturo and Elias; Liz and Elias


Kasey and Arturo; Mary and Turo


Vern, Turo and me; Denise and Arturo; Boys and Dads


Paul’s Aunt Susie and Uncle Tom were visiting Cousin Dave and Mee in San Diego and we were so excited to be able to overlap with them and introduce them to Arturo.
The gang; Susie and Arturo; Dave and Paul putting Arturo to the test


Mee recently opened a new gallery in the heart of Little Italy in San Diego. It's beautiful -- stop by if you're in the neighborhood!


A familiar sight: Paul swimming solo in the wintery ocean waves (Ocean Beach, San Diego)


We made a quick stop in Ontario to say hi to Teresa, Fausto and William. Here are two of the three with Paul and Arturo.


From Ontario, we headed to Las Vegas to see Teresa’s twin, Elena, and family. Many of Arturo’s older friends, who have been walking for several years, think it’s fun to go back to crawling when they’re around the little guy. In this picture, 8 year old Christian and 4 year old Elijah give Arturo a head start.


Next stop, brother Arny and fam in Los Angeles. (In case you’re wondering about the order of our travels, no, we didn’t take the most intuitive route but rather the one that allowed us the most time with each of our busy hosts!) Arturo was thrilled to get pj’s that matched Ali’s and also to get matching t’s with his cousin Cam. Though these boys look nothing like Arny or me, they could pass for brothers, right?


We also got to see my brother, Nick, and Brooke in Phoenix and FINALLY met their awesome pooch, Oscar (the boxer)!




If you look very closely at Brooke's belly, you can see there's a little (tiny)lump there. We're all very excited for the spring when we'll get to meet the little guy in there!

We had two more stops before returning to Russia: a quick stay in Seattle, then on to Atlanta for four days to visit with friends there and attend John's (a college friend of Paul's) wedding.

Arturo and me, headed out for oysters at Pike Place Market in Seattle


Sadly, we (again) forgot our camera for all the events surrounding John and Rebecca’s wedding. Hopefully one of Paul’s friends will forward some soon. We did get a picture of Arturo and his wonderful sitter, Wynona. Most of the events we attended in Atlanta were adults-only, so Arturo got in some solid time with Wynona and seemed to love it.