Just before Emily turned three, we went to Disneyland with Josh’s parents. I’ve never gone to Disneyland with a kid. It’s fun but different-more about meeting characters, gentle rides, and the overall wonder of the experience.

Minnie was her favorite, so we kinda stalked her.

Emily’s favorite ride: Dumbo. She also liked the carousel, Bug’s Land, Autopia, and the tram ride from the parking lot.

Welcome back to our sadly neglected blog! Like many others, I’ve moved mostly over to Facebook, but for you die-hard blog readers (mostly my dad), here’s a glimpse of our explorations today. The trail is South Hills Open Space.

Emily is two! These pictures are from a visit to Cal Poly’s arboretum.

She was DELIGHTED to finally eat a dessert. (She doesn’t get much sugar, this is not a kid who needs an energy boost.)

Bride and Groom en route to the church:

I’m sure the ceremony was lovely; I missed it because I was Emily-chasing in the courtyard.

Josh’s mom was so pleased that she secretly got the guys matching ties.

I learned that when Emily is in a perpetual state of exhaustion, she will sleep anywhere. Here she is, blissfully asleep for hours at the restaurant.

In short, woo-hoo!

Despite dire warnings about traveling with a 15 month old, we brought Emily along for her first international experience. She actually did very well- it wasn’t nearly the nightmarish scenario I’d been envisioning. We did have a few more adventures than we’d have preferred (the bloody mouth incident, the toddler grabbing the kitchen knife incident, the jet lagged kid waking up for the day at 4 am incidents) but overall she was a trooper.

The city is gorgeous. It has blocks and blocks of ornate buildings like this one:

The view from our fourth floor apartment:

White peacocks in gardens make me happy.

Roaming free makes Emily happy:

My favorite things about Prague:

4. How superfluous cars are. Walking or taking the Metro are the most practical ways of getting around, and I loved it.  You walked to the supermarket. You walk to a restaurant. We even walked/took the Metro to the wedding.

3. Having family who live locally to show you around. Matt and Anna made great tour guides.

2. Amazing design.

1. Family adventures.

This one (used occasionally):

And this one.

Knee walking is by far her preferred way to travel. Apparently this is not a normal baby thing, but Emily’s got her own style and she’s sticking to it. And she doesn’t always crash at the end. She was just being dramatic for the video.

Emily celebrated her first year of life with a party at the park. Such a beautiful day!

Emily’s Grand Cake Smashing was pretty anticlimactic. She dabbed her fingers daintily into the cake, but wasn’t very interested. It would seem it is hard to be hungry when you’ve got giant people staring at you.

Take note of the one-eyebrow-raise. This is the expression people say she gets from me.