After a long, winter blogging hybernation, we have emerged! Things are going well in the Bolz household. In March Carter celebrated his first birthday (see gallery pics). Our birthday boy was mostly puzzled by all of the orange balloons (a la basketball theme) and people milling about. Then the birthday prince fell asleep half way through and we didn't get a chance to let him try the cake, open presents, or sing Happy Birthday to him. Sigh. One year-olds... what can you do?

The weather is warming up here in sunny Cali, which I'm certain is tied to one's outlook on life. I am convinced the oranges have never been sweeter, the roses never so vibrant and blooming, the lilies never more majestic. Thanks to our citrus juicer (thank you, Grammie Bunkie!) and our chest freezer in the garage, there is always fresh lemonade in the fridge. Clayton and I spent a few hours last Saturday planting our first ever vegetable garden - complete with 6 tomato plants, 5 bell peppers (3 red, 2 green), 2 summer squash, 2 zucchini, 4 cucumber plants. We are eagerly looking forward to boysenberry season just around the corner, followed by peaches/plums/nectarines. It's a great time to be alive.

Clayton is still working around the clock, but can occasionally be lured away with food. :) With all of the fresh fruits and vegetables in the works, I plan to do more and more "luring" in the coming months.

I've found a true joy in choreographing. I worked on MUSIC MAN this past winter and am working on CHARLIE BROWN now. Will start PRODUCERS July/August this year. Who knew?

Carter continues to be such a light in our lives. Every single morning when I open the door to his room and see him standing in his crib smiling at me my heart just melts. I don't think there has ever been a happier boy alive. And he and Clayton have made rough housing in the family room a nightly tradition. If I could only bottle the happiness and share it with others - the giggles and happy squeals can be heard throughout the house! And we go on a family outing every Saturday morning. Clayton jogs, I ride the bike alongside, and Carter enjoys the view from the jogging stroller. It's such a nice way to get fresh air and do something together as a family.

Carter's still huge and riding that 98th percentile wave. He's also the most UN-picky eater - not surprising given his size - he eats absolutely everything we give him. He also likes the oranges from the backyard - they are his favorite. But something tells me he's going to like the boysenberries, too...

Life is good!

Family at Chelsea and Jared's bowling alley

Hello Everyone,

First of all I want to welcome Lydia into mortality. I can't wait to see her. Carter can't wait either. Get well Jennifer. After watching Afton go through labor only confirmed, once again, my gratitude for being a male and not having to go through labor. I'm much rather be on the sideline trying to make myself useful, or in Rob's case getting chewed on, than
have to go through the actual labor. Thanks for the pics Jen and Rob. Keep them coming.
The highlight of the month for Afton and I was going to Utah over Labor Day weekend. We had a fun time seeing
everyone and getting caught up. Except for Jared, I think we saw too
much of him. (Those on the Dad's boat know what I'm referring to). It
had been a while since we've made it to Utah during the summer and we
finally got to see Dad's big toy, Lazy Daze. Carter had a lot of fun
playing with his cousins, Tyler and Brady. It was fun watching him
interact with other kids his same age. It was a fun trip even though
it was a bit physically draining. I got something while I was out
there. Mom thinks it was allergies, which runs in the family. I would
hate to admit that's the root cause. Afton and Carter caught a same
thing while we were there but to a lesser degree. But now we're back
home, healthy, and into our routine again. We have learned to love the
routine and are working on refining it. It seems pretty busy but we
have fun with it. A normal weekday with no special event scheduled is
something like this (and yes, Carter is sleeping through the night,
thankfully):

-Wake up
- Afton gets Carter ready for the day
-Go on quick family walk to the park (Clayton does pull-ups, Carter stares down by-passers, Clayton and Afton catch up)
-Get ready for work (Clayton drops Carter off at day care)
-Work
-Afton gets Carter from daycare
-Go on walk again (optional)
-Dinner
-Carter baths and eats
-Carter goes to bed
-Watch Oreilly Factor
-Clayton works on Stratplace
-Sleep


On another note, Afton and I got new shutters installed on all the
windows on the front side of the house and new hardware for the
kitchen. They both look great and help the house look much more
updated.
We're happy and moving along here in San Jose. I hope everyone is doing well. We look forward to hearing from everyone.

-Clayton

Well - we aren't the best at blogging it seems! It's been a little while!!

We've been pretty busy in the daily grind of things. We're both working full time, Clayton is still working with the start up (an additional 20 hrs a week). I take care of Carter while he does his "2nd job." And... we decided to rent our condo. We had a short term renter and just moved in a longer term set of renters last Sat. I never REALLY thought we'd ever be landlords... and certainly never thought we would be landlords in the Bay Area but what can you do? It's funny how things work out sometimes. But needless to say it's been pretty busy around here and we're getting into the routine of things, albeit a very busy routine. We were talking the other night and we've decided we wouldn't know what it would be like to just have 1 job, or what it would be like to not have a huge list of things to do after work each night! I guess things will just be a little nutty for a while.

The "moving in" and organizing at our house is moving slowly but surely. We are hoping to have our living room put together in the next couple of weeks. The boxes in the garage are slowly dissipating to where you can actually see garage floor! We aren't yet at the point where we can pull a car into the garage, but we'll get there someday. :)

Our baby is healthy and growing (like a weed!) and we're both healthy and happy so things are good. We try and squeeze in an occasional date night or fun walk to the park when we can. Last night I made fresh lemonade from the lemons off the tree in the backyard, picked a TON of grapes and cut up some of our apples. There's a sort of rustic-ness about growing your own food and I think we've decided it's the simple joys that we're most grateful for - seeing our baby smile when he 1st wakes up in the morning, watching our lilies grow, fresh roses in the bedroom, a glass of homemade lemonade. There are so many little miracles all around us - we're having fun enjoying them!

This last month is full of new updates for the Clayton, Afton, and Carter family. We moved into our new home in the neighboring city of San Jose. The house is located about 8 blocks from eBay
headquarters where I work. My commute is literally 5-8 minutes! I
love it. I like to avoid Bay Area traffic whenever and however I can.

Afton and I have been busy making the home our own by painting and
moving in all the stuff that we have been able to accumulate over the past 4-5 years. We are just about settled in now even though there are hundreds of things we would eventually like to do to this place. We are getting a large amount of boysenberries and I took Mom up on her recommendation to make boysenberry freezer jam. It's pretty good --especially on ice cream. Our cat, Spartacus, has already gotten in a cat fight with a neighboring cat in our back yard. I hate to inform everyone that he lost the battle and got a nice scratch (or hole) on his back. We had to take him to the vet and they did an operation on him. He has now been wearing a coned collar and consistently runs into doors, walls, couches, and everything else in his way. It's a little
sad but it is also provides many hours of entertainment.

On a professional note, Afton just went back to work yesterday and we've found a good day care solution with a Peruvian
family. They only speak Spanish in their house, which we like. We
think it will expose Carter to some different cultures and customs.

I've been busy working with eBay. We've been launching some new
interesting features to eBay's website (right on the homepage) and I've been one of the chief architects on the solutions, which has been giving me some good exposure. If you're interested in the details give me a call. As for my spare time, I'm still doing some side work for a Bay Area start-up. It's a new website (content aggregator) for business execs. We're planning on going live with our Beta site in about a month.

Afton and I are also continuing to adapt as new parents. We find ourselves talking about new subjects such as: 'How many poops did Carter have today?' and 'What color and texture was it?' I'm also starting to believe in Karma because Carter has been going on a throw up rampage and I've favorite his target. If all the
stories that Mom and Dad have told of me throwing up are true then we definitely know where Carter got this habit from.

New pics posted in the gallery of our boy - check it out!

A few shout outs:

Congrats to Jared for his graduation!
Happy Birthday to Rick!
We're looking forward to seeing Dad & Kelli this weekend
Go Celtics (bring back the legacy)

Love,
Clayton, Afton, and Carter