Only you can prevent forest fires.

Marco donned his Park Ranger gear and we hit the road for our cabin in Silver Lake (other side of the mountain from Kirkwood) for a little R, R & R. That's right, Robin, Ryan, Reese (& Steve!) joined us for beautiful weather - albeit a bit smoky - food, drink and fun. Merriment ensued.

Here's the proof:

The mini-Ranger.

The obligatory "baby in the sink at the cabin" photo required of all Kroeck babies. Of course, Marco had a different vision for his shoot. My version won out, but let's just say his wasn't quite so, err... G rated.On the deck...At the beach...

Ryan blessed me with the most fabulous nickname ever. I will forever be "Syrup." "Good Morning Syrup!" Ryan is uber genius. She talks so much, brushes the hair out of her eyes by flipping her head like an adult and boasts a healthy dose of self-esteem, "Don't I look pretty?" Who can resist that?

Bags full of toys were packed so that Reese and Marco could share this one four inch crackly paper. (Thanks cousin Katie!)Thanks for joining us RRR (&S)!

Old news.

I'm a little late to the party on this post, but I didn't want to ruin the surprise!

For Mother's Day, we got together with the cousins for a photo shoot to surprise G-ma Cecchin. The short synopsis is: chaos. The long story is copious clapping, dragging, sitting, dorky faces and "look-up-here's." Joey was running full speed around the studio, Tommy was crawling to the camera like McJagger, Clara was crying (very uncharacteristic of her) and Marco just sat there staring as if to say, "When will I be able to run and crawl and sit up?"

Here's the surprisingly adorable end result:

Runnin' Cuzzin.

Jeff, Marco and I are participating in the Komen San Francisco Race for the Cure with my younger cousin Courtney. Courtney is a strong and funny chick who I'm proud to call my friend. She was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and is currently undergoing treatment.

Please feel free to join us! The Race is Sunday, September 21st. If you can't join us and you still want to help, donate. The Race raises money to fund education, screening and treatment programs in our community and supports the national search for a cure. If you can't do either, just keep her in your thoughts and prayers - she needs that too!

Check out my page. And here's Jeff's page. His isn't cute yet.

Go Team Courtney!

Rock the Vote.

Obama... Johnny boy... blah blah. Take our poll at right.

UPDATE: The polls are closed, the votes are in, the ballots are counted.

Here's what you thought:
19% said "Definitely a Cecchin"
58% said "Definitely an Andreotti"
22% said "A perfect combo (copout)"

Now, I know it's not contest, but if it were, I'd be screaming, "I WON! I WON!"

A Tale of Two Cities

Friday we partied wicked baby hard at the D’Angelos. You can tell it’s a good party when you end up with green teeth.

Saturday, we mellowed and enjoyed Oakland’s warm weather with a walk to breakfast and the Farmer’s Market and then sat on the deck. I decadently read my book and got sunburned – AGAIN! What is my problem? Maybe that I’m so white. Sadly, Marco’s skin seems to more closely resemble my pink splotchy tone than Jeff’s olive complexion, but hey, perfection comes at a price.

Marco met this handsome little boy on Saturday afternoon and had a whole lot of things to say to him. Hope he doesn't fall in the river and drown gazing at his reflection. We headed to the Giants game that evening, 6 o’clock start against the A’s. It was like a scene from a sci-fi movie coming up the BART escalator looking straight up into some twister wind storm. It was FREEZING in the City and the fog was rolling in. Marco actually said, “Seriously Ma and Pops… I’m a baby.”

He made a great point so we scalped the tickets outside (err, allegedly). Jeff knows I’m a total hard ass, so he sent me to haggle. It went like this:

Me: Front row arcade, how much?
Man with cash: Uh, $40?
Me: Sweet!

We took our winnings for a walk and had dinner at Gordon Biersch where they serve beers for less than $9 a pop, with a great view of the game and Marco didn’t have to wear a snowsuit. The End.

These pics are unrelated, but cute anyway. Jeff's birthday... I went ahead and let them spill a pitcher of beer on my white pants so we'd get it for free. What can I say? I'm a team player. Stick with me kid, I'll show you the ways of the world.