More fun Max stuff

Max has been having all kinds of fun wear testing product from Mommy's work. I love this little fashion photo of him testing some fancy UGG slippers. Funny that you'd need sheepskin in Southern CA .... but he loves them.


These Teva Mush sneakers are his new 'go to' shoe. They are flip flops on the bottom with a sneaker upper. He LOVES these shoes ! He tells me he can run and jump very fast in them.


Max got his first bicycle! It's a balance bike; so there are no pedals. Mostly he walks his bike around right now, but he's learning to sit on it and push with his feet. It's all so very exciting!

This is after a very good day on the bike ... totally just crashed out on the floor for over an hour. So funny!

One of the other super fun things about where we live is the Railroad Museum right around the corner. They have these super cool mini trains that we can ride around. We go here a LOT! You just can never get enough trains if you're Max.


Max and Daddy having fun at Goleta Depot.

The best recent fun thing was a visit from Auntie Paula! Max just loved having being all chatty with her and playing. Auntie Paula has taugh him to say, "Toot toot ...hey ... beep beep!" Pretty funny.

Awesome August

It has been a totally awesome August! The boxes are finally unpacked in our new house in Goleta, and it's starting to feel more and more like home.


Max is having a blast, becoming a true California. We were lucky enough to have Max's cousin, Bobby, come out to visit from Texas. Max loved having him around as he was a terrific playmate.



Bobby was so good with Max! He got right in there and played trains, wrestled and all that kind of "boy stuff".





I think Bobby enjoyed himself as well. Who knows, maybe UCSB is in his future. Either way, it was super fun to have "cousin time". Come on back soon!


Deckers Family Picnic



We went to our first Deckers Family Picnic at the Santa Barbara Zoo! WOW! What a BLAST! The company rented out the zoo, so from 4pm-7pm, the entire zoo was ours! There was a great BBQ and all kinds of fun activities and games for everyone. Couldn't have had a better time.


Of coarse, our favorite part of the zoo is always the train! Max and Daddy are excited waiting for our turn to ride. Which was free for Deckers... woohoo!


Boy, we sure do get very excited about riding the train. It just never gets old!

Max got his face painted for the first time. There were so many to choose from, but Max chose a basketball. Such a boy!

face paint!

There was also a huge blow up slide, jumper thingie for the party. Oh boy, that was a scream! Max was all over that thing.

The slide was super fast and Max loved every second of it. He must have gone down that thing a hundred times.

Coming from N. Idaho, this just made me laugh. This is how California does sledding: astro turf and a cardboard box. The irony here is, we tried to get Max to like real sledding, with snow and all while in Idaho. He was never really interested in it and normally would end up crying.

But, California sledding, in shorts and barefoot, is an entirely different story! Now, that is fun! Max was going down that hill like there was no tomorrow.

It's even more fun when Daddy goes down with you! Seriously one of the best times I've had in a while. What a great party!

Grandpops!

Grandpops came to visit for a few days. Max was in his glory! Grandpops is a complete push over when it comes to this kid... and Max capitalizes on it. I just love to watch the two of them together. Such mutual admiration.

We had fun exploring the Mission.

And Max was stoked to swim with Grandpops in the pool. Grandpops was such a good sport; he got totally waterlogged as Max just continued to play... and splash!

St. Raphael's Preschool

We're most excited about starting preschool again. We found a great place close to home and Max is thrilled to be back to school. He was also particularly excited about his new Ugg boots from Mommy's work. He is such a California boy already .... Ugg boots and shorts. I just love it!

Max's favorite things about school are: musical instruments, basketball, playground, lots of kids, and trains to play with.

Wonderful day for the Beach

We had a great day at the beach. Aunty Amy took us to her favorite spot. Max was happy to be hanging out with his buddy, and that he could travel in style with Aunty Amy carrying him on the difficult parts. Lucky boy!



Max LOVES to throw rocks! He spent the majority of his time tossing the rocks into the surf. He's a little afraid of the waves and runs away from them, but the beach is true bliss for him. You can tell he's Tommy's boy!



Thank you Amy for coming and visiting us today; it was really wonderful. I love this picure, just think it's so sweet and tender. I figure Amy will have Max trained for find sea glass before we know it.

Max and Jax ... farewell Idaho!

Before we left Idaho, we were lucky enough to have Jackie of Jax Creations come to our house for another shoot with Max. Jackie has done all his photos since he was born ... now little mister is 3!! Even though Jackie is very pregnant and supposed to be being very mellow, she was generous enough to visit us. Everyone knows what a fan I am of her work. If you're in the Sandpoint area, she is, undoubtedly the BEST!

Thank you for being so wonderful to our family Jackie! So glad we have FB to keep us close. God bless you and the new bundle of joy you're carrying.



Max LOVES his slide and playhouse Grandpa got for him. He would want to have lunch in his house all the time. You can just see pure joy on his face.


My sweet Max! Couldn't you just eat him up?

This series really shows the bliss that Max has with his playhouse.

all photos by Jax Creations

July 4th, 2011

Independence Day already?? Where is 2011 going? I guess with all the changes going on in the Rowell family, it's expected for time to be going quickly.

We had to move into a hotel for the long weekend; our temp housing was booked. So we spent a lot of time packing and unpacking. Sure do carry a lot of stuff when you have a 3 year old.

The hotel had a pool, which made Max so very happy. He was like a fish, didn't want to get out of the water. I reminded Tommy that we have a pool at our new pad at Willow Springs. Max will be in his glory! Thank God we get to move in 2 weeks. We're ready to settle!


Max "swimming" with Daddy at the pool.



oh so much fun!

Good sign that Max will a better swimmer than Mama.

California here I come! Right back where I started from...

WOW! So much has changed since my last post! We no longer live in beautiful Sandpoint, Idaho! We have moved to Goleta, CA for my new job at Deckers Outdoor Corp. We're very excited to be back in the area and it's great to be close to all our Ventura friends and family. It's a mixed bag, very happy for the new opportunity at a crazy rad company, but also a little sad to leave our first home and friends we love so much.

We just loved this home in Sandpoint.

What a great yard and beautiful view of the mountains. It is beyond beautiful!

My lilacs gave me a beautiful going away present by blooming like they never had before! Our back fence was a lilac extravaganza. I was in heaven!

And DOG... well, how can we not miss this darling face!! I had all I could do not to dognap him and bring him with us to CA. We love him so much... by the look on his face, I think he'll miss us too.

Max's best friend, Chloe,will be greatly missed. She was so nice to come over and give Max a bunch of going away presents, including this drum. He just loves Chloe so much, we're going to have to work on the Parisians to come visit soon.

Rowan and Max were just really starting to hit it off as we were preparing to leave. Max looks at his pictures all the time and asks for Rowan. Nice for him to have a dude to hang out with.


Uncle Brian and Fergus were generous enough to let us stay with him for a few nights before we left town. I'm sure he won't make that mistake again. A three year old can really take over any space. Brian is probably the hardest person to "leave", although we know we will see him at least at Christmas time back in Boston. We will also be begging him to visit us as much as possible.

CA has it's perks. This is our temporary housing until our condo is ready in a couple of weeks. It's totally fabulous and we're blessed to have a great yard for Max to play in and not be cooped up in some econo-lodge.

We've already signed up for the annual family pass to the Santa Barbara Zoo. Max just loved it there. The animals were great, but he could have just ridden the train all day and been totally good with that. I have a feeling we're going to spend a LOT of time here. Lucky us!

We also have the perks of being close to so many friends and family. Amy might already be sick of us. Max is totally infatuated with her.

We went to see Max's first movie, Cars 2. It was a blast! He was so excited, that he just couldn't take it anymore. Feel asleep about 20 min before the movie ended. How stinkin' cute is that?

All in all, once the dust settles and we're in our new place, this is going to be a fantastic move for the family. I promise to keep this updated more regularly, but it's obviously been a busy couple of months.

Easter 2011

Easter is such a wonderful holiday! We have so many blessings in the Rowell family to be grateful for. Thank you Lord for taking such good care of us!


We went to an Easter egg hunt at our local garden center. They had 2500 eggs to find and the place was packed with kids and fun activities. Max just loved the idea of being able to eat chocolate with reckless abandon!



Playing Easter games. Toss the bucket over the fence and it comes back filled with a present. Pretty good deal for a 3 year old; he thought it was great!




And luckily, we finally had some spring time weather! Beautiful, sunny warm day ... well, warm is relative. We were just happy we saw the sun and it wasn't snowing!


Easter morning was a lot of fun. Max really liked his Easter bucket o goodies. We went to church at 8am and did our basket after. He loved church!! He stood on the chair and danced for all the songs. Really doesn't get any cuter than that!

The Easter basket had some candy; but also a prayer book, recorder, a couple of wooden toy whistlers, a super cool flash light/glow stick and the special edition Easter hot wheels muscle car.

The most exciting part for Max, was finally getting the Thomas the Train bridge he's been coveting. This bridge is displayed in a few of his Thomas books, so he's always pointing at it saying, "I wanna see bridge!"

Luckily the Easter bunny heard those wishes! Max adores his new bridge and played with it for a long time! Very sweet. You can also see the cool turtle puzzle Uncle Brian gave Max for Easter.

All in all ... so much to be thankful for ... especially the Risen Lord! Thank you Jesus!