After we had so much fun last St. Patrick’s Day I think our family has decided to make a tradition of going to Bellingham for the holiday. We returned, spent a night and visited many of our favorite spots. Bellingham really knows how to celebrate!

Our baby boy celebrated his LUCKY 7th birthday on March 1st. Seven feels like a real shift out of little boy territory with Silas (which means forever for us). He is in first grade, reads, does math, and converses like an older kid now. He is such a sweet boy and continues to make friends easily. In my experience raising kids there are a lot of big emotions that come around age seven, and Silas is no exception. We have battles we never had before and he tests us in ways he didn’t before, but he remains our Sunny Si. He is proud of this moniker, and we are glad for it. He is an optimist, sees the bright side of things, and is hopeful. I think these qualities add tenacity, and I can’t wait to see what he does in the coming years!

At seven, Silas is certain he wants to be an engineer when he grows up. He is one of the most curious (and talkative) people I know. He loves Legos, building and engineering sets, art, music, Christmas, and friends. He hates potatoes.

Silas requested another party at Kidz Bounce, so we decided to invite his whole class. Almost the whole class came! This meant a lot of Thank You’s to write, but we had a great time celebrating!

Happy birthday, Silas Tristan. We love you to the moon and back!

One particularly fun afternoon we took a Shields out for a day sail to the Yacht Club. This boat was reminiscent to Synnove 3, the boat we sailed in the harbor with my grandfather years ago. The kids were terrified by how much it heeled, but I know at least Jonathan, Uncle Brad, Aunt Julie, myself (and I think Uncle Brian) were having an absolute blast!

It was a lot of fun to see the recently rebuilt Newport Harbor Yacht Club. The last time we visited it was under massive construction and the club was basically on the beach and a very large boat. Uncle Brad previously served as Commodore of the club (just as my Grandfather predicted decades ago) and was on the heritage committee, involved in preserving the history of the club in the rebuild. It was neat to see all the small touches made to make the new club feel traditional and historic yet fresh and modernized.

On one of our final mornings Kieron and Silas had spent the night at Uncle Brian’s, so Jonathan and I took Avery & Layla for a walk around Balboa Island. It was fun checking out all the houses and boats. We stopped for coffee & frozen banana Balboa Bars.