The year started with P helping his dad in Scotland, and D in LaLaLand plodding away at work. P’s return to LaLaLand was well-timed for the looong wait we had for the arrival of the latest love of our lives, Finlaggan, named, incidentally, not for the whisky, but for the Loch on Islay* in Scotland. Since then, it’s been all-go on the nappy-front. But it’s not stopped us from travelling or amusing ourselves in non-nappy ways (although we’ve also since discovered that a lot of fun can be had with nappies).

The three of us have been to San Diego, Morro Bay, London, Bournemouth, Oxford, Scotland (mainly at Bankhead), and Vancouver. (And plenty of parks in LaLaLand alone.)

Just a couple of months after Fin’s arrival, we headed down to San Diego for a long weekend. That was fun for me; after having gone back to work after a mere 6 weeks post-Finlaggan, it gave me a chance to bond with him while P attended a Drosophila conference.

Post-SD, my mother (Po Po to Fin) came out to LA to watch over Fin as P spent some much-needed time on tidying up data and writing his manuscripts. Plus, we had Fin’s Welcome to the World party after his first set of immunisations. And drove up to Morro Bay with Po Po for some early summer chillin’ by the sea.

Morro Bay:

The trip to the UK in the summer was a very important one for Fin to meet his Granddad and the paternal relations. Somewhere, I have photographic evidence that he hung out and played well with his two cousins. But this will have to wait until I can dig through the million or so photos we took in 2011 alone. (The chances of our older unblogged trips ever seeing light of day are fading…)

The most recent trip to Vancouver was especially fun as my parents came with us, and we met with my cousin, his fiance and his parents. They were the ones we used to go on long road-trips to Malaysia with (all the way to Penang from Singapore), so it was great to recreate and reminisce.

Rice crackers taste even better when you have a fantastic view to the waterfront in our fancy-pants rental apartment, that would normally be way beyond our reach:

On Bute St, on the way to the Waterfront, 4 blocks from our plush rental apartment:

In all, it’s been a busy year, but one filled with a great deal more tears and laughter than our usual. And we look forward to more of everything in 2012!

Bonne Annee! 新年快乐！ Happy New Year!

*Pronounced Aye-Lah as opposed to Aye-Lay or Is-Lay.