Happy Halloween!!

We had a very fun Halloween today! This we definitely the most fun Halloween yet. O has been talking about it and building up to it for a few weeks, and the day finally arrived today. 

 He was very excited for his parade and party at school this afternoon.  The dragon costume fit perfect and was AMAZING!  Grandma did a wonderful job on it (of course).  Everyone, and I mean everyone, he saw today commented that it was the best costume they saw all day.  He was proud!

Heading out for the parade.

O with Miss Jennie

O was captivated by his own shadow in the costume.  He like how it was bigger than him, like he was growing.

After we got home, we headed out trick or treating for his first time.  We hit some neighbor's houses and some businesses near the house.  He had so much fun!  We all did.  I was skeptical that he might still be too young, but I was 100% wrong, and I am so glad that we went out.

Heading out.

Long trip up the steps

Along the way, he would stop every once in a while to "count" his candy.  Every time, he counted... one, two, three, four, five!  

Checking out the stash.

He got pretty tired near the end, but still was having a blast.  We heard "one more house" at least five times.

When we got back home, he set right to sorting the candy to check out his haul.  After piece by piece sorting, he ended up with about 20 pieces of candy he "likes" and one "yucky thing" (a lollipop).  Not surprisingly, chocolate is his favorite.  He even got to eat a Reese's cup tonight.

Fun, fun, fun Halloween!

I was remiss in the original Halloween posting - Nan is here!  She arrived Wed afternoon, and had a blast with O yesterday too!

Weekend Jaunt

We had a nice, easy going weekend at home this past weekend. On Sunday, we drove over to Golden Gate Park in the city to spend a few hours at the California Academy of Sciences again and have a picnic in the park.  We had a great day - O enjoyed showing Tom all of the things that he and I saw last time we went, when Tom was on a trip.

I could spend all day looking at the exhibits and small creatures, but unfortunately, one member of our family does not have the attention span for that yet.

We made this new friend.

 The aquarium there is nice.  They have a tunnel so that the fish swim all around you.  Here are the boys checking out some fishes.

O's favorite part is seeing divers in the tanks.  This was actually a feeding demonstration, and the diver had a microphone in his mask so he was telling us all about the tank and the fish.  It was pretty cool!

Nan comes tomorrow!  We are excited!

Big Sur

We went camping in Big Sur over Columbus Day weekend.  It was my first trip down there, and it was well worth the trip!  We will definitely be back.

We spent one night in Monterey on the way down, and then took our time stopping at the beach and doing a little hike on the way to the campground.  As you can see it was pretty chilly at the beach!

The hike down.

Running on the beach.

Gorgeous Big Sur coastline

Our campsite had direct access to the Big Sur River.  O really enjoyed walking down to the river, and exploring the rocky river bed.

Creating a rock sculpture

The finished "O"

We also stopped at a pumpkin patch in Carmel Valley on our way to Big Sur.  O chose the pumpkin, and then we made a Jack-O-Lantern at the campsite.

Spooky!

O loved the carved pumpkin.

We spent Monday hiking to a waterfall in the park.  The hike was about 2 miles round trip, unfortunately, the first mile was all uphill and O got pretty tired.

Tired and ready for a snack and rest.

The destination.

O was much happier after we got to the waterfall, he had a snack and some rest.  The way back to the trailhead was much more pleasant (ie downhill).

After the hike, we drove a little further down the coast to another State park for a picnic.

The view from our picnic spot.

On our way back home on Tuesday, we stopped back at the beach again.  It was much, much warmer than the first stop.  O loved splashing in the water.

Looking at surfers.

It was a great trip.  The first night was a little chilly, but we were all bundled up and we made it through!  Hopefully we will get at least one more camping weekend in before it gets too cold for the little man,
.

Happy Birthday!

Tom's Birthday is today!  We were supposed to go camping near Big Basin for the weekend to celebrate, but someone was sick all weekend, so this is the closest we got to sleeping in the tent.  

The poor little guy was pretty sad and feeling bad on Friday and Saturday.  He seemed better yesterday, but was complaining of ear pain.  He is feeling much better today, after a quick trip to the doctor and an ear infection diagnosis this morning.  

We are going camping next weekend at Big Sur.  We already had that trip planned to celebrate our anniversary in the trees.  It was good that we had that trip to look forward to and could promise  him that we would go next week since we did not get to go this week.

So, we had a nice quiet weekend at home, watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang over and over (and over).  Tonight we had Tom's Birthday dinner and a pumpkin spice bundt cake for the Birthday boy.

Blowing out the candles...

Local Fun

Last week, our friends Steven and Sarah visited us from Florida. Steven was on SEQUOIA in Guam with Tom, and they were in D.C. while we lived there too. It was great to see them. We were all supposed to go together up to Sonoma, but at the last minute, ASPEN had to get underway, so O and I took them up to our usual Sonoma haunts ourselves. We had a great time at Gloria Ferrer, the Cornerstone Sculpture Garden and Benziger. This should look familiar to anyone who has visited us:

Over the weekend, we took a nice walk at Tilden Regional Park to a small lake. O had a great time running on the boardwalk and leading the way on the trail.

One evening this week, we went to see fire jugglers at Jack London Square.  O was pretty transfixed by the performers.  Here is one of them twirling his flaming torches:

Just a normal week in the Bay area.

America's Cup

Both Tom and I spent most of September involved in the America's Cup finals.  It was an interesting and exciting month of racing on the Bay.

ASPEN was underway carrying passengers for several of the race days, so O and I went out twice to watch the races from the water and just enjoy the day on the water.

O was pretty excited to go on Daddy's ship when it was floating.  He spent most of both days in the Captain's chair with Tom, or sometimes, without him.

Supposedly, there is only one person who sits in this chair...

Matching Captains.

He probably spent about 45 minutes pretending to talk to other boats with the radio below.  He really loved it!

On the second day we went out, O insisted on wearing his fireman's jacket.  He wanted to make sure he was ready to assist in case of an emergency.

Keeping a sharp lookout.

Happy boy!