Adventures with Jennifer

We had a great time with Aunt Jennifer during her visit.  We got to see the Blue Angels fly on Saturday from a great vantage point on Treasure Island.  I was an airshow skeptic, but I have to admit the Blue Angels were amazing.

On Sunday we drove up to Point Reyes and visited the beach and the lighthouse:

 O had tons of fun running on the beach and playing with Dad.

And playing with seaweed..

And eating seaweed..

Aunt Jen tried some too...

We drove out to the lighthouse at Point Reyes, and hiked down to see it up close.  There are 300 steps to the bottom, poor Tom had to carry the little guy down and up!

After the lighthouse we had a picnic at the old Coast Guard Station, complete with a little Birthday cake for Daddy.

After a night in Bodega Bay, we drove home via the Golden Gate Bridge and stopped in San Francisco for a late lunch.

It was a great trip and a great visit!  We miss you Aunt Jen!

Aunt Jen!

Jennifer is here visiting from Pennsylvania, and we have been having lots of fun.  Yesterday, she and I had a girl's day up in Sonoma.  We started the day off tasting sparkling wine at Gloria Ferer.  Here is Jennifer at the winery:

 After enjoying the bubbly (and joining their wine club), we enjoyed a nice stroll around the square and lunch in Sonoma.  Then we drove up to The Benziger Family Winery, where Tom and I have been members for a couple of years.  We were lucky to arrive just as a semi private tour was leaving.  We got to see more of the vineyard, tasted wine in the vineyard and had an extended tasting in a small banquet room inside the wine cave, as well as a barrel tasting.  I should have taken pictures of the cool room we sat in to taste in the cave, but I suppose it is a good sign that I was enjoying myself too much to take out the camera.

Jennifer also hopped up on the tractor - this shot is for you, Jimmy.

Today we went to a local street festival in Alameda, then went over and watched the Blue Angels airshow from Treasure Island.  I have to admit, I was a sceptic about the airshow, but it was amazing to see them do their maneuvers at very low altitude over the Bay.  We are also pretty sure we saw two fly under the Golden Gate Bridge.  Tomorrow we are all headed up to Point Reyes for some hiking and sight seeing, then an overnight in Bodega Bay.  More pictures to come!

"New" Table

We rearranged the space for O's play kitchen today to accommodate the newly-arrived play table from Pennsylvania.  The new set up gives him a little more room, and he is definitely a fan of the table.  I think it must be the many, many years of good play vibes contained in the table.  It originally belonged to my Mom and Aunt Linda, and passed through my four siblings and I, as well as my sister's kids.  Now, it is in it's new home, we with a new little boy to sit and color and serve up the meals he prepares in his kitchen - recently he make a lot of "Happy Birthday cakes" and quesedillas.

He looks so grown up in this picture, it is killing me!

Almost Healthy

As you can probably tell by the title of this post, we have not been the most healthy family here in Alameda.  Almost three weeks ago, O came down with a pretty nasty case of Hand Foot and Mouth Disease a couple of days before our scheduled camping trip.  The poor little guy probably looked worse than he felt, but he was out of commission for about a week.  Tom and I also caught it from him, and were about four days behind on the symptoms and feeling generally icky.  Needless to say, the camping trip was put on hold.

Now that he has been healthy for about a week or so, O has a minor case of pink eye.  Ah, the joys of daycare and toddlers.

We have had some fun in the past few weeks.  Just as O was getting better, and probably before Tom and I should have been going on an outing, we spent the afternoon at Golden Gate Park.  This picture was from the Dutch Windmill; I told O to go over by the windmill and he walked all the way over, turned around and told me take a picture.  Funny guy!

I really like this picture on the beach.  You can see that Tom is talking to him, it looks like they are old friends taking a walk on the beach.  O was insistent on walking all the way to the water.  He made it most of the way before Tom had to carry him.  

Last Thursday, I went to the Open House at Olin's school.  It was fun to see how they spend their day, and learn the songs and games that they play.  He really likes it there, and his teachers all love him (of course).

Tonight we had pancakes for dinner.  I don't think I have ever seen O so excited for a dinner in his whole life - not even peanut butter and jelly!  He watched me make every pancake, even telling me when to flip them and to put more butter in the pan. He has become quite bossy lately, by the way.

I think he ate more pancakes than either Tom or I, and he probably would have eaten more if we let him.  

Home Again

O and I are back home from Pittsburgh.  We had a great trip.  My conference was good and productive for me; and O had a great time with Grandma, Grandpa and Jenna.  They all got out and saw a bit of the city while I was in sessions.   I don't have any pictures from the trip, but hopefully Grandpa will send some to me that I can share.

O was a real trooper on the airplanes. I could not have asked for him to be better, really.  We spent the remainder of the weekend since we got home Sat evening relaxing and today we got out for a nice little hike.  O did a bit of hiking himself and took a three hour nap when we got home!

He was mixing something with a stick here...  I think he said it was soup.

The tall redwoods:

Weekend Fun

We had a nice relaxing fun weekend here in Alameda.  Yesterday we spent the morning at the playground and the afternoon hiking in Redwoods Regional Park in the Oakland Hills.  O spent about 3/4ths of the time in the backpack and the other quarter hiking himself.  He really likes hiking, which makes me happy, of course.  We tired him out so much that he actually fell asleep in the car on the 20 minute ride home.  Not a big deal for some kids, but O almost never falls asleep in the car, even when we want him too!

Today, we went out for breakfast at a cute restaurant in Alameda called the Little House.  We sat outside because, true to it's name, the Little House is very very small inside.  Yes, it is August 19th,  and yes, that is a fleece jacket I am wearing.  It was really chilly out this morning!  It seems crazy when so many people are in the grips of record breaking heat waves and here we are, in jackets and long pants.

                                    

                                           

Hyabob!

After breakfast, we headed to the farmer's market in Jack London Square in Oakland. There is a pretty neat play structure there, O was having a blast climbing and balancing.  He is getting pretty good at it, too.

Here he is down by the water looking out at the boats in the Alameda Estuary.

It was a nice weekend.  Tomorrow, Tom gets underway for a week of AtoN work and O and I are back to our regular week day routines.  I think we all prefer the weekends...

Muir Woods

We took a day trip to Muir Woods today.  Our friends from DC, Paul and Kerrie, are here for a couple of days to see the Bay Area (and us).  O is very fixated on Paul, it is pretty cute.   Tom and I took off work today to get out and see a little more of the surroundings.  I have been to Muir Woods before, but it was nice to go with O and with our friends.

O had a great time riding the backpack.  We were able to get off the main boardwalk trail onto one of the shorter side trails too. I got my workout and O got to see the big trees up close.  He really liked the "tunnels".

His favorite part of the day was going in this tunnel with Daddy.  He was so excited and happy.

After Muir Woods, we drove back through San Francisco and made a quick stop overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.  The day could not have been more perfect, it is unusual to have such a clear day in the summer here.

O seemed to like the view, too.

Happy Birthday Coast Guard

Today is the 222nd birthday of the U.S. Coast Guard - also known as Coast Guard Day.  Yesterday, we went to the Coast Guard Day celebration on the Coast Guard Island in Alameda, or as O called it - the pic-mic.  It was a really big Coast Guard Day picnic, O's favorite part was the fire truck that was there from the Alameda Fire Department.

Look at that smile!  The nice fireman took O down from the truck, and O turned to him and said "Can I stay for one more minute?"  The fireman obliged, of course and told him that he could stay all day if he wanted.  What a little charmer.

O also got to sit in an old Coast Guard surfboat.  He practiced his rowing, if he keeps practicing maybe he will be ready for the Olympics in 16 years or so...

 In other exciting O news, he got a new sand and water table for the garden yesterday.  We have been keeping an eye on the local toy consignment shop, and scored this find yesterday.

He is pretty thrilled with it.  I think he played there for over an hour last night, and that was before we bought sand for it!

Happy Coast Guard Day!