Taking a break....

from the blog for a bit. 

Last weekend in August

We've had a busy weekend this last weekend in August.  First off the kids woke us up a little before 7am on Saturday morning and Jacob asked, "Um, don't I have to go to school?"  Aaron sleepily said, "You will soon learn about weekends." 

Saturday we started off the day with a little yard saleing and then hit the local Farmer's Market for flowers and produce.  We then attended Josh's 6th Birthday Party.  It was a lot of fun and Karen outdid herself with the luau theme!  The kids played limbo, pass the coconut, had some surfing lessons and wacked at the tiki pinata.  Saturday evening we impromptu hosted dinner club which consisted of Chinese takeout and board games.  Dinner club is always a fun time.

On Sunday we got one last visit in to Waterworks Park before it closes Labor Day weekend.  We met the Nostrands there and everyone had a great time on all the slides and water features.  I stayed on my butt in the shade all afternoon attempting to recover from a cold/sickness I've had for the last week, so it was a good day for me too!  We're all hoping to start the week anew and refreshed.   

Silly Pics

A couple silly picture instances to share.  One...Aaron made the news AGAIN...totally non-story but still had to get a screen-cap of him! 

And we finally got the DVD back from the 'limo dude' of Kim's birthday night/Dinner Club we had in July.  Some funny shots were taken!
Click for pictures.

REALLY BIG NEWS

JACOB STARTED KINDERGARTEN TODAY!!
Everything went really well.  He was very excited to start his day and knew right where his classroom was located.  He was most excited to not have his parents stay with him all day!  When Grandma asked if he liked his teacher he said no.  I asked him later why not and he said, "Because I only like you."  Awww....I'll take that answer!   His other big milestone was that he got to ride the bus home, he was however disappointed that we were waiting from him at the bus stop and that he couldn't walk home.  Yeah, it's gonna be a long time before that happens Mister! 

Ella was disappointed that she too couldn't go to school today.  It's going to be a couple more weeks before she starts Preschool.  She got to stay home with Daddy and play Guitar Hero and do yard
work though.  And I got to have a nice lunch with friends who also had Kindergartners starting today!

 

Big news, though kinda delayed

I forgot to mention a couple weeks ago, while we were in Yosemite, Jacob learned to ride his bike without training wheels!!  I was hoping that would happen because he has refused to try to ride it without training wheels at home for the longest time but as soon as he saw all his friends riding sans trainers, he too wanted to try!  And away he went on the first try!  Now it's become a daily thing that he wants to ride in the street....of course Ella is never far behind...

Happy Birthday Aaron!!

Today was Aaron's BIG 3-5 B-day!!  Unfortunately he had to work it of course.  We did stop by the station this evening with a chocolate cream pie though! 

And we can never stop by the station without the kids wanting to play on all the fire engines.  This evening Jacob had full fire adventures going on in his head and he wanted to act them out with the equipment.

And I'm just guessing, but I think his favorite gift was this....

If it's not Jacob and his video game addiction, it's Aaron!   I'm preparing myself for some upcoming virtual concerts!

 

Summer's winding down

Unfortunately, or fortunately, I'm not really sure at this point, our summer vacation is coming to a close and school is starting very soon.  We are trying to enjoy our longer "unscheduled" days as much as we can.  Today we met Jacob's kindergarten teacher for the first time and took a mini tour of the school.  It's all very exciting yet scary for me, but he is just acting 'too cool for school' and doesn't seem to be nervous at all.  We'll see how he feels on Monday morning!  This evening we went to Aqua Golf to hit some balls and then we enjoyed Marketfest.

The groupie bus is getting fueled up....

We rock!

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Does it get any better than this?

Junior Giants Finale

Last night while Barry Bonds was breaking the all time home-run record for the San Francisco Giants, our own Jr. Giant was playing his last game of the season. 

It was an extra fun game because Brilee and Brayden were on the other team and their co-coach is their dad, Matt.  It was fun to see all of them on the field together.   Jacob also had an extra special crowd cheering him on...in addition to Grandma, the Nostrand family came to watch.  The whole Junior Giants experience has been really positive and was a great intro for Jacob into baseball.

Back from Yosemite National Park

We got back late last night from Yosemite National Park and we had such an awesome time!  If you ever get the chance to go, do!  The sights and views are breathtaking.  Once again, like Crater Lake, it is impossible to convey in pictures exactly what we saw.  A 2,425 foot waterfall just doesn't translate well to a 4x6 inch picture, strange huh?  :-) 

We went with our friends, the McClungs and Mills.  It was perfect because we each have 1 boy and 1 girl and all the kids get along great (the adults too of course!).  We saw and did so much, I'll try to do a brief summary...

• Wednesday - drove down, we set up camp at Yosemite Pines RV Resort, we were expecting cooler temps but it was HOT so we took a dip in the campground pool


• Thursday - spent most of the day at Yosemite National Park...ooh and awed at many gorgeous sights-some of them....Half-Dome, El Capitan, Yosemite Falls.  The kids stripped down to their underwear and played in the creek, campfires and smores. 


• Friday - hung around the campground, drove into the local town of Groveland, played baseball at the park, had lunch at the Iron Door Saloon and ice cream next door, swam again in the campground pool, took a hay ride to listen to local spooky stories around the campfire.  Finished the night with an interesting discussion of cult religions and cult figures around our own campfire...nothing like talking about Heaven's Gate, Big Foot, and Lemurians, etc. before bed to bring on some interesting dreams/nightmares!


• Saturday - headed back to Yosemite National Park...hiked 2+ miles (with kids that's a feat!) towards the Tuolumne Grove of the Giant Sequoias and saw some BIG trees, plus one a car could drive through.  Cruised through the park again and ooh and awed some more and grabbed some more ice cream for the ride back.  On our way back to the campground we stopped at a cool place called the Rainbow Pools near Buck Meadows.  The kids (and Alicia) took another dip.  It seems to be a local hangout and was very crowded.  Would have been the perfect place to spend the day...if we were the only ones there!  We finished the day with movie night for the kids in our trailer and game night for the adults...started with a funny game of Apples to Apples and ended with what had to be the longest game of Uno ever!


• Sunday - packed up camp, headed home.  Stopped in Stockton for lunch, thought we were just going into a pizza place, turned out it was the Disneyland of Chuck E. Cheeses!  It was called John's Incredible Pizza Company and it was!  Great food....all you can eat pizza (literally about 12 different types), pasta, salad, etc. And tons of fun games and rides.  If we didn't stall enough on going home, we then stopped at Ikea in Sacramento and browsed and shopped for a couple more hours!   

Click here for pictures!

Having a great time...

in Yosemite!