Little Fish!

LT has turned a corner in swimming and can now breathe and keep going without holding on to someone or touching the bottom. He's had 2 weeks (8 lessons) this summer and one more in July.

Woohoo!

Garden Update

Remember this garden just a little over a month ago?


Look at it now! Wow! The strawberries are a bit overrun by the tomatoes and the zuchinni, but that's okay.


We even have our first zuchinnis!


First zuchinni pancakes for dinner tomorrow!

Fathers Day Hike

This hike was not exactly as expected. Our "Bay Area Hikes with Children" book had said you could go out on the catwalks on either side of the boardwalk over the marsh. I don't know if you could at one point, but now they are shut down. The boardwalk itself is not that long. So instead we did a loop around the "duck pond." This houses Palo Alto's native bird sactuary. It was built in the 1940s, I think, and I guess they built that big cement bird bath at the time?? That part is fenced off and their are all kinds of birds. Anyways, it was still pretty and LT really enjoyed the nature film showing at the Lucy Stern nature center. He could have watched all day.

ZooFun

Yes, we go to the zoo a lot. We were feeling a bit possessive as we went when it was raining the last two time and practically had it to ourselves. One nice day and it's a zoo! Okay, okay, bad pun.

Trying to get 2 kids and a hippo looking at the camera at the same time is not easy...


Spider LT

Butterfly LT

Trying to get a spider DT

We Love being nature rangers!

LT would really like to be one of these volunteers once he is 12. They are the cutest. They show and answer questions about animals on the nature trail. Some are painfully shy ... like LT! Perfect!

Rest of the Day

No trip to Santa Cruz would be complete without a stop at Kelly's Bakery for lunch. Their sandwiches are delicious and so are their desserts!


The real purpose of the trip was Strawberry Pickin'!
The strawberries were up the road at the UPick Kiwi spot rather than at the farm stand this time.

The Taster

The Picker

The Crop


A hike down to a secluded beach ended the afternoon

Just beautiful

And refreshing, too!

First Boardwalk Rides

It's easy to enjoy the rides when you have a great big brother to show you the ropes!










More pictures of our day to come ...

Sleeping Beauties

Walker alert!

Tomorrow DT is 13 months old. I think he wanted to be sure he was classified as a "walker" for that birthday because look at him go!

The kayaking pictures, as promised.

Sea Otter

Kayakers' Toes

Kayaker at rest in front of a bunch of sea lions


Ah. Kayaking in Monterey Bay is so nice. I highly recommend it.


Here you can judge the paddling and vote for the best paddler in the comments. ;)

Grandma was Here

Grandma has been deposited at the airport for the 2nd leg of Grandkids or Bust '09. We had a busy and fun 6 days with Grandma.

Let's see, we went to the park, the Children's museum, the mall, Monterey Bay aquarium, kayaking (adults only, but yes, Grandma, too!), beaching, water sliding, etc...

Here's Grandma!



Oh wait, she didn't just take pictures. Only mostly. LT is waiting for her to get her webpage up and going. I say momsie.blogspot.
Here is one not taking a picture!


And the boys enjoying the beach. DT is a water lover. He crawled straight into the ocean and then would get up on his knees when a wave came!


I'll add some kayaking shots tomorrow! I wasn't on the trip with Gma & Tim, so you'll have to wait for momsie.blogspot for those.

Front Yard, day Many, finished - pretty much!

Recall the front yard before.
And now ...

.

New path from driveway, you walk between the two coral bark maples.


View from the other side


On the right side, we have a weeping cherry in the front and a plum in the back.


The trumpet vine has made a glorious recovery from losing it's twin and being cut waaaayyyy back. I just love the bricked porch! And the step and path to the driveway at the end of the porch.



Not in the front, but in the back, the garden!
Cherry tomatoes, strawberries, zuchinni and corn. This year we have a drip system set up so we'll see how it goes!

Weekend Round-up

We dug out the push bar for LT's trike and adjusted it down to the smallest size so that DT can enjoy it now! This was LT's 1st birthday present from Grandparents T and it has been so much fun!


DT had a gift from Grandparents T for his 1st birthday, too. He got a house for outside! I hope it will be as much fun as the trike. The first day it was definitely a hit. We put it out front since we were working in the yard (as soon as we're done, we'll post pictures...) and both boys had a good time playing in it! LT is a little big for it, but they still both fit.


Do you see the bigger boy in there?


Then it was Mother's Day and the boys brought Mom breakfast in bed. Crepes, even! LT said "that's wine and juice, ew, bet you never had that before!" :D


Later, we attacked the yard again. I conquered possibly the largest dandelion ever caught on film?? It was back by the garden area where we now have planted corn, cherry tomatoes, zuchinni and strawberries. We'll see how it goes. TT put in a drip system, so hopefully more sucess than last year!

Random Video Snippets

Title says it all!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Today DT is 1 year old. How can it be? It's hard to remember the days before he was here.

I took the boys to get their pictures taken since I have a thing about getting a picture made on the actual birthday. Whew, that was tiring. Then we enjoyed a dinner of crepes. The two boys share a favorite of Turkey Pesto (turkey, cheese, pesto and avocado). Happy birthday DT! :D

Here are some pictures from Sunday when we gave him our presents (ride-on & house)... I think he liked them!