Kiwi PIckings

Still time to sqeeze in a January blog. It has been absolutely beautiful here while much of the rest of the country has been covered in snow. Last weekemd was especially nice, sunny and in the high 60s. We spent a beautiful day picking kiwis, or at least exploring the orchard, and hiking down to the beach. We finished it off with a campfire dinner in the backyard with friends. (Pizza pudgie pies and s'mores!)








These pictures are from our new(ish) video camera. Not bad for the non primary purpose!

Merry Christmas!

Yes, it's true that it has been almost 2 weeks since Christmas. Which of course means it is time for a quick recap! We had very nice guests, 6 adults and 2 kids.



We all tracked up to SF. We went up to Coit tower and looked around. It was very beautiful, but you couldn't go to the top since they're renovating the elevator. Here's Jenn!

Here I am driving down Lombard street, the wacky curvy street. We were calling it the curviest street in the US, but we may have made that up! I did CSI zoom in and I only look like I am concentrating, not that I am terrified.

We even got a group shot at Ghiradelli square (and squeezed in a boat ride) before going to a delicious fondue dinner.

Somehow we didn't take pictures of present opening, but here is a mid-day Christmas nap.

DT playing with one of the gifts! I really wanted to make this for the boys even if it wasn't their top gift choice. I hope they will enjoy it anyways!

Then we all tracked down to Santa Cruz. The bigger boys had a blast on this ride.

The grown ups, meanwhile, rode the Giant Dipper many times. It was ride once, get a wrist band for unlimited rides, so we took advantage! It's usally about $5 for one ride, so it was great to ride as many times as we wanted, which was approximately 3 times each.

Before everyone departed, we did get some nice group shots. Mom & Dad with the girls

The T family

And the whole gang!

Happy New Year!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

The boys went to see Santa on Friday. Due to rain, Santa & Mrs. Claus relocated from the porch to the garage. LT would like Pokemon cards and DT didn't say much!

PS. LT would like to add that he forgot to mention Bey Blades.

The Tree Hunt

2 years makes a tradition, right? We went on our annual trip to the Santa Cruz mountains to find the perfect Christmas tree.

First DT picked this one...


Then LT measured up this one for size!

And then we saw the perfect one.

DT insisted on helping with the sawing!

Then a Christmas tree grew legs and walked out of the forest.

We took it home and got it all gussied up. Somehow every year we end up having to saw off quite a bit of tree when we get home. TT made a wreath for the front door out of the extra branches. Very crafty, that one!

The outdoor light extravaganza. We have not set it to music yet, maybe in the future!

Little Too Cute...

The last DT guitar video was a big hit, so here's another. This time he's going with an electric.

We Were Thankful

Thanksgiving = fried turkey
Going in
Bubbling away

And all fried up

We will be trying this again at Christmas time.

Then we were off to Aunt J's. We had lego building.

And dog walking..

And a hug with Great Grandma.

There was also a lot of food. And a lot of pickles. Now we are enjoying our pickle starter set, courtesy of Uncle R. Yum!

San Diego

Last weekend (yes, I'm running at least 1 week behind at all times these days), we went to San Diego for a wedding. A nice benefit to it being in San Diego was being able to visit the cousins! We all had a great time. Thanks to Auntie C and Uncle S for babysitting while we were at the wedding. The boys had a great time.

Pretty much impossible to get three boys to look at the camera and smile at the same time. Well, 2/3 isn't bad!

The bigger boys played some sort of soccer/catch game.

While the littler boys took turns jumping off a monument.

It was such a nice day!

Missed October Photos

Here at SiQiMo, we are running a little behind. Just tonight I downloaded the pictures off my little camera from the last month. Here is what we found ...

Symmetrical Grandma & DT! Courtesy Seattle Center Science Museum.

And why not Grandpa & DT?


Don't they say that people are inherently attracted to symmetrical faces?

After that trip, we helped put on our street's block party. We had a bouncy house out in front of our house.

A very LARGE bouncy house, make that, complete with dinosaur.

LT enjoyed a table for two with his best gal pal and some Beat In radio station.

The following weekend was the big Walk-A-Thon. Here are the walkers enjoying the pleasant weather.

And celebrating mile number 15!!! You go guys!

Yes, Halloween is Over...

but we still need to show off the pumpkins! I think TT did a great job this year with the carving. I did the scooping and pumpkin seed roasting.


Could you tell which one went with which person? I'll tell you. I got two, the Pac Man and the ghost, TT got the transformer, LT the dragon and DT "my Mario Kart".

And here are the trick-or-treaters heading out:


Ninja, Samurai and Gingerbread Man

Pumpkins!

The day we came back from our trip, we decided to make our annual pilgramage to the Pumpkin Patch. It was 90 degrees and not feeling like fall, but we knew we were going to be busy for the next few weekends. So we headed out, and did all the must dos!

Like, the Cow Train! We were able to squeeze 2 boys in one cow.


The big train. And a wheelbarrow ride, of course.

Then I had to cajole them into their costumes since I wanted some pictures. LT loves his costume and wore it all the way home. DT loves his, too, but not in 90 degrees!

The Ninja and the Gingerbread Man

They'll both be wearing their costumes tomorrow for school parties! Happy Halloween!