Zoo Buddies

It's been two months since our last trip to the San Francisco Zoo, so we decided to take advantage of the long holiday weekend and plan a fun activity for Kyle, in addition to all of the to-do list around the house. We actually managed to mix things up a little this time, and instead of starting with the gorillas, we headed to the opposite end of the zoo to watch the Grizzly Bear feeding at 10:30. It was definitely neat to see the two grizzly sisters charging across the enclosure and jumping into their pond to hunt for fish. (Kyle and Hannah are both sitting on the grizzly bear statue above)

We also skipped the steam train ride this time, and instead rode on the carousel. "Round and round and up and down" as Kyle says, we had to make sure we picked one of the non-stationary animals to enjoy the full effect.

Kyle's been so articulate over the past month, it's fun to take him to the zoo now, and to have him ask for what he wants to see next (as long as he doesn't have us trekking from one end to the other and back again!) This time he wanted to see elephants, but unfortunately the SF Zoo no longer has any. So we'll be making a trip to the Oakland Zoo soon to visit their pachyderms.

Our next big, planned family outing is to preview the new California Academy of Sciences building on September 19th - look forward to an exciting review after that. But I'm sure we'll have more news and photos before then.

Beach Babes

The heat wave this week drove us to the beach this morning, along with a few other of Kyle's 2-year old friends. Little Miss Hannah had a fantastic time, watching all of the activity around her and of course always smiling :)



(This is testing out the video feature of my "Little" camera - hopefully more to follow soon!)

Rub-a-dub-dub, Two Babes in a Tub

The first time that we put Hannah's baby tub into the full sized tub, Kyle decided that he wanted to use it for his bath once we had taken her out. Well, tonight, he decided that he couldn't wait for her to finish, and that he actually wanted to get into the tub with her. Somehow they both managed to fit! Hannah surprisingly did more splashing than Kyle, probably trying to stand her ground before they both go into the big tub together...

Just call me "Pigpen"

This was how Kyle spent nearly every day at the lake,
usually requiring at least two baths each day!

The future is looking so bright...

In preparation for our upcoming trip to Lake Almanor, the last couple of weeks have been filled with errands, running around trying to get the last few essentials. One of my main concerns was finding sunglasses for Kyle (and Hannah) since we would be outside most of the time. I haven't had much luck with sunglasses on Kyle before, but this time I let him pick them out and try them on in the store and they have been a hit ever since!




Hannah's not sure what to think about her sunglasses, but I'm hoping the more she wears them now, the easier it will be to get her to wear them when she is older and we can protect those beautiful blue eyes on both kids!

My friend Maddie

We just returned from a weekend visiting our Santa Rosa friends Sarah, Michael, Madison and Juila. Kyle always loves playing with other kids, but it seems that he has a special fondness for Maddie, even though we aren't able to see them as often as we'd like. Now that 14-month old Julia is now fully mobile, it's a blast to see all three of the kids interacting. It won't be long before Hannah is able to join them too!

Although the weekend was mostly dominated by play time and nap schedules, we were able to squeeze in an adult activity, going wine tasting at Bella Vineyards and Wine Caves, followed by a picnic on their grounds. The weather was perfect and the kids all enjoyed running around on the grass while we enjoyed the view. Needless to say, by the time we got back home to Menlo Park this afternoon, Kyle was exhausted and ready for an early bedtime!

We're all looking forward to our next visit!

Birthday Boy

Kyle's been singing "Happy Birthday" for the past three weeks, with the celebration stretched out, receiving gifts every few days. It finally culminated with his birthday party today, shared with his "best friend" Ben (who's actual birthday happens to be today) We had family and friends join both birthday boys for some playtime at the local park, followed by pizza and cupcakes. I had my hands full making sure we had everything out, holding Hannah, or keeping an eye on my birthday boy, so we were very lucky that Granpa was there to take photos.The breeze wouldn't cooperate for the lighting of the candles, so we sang without, but the boys didn't seem to miss them and dove right in to all of the frosting. With no frosting left on top, Kyle was generous enough to share some of his cake with me too.


Kyle was exhausted after all of the excitement, and was very glad to get home for nap time. While he was snoozing, we enjoyed a visit with Kim, Robert and Baby Gabby (9 days older than Hannah) Luckily we had both girls awake at the start of the visit, so we were able to get some photos together before each drifted off to sleep!