My mom kindly helped us drive back across the Nevada landscape to get home to the Bay Area. It actually wasn't nearly the terrible trip I was expecting it to be. We made it in one day, the baby wasn't too upset to be back in the car, we had nice conversations, and we got Nana all to ourselves for a little longer! She stayed an extra day or two and took the kids to Children's Fairyland near Lake Merritt in Oakland. It was a cute little place! Sadly the boys were too old and tall to ride any of the little rides but we all had fun exploring the quirky little theme park that predates Disneyland.
My personal favorite was the Alice in Wonderland tunnel with murals of the story that exits on a maze of cards with crazy faces.
We snuck in a few beach trips before school started--some with friends and some just us. Some sunny and some foggy overcast. One of our visits to our favorite driftwood beach was pretty epic. Someone before us had been very creative and constructive! And Henry finally decided to like the beach and both crawled in the sand and ate plenty.
There is an Egyptian museum down in San Jose. We got a membership last summer (2018) and worked toward a sleepover experience. The kids had to attend 10 different lectures, workshops, scavenger hunts, and tours at the museum. They earned the privilege of sleeping in the galleries and enjoying a late late evening of games and activities put on by the museum staff. They came home tired but happy to have gone. Collin took them while Henry and I stayed home. So I still have on my life list to sleep in a museum. Maybe in ten years Henry and I can find a chance!
Davy's experience in his own words: I don't think I slept well. The breakfast options were kind of limited. But it was fun. The end.
Eliza's words: It was fun! I made a necklace. I made a sistrum (an instrument from ancient Egypt). I played Senet (a game ancient Egyptians played). We even slept in the museum!
Eddy's: Nope. [He is reading a book and doesn't want to be bothered.]
Eliza has begged for a hair cut for months and months. I kept talking her down and pushing it off. I wasn't nearly ready to let go her years of growth. But in the end, it wasn't about me. I prepped her hair in a long braid down her back, asked her one more time if she was sure--there wasn't any going back--and snipped it all off. I think Liza Bee had one sad second when she held the braid in her hand but then she swished her new do around and it's been a happy, spunky little bob ever since.
We went up to Oakland to check out the Adventure Playground. It was opened in 1979 and feels like a throwback to the good old days of Little Rascals and the Sandlot. The children of the Bay Area have designed the playground and painted and repainted it time and again. (The structures were made by adults and are sturdy. Hopefully.) You go ready to get dirty and messy and make things. You know a place is gonna be good when a reviewer says, 'if you are an overprotective parent, this place is not for you.'
I was finishing up a roll of film with a few I was sure were going to be keepers--including some awesome action shots of the kids on various parts of the playground. I wound the roll up and when it released I popped the door open. Sadly the film had caught on a part of the mechanism and so was not safely wound after all. I was devastated at the exposed film fiasco. That's the price you pay for the experiment of film, I suppose. I've been wary to try again, but I think it's time to pull out another roll. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
We experienced a couple of uncomfortable hot spells. Our house does not have AC and was not designed with a good ventilation flow in mind. So we swelter either inside or out but inside is more unbearable by at least five degrees. One of the hot hot hot days I knew we would all suffocate inside so we loaded up in the van, blasted the AC and drove out in search of running water. We did have to walk in the sun a few yards to find the stream but once we were there none of us wanted to leave. Only a promise of driving through Chik-fil-a for milkshakes got us going when it was time.
One of our good friends from London moved back to the States recently. Now they are across the bay from us! She's a Stanford alum and invited us to explore with her via bikes. She taught us to go fountain hopping. It's allowed to play in the fountains! Eddy was all over that permission.
Always and forever going strong with our family movie night tradition. We try to mix it up with old classics (including some black and white and musicals!) and new releases. Davy pops the popcorn and Eddy and Eliza get the treats ready. Henry lasts a few minutes and then he's sent to bed so the rest of us can enjoy (i.e. hear) the show.
I love summer nights when we all head out after dinner for time outside.
Took us to the fortune cookie factory. That was fun. It's so little and all the machines are old and persnickety. The ladies running them and folding the cookies by hand were delighted to have the kids through. They got extra fresh samples and even wrote their own fortunes to bring home and crack open. We bought a huge bag of rejects for a couple dollars and enjoyed them for a few weeks.
I like Sunday pictures. Everyone all dressed in clothes (instead of pyjamas) and looking cute.
Our friends from Boston were in town for a conference and we got to go to dinner in the city with them. We drove around and scouted out some cool landmarks after, including the bridge towers totally covered in fog and the Palace of Fine Arts in the dark. I loved seeing them. It reminded me that friendships take a lot of time to be built and so I should give more effort into the ones here in CA, or I'll look back and regret not getting to know people a little more.
Henry continued to grow leaps and bounds every day. He started pulling up and cruising along furniture and reaching further and further.
Henry is also getting into everything. I walked in on this scene of Eliza's stuff up where the baby couldn't reach it.
Costco--and all the other errands--with four in tow. Man, sometimes it was incredible, like when I forgot something and a big boy could run and grab it. But usually it was a circus. The big boys are also at the age where I am starting to leave them home for very short periods with strict reminders of what to do or not do in different scenarios. When I think I was babysitting in the neighborhood for pay at 12 and 13 . . . I mean . . . we've still got a year but we have some maturing to do until that benchmark of growing up. (Also, what were those parents thinking, leaving me with their children?!)
