Kid Date Night

Erin and Brian went to the Daughter Dance at her school:

Robin and I went to the Hofbrau for some corned beef and hot dogs. 

Fun was had by all. 

Burrowing Owl Hike

The Cesar Chavez park near the Berkeley Marina, hosts a few Western Burrowing Owls each winter.  The burrow site is just above the bay, and right next to an off-leash dog park. Sounds a bit, um, incongruous, but nature is funny that way.

We headed out after school to hike out to see if we could see any feathered friends.

Who dressed the wee one????

At the Northeast end of the park was the cordoned off area protecting the owls.  We looked and looked, but apparently there are no owls this season. 

We still had a great time and the girls did fantastic on a 1.25 mile hike. 

Ladybug Hike!

My girls like ladybugs.  Really like ladybugs.  Who doesn't, they're the cheeriest and friendliest beetles around. 

So when my friend E told me about a short hike, practically in our back yard, that would reward us with thousands of ladybugs, all piled together I immediately said, "when can we go?!"

Just 2 miles from our house, as the crow flies, is Redwood Regional Park.  It's many trails wind through the rolling hills, ridges, and canyons that separate Orinda from Oakland. With oaks, bay and eucalyptus making the top of the hills fragrant, the bottoms shaded by serene redwood, Redwood Park offers many wonderful hikes close by. 

And every winter, between November and Feb, thousands, maybe millions of ladybugs descend on the park during their migration.  They stop.  They wait. They huddle.  They rest. I have no idea what they are doing there but it is quite magical.

We started off on the 3 mile loop at the Skyline Staging area, heading down the Stream trail.  The shaded, peaceful hike took us half way through the loop, where the Stream trail met with the Prince trail.

This was the place. 

There were thousands of ladybugs.  A red carpet of ladybugs. So many ladybugs!  

Mostly they were massed together in clumps along the ground, covering leaves, stems, branches.  A few were scattered along the trail and it made me nervous to step anywhere lest I smoosh some of these beautiful little beetles. 

The littles couldn't resist saying a gentle "hi" to one or two of the wee red friends. 

The ladybugs showed us which way to go.  How considerate. 

All too soon it was time to go.  We still had 1.5 miles to walk back, and it was mid afternoon.  We had another small snack and headed back up the Prince Trail, then back to the car via the Ridge Trail. If the girls and boys were tired their energy and spirit soon returned, as the Ridge trail is a favorite off-leash area for walking dogs.  We petted every single dog on the way back. 

I was so impressed with the kids.  Erin did the whole hike and never needed to be carried.  Robin only went in the Ergo a few times, and only briefly.  The other two boys we were with were just as energetic.  The 3 miles took 2.5 hours, but that included LOTS of stopping, examining, exploring.  We were all happy, and exhausted. 

Super Date!!!! PHC!!!!

I'd imagine everyone has heard of Prairie Home Companion, but I guess I'd be mistaken.  A longtime NPR staple, PHC hits the airwaves live every Sat. evening, typically from Saint Paul, MN. But today it was in San Francisco. So we went with friends, wrangling all the teenage boys we could muster to look after 4 energetic girls, and enjoyed 2+ hours of interesting, topical, and funny entertainment.

Yay Dates!!!!

A crummy, blurry picture:

Really, there's a whole band, Garrison Keillor himself (Mary B, he looks just like he sounds), the other radio actors, the sound broadcast people, and an entire mens chorus.

Splashing in January

Yesterday we went to the Berkeley Marina to go play at their park.  It was a beautiful day, about  54F.

Whatever the water temperature was, the girls didn't seem to mind.

A's cousins visit

My family is not huge, so when not one but two of my cousins come into town with their families in tow it's something special.

Kim and Sean:



We met up at the "Museum"



Then headed to their hotel room for a pizza dinner.



The kids got to play and the adults got to visit. What a treat!

Nutcracker, 2012

Ever since I was teeny, it was the family tradition to go to the Nutcracker on the 23rd of December.  Erin started going when she was 3, and this was the first year Robin got to go.

The girls did wonderfully.  Erin sat at rapt attention for the entire ballet. Robin was perfectly still for the first half, and was a bit squirmy for the second.  All in all, a successful and memorable trip.  Many thanks to my folks for continuing the tradition.

I only got one picture, the girls all squirmy and getting their wiggles out by rolling down a ramp after the show.  Hopefully Brian got a better picture.

Mount Diablo Dadventure™

Two Saturdays ago the girls and I went to explore Mount Diablo.

From the top:


Spelunking:


Views east:


Playground:

Davis Dadventure™

Last weekend the girls I and got out of town on the train and headed to Davis for a night.  Great town.

Many thanks to Dr. A for financing the operation.

If you see a photo below that looks like the kids are having melted leftover ice cream for breakfast, well, that's what it is.

Waiting for the train


On the aforementioned train


It's a redwood forest in the central valley, of course
 

Rock climbers under I-80


Hamming it up by the pool


KFC, baby!


Ice cream treat


Goodbye!

17 years: more photos

More photos from our anniversary:

Love!


Bonsai trees!


Boats!


Shenanigans!


Cocktails!


Happy 17 years, Dr. A.  I love you!

Halloween 2012

With an overcast day, and a few sprinkles here and there, Halloween 2012 could have been a wet one. But the rains held at bay until after the trick-or-treating. Both girls did a Halloween parade at their schools. We went to a Kindy friend's house for a dinner with a bunch of Erin's classmates, then roamed around the neighborhood with the other hordes of little ghosts, princesses, and pirates. Lots of fun, lots of candy, and a few pictures:

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New Park

We live in a small, semi-suburban community.  So when there's a new playground at a local park, it's something not to be missed.

It might not look like much to the un-indoctirnated folk. But this is epic. It's 3 stories.  With 2 slides. One enclosed, one bumpy.  There are 6 music "stations", a food serving area, climbing wall, double-helix stairs (no, I couldn't resist the small genetics lesson there), precariously oriented step ladder, and zip line. Not to guild the lilly, but there's cattle grazing all around the park, so if the kids get tired of the myriad play options they can go watch cows chewing cud.

Really, what's not 120% awesome about this?

Sweet Ride

Last spring we bought a ride-along bike for Erin - you know, the one-wheeler thingie that attaches to the back of your bike so your almost-bike-riding kid can trail along after you. It has been awesome, but it's left Robin relegated to the Bike Trailer. The Bike Trailer is not fun for anyone, really. We used it, with mild success, a long time ago.

After some brief trial runs, this Bobike Maxi+ is SWEEEEEEEET.

Thank you, Dutch Bicyclist Parents. 

Girls Day!

For the last few years, every Monday was Girls Day.  No school, no schedules, no nothing.  Just whatever we wanted to do.  Since Erin started Kindy we have all missed these free-wheeling days.

Due to teacher workshop day today was our first girls day.  We went to the museum where we got to see a talk given by a diver and an employee. Erin eagerly asked two questions, "Why do the fish swim in groups?" and, "How many colors of fish are there?" 

On the way outside, we saw about 12 high school marching bands at an awards ceremony and got to hear the 1st Division Marine Corps Band play about 5 Souza songs.  So amazing!!  The girls were completely enthralled. So was I.

Here's Erin showing how the cymbalist plays. 

I love girls days! 

Art & Wine Festival

We headed to A's parents house to hit the San Carlos Art and Wine festival.  Why?  Why not. 

The girls got face painting:

Because we were not particularly interested in art or wine, we checked out the children's book store there.  Robin read to Papa...

... Grammy read to Erin ....

... Brian read the inside of his eyelids. 

We went to dinner.  There's a lot of good eating in San Carlos, and we went to a favorite of Grammy and Papa.  The kids, of course, ordered Mac n'Cheese, and Erin enjoyed it. Robin took one look at her plate, then looked at Papa's (egg rolls and eggplant caprese) and ditched the noodles for the more flavorful fare. 

The girls wasted no time in enjoying their new books and plunked down next to a tree while waiting for Brian to get the car.  What a fun afternoon! 

Quick Visit from Dalia and Zoey

Zoey and Dalia were in town with their Mom and Dad.  We went to the SF Zoo.

All the girls had a nice time, they were troopers in tromping around the entire zoo.  Only at the end did we convince them to pile into the wagon.

Kuna Hike

We took a long, off-trail hike in Yosemite today to a small, 11,000 ft high lake called Kuna. This is a place of beauty. This is a quiet, secret space. This is a space sacred to Mr. B, whose car bears the license plate "KUNA" and whose wishes are for his ashes to be scattered around the lake. I've heard a lot about this place, and today was the day to go there.


Many thanks to Grandma and Grandpa who watched the girls the entire day and gave Brian and I our longest date since.... since... well, since Erin came into our lives.

 As pictures are worth at least 1000 words each, we'll tell the story that way. Let me just say what is not pictured. We had a lunch of mashed potatoes, SPAM and beer. Mr. B caught half a dozen fish in twice as many casts.

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Fancy nails

A little while ago, we took Grandma to get a pedicure to celebrate her birthday.  Erin came and got a polish change. 

Selecting their colors:

Pink sparkles, of course! 

All done, now to read Brides magazine while it dries.

Fancy nails!  The lady actually painted a flower on each of Erin's big toes.  Oh, and only charged me $5!  Fun and happy belated birthday Grandma!