Come Fly Over San Ramon, Callifornia

If I could put weather in a bottle, I would certainly send all of you some! It has been sooooo nice around here lately. Spring-o-rama. Maybe the best way to tell the story is by posting a million pictures of fun stuff that has been going down lately. So, here goes. Keep in mind that if you click on the 'Recent Photos' link to the right, many more like this are posted.


Highlights:

1. Ping Pong at Home. Nate and John have gotten into ping pong quite passionately lately. Rainy days turn into ping pong days real quick.

2. Painting our kitchen. Enough said. Here is a work in progress shot. We'll post the "after" shots later.

3. Mantle project. Coming. In the recent photos you'll probably see some sample mantles I want to build. Next to the free section on Craigslist (which is pretty incredible sometimes I might add), thank heaven for my favorite store in the Western Hemisphere, Apple Blossom. It's an incredible trim shop.

4. Gearing up for Chinese New Year. The parade is on 2/23...you're all welcome. Tragedy in it all, it's the same night as the finals round of our Pinewood Derby. More later on that.

5. Pinewood Derby. There was a time in life when I lamented the idea of possibly never having a kid that would be able to participate in this dealio. But alas, here we are--Nate and John only know the derby in theory at this point, so I'm having to carry a lot of the excitement load. All I can say is if I only had the power tools I have now, way back then, I would have done better than 2nd place...and I'm not just talking about shop tools. Have you seen all the tips and tricks on the Internet? Golly. It's a veritable treasure trove of experience and pitfall awareness. We'll probably get our kiesters kicked in the intial round on Friday, but it certainly won't be for not trying all the latest tricks. More later on that too.


6. Valentines rocked. I surprised Julia with a clean kitchen and flowers (on a lunch break) and she surprised me with an incredible dinner, as 'very much appreciatedly' always. Liza and the kids made incredible sugar cookies. I know it's a staple in our culture, but they were actually the only sugar cookies I even saw this year. Amazing.

7. Liza likes to wear my shoes. She is getting so stinkin cute it freaks us out. She's always doing 'her homework', points out circles, squares and triangles, colors (none of our other kids did this at that age), and is as Costa Ricans say, a "chacalaca" she repeats EVERYTHING ANYONE says, all the time.

8. This weekend was not only full of painting and pinewood derby car making...we pulled a Von Trapp family-esque gig in watching our friends' (Higbee) kids.

They are the most well behaved kids in the Western Hemisphere. Call me insane for saying this, but it's almost as if they were sent to calm our maniacal, barbarian like children and teach them that there is a better way to live. Seriously.


They are polite, respectful, kind, proper, considerate...basically all the things we've been working on lately. Granted, there are four girls in their family, no vikings or barbarians. So, all the unmentionables that Nate and John love to do as they jockey for position--just don't seem to happen with the Higbee girls.





We're breaking them in, little by little. They are shocked at the boy world we live in. This morning they were in their PJs with Nate and John in the creek. Tide Country. Then, they were making pinewood derby cars with us. Then we were off to the BMX park to ride the track. Then we hiked up a hill and climbed a GYNORMO HUGE Live Oak.


After than we climbed to the top of a hill, found an awesome treehouse and incredible rope swing. The tree it was tied to this 40" round branch that hung over a steep hill--so you could run and seemingly fly over all of San Ramon in the air--like you are kite boarding--as if I know what that feels like. Huge rush. They LOVED it. Seriously flying over San Ramon. Blast. You've got to come out here and try this. San Ramon (this is a link...click on it) and the whole Bay Area are stunningly beautiful right now.

9. Ultrasound. We had an ultrasound and the baby was laying on its stomach with its legs crossed--mostly inconclusive. The ultrasound tech pointed to three very, very blurry faint lines and said it might be a girl! Then again, it might be a boy! Well now that this is clear as mud, we'll say we're 51% sure it's a girl...but we'll see.

I hope ya'll are doing well. Take care.


Later.