Elizabeth and the bear statues

Learning about wolves in west Yellowstone

Or at least, playing on a fake wolves den

Shoshone falls

We had an absurdly perfect day today, which began with a visit to Shoshone falls on the snake river, about four miles from the KOA. These were from the lookout point. We have some other pics on the real camera, but here are from my phone.

After the falls we went to a lake upstream and swam and picnicked, and dove off the cliff (me), and generally had a picturesque day for the ages. We are all so lucky it just makes you want to puke.

Sleep Over!

Parker is at his first slumber party tonight.

Sure, he's the only guest and it's his best friend Zoe, but it counts. All she wanted was a slumber party and her parents didn't want to deal with more than 2 kids. Zoe and Parker were pretty damn excited. Probably last time he'll get to do slumber party with girls, I would think.

I wonder if they stayed up late making prank calls.

Our Trip

We leave on Saturday for a 10 day adventure.

We are first heading to Reno to see the Long Families again. We'll do a little swimming, a lot of eating, and very little sleeping.

Then we head out Sunday morning for Twin Fall Idaho, about 7 hours away. When we arrive, we'll set up camp (and when I say set up camp, I mean we'll use the key to unlock our KOA cabin) for two days. We're bringing bikes, books, bathing suits, scooters, and three kids with lots of energy. There is not only golf, a lake, playground, and pool at this campground, there is a river near by for actual nature.

On Tuesday we take off for a 4-5 hour drive to Yellowstone where we'll meet us with Michael's best friend Kevin and his extended family. We are actually staying in Island Park Idaho in some swanky cabin just outside of the park, but plan to spend each day seeing the sights, animals, trails, and rivers that are Yellowstone. Then on Sunday we'll head home again, doing the drive in 2 days this time, only stopping at a cheap motel when we need to.

It's a lot of driving in the car, but we'll be fully stocked with dvds, books, drawing supplies and food to get us there hopefully in one piece. With five bikes on the back of the minivan, that might be a lot to ask for.

I have no idea what the wifi situation will be or even if we are taking the computer, so if we don't blog, try to imagine us standing amongst the moose and bears and geysers.

Me and Nico

Here is the baby I watched the other day. He was a perfectly nice baby, doing all normal baby things like being cute, crying, fussing, and sleeping. He was happiest watching the swimmers come out of the water.

Every time I watch a baby, I wonder how the hell I did it with two. Doing it with one seems totally miserable; two must have been awful.

Today's Update

We didn't do much today.

The kids were acting like whiny little brats most of the day (maybe because we didn't do anything) and Parker was especially bad complaining about his awful life, lack of toys, boredom, and anything else that was bugging him. I think he was tired, but he wouldn't nap.

Michael bought a couch and chair today. He got the quality he wanted at the price I wanted AND it was delivered today. No more cartwheels in the living room but it's lovely to sit in the living room.

Got some shoes for girls at target today. Box said size 10, shoes were size 9, which I only discovered at home. Went back to get right size. Forgot receipt. Need to go back tomorrow. Ugh.

I got a private bike tutorial from a biking expert friend tonight. I changed a flat tire and everything!

Tomorrow, Parker has camp, I'm watching Fletcher and Sebastian for a bit in the morning, and then gymnastics class in the afternoon.

A few more days like that and then off to Yellowstone!

Face Painting

Face painting is big around here. I picked up some real face paint and a book about how to do it and I painted the kids yesterday and today. I actually did better than i thought and the kids didn't seem to mind some small mistakes and asymmetry. I didn't do Parker's american flag. It was done at camp. And today, Michael made his face into an Angry Bird, which he is completely obsessed with.

Fentons

No visit to Oakland is complete without stop at Fentons. All the kids wanted two scoops. None of the kids finished either scoop.

Bay Area Discovery Museum

The last time I went to Bay Area Discovery Museum with Julia, she was in her mom's belly. As expected, she loved it. Everyone had a great time despite the wind and chill in the air.

4 and 3/4

Julia woke up today and told us it was her 4 and 3/4 birthday. So we made three quarters of a cake with 4 and three quarters candles.

There was much discussion about the flavor of the cake, but everyone agreed on white cake (not yellow) and were quite happy with the product.

Julia is here.

Amy, Eran and Julia arrived Saturday evening. The girls had been excited all week about her arrival and counted down the days. They were instantly shrieking and running around the house together. We all hung out Sunday at a park and the house and then today after I dropped Parker at camp, Amy and Eran went off for a three day mini kid-free vacation in the city.

The girls stayed home all day today which was fine with me since I was exhausted. They played well all day and kept switching off who was playing together. Julia is a nice mix of both girls, so she can do physical things with Elizabeth and imaginary, games about dogs with Miranda. She also likes to change clothes as many times as Elizabeth and is happy to wear matchy, matchy clothes with the girls.

We picked Parker up at 3 and then went off to gymnastics class where I was once again told about Parker's amazing abilities and how I had to get him into the advanced class. I, once again, said I just couldn't do it.

Julia got to take the class with Miranda and although she couldn't hold up in pull up for as long as Miranda, she could do cart wheels better than anyone in the class. She seemed happy.

Then home again for Kipper while I made dinner, pasta and sausage (Julia's Favorite!), strawberries for dessert, a little Wizard of Oz and books Julia brought and then bedtime. Julia sat on my lap during the books which was sweet. (My girls like Aunt Amy quite a lot, but it's hard to say whether Julia has any affection towards me.)

It was a good day.

A beautiful butterfly

Bird on head

Time out for dipping dots

Go karts

Passing time before lunch

Madness

At the dolphin show

Parkers first looptylooop coaster

Memories...

My mother has a strange memory.

Today she sent me a article from the NY Times about an obscure mathematician named John Dee that I took a class on in college (the history of math, but really it was the history of alchemy.) She remembers the paper I wrote on it.

But, she doesn't remember that I had chicken pox as a child or that I now get the NY Times, only recently reported here in this blog.

Thanks mom. :)

Reno!

We drove to Reno on Saturday morning to hang with Michael's family for the holiday weekend. I booked a hotel, but when we arrived it was a shit hole with the wrong bed configuration. I flipped and Michael was a big sport and took care of it all. We moved to the attached tower hotel and it was much better rooms without the freeway immediately out of our window.

We went directly to the pool and were met by almost the entire Long family. The kids were in heaven with all the adults that would play with them and I got to sit in the hot tub in peace for a bit.

We had dinner at the casino buffet which was actually quite good and the desserts were delicious. We of course ate way too much.

Michael went out to a baseball game with Parker while I stayed in the hotel with the girls. When they got home, Michael went out again to play some craps. Apparently, he didn't walk away when he was ahead.

The next day, we went out to breakfast with Aunt Lori, hit a local park, and then met up with Grammy and Ginny at their complex. I wanted to see how cold the non heated pool was. It was too cold for me, but the kids, even Miranda who hates the cold, enjoyed it in small doses. I think the 95 degree weather helped them stay warm. After a long while, we went back to the hotel, had lunch and Michael took the kids back to the pool while I had a massage.

We stayed at the pool the rest of the day and then had the buffet with Lori for dinner. It wasn't as good the second time, but probably only because I was stuffed still from breakfast and lunch. I wasn't so stuffed that I couldn't enjoy 3 desserts though. Parker also had three and was damn happy about that. We head back to the hotel room where we watched and watched Return of the Jedi and the muppet movie (not really, but that is what I call Lord of the Rings) until we fell asleep.

Monday morning, I took the kids to breakfast, then the pool and let Michael sleep in a bit. Then we all swam a bit more before heading to Uncle David's where the entire family including partners and boyfriends was hanging out. We had a delicious brunch, played some cornhole (look it up) and swam more in the hot tub. Cousin Amber was the big favorite and was attached to Miranda and/or Elizabeth the entire time.

We took off around noon and drove home. It was a smooth drive back.

A good weekend overall, despite the fact that we ate too much and spent too much money eating.

At the DQ