Day 202 - Slip N Slide

This was a great summer day.  The girls and I spent lots of time together doing fun activities.  We made dripless popsicles using Jello and we also baked chocolate ricotta muffins.  I've been wanting to buy a Slip N Slide this summer and finally did so today while the kids were at VBS.  The kids had lots of fun "discovering" how to play on a Slip N Slide.  They really wanted me to join them, but it just wasn't hot enough for me to want to dive onto the thing.  On top of all this, the girls had sim lessons.  John did his walking and painting and watching the kids while I did a hill workout, then we all went on a night walk near dusk which at this time of the year is about 9:30.

Day 188 - A walk back in time

It was a great marin day and John's birthday.  The only problem with the day was the cool weather.  I always hope for super warm weather when we visit.  Our first stop was to Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes Station.  We didn't even taste the cheese, I already know it's good and it was too chaotic in the little store with the girls.  I did, however, buy a t-shirt.  This is my kind of souvenir collecting.  My latest trend seems to be collecting t-shirts from artisan food purveyors.  We had promised the girls some ice cream as we were walking into the store since we saw people walking out with large scoops, afterall, it was a creamery, right, they had to have ice cream.  We had to renig on our offer after we learned that there was only one flavor of ice cream (peach) and it was terrible expensive.

Next stop - Bear Valley Visitors Center.  Did I know this was the name of the place? No.  If you had told me we were going to Bear Valley VC, would I have known where you were talking about? No.  I know it as the place where you see the Earthquake trail and the Miwok Village.  I have been here many times, probably when I was Hannah's ago and definitely on field trips and with out of town visitors like my Aunt Anita and her family.  The girls, John, and I did the earthquake trail.  Fortunately, they had kid versions of the info signs.  The best part is the place where you can see that a fence was separated and displaced 16 feet during the 1906 earthquake.  I kept telling the girls about the cow that fell in the crack in the earth.  I think this place used to be on the trail or maybe the story was.  We never found it, I guess that's not part of the trail anymore.

Grandma and Papa walked with us up to the Miwok Village.  There were some great reconstructed structures in the village, just like I remembered.  G&P even tricked us at one point, seeming to disappear, then jumping out of a hut to scare us.  We totally fell for it! 

One the way home, we went to Lococos in San Anselmo.  After 30+ years in Marin, this was the first time any of us had tried this Lococos.  I was great and Dad swears it might even be better than the original.  The evening ended with a night walk up in the open space hills to the horse stables.  I couldn't believe we went all the way over there considering how close to dark it was when we left, but we were with my Dad, so I shouldn't be too surprised.  The highlight were the owls we spotted and the horse that bent down to have Haley pet it.  The girls later identified the owls with Papa in a bird book, now I can't remember what kind they were.  Barn owls?  They were white and loud screechers. 

Day 171 - Father's Day

It's Father's Day and normally we go out on the boat to celebrate.  The weather was so crappy and depressing, it wasn't worth making the effort to go out and we're willing to go out in pretty crappy weather.  At this point in the month, Seattle still hadn't had a day above 75 degrees in 2010.  That streak that lasted a record breaking 272 days wouldn't end for another 3 days. For exercise we went on a twillight/night walk, haven't done that in awhile. We came back and enjoyed the chocolate souffles the girls and I worked on that afternoon and surprised Daddy with. They were Dee-licious! Note the reflection of us in the teapot in the picture above.

Day 151 Part 2 - Hey is that sun?

John doing his best impression of a gondola guy

For a brief 15 min stint, the clouds had opened up, the sun was shining, and coats were off.  We even moved the folding chairs to the dock and brought out the snacks and magazines . . . and then it was gone. We were sure the weather was going to start improving so we got the girls dressed in their swim clothes and headed off in the dinghy to find our own private island to play on, there are a couple of state owned islands in West Sound.  We found our spot. Mom and Dad managed to get in a little relaxing and reading and Hannah and Haley did some net fishing and they actually caught some miniature fish and jelly fish.  Soon enough, the rain came in and we headed back to the marina just in time for the rain to stop.  we were rewarded with some of the most vivid rainbows I have ever seen. As the night fell, and the rain appeared to stop, we walked the kids around the docks to get out some energy.  We got to see an old sailboat that had been made in the old family ship yard in Denmark.   It was in terrible shape, so John really didn't want to see it. It was amazing to think that it had once been crafted by his relatives in Denmark.  We hadn't been out for too long before the rain began again and it was time to go to sleep.

Day 149 - The start of a rainy holiday weekend

Again, still not caught up on my posts, so I'm writing this 2 weeks later.  Maybe it will actually be short and sweet, but I doubt it!  Just for the record, for the next 4 days when we are on the boat, we are not more than 24ft away from each other.  That's togetherness in my book.  Oh yeah, we actually did interact with each other too.

Day 149 - off to the islands, the San Juans, that is.  Deer Harbor on Orcas Island was our destination.  We were meeting up with Tobin, Tara, and Teagan.  We knew we were in for a rainy weekend and we'd have to get outside pretty much anytime it wasn't raining. We got settled in and then I took off for a 4 mile run.  The girls got to go on a dinghy ride with Daddy and played some Spinge Bob UNO.  I have only taken short walks from this marina, so I wasn't sure what the running situation was going to be like. I did know there was a short public trail and a narrow, (likely no shoulder) road in and out of the marina.  I had mapped out some running distances before I left home, but still, wasn't sure what the actual road would be like?  Trafic?  Dogs?  It turned out to be fine.  From the marina through the public trail and to the end of the road was exactly 2 miles, so I just ran multiples of this stretch.  John got to go out on his own for a walk along the public path and down to the buffalo farm that had no buffalo, only cows.  We took our pj-clad girls out on a night walk on a little trail bordering the beach by the marina.  It was perfect for them, it felt like we were in the woods, yet it was short in length.  It also led down to the beach so they got to look for crabs with flashlights. It's fun to watch them explore.

Day 101, 102, 103, 104, and 105

Finally - I'm caught up on all my posts!

Day 101
I was still sick, so no long run for me.  Since I was feeling better in the eveing, we went on a breif night walk 15 min.

Day 102
The girls started swim classes, they've had a break from swimming classes since last august. The classes include 30 min of instruction and then another 15 min of free play.  They were so tired when they got home, this is going to be a great way for them to get some exercise.  Dad went on a walk, mom was still recovering.

Day 103
A walk for Dad and then we followed the girls while they biked around the the neighborhood.

Day 104
Swim class - finally some activity for a wednesday.  At long last, I'm feeling better and I got in my long run so still hanging in there with the training schedule.  A beautiful sunny spring day on the Burke Gilman trail.

Day 105
Gymnastics for the girls, a walk in Edmonds for mom (Haley in stroller), and Dad got in his loop walk too.

Day 23 and 24

Day 23
Saturday Daddy had lots of pruning to do in the yard and the girls were a big help carrying the branches 20 min. 

Day 24
Tonight, I wasn't sure if we were going to make it out.  It always seems like such a big deal to get everyone dressed warmly and outside and pretty much all this month it has been wet wet wet.  We had to bribe Haley to get her outside.  She kept insisting that she and Daddy would stay home.  She finally agreed when we told her we would bring the rocking horse into the house.  There was room for now that the Christmas decorations have finally been packed away and out back out into the garage.  It had stopped raining by the time we went out, but everything was nice and wet, so there were some decent puddles to splash in (for the kids, not the parents).  Even though it is a pain to get everyone out, it is so nice once we are out there, it is quiet and peaceful and there is a nice chill in the air.  Not chilly enough though, we would love to get some snow!  20 min.

Day 8

We managed to get in a night/rain/flashlight walk around the neighborhood - just barely (8:15 pm). I love these times with the girls. They feel like they are on an adventure and it is so much fun to observe them and listen to their comments. We told them before they left that they could splash in puddles, so the bulk of our walk was trying to find puddles, there were plenty as it has been raining nonstop and hard today. We found one at the field that was at least 5 inches deep. Hannah got her feet wet there and was ready to go back. The girls discovered all sorts of things on this walk that we have never noticed before like a post with a house number on it completely hidden by the landscaping of the house and a big tree which was evidently much smaller at one point. They also noticed a shrubby tree that looks like it has glitter on it when a light is shined on it and it's thousands of little water dropplets. We returned pretty soaking wet, especially our pants where the water would funnel off of our rain coats and onto our thighs. 30 min.

Day 3

I wasn't sure we were going to get this one in. Had a full day of church, visiting a brand new baby, and a dinner guest. After our guest left, we took a night walk in our neighborhood. The small lightweight flashlights we got in our stockings were perfect for little hands. The girls had a blast "looking for animals". Hannah, however, would not allow anyone to talk because she was afraid we were scaring the animals. She, ironically, was the loudest one. 30 min.