Exploratorium

Grandpa and Benjamin. It's so nice that Ben is finally wanting to go to someone more than he wants to go to me. I get to get a little break once in a while:) Grandpa lets him follow him around wherever he goes, whatever he does, and lets him help him do whatever he's doing. What a fun Grandpa!

My brother Jon and his wife Michelle came up for a day when Kerry and Steve were here and we all went to the exploratorium in San Francisco. It was a lot of fun! Afterwards we had a picnic outside the exploratorium next to the pond and the big structure (don't make fun of me, I don't remember the name of it and I have a feeling I should know the name). Then we walked just a little ways to the ocean and looked at the Golden Gate Bridge. My camera ran out of batteries so I didn't get any of those pictures. When I get the pictures from my bro in law Steve I will post them. I think he got a good family picture.

More Nut Tree park

Katelyn, Alex, Benjamin, Sam and Lily.

Benjamin and Lily waiting their turn for the carousel.

Choo Choo train. Benjamin is obsessed with trains and couldn't wait to get on this train. The whole time waiting in line he was saying "choo choo, choo choo." But as soon as we got on he sat quietly looking out the window with a huge grin!

In the train next to ours was Kerry, Steve, and Sam and Lily. We had so much fun visiting with them this trip!

Playing on the horsies and teeter totters.

Carousel

Last year the Nut Tree park closed because they couldn't afford to keep it open. (They charged too much so everyone stopped coming.) This year they moved the train and the carousel to a different area in the Nut Tree shopping area and reopened the rides. (unfortunately for the older kids their favorite rides--the roller coaster and the bumper cars--will not be returning. We went with my sister and her family and the grand re-opening day, all the rides were free.

Benjamin picked the "Roar" to ride, and of course is sporting his super cheesy smile. Alex and Katelyn are such good big siblings and chose the animals so they could be next to their baby brother.

Car Wash

We went through the car wash the other day (first time in who knows how long) and Benjamin was scared. He was screaming and shaking and hiding his eyes in his sissy's shoulders! We all felt so badly for him because we were stuck in there. I haven't felt him squeeze my hand so tight. Poor little fella. It's a huge change from Alex and Katelyn who have always loved the car wash and thought it was the coolest thing ever.

More helping!

My sweet little helper, Benjamin, followed me out to water the garden. I just love my cute little diaper baby, goofy smile and all!

Garden

This is the Garden however many months later. I need to look, but I think 4 months later. It is doing really well, especially for my 1st garden! The pumpkings are doing the best, and the cucumber and green beans have been delicious and are still doing really well!

We also have watermelon, and canteloupe. We had strawberries, and carrots and lettuce, but we pulled them out. We ate all the carrots, very yummy (sorry I forgot to take pictures). And I really enjoyed the lettuce, but that's just it only I enjoyed the lettuce, and the pumpkin was taking over it so I pulled it out so the pumpkins could have more room. The strawberries failed miserably.

So here are a few things I've learned this year: I need a BIGGER garden! And I learned that pumpkins and watermelon and canteloupe and cucumbers all take a lot of room! So next year I will do a lot better!

If you look at the very top left picture that is the pumpkin vining out really far from the garden.

It has definitely been a fun adventure that everyone, the kids and even my husband, have really enjoyed!! Can't wait to carve all those pumpkins!!

Mom and Alex Date Night!

Date night with Alex. Except I didn't call it date night when talking to him because it would make him hate it, silly boy. We drove around town looking for a fun place to hang out. We landed on Cultive Frozen yogurt where you get to put on your own toppings. He wanted all the same toppings that I had. (So of course I picked toppings I knew he loved) After frozen yougurt we were planning to go walk around the bookstore (his idea), but we were called home by a baby who had woken up and wouldn't stop crying. So, next time Alex! I love you and had so much fun hanging out with just me and you, it's been too long!!

sweet boy

So, Katelyn has been spending every day with her cousin who is visiting and Alex is feeling a little left out. So tonight I told Alex that I was going to take him out wherever he wanted to go, just me and him.

He said, "I don't care, anywhere I go with you is fun."

Peter Pan

The kids found Alex's old Peter Pan costume and tried it on Benjamin, and he just looked so cute I had to take some pictures. I can't believe that he is so big that he fits in Alex's costume already! Tell all my kids to STOP growing up!!!

(And yes I know the date on the picture is wrong, I already fixed it on the camera...)

Cash for Clunkers!

So Joel's car has been falling apart for years. We bought it from my sister Kerry about 4 years ago for a measly $500, and have managed to barely keep it running. There is a leak in the power steering fluid, so Joel has to put oil in it everyday. There is no A/C, and in this 100 degree weather after working outside with a welding suit, coming home isn't very fun. It needs a new rack and pinion (whatever that is), and it needs a lot more that I have no idea because I don't really speak engine.

We are pretty positive that it won't pass smog this coming registration (it barely passed last year). I tried to convince Joel to get a scooter, but he laughed. So, I found the cheapest car out there, base model. The only thing it has is A/C, no radio, no power anything. But he's okay with that because face it, anything is better than what he was driving!!

I spent almost all of Saturday finding the car that we wanted. The city where we live had one, but it had upgrades and we don't want to afford the upgrades. So I found the color, and make and model that I wanted in Napa. So I drove in the heat, with no A/C to Napa all by myself. (Joel stayed home with the kids, because face it, who want kids running around while you're making such a big purchase?) I was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic; which in turn almost over heated the clunker. I pulled into the dealership just in time for it to start overheating, and for the power stearing to go out.

The kids are loving our new ride, so we've been driving it around town to do all of our errands today. Yeah for a new car, yeah for the great deal that gave me $4,500 dollars for my piece of junk car that is barely worth $100. Boo for the car payment, but hey, at least it's a small one!

JELLY BELLY!

My little sister, Kristin, came into town with some of her friends, so we all went to the Jelly Belly factory. It has been a long time since I've taken a tour when the workers were actually working so it was kind of neat to watch. Benjamin absolutely loved watching the workers, and the machines, and he especially loved the robots that moved boxes around. Katelyn was acting grown up hanging out with all the college kids, and Alex was a big helper for me.

We bought a little 6-person blow-up boat with paddles and took it out onto our nearby "Lake" Solano. It's really a river, but not really even river enough to be called a river either. Okay, so it is what comes downstream from Monticello Dam and Lake Berreyessa.

This was so much fun! We brought a lunch out, and really enjoyed wandering around on our little boat together as a family. We definitely plan on taking it out again very soon, and we're hoping to go somewhere a little more exciting (but not too exciting, we have an almost 2 year old along for the ride!)

I feel very blessed to have such a wonderful little family that I get to have so much fun with!

A week before I took the kids to San Diego, we went to Bodega Bay with some friends of ours. It was beautiful, and a lot of fun. Except we liked San Diego better because the water was way warmer!!




(I am playing with Picasa because I just started using it and I am trying to figure out how it all works. I wasn't really pleased with my last entry about San Diego using Picasa because it was too blurry. The last picture I stretched to make it bigger, so I'm trying to see if not stretching it will help the quality. How do you guys all use Picasa? Do you click on "Blog This" on your Picasa page, or do you select a file to upload from your google page?)