Random Pictures and a Great Weekend

Here is a random bunch of pictures that I wanted to put up before we leave for Idaho on Tuesday. I can't believe we're leaving so soon! Reality has definitely not hit yet, but I'm sure it will tomorrow when I'm forced to start packing.

Sprinklers + trampolines = FUN!!!

While Emma laid out/jumped on the trampoline Matthew explored Grandma's yard.

Cute kids!

Like father, like son. :)

Less than a minute before I took this Emma was talking and singing and insisting that she wasn't tired...talk about crashing!

Some friends invited us along to the Academy of Sciences. We went with them once before so we were excited to go back and see everything that we missed the first time around. This is on top of the building.

The white alligator was actually in the water and moving. Last time he just sat on a rock, so this was exciting.

We went through the rainforest and survived the hot, suffocating humidity. The girls loved all the butterflies flying around.

The fish are always a hit.

And the jellyfish are Emma's favorite.

I am the activity day leader in my ward, so I do twice-monthly activities with the 8-11 year old girls. We had a Hawaiian party last week and I brought Emma along for the fun.

The lady on the left is the other leader. She made all of the Hawaiian dresses for the girls. Amazing!

This reminds me of the movie "Coraline".

Emma had her first trip to the dentist. She actually really likes going to doctors, so this was really fun for her. She was a little weirded out at first, especially when the dentist moved the chair up and then laid it down, but she loved everything about the trip. The highlights were the strawberry toothpaste and bubble gum flavored vitamins.

After the dentist we packed up and headed to Danville. We dropped the kids off with the grandparents and set out for our weekend getaway to celebrate our anniversary. It was SO nice. I feel so blessed to have family close by. We enjoyed our much needed vacation and it was great to be able to spend time together before we're apart for 2 weeks. We went and saw Harry Potter, went to the temple and took our time, wandered through Ikea for 2 hours dreaming of someday when we will (hopefully) have a house and money to buy all the fun stuff we saw, and took our time eating at restaurants and actually being able to enjoy our meals. And I probably commented at least 500 times about how nice it was to get in and out of the car without having to buckle carseats, get diaper bags, etc. It was great! And we didn't get any pictures...at least not any good ones. Oh well...

It has been good to be back together as a family today. I feel so blessed to have the family that I do.

Fun with Fij

We had a blast last week with Jon's sister Melinda. She stayed with us while the rest of the family went to girls camp. She was the perfect big sister for Emma and kept her entertained all week. Here are some of the highlights of our week.

Tuesday we went to Coyote Point and played on the big playground.

Wednesday we walked down to the candy store for some treats. They have tables outside with Candyland game boards on them so we played a quick game.

Wednesday we went swimming at the home of someone in our ward. Their house is seriously a mansion and it was all so gorgeous...the pool, the house, the yard, the view, the playhouse, everything. We had a great time. We went with some friends who have a daughter Fij's age, and some of their friends.

Monday and Thursday we went bowling. Thursday we were able to go with the friends that we had gone swimming with.

Friday we went and had lunch with Jon. We stopped and played at this park on the way.

Fij made an awesome welcome home sign for her family and Emma wanted to help.

We had a great time and I especially appreciated all of her help. Thanks for staying with us Fij!

The Monster in our Basement

Our house has a nice, big basement. It is not finished and is kind of dirty so we just use it for storage. Melinda(Jon's sister) loves playing down there, so she and Emma have spent a lot of time down there this week while she has been staying with us.

Monday, after the girls had been down there for awhile, Emma came running upstairs telling me that she saw the nice monster downstairs. She went on and on about this monster and wanted me to come see it. Curious, I followed them down. Melinda had me stand in this spot and look at a wall on the other side of the room. There is a space in the wall covered by a grate. She told Emma it was a monster cage and if you stand in a certain spot, you can see it's eyes. Thankfully she made sure Emma knew it was a nice monster and that all monsters are nice.

This monster is all Emma thinks about now. She tells everybody she sees about the nice monster, she talks about it nonstop and has to go down and see it about 5000 times every day, it's the first thing she mentions in the morning and one of the last things she mentions at night. I have to admit it's kind of funny. I love kids' imaginations and their enthusiasm over seemingly small things. Emma's creativity and imagination have taken off since Melinda has been here this week. I'm sad that she's leaving (as I know Emma is) because I don't feel like I can bring those things out in Emma the way other kids can. This experience has inspired me to be more fun, more creative, and to try and see the world through my childrens' eyes.

Time to go visit the monster again...

Another Children's Museum, Pioneer Day, and Other StufM

Another busy week. I love these kind of weeks. Life just goes smoother when we stay busy. This week I decided to check out a free children's museum near us. Why have we never gone in the 16 months that we've lived here? The kids had a blast. It was small...everything was in one big room...but it was nice to have it that way. The kids were able to each do what they wanted and I could see both of them all the time. It was great. It was kind of an environmental, go green type of museum. There were several kid powered exhibits.

The kids loved this one because they got to play with balls. You put the balls in the tube and then turn the wheel to make them go down and shoot out the bottom.

Here you turn the crank and light up the city. If you turn it fast enough you can get the windmills up on the hill to spin.

Here you put the discs in the slot and watch them spin down. Very entertaining.

And this one you turn the wheel and it makes a bunch of balls spin and water shoot up.

The Lil' Solar Panel

More ball fun

And Plinko! Too bad they didn't have real cash prizes!

There was also a SMALL zoo outside. The kids were so excited to be this close to the owl and kept yelling WHOO to try and wake it up.

This was probably one of our favorite parts of the museum. They had a maze made out of tree stumps and logs. Very cool.

Saturday we went to our ward's Pioneer Day picnic. Good food, good company, good fun. Emma loved riding the handcart, Matthew was not really a fan. (And I have no idea who the other girls in the cart are. Just catching a free ride...)

Matthew was tired. Before the picnic we had gone bowling (yes again. We are totally getting our money's worth out of our bowling pass!) After playing hard outside for a little while he was just content to sit in the stroller and eat Emma's Doritos.

The view of the bay from the park

Saturday night Jon suggested that Emma and I go on a mommy-daughter date to see the movie "Up". We went and had a blast. We left early so Emma could play at the mall play place and then it was movie time. We really enjoyed it. Emma was in awe of everything there. All the lights and big movie posters and popcorn. I think she liked the movie, but I don't think she understood most of it. She laughed at the parts that weren't funny to anyone else (when the house was flying through the rainstorm and during a fight) and was so startled at another part that she spilled her water all over her lap. And yes, it was definitely just water. :) It was a great girls night out!

So excited to ride the elevator...and get to the movie.

These next few are just random pics...the kids still love playing in the fort under Emma's bed.

Matthew loves putting things on his head...bowls, hats, pants, anything. It took him awhile to get this hat on and he was so proud of himself.

We have Jon's little sister here for the next week while the rest of the family is at girls camp. We are excited...Emma especially. Hoping for a great week!

Baby Talky

Recently Emma has started adding -y to the end of everything she says. For example...
Are we going to music classy
Can I have my milky
Can I get a little drinky
We have to drivey in the cary

And on and ony...you get the idea. I have no idea where she got it, but it's starting to get just a teensy tiny bit annoyingy because I'm starting to thinky like that in my heady. I think I might go crazy.

Children's Museum, Tilden Park and Other Stuff I Don't Want to Forget

So, for anyone who uses Google Reader, I accidentally posted BEFORE I wrote anything.
Oops...sorry for the confusion.

We've had a fun, busy week. We went swimming twice at a friends pool, went to the children's museum, and spent a lot of time at the park. The week flew by.

Tuesday was free day at the children's museum in Berkeley and it was surprisingly uncrowded. It was great. It was also Bastille Day (a french holiday) so they had several French themed activities and served french bread with cheese and grape juice. Very cute. We went with some friends and had a great time.
Matthew loves climbing in and on everything. This wagon was just the right size for him to get in and out of and sit in.

The crust on the french bread was a little tough :), but I love the chef hat.

Another climbing toy

Emma had a blast painting this wall. They also got to make and paint little French hats but we accidentally left Emma's there.

The water area...always a favorite. And in case you're wondering about the naked doll in the background...they had several dolls and baby bathtubs for the kids to bathe the babies. Matthew kept sitting in this bowl of water. Luckily I had thought to bring an extra pair of clothes.

Emma loved painting her arms and face with the face paints. Afterwards she sat there looking in the mirror and making different faces at herself.

Emma brought all the food to the chicken and said she was feeding it.It was a fun day. We can't wait to go back. They have several free days throughout the summer so we are excited.

I bought Emma some tablets that grow into shapes when you put them in water. Notice anything strange about the package???
(BUG shapes??? Those look like sea creatures to me) :)

The kids love to stand on a bucket and watch the fish.

Saturday we met up with Jon's family at Tilden Park. We got there early so Jon and Emma went exploring while Matthew and I waited in the car. He loves pretending to drive.

After his family got there we waited for the carousel to open. There was lots of room to run and explore.

FINALLY it was time for the carousel. Emma was so excited, she couldn't stand all the waiting. She got to ride it 3 times and could have ridden it all day.

Matthew rode it twice and didn't know what to think. He liked watching all the lights, but just sat there the whole ride.

After the carousel we went back outside for a picnic and some more play time.

Emma carefully built this out of Twizzlers and said it was her instrument.

Jon trying to stand on this stick. He got up but the stick eventually broke.

Our next stop was the train. They have a cute little steam train that takes you on a pretty long ride through the woods. They have little towns built along the way and an engine shed, etc.

Emma LOVES trains so she was ecstatic.

We spent the rest of the day with Jon's family visiting and swimming. It was great. Emma hasn't stopped talking about it all. It was seriously the ultimate day for her. And it was a great for us too. We had all the time we wanted so we weren't rushing. Nap times coincided with travel times so kids were happy. It was just a great day.

We found another play vacuum at a yard sale so we grabbed it. The kids fight over ours so this was perfect.

And I just had to show this because I was so excited. I got all of this at CVS for $12.50 and got $13 back!!! The $13 is in CVS bucks, but I shop there enough that I don't mind. The school supplies were all free (I paid and then got the same amount back in CVS bucks) and then a couple coupons printed out for different amounts off of my next order. I was so excited!

On a completely random note, I also just wanted to write down a couple of things that I don't want to forget about the kids. Matthew is at that age where he is constantly learning and doing new things. It's crazy how fast he is growing up. He can say a few words. He says thank you (dan do) when we give him something and he usually says it for us too. He also says cracker, night night, bye, and I did it (didit). He has also started taking his diapers and throwing them away after we change him. It is awesome. He can climb up, on, and in everything and anything. The other day he climbed onto the glider rocker, stood up on the arm of it, and then climbed up onto the 3rd shelf of the book case. I came in the room and saw him happy as can be crouched on the shelf trying to do a puzzle. He has no fear.

Emma is realizing more and more that Matthew can be fun to play with and has been doing more things with him...some good, some not so good. She still has her not so nice moments, but it's getting better. She loves "preschool". She doesn't go, but anytime we practice learning letters, etc she tells everyone that she went to preschool. She also loves calling Grandma, Jenny, and Fij and will talk forever. Thank you guys for listening to her. It makes her day. She loves sleeping in her new big bed and is doing well with it.

We love these kids!