Labor Day Weekend Move-In

We drew a close to summer, Labor Day weekend, somewhat uneventful but yet kinda exciting. Construction was finally finished on Young's new office space and we were ready to move him in! Young and Timo spent Saturday morning at Lowes getting a few last minute items while Cameron and I watched cooking shows on PBS.  Once that was out of the way we took advantage of a beautiful SF day and went to the Ferry Building for lunch and then to North Beach for gelato!

We came back by to check on the office and to "help" finish up the last detials.  I love that our electrician took his time explaining everything to the kids as he worked.

Sunday was clean up day!  With all the construction and new fixtures, there was a lot to clean before furniture could be moved in.  Good thing the kids have been doing chores at home, it was good practice for getting the office into shape!  With the added incentive of ice cream after cleaning, Timo and Cameron were all about the business...and they did a really good job too!

Monday was move in day, something Young and his partner had to do alone, without the kids wanting to get into everything, so we headed down to the Hirzels for a full day of swimming.  We love their club because it has a hot tub, Timo's favorite.  Doug was so nice to play "Daddy" to all four kids that day and toss them all around the pool.

We got back in time to see the new but limited office furniture.  Right now it's just two desk but we hope to have some furniture soon and some desk for some future employees!!  There is still work to be done...new doors, painting outside and the conference room finished, but we are so proud of Daddy and what he as done!  We know he works so hard for us and has built his company from the ground up. I'll try to post more pics as more additions come...

Finishing Up Summer Vacation Time

We got back from out impromptu trip and settled in for a few mellow days, catching up with Daddy time and trying our hand at creating scenes we saw at Legoland.

The summer relaxing didn't last long...the warm sunny weather of Palo Alto was calling so we gathered our friends and headed down for a few swim days.  (It doesn't hurt that there is a Chick Fil A in the area too)We LOVE the pool in Palo Alto.  It's vevirtually a kids paradise there.  The whole pool is only 3ft deep, lots of water sprayers, slides, big spaces for torpedo diving and the hot sun to warm up a tired boy who has been swimming all day.

We tested out our roller skates and skate board at the park one day...I think Timo is ready for a big kid skate board and Cameron is ready for rubber wheeled roller skates!

My friend Ana told me about this great skate park up north where the kids can ride scooters till 1pm so we had to check it out.  It was AWESOME!!  They both were very cautious starting out but eventually worked up the courage to do the big drops and jumps.  I was so proud of them. This park is on our "go-to" list now of exciting things to do.

Timo loves to sweat...he loves to look like his Daddy, all covered in sweat.  So he asked me to take a picture of him before we left and send it to Daddy.

Oh, yeah, right, we heard there was a Chick Fil A about 10mins from the skate park...so we just had to go.  We ran into some friends from church there too, so I don't feel like the only one who drives 30mins outside the city for some CFA!

The last day of summer vacation, swimming in Palo Alto...but this actually was one town over, Menlo Park because the PA pool was closed that day.

The Saturday before school started again we took the kids to the Giants game for Fellowship Day! The best part of Fellowship Day is going onto the field after for the concert and hearing the testimonies of the players.  Listening to these big league players giving God the glory was exactly what I want my kids to hear.  It was just amazing to be dancing to Natalie Grant, worshiping with hundreds of others in the middle of ATT Park.  The kids loved it.

I gotta say Ryan Vogelsong testimony was so moving.  All were really great but Voge's really touched my heart with his story and message.

Oh, and Young and I fit in our 10 year Anniversary somewhere in there.  Things were kinda crazy during those weeks, but we still managed to slip out and have a little Anniversary lunch date!

One more sleep and it was time to start school again!  I think the kids had a fun packed summer.  I find myself constantly thinking back to my childhood, trying to remember all the fun things my parents did with us over the summers.  Aside from working the garden at 7am and having to shuck corn and shell bean for hours, I'd say my kids are right on par with me as a 6 year old...which is important considering I grew up in the country and Timo and Cameron are city kids.

San Diego Day 3--Legoland Water Park

As if one day of Legoland wasn't bad enough...we headed back for day 2, the water park!  (Legoland knows how to suck you in by giving a huge discount on a 2day pass, you just can't pass up the deal) But, being southern California in August, it was hot and the water park was so much fun!  Although, I have to say, my plans of lounging by the pool while the kids played quickly disappeared when I saw how huge the park was and how spread out everything was.  There were basically four different sections, all offering different levels of entertainment for the kids.  We got changed, picked out some chairs and headed straight for the main area where the water slides were.

Being a water park and being in the water all day, I didn't take that many pictures...didn't need an accident of water and my phone.  But I did get some of the water slides.  Timo and Cameron rode the red ones over and over, always coming down in the same ones.

We took a lunch break and went to the Lego boat building area where I'm sure Timo could have spent the rest of the day.

After lunch Cameron was ready to tackle the huge blue slide.  This is when being a single mom gets tricky. How to go stand in line and ride the big scary water slide with your little girl while you son wants to be in a totally different side of the park swimming and playing with water canons? Welcome to my world!  Somehow Cameron convinced me she was big enough to ride by herself and she could go alone.  Ugh.  So I took a leap of faith and sent her off while I waited at the bottom, watching her in line and then seeing that smiling face come flying down the side!  How do they grow up do fast??!! She had a blast and wanted to do it over and over.

There was a water area and some water rides in the Legoland park that we skipped the day before because I knew we were coming back and would be in our suites, so we took a break from swimming and went to the Pirate Adventure area to get wet some more...and lose Timo.  Yes, once again, being a single mom for a week, I took my eyes off him to watch Cameron on the little water slide and I lost sight of him.  Turns out he was in the structure the whole time, just tucked into a little covered area shooting with water canons.  And as I walked around, he would unknowingly move as well and constantly stay just out of my sight.  I had two other moms helping me look but it was Cameron that found him!  Needless to say, we stayed as a pack the rest of the day...

After a few more hours of swimming and rides, it was Cameron's turn to get lost.  Geesh, this single mom thing was getting old!  But we found her and decided it was time to call it quits on swimming. It was getting close to the park closing time and I had promised Cameron we would ride her roller coaster we missed the day before.  We changed, checked our swim gear in a locker and headed into the park for one last ride...or two.  Timo wanted to ride his laser target ride one more time too.  I love that there are Lego building stations for the kids while you wait in line!

As we were leaving we got to meet their favorite characters from the Lego Movie!  Wylestyle and Emmet.  It was a nice way to wrap up Legoland.

We had said goodbye to the Bryants that morning because after Legoland we were driving back up to LA to get a jump on the long drive back to SF the next day.  Even though the kids were exhausted, they stayed away for the two hour drive to keep me company, so sweet.  We were all so tired when we got to our hotel at 10pm, we collapsed!  Luckily the kids were so tired from the past few days, our drive back home was pretty uneventful, long, but uneventful.  Note to self, not a good idea to travel the 5 on a Friday...it looks like this and turns a 5 hour drive into 7 hours.  But we made it home safe and were sooooo happy to see Daddy and tell him all about our adventures.