Family Tree

The first few days in Florida were great family bonding days. They say wedding and funeral bring people together and it's so true. The twins got to catch up with their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd cousins, aunts, uncles and great aunts and uncles and of course Granny...who was up to her old tricks...Jana Howell is my first cousin and even though we live thousands of miles apart, we are as close as sisters. She came to live with us for a few years when she was in high school and I was about 8 or 9years old. Needless to say, I thought she was the coolest person to walk this earth! We formed a special bond that has spanned the ages and distance.
Jana's children are second cousins to the twins...Wyatt and Autumn had a blast meeting their city cousins and showing them how to get getting down right dirty.
Timo and his Great Uncle Chaz have a special bond...they became football buddies in Savannah a few weeks ago so the first thing Timo said to him was "throw ball Uncle Chaz". They relaxed with a snack afterwards.
My brother and his family were able to come down so of course Kaylee and Cameron had to get their 1st cousin fix!
But the most fun for the kids were meeting their 3rd cousins, John and Georgia Gore. (Their mom, Lauren, and I are 2nd cousins) John is a few months older than the twins so he and Timo were fast friends. And of course Cameron took right to Georgia, who just turn 1, because she is such a nurturer. Even though the toys were Georgia's, Cameron was trying to show and explain to her how they worked...so funny.


We saw so many more relatives that I can't even go into them all but it was such a joy to see loved ones that I hadn't seen in over 15, sometimes 20 years. I hope it's not another 20 years before we see them again.

Florida---Swimming

One of the first things we did when we landed in Florida was hit the swimming pool. Cameron is getting more and more brave in her swimming, really doing a good job kicking and moving her arms. And both love jumping into Daddy's arms. I love their little suites with floaties built in, it really give them more freedom in the water. I can tell we'll be doing a lot of swimming during our time here...



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Happy Birthday Lucia!

There was one other birthday party we attended before we left for the east coast...Lucia Haskins! Lucia's mom, Timmie, was my first friend when I moved to SF 15years ago...wow, has it been that long?? We used to work together in the pastry at Rubicon...back in our pastry chef days, both single and footloose and fancy free. Now we both are married and have children the same age!

Anyway, Lucia had a super fun party at SF Gymnastics which the kids LOVED. The running trampoline was the the most fun for them.

They way they both took to the swinging bars makes me wonder if I might have some gymnasts on my hands...

The instructors had set up these great obstacle courses all around. The twins loved going in, our, up, down, over...
And lets not forget about cake! Of course Timmie make her own cupcakes, hazelnut and chocolate, and Cameron throughly enjoyed her little treat!

New Backpacks

I am a genius...really I am. I was packing and getting ready for our trip to Florida for my Grandmother's funeral and thinking about the kid's backpacks or "activity bags" for the plane ride...what to pack in them this time. Then I was thinking how they didn't even really carry their backpacks last time, they just fought over who was going to pull Daddy's rolling carry-on suitcase...fighting all through the airports. I just ended up carrying the backpacks in the stroller that they didn't even sit in because they had to pull Daddy's suitcase.

Then it dawned on me...rolling backpacks!! I quickly did a search online and found they make ones for preschools so I took off to Target to pick some out. Imagine my luck when I found Diego and Dora ones just their size!

It worked like a charm. They were so excited to have their own "suitcases" and ended up pulling them all by themselves through the airports. Mission accomplished! AND, I didn't even need the stroller this time because there were no backpacks to carry or toddlers to push...just walking and rolling little kids.

I am a geinus...guess that's why I get paid the big bucks...

Happy Birthday Noah!

Noah Wong is one of our little friends from church and they recently moved outside the city so we haven't seen them in a while. It was great to be able to see them, celebrate Noah and try to catch up on their move. (I say "try" to catch up because who really has time to talk at at child's birthday party?) They now live just outside SF but where it's much warmer so they chose to have the party at Pump It Up because there was a heat wave going on...excellent choice! Pump It Up is basically this large warehouse full of bouncy houses...what could be better for a bunch of 2 year olds???

My little fearless daughter shocked everyone by climbing up the super slide by herself and sliding right down over and over and over and over....

While my "safety first" son stuck to the little slide, tummy down. Then he found the baseball house, camped out there and showed everyone how it's done.

The little league team taking their turn in at bat. They had a system, Noah would hit, Timo was retrieve the ball, throw it to Cameron and she would hand it to Noah. Great team work guys!

A little more fun in the rock climbing house and then off for pizza and cake!

And the best part of all, at least in Cameron's eyes, was the huge Dora balloon she got to take home! What a great party!!

Coyote Point

Shortly before we left for Florida we took a little field trip south of SF to Coyote Point. It's this great little nature and motion museum for kids. It look small when we got there but was filled with enough activites and animals to occupy us all morning long.

The inside was full of hands on displays of gears and motion. There was one display that you had to turn different knobs to move the ball though the multi geared course. Timo loved this actvity and spent most of his time moving from one knob to the next, moving the ball. He got pretty good at it too...

Cameron really like putting the gears together and watching them work. If you connected them all correctly, the bell would ring on top...once she figured that out, the bell was going off non stop!

There were many other machines to play around with and it was so hard getting the kids to move on to the next new machine...they tended to camp out at each one until they could figure out how it worked...just like their Daddy does...

They offered a short show-in-tell and storytime there where the kids got to see this large lizzard (forgot the real name). They sat and watch the teacher tell all about this creature but couldn't sit still long enough for the storytime.

I finally talked them into going outside to see the animals...coyotes, snakes, frogs, otters, foxes, bobcats, etc...so many to see. Oh, and big birds too!
We will defiantly be back...it's just a short drive out of the busy city and fog and into sunshine and nature!

Up In The Air Again...

It looks like we'll be taking another east coast flight tomorrow. My Grandmother North (my Mom's mother) passed away yesterday morning at 7:30am and is finally at peace, at the age of 90. It was a passing we were all expecting and know she is in a much better place now. I fully expect my Granddaddy to have been waiting at the Pearly Gates to welcome her, along with all her sisters...what a party they must be having! The last time I saw my Grandmother North was while Young and I visited her on a vacation with his family in Florida a year after we were married..so about 5 years ago. She was healthy, full of energy and I'm happy that's my last memory of her.

So under not so ideal circumstances, we are heading to Florida for a celebration service remembering my Grandmother. We'll be going out as a family but I'll be staying, with the kids, two weeks to help my Mom wrap up the estate my Grandmother left behind (clean out the house and prepare it to go on the market) while Young has to come back right after the service on Saturday.

Please pray for my mom, her sister and brother as they grieve the loss of their mother. Pray for our extended family all over the country and us as we all travel to Florida. And pray for the services, as I know it will be a wonderful time of celebration and gathering of all our family...but also a time to grieve and miss the person that Grandmother North was.

Box Art

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Good to know an old fashion cardboard box can still hold their attention! This new "toy" lasted two days until they figured out how to pull the tape off the end and collapse it...but I think two days is a miracle with 2 1/2 year old twins!
You can tell how they take the box fun to the next level the older they get...now it's on to graffiti on the outside! Cameron just picked up her chalk, asked if she could draw on the outside and they both just went to town drawing Humpty Dumpty...just in case you couldn't tell...

Presidio Batteries

We took the kids out to the Presidio to let them climb in and out of the historic Batteries located on the west side. These old forts and gunneries are perfect for little ones to run off excess energy. Of course, typically SF weather in July, it was freezing cold, windy and the fog was rolling in...but we made the best of it and had a great time exploring.

Checking out where the canons used to be...so cool!

Cameron was the brave one, climbing all the way to the top...just to check out the view...

We did a little hiking around the area. The twins remind me of the tortoise and the hare...Timo is the hare, running as fast as he could, exhausting all of his energy and then needed to be carried the rest of the way. Cameron, our little tortoise, walked the same pace through out the hike, keeping up the whole time but never seeming to tire out.

Pizza has become the kids new favorite food. Timo asks for it almost every day. We treated them to a some pizza and then frozen yogurt afterwards..but all they wanted were the tiny M&M toppings! (Cameron refused to take off her hat the whole time!)


We got into an extra long version of "Old McDonald Had a Farm" on the way home (who knew camels lived on a farm and what sound do they make???) the kids were having so much fun that when we pulled in the driveway they both started screaming "no home, no home." So Daddy pulled back out and we kept driving around another 20min or so singing until I could convince them that bath time was gonna be even more fun than the car ride! I think that's a good sign of a great day!