Happy Mother's Day!

We've had a busy past few days. On Friday I went to the Oakland Zoo for a library workshop. It was a fun day, but a really long one. That night we saw the new Star Trek movie with some friends, and that was a lot of fun. I've never been a Star Trek fan- in fact, this is the first Star Trek movie I've ever seen- but I really enjoyed it.
I had to work yesterday, but luckily I'm off today and tomorrow. After church this morning we went over to my parents' house for a family lunch. We took Clark with us, and he did amazingly well with the group of people. We were able to let him off his leash to run around with his friend Abby the beagle, and he only growled a few times all afternoon. He had his 2nd birthday on Friday- he's really growing up!
The weather was nice this afternoon. The dogs enjoyed lounging on the lawn:
Dad grilled excellent burgers, as usual: Here are the three grandmas. From left to right, they are our "adopted" grandma Bea, my mom's mom, and my dad's mom: Logan with Clark and Abby. The three of them had fun together: And a family photo. We couldn't get Clark to look at the camera!: Abby, like Clark, loves to sit on laps. However, unlike Clark, she's actually small enough to sit on laps: All three dogs (Clark, Abby and Bailey) were exhausted by the end of the afternoon. Clark fell asleep as soon as he had finished dinner, and he's still out cold three hours later:

The beach, the garage, and "Wicked"- oh my!

It's been almost a month since my last post, and I have lots of updates.

Last month Logan was off work for Spring Break the week after Easter. I am saving my vacation days for summer, so we didn't take a trip for Spring Break this year- the first time in at least four years that we haven't! But Logan enjoyed staying around the house and hanging out with Clark. I did take Monday off that week, though, and we decided to head up north to Fort Funston beach, which is just south of San Francisco. It was a cloudy day, but not too cold. Clark was a very good boy and had a great time running around and playing in the waves. As he gets older, he's showing more of his Chesapeake Retriever side- he can fetch driftwood with the best of them!



As you can see, he's no longer scared of the waves. In fact, he would have gone farther out if we had let him.
However, he is apparently scared of empty crab shells. They must smell weird to him. He barked at this one!
One of the fun things about going to Fort Funston is seeing all of the strange graffiti. I especially like this one. It reminds me of the Toys R Us giraffe.
Here are my boys doing what they do best- exploring. I've continued my crocheting, and I'm really having fun with it. My most recent project was a pink elephant that I made for a birthday present. We went to Logan's cousin's daughter's birthday party last weekend, and I finished it just in time to give it to her. I'm planning to make more, as time allows, for all of the kids we know. It's so much fun!

Well, we're chugging along on finishing the garage. Our most recent projects have been putting down a coating of floor covering and buying/putting together storage cabinets. Next up: getting Logan's workbench and tool storage and re-building the garage steps.


Here's a picture of the old steps during demolition. They really were in sad shape- maybe original to the house? (60+ years)
Here's me in the entry to the kitchen. The step down to the garage doesn't look like it's very big, but it is!
And here are the boys in the doorway. Wherever Logan is sitting, Clark is soon to follow (and climb onto his lap).
Here's the finished garage floor- yay! It looks so nice and bright and brand new.
Here's a close-up of the floor covering. It's an epoxy paint. We had to scrub the floor first with a special cleaner so that the paint would stick. Then, after it was dry, Logan used a paint roller to roll on the epoxy coating and sprinkle on the specks. I was in charge of cutting in along the edge and corners with the paint brush. It was relatively easy and the results are so nice.
Yes, Clark likes to "help" build cabinets too. He is fond of sitting on the piece we're trying to work on, or licking Logan's face while he's trying to use the screw driver.
I get the sense that Clark thinks we do everything for his benefit. He was climbing into the cabinet before we added the shelves!
Here are three of the five finished cabinets. We're still waiting for the biggest one to be delivered to the store for us to pick up. It's rare that Clark decides to sit on his bed in the corner of the living room, but one night last week he was being a model dog and keeping himself quietly occupied chewing on his duck toy. Small miracles!
A photo of our cherry blossom tree in full bloom. We didn't have a lot of blossoms this year since it's still a young tree, but hopefully we'll have more each year.

One more exciting tidbit: last Friday Logan and I dropped Clark at my parents' house for the evening and took BART up to San Francisco to see the musical "Wicked."

Logan's mom had given me tickets to the show for Christmas, and it was worth the wait. The set design, costumes, music- everything was wonderful! I'd love to go again, but it is expensive to see a show that good. Maybe next time it comes to town. I read the book a few months ago in preparation for the show. It was also very good, but there are lots of differences between the two. I highly recommend both if you ever get the chance.

That's all for this time. I'm hoping by the next time I post I can show a completely finished garage!