The Happiest Places on Earth: Disneyland and our backyard

We had a great time in Disneyland on Logan's spring break. The crowds were small, the weather was beautiful, and we took a wonderful tour called "A Walk in Walt's Footsteps." During the tour we got to take a ride in the "Lilly Belle"- Walt's personal train car. Here is a small selection of photos from the trip:

A view of the Matterhorn from the hub on Main Street

A photo of our tour guide standing in front of the secretive Club 33











The inside of the "Lilly Belle" train car











A very grown-up little boy talks on his Mickey Mouse cell phone while traveling on the Storybook Land Canal boats






I can never resist petting zoos- especially the cute little goats in the Big Thunder Ranch area






There were kids everywhere dressed as pirates and princesses. Here's a little pirate walking down Main Street






Logan and his favorite character, Chip







Although I'd get too dizzy riding the teacups, I love to watch them spin at night. Such gorgeous colors!






We ventured out of Disneyland one afternoon to visit the LEGO store in the Downtown Disney shopping district










Logan enjoying our favorite afternoon snack- a Mickey Mouse ice cream bar- yum!










Apparently, this is what a dog looks like after he has spent a whole week at doggy day camp- playing 24/7!!






Back at work in the real world, I served as a judge for the library's Reverse American Idol program a few weeks ago. Each of the three judges dressed as a storybook character- and I dressed as Mama Bear from "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." Our job was to judge the kid performers and choose the worst singer in Palo Alto. It was great fun for everyone involved!

In our backyard, things are coming along well. Our grass has taken root now, and we planted a tree and some flowers along the edge of the deck. It was quite a task trying to get the 12 foot tall tree home from the store- it stuck up so much in the back of the truck that it was hitting streetlights and trees on the way home. And it was so windy that night that I needed to stick my hand out the back window to keep the tree from flying out the back of the truck!












The new plants along the edge of our deck were just planted this afternoon. They really give the deck a finished look.






Logan the gardener watering the new plants











It's starting to look finished- yay!

The future, and dogs in party hats

I had to write a post tonight because the pictures I took today are so funny they need to be shared.
Today was Future Day at Logan's school. The teachers and students were supposed to dress like they think they will be dressing in the future. So Logan went to school dressed like an old man. His black argyle socks with Teva sandals and red bow tie really made the outfit perfect. A few of his students dressed up too. The most memorable was the little kindergartner who dressed like a pregnant lady. She said that in the future she wants to be a mom!Tonight we celebrated Katie, Bailey, and Dad's birthdays with a lasagna dinner and Katie's favorite yellow cake with chocolate frosting at my parents' house. Katie and Bailey share April 11th as their birthday. My little sister is now 24 years old (!!), and our family dog Bailey is 10. My dad's birthday was last week, but we wanted to celebrate all together with Katie home.
Katie bought party hats for herself, Bailey, and Clark to wear. The dogs were really good and played along while we laughed at how cute they looked in the hats. Here are some of the best photos from the evening:
Katie and Clark:
Bailey, Katie, and Clark: Bailey gives us a piece of his mind:My next post will be from the Happiest Place on Earth. Logan and I are leaving on Sunday morning for our Spring Break trip down to Disneyland, and our first road trip in our new car. Stay tuned...

Graduation Week

If there's a theme for this past week, it has to be graduation. First, my manager at the library retired last Friday after working for the Palo Alto City Library for 39 years, so she has graduated on to a much-deserved retirement. We had a very nice send-off for her last Friday with good food and lots of friends. We'll miss you, Marilyn!

Next came Clark's graduation from beginner dog class. The three of us have now completed the eight-week session and Clark knows how to sit, stay (when he feels like it!), lay down, shake, "leave it" (a shoe, broken glass, anything we don't want him touching), and he's learning roll over. We're moving on to the intermediate class, which starts next week, but we'll miss the first night of class (more about that later). Here are some photos of Clark from the graduation, and of Clark practicing shaking:The third graduation happened this afternoon when we went to see our friend Kirsten graduate from culinary school. She is now a pastry chef and baker. The graduation consisted of all of the graduates' friends and family walking around the room that was laid out with the fruits of their labor. Kirsten's table looked wonderful, with an apple pie, very cute little swan-shaped pastries, caramels, a decadent chocolate cake, and all sorts of other desserts. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of Kirsten in her baker's uniform, but she looked really cute! We're so proud of her, and looking forward to sampling her work in the coming years.

It isn't easy being green

Yes, we finally have something green (besides weeds) in our backyard! Yesterday my parents and Logan and I spent several hours laying out two pallets of sod. It's really nice to see something green in the yard again. The sprinklers that Logan and my dad put in during the last few weeks are working really well. And Clark is really enjoying both the grass and the exciting sprinklers. He tries to eat the water spray!After the sod was installed, Mom and I pulled weeds for a few hours while Dad and Logan installed a new water heater. I had noticed earlier in the day that the water heater was leaking. It was not a planned project, but at least it went quickly.

Three week catch-up

Our last two weekends have been so busy that I haven't had time to post updates on Sunday evening, so I made sure to sit down tonight and write before another crazy week starts.
Two weekends ago we spent Saturday afternoon in Capitola with Logan's mom and our friends the Cacioppos. The late lunch at Margaritaville was a celebration for Logan's 30th birthday. It was a gorgeous day at the beach, and we got to catch up with our friends and see our goddaughter Chloe crawl on the sand.
Melissa and 18-month-old Chloe: Logan and his mom at Margaritaville: Clark playing with his favorite new squeaky ball from "Grandma" Shari: Last Saturday Logan and my dad worked more on the sprinkler system in the backyard while my sister and I took care of Clark and prepared for another birthday celebration. We had a birthday BBQ at our house that evening for my grandma and for Logan, so he could celebrate his birthday with my family.
Logan and Grandma making a wish: Can you believe he's really 30?:This weekend the landscaping work continued (do you see a pattern here?) yesterday when my dad and Logan completed the sprinkler system and got the yard raked flat while I was at work all day. Now we're ready to fertilize the dirt next Saturday and finally lay our sod! Today we had a very nice Easter. After church we took Clark for a long walk through the Santa Clara University campus and then the three of us went over to my aunt and uncle's house in Cupertino to have a family meal. Clark really enjoyed playing with my aunt and uncle's beagle puppy, Abby, and came home exhausted tonight.

We're ready to start another busy week tomorrow, and I'll post another update with a picture next weekend when the sod has been laid.

They don't call it FUNston for nothing...

Today was a gorgeous day in the Bay Area so we decided to take a day off from working in the yard to go to the beach. When our family dog, Bailey, was younger we used to take him to Fort Funston, which is a multi-acre beach park that is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area just south of San Francisco. Fort Funston is very unique in that it's one of the only beaches in the Bay Area where dogs can run off-leash. Since it was a beautiful day, there were TONS of dogs frolicking all over the dunes, on the beach, and in the water. This was, as far as we know at least, Clark's first trip to the beach. He loved getting to run free for at least a mile along the beach, and seeing all of the dogs we passed. He was scared of the water, though. We kept trying to show him that it was okay, but I guess he's not the water-lover we had hoped he would be. Maybe that will change as he has more exposure to water in various settings.

Here are a few photos from the day:
Clark and Logan ready to head down to the beach.
Wild dog Clark on the run! Our first family portraitSan Francisco in March?!

Snow Much Fun!

Today is Logan's last day of his February week-long vacation, and we made the most of the last half of it. At the beginning of the week, Logan was working around the house- starting to put in our sprinkler system and grouting the bathroom floor (it looks great!). But the end of the week was all about fun.
On Friday morning we dropped Clark off at my parents' house to spend the weekend with them while we headed up to Tahoe to have some fun in the snow with our friends. We would have taken Clark with us, but this trip was planned before we adopted him, and the cabin we were staying in doesn't allow dogs. However, Clark did have some fun on Thursday night while we were packing. I climbed the ladder into the attic to get our snow clothes down, and he tried to climb up after me!On Friday night we enjoyed a quiet evening at the cabin watching The Iron Giant and drinking hot cocoa. Saturday morning we went sledding with our friends. It started snowing pretty hard while we were sledding and continued for much of yesterday and this morning as well.
Even in the snow, Logan represents his Indiana heritage!

I found a great scrapbooking store in South Lake Tahoe yesterday afternoon- I'll definitely be returning to it on future trips. We had drinks and dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe last night before returning to the cabin for some delicious cakes for dessert- courtesy of our resident pastry chef, Kirsten- and a fun game of Apples to Apples. It's a simple game, but always hilarious.
This morning we had some work to do clearing the snow off the trucks. Logan enjoyed getting to put his four-wheel drive to use all weekend. It was great not to have to put chains on every time we wanted to go somewhere. The street the cabin is on was covered in enough snow this morning that some neighbors took their kids for a ride, sledding behind their off-road four-wheeler. The kids were giggling all the way down the street!
The giggling kids looked like ducklings in a row.
Unfortunately, by the time we got everything packed up, went to breakfast at Heidi's, and tried to get out of town, the traffic back-up was bad. And it was made worse because of the constant and heavy snowfall, and at least one accident near the summit of Highway 50. But we were able to make the best of a bad situation by playing in the snow some more while traffic was at a complete standstill for at least 30 minutes. I even got to make a snowman, which I hadn't yet gotten to do this weekend.
We finally made it home around 8:30 tonight, after leaving South Lake Tahoe at 11:30 this morning. And now we're saving up our energy for the new week starting tomorrow...