It's Raining Cats & Dogs

Happy Halloween! We had a fun day yesterday, starting with a cool and drizzly run for Clark and me in the morning. I put his rain coat on him, and he looked so cute! He enjoyed sniffing around in the pile of leaves on our driveway after the run, and I couldn't resist taking a few photos.

Here's a picture of my "Guess the Weight of the Pumpkin" display in the Children's area at the library. All week, kids preschool age through 5th grade could guess the weight of the pumpkin I took from our garden. Yesterday I weighed the pumpkin and chose the winner from the guesses. The pumpkin weighed 35 pounds 3 ounces, and a first grader guessed 35 pounds 2 ounces! He won a certificate for a free ice cream cone at a local shop.
Friday is storytime day at the library. Every week I present a toddler storytime and then a preschool storytime an hour later. Last week, I told the kids they should come dressed in their costumes for our Halloween storytime, and many of them did. They were SO cute! I figured that since the kids would be dressed up, I should be too. So I dressed as a cat.
This pair of twin skunks were my favorite. To see more photos, click here.
After work I met Logan at the Cacioppos' house to have dinner and go trick-or-treating with Chloe. This is the first year she is big enough to walk from house to house, and she looked so cute dressed as Little Red Riding Hood.
She got the idea of trick-or-treating really quickly, and has decided she likes candy!

Go Earthquakes!

Tonight we had a full social calendar. After walking and feeding Clark, we left to go to our friend Kaila's birthday party. I started babysitting for Kaila when she was 23 months old, and she turned 16 a few days ago! It was quite an affair- a jump house, pool party, food and drinks galore, and 35 teenagers.

After we had dinner and visited with Kaila and her mom for a while, we left to go to our next event. Luckily, it was just down the road at Santa Clara University. We went to the San Jose Earthquakes professional soccer game. Logan's school offered discounted tickets for the game, so we decided to give it a try. It was a lot of fun, and best of all was that the Earthquakes won 2-0.
Here are some photos from the game: (click on a photo to enlarge- click the back button when finished)
There was a big Earthquakes cheering section on the other side of the stadium:The Earthquakes fans threw lots of streamers onto the field, especially when the goals were scored: This is the Earthquakes mascot. He's got silver hair! The final goal of the game was scored as a result of a penalty kick. Very exciting!
Here's the set-up...
And... GOAL!! (the blur over the goalie's hands is the ball.)

Quick update

Look at this- three posts in two weeks! Not bad, huh?

Just wanted to add a few quick photos.

Last week I had a birthday. We celebrated several times, which in my opinion is the best way to celebrate a birthday. Logan and I had a nice dinner at home on my birthday, and the next night we went out with my parents and sister to our new favorite Thai restaurant here in Santa Clara. If you're ever in the area and enjoy Thai food, try Jasmine Thai. It's SO good!
Here's a photo of me opening a cozy new sweater from Mom and Dad:

The following Monday we celebrated with my grandmothers- pizza and football at Grandma's house with cake and ice cream- yum!

We also bought Clark a new toy this week, and I had to take a photo of him trying to figure out what to do with it. These are HUGE tennis balls!

Today Logan and I harvested the pumpkins from our garden. While we don't have any really huge ones, we got a good crop this year- 7 in all. And we still have some smaller ones on the vines that aren't ready to harvest. So if the weather stays warm, we may have a few more for Thanksgiving.

One of these things is not like the others.... can you spot the dog pretending to be a pumpkin?


Okay, here's one of Clark smiling (albeit with his eyes closed...):That's all for now!

A few videos

Clark versus the sheet. I think the sheet wins.

This is our goddaughter Chloe's 2nd birthday party. If only we all got this excited about having "Happy Birthday" sung to us. It still makes me laugh every time.

Chicken Dancing, Elmo Cakes, and Baby Pumpkins

Well, this once-a-month posting thing is becoming the usual. I keep telling myself if I post more often it won't take as long, and I won't try to put it off, but that's beside the point.
Here are some photos from the last month of our lives:
Last month was the yearly Chicken Dance at the Cupertino Fall Festival. All of the kindergarten classes in the entire school district participate each year. The kids are always so cute, and very proud to perform.
This cute little ballerina chicken is the daughter of Logan's co-worker, Robin:
Logan watches from the background as his kids flap, spin, and shake their booties: The next item on our social calendar was attending our god-daughter Chloe's second birthday party at the end of September. The photo just below is from her first birthday party last year, and the one below that is from her second birthday. Amazing how much she grew in the past year!
Chloe loves Elmo, and her mom worked really hard to make an awesome Elmo cake and cupcakes. Here, Chloe and her friend Faith savor the frosting: I had several weekends of work last month, so I didn't have as much time for fun activities as I had hoped. But this past Sunday Logan and I got to do something really fun. We took the day to drive up to Ukiah to meet week-old baby Kira, the new daughter of our friends Chris and Jenn. We went to college with Chris and Jenn, and were so excited to meet Kira. We had the honor of accompanying them to Kira's first trip to the pumpkin patch. Jenn dressed her like a little pumpkin- she was so tiny and cute!
Most of you know that I'm a sucker for animals in general, but especially farm animals. I enjoyed petting the piglet, calf, and sheep at the pumpkin patch: Logan took some great photos of the sunflowers at the pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful sunny day in Ukiah: Yes, there is a baby in that pouch. Here's Momma Jenn with her tiny baby: Nothing cuter than a baby in a Radio Flyer with pumpkins: Kira and Daddy Chris show off their long tongues: Jenn and her little pumpkin in front of the pumpkin patch stand: After our trip to the pumpkin patch we took Kira for her first trip to the park. It was a busy afternoon for the little girl: Being their usual goofy selves, Chris and Logan attempt to look stoic (Logan can never stop smiling!): Yep, I took the tripod so I could get the all-important group shot before we left to drive home (poor Kira was getting hungry): And last, but not least, Logan had to try his hand (and big hands they are!) at holding Baby Kira. She relaxed into him right away, and forgot about being hungry for the moment: I have a few videos I want to add too, but I'll have to save that for later. I need my beauty rest- after all, I am going to be the big 29 tomorrow...

And now, for something really different!

I know, I know... again, it's been several weeks since I have posted. Nothing but the usual excuse of busy-ness. Since my last post, we have watched lots and lots of Olympics, gone to church family camp, suffered through another long heat-wave, and gone to a Humane Society foster dog reunion.
As for the "something really different," I recently bought a Flip camera, which is a small video camera that is specifically for taking short videos for posting to the internet. So now I can share some videos here on the blog from time to time. I'll try posting the first few tonight and see how it goes. I just found out that the videos insert directly into the bottom of the post, so see below for them.
So here are some photos from the past month:
I've been enjoying our flowers in the backyard and have picked some for bouquets this month. The delphinium are especially beautiful- very vibrant purple.
One of Clark's favorite things to do is snuggle up with us on the bed at night when we watch TV. He was upset during the Olympics because we stayed in the living room to watch the events on the big TV. So he took to climbing up on the couch with us (which he is normally NOT allowed to do), and he would lay up there wrapped around Logan's neck like a fur wrap. He was so funny!Several months ago we decided that this year we would go to our church's family camp for the first time. I had gone once years ago with a friend, but not since Logan and I got married. So on Labor Day weekend we loaded up our truck with our camping gear, dropped Clark off at my parents' house, and drove about an hour away to Redwood Glen camp. We had a really fun weekend, filled with singing, swimming, good food, and a hilarious talent show.
Here are my favorite photos from the weekend:
Chloe kicks back and enjoys a good book:
Logan and Geoffrey took part in several sports that weekend, including football: Chloe mugs for the camera: Sport #2: Geoffrey and Logan played frisbee and attracted a large group of joiners: Logan and Chloe enjoy an afternoon siesta: Sport #3: Cannonballs abound! The sole picture of me from the weekend (taken by me), relaxing by the pool. Yay! Isn't he cute?Chloe was a trooper for being a first-time camper. She loved it!Last weekend I worked on Saturday, which was about a 95 degree day outside. That means that inside the library it was close to 90 degrees, which is the temperature at which we close to the public because the city attorney has deemed it unsafe for customers and staff. And as luck would have it, I was presenting a storytime program that afternoon. I could feel the sweat running down my legs as I read stories to a room full of about 75 parents and children, fanning themselves to keep cool. But the storytime was a success, as was the art project I offered for the families afterwards.

Today we attended a foster dog reunion party at a local park. The Humane Society has a reunion each year for the families who foster dogs waiting for adoption, and for the dogs and their adoptive families. Since Clark was in a foster home while in the care of the Humane Society, we were invited to go today. It was fun to see the woman who arranged for Clark's adoption, although we were disappointed that the family who fostered him for four months was not there. We even won a new squeaky toy for Clark in the raffle they held.

Continuing our busy afternoon today, we went to my parents' house for a party celebrating Katie's successful completion of the test to become a registered dietician, as well as to introduce Clark to more people he hasn't met. He is still having problems with fear of strangers when he meets someone new, so we're trying to get him used to meeting people more often. He did pretty well this afternoon, and it was nice to spend some time talking to our friends and family.

Tomorrow is the annual Kindergarten Chicken Dance, which Logan's students will be participating in. My first blog post last year featured photos of the 2007 chicken dance, so I've now been keeping up the blog for a year! I'll take some photos tomorrow and add them soon. It's always a fun time seeing the kids clucking and flapping their "wings".

Video clip #1: Clark on the couch, showing the camera his sweet face



Video clip #2: Logan and our goddaughter Chloe play hide and seek around a tent at family camp. It's a long clip, but it sure is cute! Chloe attempted to say Logan's name for the first time tonight, and it sounded like "La-la." She's getting so big!



Video clip #3: Logan entertains his group of adoring fans on the diving board at family camp.

Camping, Colorado, and Croocknecks

A lot has happened in the past month and a half since I last updated the blog. So much has happened, and I have taken so many photos, that I am only going to put a small sampling of them here on the blog. Otherwise it would take me hours to write this update! To see more photos, please click on the following link to reach my Drop Shots photo page: http://www.dropshots.com/melanne
Also, if you'd like to see any photo larger, just click on the photo and a large version will pop up.
So here is the abbreviated version of my update:

Clark, being a young dog, has lots of energy. I take him jogging four mornings a week, and when I have days off Logan and I often run with Clark together. Here are Clark and Logan stretching on the deck after a recent run:
It had been a while since Logan and I had been camping, and Clark had never been camping (that we know of...), so the three of us decided to take a long weekend in mid-July to camp for a few nights. We went to Manchester Beach on the coast for the first night, slept in our tent in the Ukiah backyard of our friends Chris and Jenn the second night, and stayed at Patrick's Point Campground in Humboldt County for the third and fourth nights. Along the way Clark got to swim for the first time in Lake Mendocino, we played on Clam Beach in McKinleyville, and we ate at our favorite Arcata restaurants. We love the Humboldt area so much, and we always feel homesick when we leave!
Here are Clark and Logan on the beach near Manchester: And retrieving a stick in Lake Mendocino: Clark decided that campsite picnic tables are for sitting on, not eating at!: The last weekend in July, Logan's parents came to visit for a few days. They stayed with us, and luckily Clark got used to them quickly and really enjoyed having them here. We took them to the Gilroy Garlic Festival that Saturday, which none of us had ever been to before. Although the garlicky food was good, it was REALLY hot that day down in Gilroy, which made it miserable to be walking around outside in the sun.
Here are Richard and Sue on our deck with their new buddy, Clark:
This past weekend we flew to Denver to see my cousin Meghan marry a wonderful guy, AJ Jorg. We left early Friday morning and didn't stop moving all weekend! Logan and I took light rail into downtown Denver on Friday afternoon and browsed around until it was time to attend the rehearsal dinner at the Denver Chophouse. After dinner we walked across the street to see the Rockies play at Coors Stadium. Just as the second inning began, there was a torrential downpour, and there was a rain delay lasting about 45 minutes.
Here are Katie and Logan under the umbrella as the downpour began: On Saturday, we drove to Littleton to browse in some shops and have lunch at a fast-food restaurant called Chik-Fil-A. We used to have a Chik-Fil-A near us, but it closed years ago and my dad misses it. I have to say, the waffle fries were just as good as I remembered!

That evening, we drove to the Arrowhead Golf Club for the wedding and reception. The weather was perfect, and the landscape with the red rocks surrounding the golf course was gorgeous. The ceremony was really nice, and the reception was lots of fun too.

Here are the newlyweds, AJ and Meghan Jorg:
Katie, me, and Logan at the reception: Saturday night, after we had returned to the hotel, Katie and Logan and I sat on the bed in our hotel room watching the Olympics. We were cheering like crazy and jumping up and down when the men's swim team won the relay, just beating out the French for the gold medal.

The next morning we drove south to the town of Monument, where my aunt, uncle, and cousins have lived since they moved to Colorado 15 or so years ago. The last time we were in Colorado was eleven years ago for a family reunion. During that reunion, we took a photo of the whole family on Herbie and Cindy's front steps. This time, we took another photo of everyone in the same seating order, with a few exceptions. My cousin Greg didn't come for the wedding, so AJ sat in his place next to Meghan. And my cousin Corey had to go back to college for football practice, so Logan took his seat in front of me.

Here's the new photo: When we returned and I got out into my backyard garden, I saw that some zucchini and crooknecks had grown huge in the few days we were gone.
The zucchini in the photo below is probably the biggest one I've ever seen. I can barely pick it up with one hand because it's so big around! Here is the zucchini sitting next to Logan's size 13 shoe, just so you can get an idea of just how big it is: