Monterey, fundraisers, and the like.

At 10 on a Sunday morning, we decided to go to Monterey Bay Aquarium. By 1:30 we were there.

In other news, here's a random shot from an afternoon at the Bob Jones Trail.















Max has been drawing a lot lately.














Here's Jaymie, puttin' on her heels for the SLOCA fundraiser dinner. Whoot woo!






















Here's us just before we left. We left the kids with a sitter. Yay for sitters.















The next night, we all went to the UU auction/dinner. From left to right, Max (Beaver), Jane (Pirate), Ruby (Giraffe).














On the way home, we stopped to get nachos.
The kids like the fishtank at Tito Alberto's.

Anniversary 7 years

• max and ruby's welcome home art.

• an awesome date
• scott's anticipated 7 years and counting picture
• all 3 kids blowing and suckin' on their anniversary harmonicas- surprise!
  
  

Harvest

The Festival
Jane always carries her chair by herself. It is one of those adorably annoying things we love her for. "hebby! uh! uh! uh! hebby!" long after the parade had ended Jane got her chair to the car. Other note worthy happenings, Max dunked a boyscout and got lost looking at farm animals. Ruby did a lot of waving.

Our First Miracle
When I was trying to explain to the kids what a miracle was, Ruby said, "Oh, like our honeydew melon?" We started with 3 beautiful seedlings that were quickly eaten by our resident moles. A few weeks later, like a ghost from the past, one of these devoured vines began to regenerate and blossom. This lone, baseball-sized melon was our gift from the divine.

The garden
The mole! The shovel to the head. Lots of watering. More moles.

U-Pick Raspberries @ Rutiz Farm
Max: Squatting down stuffing his face with berries...until he'd hit a rotten one.
Jane: "Mine," Jane shouted, as she snatched a pumpkin and ran off, shoeless.
Ruby "Maybe the farmer doesn't know about these white raspberries."
We swung by the house for spinach almond sandwiches, to drop off our produce and headed to McDonalds. Soft-serve, a park and a lesson on bees:)

Max's First Day of School

Max, pleased to be sporting his new Dadmade backpack toted a miniature horse and crab to share with the class at circle time. He wanted to introduce himself as one who loves both farm animals and ocean animals. Max and I played a lot of “farm animals” and Jane bounced back and forth between farm animals and eating play dough (one of her classroom favorites since she was old enought to sit at the play dough table).

Max the caregiver. Max is the kind of kid that will take a face plant to the cement to ensure protection of whatever it is that he has clenched in his fists. When he was little we'd joke "put the ducky down, Max" but now we understand his dutiful ways.

Superhero Down

"oh Scott, celebrate Scott, sing with and open and a joyful heart"

The kids took excellent care of Scott while he was recovering from minor surgery. Janebird served toast, Max and Ruby entertained and I did the work of 2 parents. These 2 weeks of limited Scott help made me realize how vital he is to the smooth and steady flow of our family.

These brilliant photo's are the work of Max and Ruby combined.

a Family Tree

Today I realized that I need to spend more time being happy with my family and less time worrying about the minutia.

I was going through my Great grandma Willmore's book of remembrance for a kindergarten Family Tree project. It threw me for a loop when I put the photograph of this woman-- who I remember as clear as day-- at the bottom of Ruby and Max's 5 generation family tree. Each generation is just a blip in time, and eventually we all get reduced to a head shot in a family tree. And out off our thousands of digital photos, it will most likely be my airbrushed senior photo or a bad shot from my 75th birthday.

Then I got to thinking about what we preserve about these amazing people from our past and where, if anywhere, do I have written down that Grandpa Willmore grew tomatoes and loved allday suckers (See's) or that Grandma Willmore would never say no to playing a game, no matter how sick she was. I think it's time I start assembling a family tree with the one best thing to remember about our ancestor to go along with the head shot.

Kindergarten, the bitter sweet sendoff

Scott and I stayed up until 1:30 the night before Ruby's first day. I packed for her first sack lunch and kept Scott company while he sewed Ruby a backpack (nice work babe). She said that she felt scared and excited but mostly excited. I don't know what I felt, but I cried during the flag salute, and I cried when the teacher told the parents it was time to go. Maybe just a mix of love, hope, and concern. After school I asked her what the best part of Kindergarten was and she said "when you came and met me for lunch." Somehow, hearing her say that made it all okay. Good thing we're doing this hybrid school thing. I don't think I could go without her more that 2 days a week.