Wow--its been a really crazy last couple of months! We have successfully transferred our lives to Alameda, and are enjoying everything that it has to offer! But first let me catch you up since Reid's 2nd birthday. Below: Shanti, our good friend, who was living in Colorado moved back and came to visit with a friend...so awesome to visit and have him back in the state!Above: the boy's friends came over for a babysitting exchange. The boys all had a good time playing hungry Hungry Hippo, and playing outside, thanks to longer Spring days. Below: a cool picture I found of Reid, not really sure what train this is though...further below, a random Sunday banana bread--dragon and Reid stopped by to help me stir, stir, stir!
The above 3 pictures are of KidFest, a yearly event in Concord, its kind of like a fair/carnival with rides, and games, vendors, etc. Rowan and Reid's favorite activity was getting to go inside the ambulance, and firetrucks!! Man Reid talked about it for months--he even still mentions the ambulance and the gloves, of course. Every single time we see someone with gloves on he tells me, "Mommy, he's wearing gloves. " Man we went to the dentist on Monday and his mind just about blew when the dentist blew up a latex glove into a balloon--he really likes his dentist now!


Summer started with a splash!! The first week that I was out of school was awesome--first we got to spend the whole day with two very dear friends of mine from college, Anna and Eva and their girls, (4 between the two of them). We spent the day in Sausalito and painted the town red, with a nudy park visit, a super messy icecream store trip, and followed it up with nude fountain wading--man these kids didn't really keep their clothes on at all--it was a crazy and super fun day!! Can't wait to see the pix--Anna Stump--are you reading this ?? BTW Happy 36th B'day :)
Below: Then we got to visit more friends--this time 3 middle/high school friends in Santa Cruz and more nude shenanigans, as you can see!! We were the four A'sFrom left to right: Amanda, Annette, Angie, and Anna--we should be super heroes or something? We got to spend the day chilling and catching up at Anna's wonderful garden oasis and at Natural Bridges beach--the boys loved the waves, even though the sun never made it out, and diggin' in the sand--I loved being able to just sit and talk to my good friends! Below: Rowan and Max--nudy cave boys!Above: Reid and Max, and further above Reid sporting a black glove that he found at Anna's house!
Later that same weekend we decided to take a camping trip with our good friends Jill and Jason and their daughter Ivy. We went to Lake Chabot, only about 15 minutes from our house, and easy to get to--no roughing it for us quite yet! Above: Rowan and Ivy get creative with the chairs. Below: the kid's first s'mores!
Ahh... corn and looking at the stars/sky?
The camping trip was alright--great company--not such great sleeping--all in one tent--the boys "sleeping" together for the first time..not so good--Rowan and I pretty much didn't sleep all night, and Reid did finally fall asleep at 10pm, but we were all tired and grumpy the next day and opted not to go out on the lake...instead we packed up and went home and caught up on some sleep!

Later on in June, I took the boys to visit my family in Irvine/Tustin. The boys did pretty well on the trip, they did a lot of swimming, and we also took trips to all the cool parks in the area, one even had pony rides! Rowan loved going on the pony! No pictures yet from the trip because I lost my camera! And the rest of the summer has pretty much been spent packing and unpacking! We left behind our old 1912 bungalow for a newer and much more spacious abode in Alameda! The first thing we did (after unpackin, of course) was to outfit all of us w/ helmets and bikes! We now have a bike trailer, which we LOVE!! Now that we live in a bike-friendly community, we hardly ever get in our cars--we bike to the swimming pool daily for swim class, offered at our local pool, and we can also bike downtown for dinner or special treats after dinner, and also to three different parks!! One of really good friends from Oakland also moved to our neighborhood, and we can also visit them by bike. We have really enjoyed these last couple of weeks checking out our new neighborhood and relaxing at the new abode--which even included a Santa Rosa plum tree w/ tons of ripe plums! Will send out another update in a few days once I get some pix off of my new camera--so bye for now--Love to you and your family!!