Our secret

Jason and I have been holding on to some news for the past little while. We wanted to wait until my first doctor's appointment and got the okay that everything is fine until we made the announcement. Well, I am expecting baby #3. I am almost 9 weeks pregnant so there is still a chance of another miscarriage but the baby is measuring perfectly with a normal heartbeat so the risk is small. We are very excited! I have been MUCH sicker with this pregnancy than the others (especially the last one) and feel nauseous all day long. I am also starting to show so I figured the cat would be out of the bag soon. Here is a recent picture. You can see my bump.

Bay weather

Said by Brendan about the fog:
"What happened to the day, Mom? It's all white."

A year

A year before

Today

It goes so fast.

Zoo Day

We went to the San Francisco Zoo today. No good stories to tell about it but lots of pictures. Some favorites were the howler monkeys, giraffes, farm animals and insects. Jason and I got sunburned and we all came home exhausted. Yep, we are trying to pack as much fun as possible into our summer since next year looks to be a rough one.

Newest naughtiness

I am getting glimpses of Eva as a teenager lately. Seriously, she pulls some sneaky and/or sassy stunts. Today she cracked me up. I looked across the room to see her pulling all the wipes out of the box. "Eva!" I scolded. She looked up at me and said unperturbed, "Hi." Then she picked up a wipe (one of many strewn on the floor) and pretended to wipe her face, like that was what she had planned in the first place. It ended with a big grin beaming up at me. Little stinker.

Viva Las Vegas

Jason here. Once a year the Army says I have to do 45 days of active duty. I never actually do this 45 days, BUT we get paid like we are on active duty and it turns out to be a pretty nice chunk of change. So what do you do when you have a little extra cash? Thats right, drop the kids off at your in-laws and hit Vegas. Except there was no gambling. Or alcohol. Or nightclubs. Or even a hotel (we stayed with my brother). Not to worry, we managed to spend an inordinate amount of money nevertheless.

Starting with the rental car. When we got to the rental car place there was a long line, so I waited in line while she sat with the luggage. We reserved a Chevy Aveo. Never heard of it either. They asked me if I wanted an upgrade. Yes I did. When Christine asked what car we got I told her we got some Chevrolet something-or-other.



Hehehehehehe.
Frankly, I love the new Camaro. I would never own a car like this, but it was fun to drive (and funner to look at). It looks exactly like the 67 Camaro from the movie Better Off Dead which is, hands down, the most awesome muscle car ever.

Like I said, we stayed with my big brother Fred who was happier to see the car than us. That night we went to see KA, one of the Cirque Du Soleil thingies. It had everything you could hope for: ninjas, acrobats, swords, arrows, FIRE, death defying stunts, and the most awesome shadow puppets ever. It was cool and Christine loved it.

The next day we slept in (glorious!) and went to the Las Vegas Temple for a session. We had not been together in way too long and it was really nice.


Then we hit up a thrift store and went to the Venetian to get our tickets for Phantom of the Opera. We had some time to kill before the show so we wandered around a bit and took some pictures.










Phantom was great. We had seen it before and this was really nice. Pretty much just all the great songs and no acting or dialogue or any of that other stuff. After the show I needed to fulfill one of my promises to Christine to see the Bellagio fountain. I figured, "It's only a couple blocks away. We can get there and back in no time." Dumb. If you looked up the phrase "drunken debauchery" in the dictionary it would say: see also Las Vegas Blvd on a Friday night in the middle of summer. And there we where, right in the middle of it. We should have just taken the car. We eventually made it and watched the fountain and then waded through the running frat party back to the car.

Then we had a late dinner with Fred, Alisa, and Alisa's mom, Christine (who is really cool). That pretty much ended the trip because we flew back to Sacramento and the kids early the next morning. Much thanks to Fred and Alisa for putting us up and taking us out to eat. We had a grand time!!

Happy Father's Day

Today in church the Primary kids got up to sing to their daddies in sacrament meeting. Brendan obviously didn't know the song too well and stood up on the stand with his mouth closed the whole time. We did, however, discover that we are the proud parents of the nose picker! When Brendan came back to sit with us he said, "I am sad. I can't sing." Jason told him that it was hard to sing with your finger in your nose. He looked puzzled but we had a good laugh.
Anyway, Happy Father's Day!! We love our DAD!

Monterey Bay and Santa Cruz

Jason here. So Christine and I sat down and planned what we wanted to do in the Bay Area before we left since we will probably not come back often once we are in the Army. Near the top of that list was the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. So we went this morning and hit the Santa Cruz Boardwalk on the way home. Definitely an awesome day! Along the way we snapped some pictures.
Enjoy.

Our first summer trip

We took the kids to Traintown yesterday to start off the summer.


Brendan loved it for obvious reasons. He enjoyed feeding the animals too.

Eva liked the carousel which is the only ride my shorty could ride on.


Before we left, Brendan rode on the plane ride but couldn't make his plane go up and down like the others were (note the frustrated face.)

After Traintown we did a little geocaching in Sonoma but came up empty. It did give Eva a chance to play in the flowers and Daddy and Bubbs a chance to tromp through the wilderness.



All in all, a fair success.

Art in San Rafael

Today was the annual Youth In Arts Italian Street Painting Festival in downtown San Rafael. This event consists of blocking off one of the roads and inviting artists of all kinds to come and create chalk drawings on the new asphalt. We really looked forward to this since last year was utterly amazing. However, I found that I didn't like this year as much as last. I think it is because this year's art seemed to be more trendy and/or political (a few Barrack Obama portraits, a rainbow flag with two women embracing, etc.) than classical. Regardless, it was still an awesome display of talent and a very cool thing to have happen in your hometown. Here are some pictures. I suggest clicking on them to maximize the screen.

Another use for utensils

I had a childrens' song stuck in my head yesterday. I told Brendan about it. He said, "Stuck in my head too." I asked, "How should we get it out?" Brendan replied, "Let's get a fork."

Six Flags

We had the opportunity to go to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo with half of the aunts, uncles and cousins today. It was enjoyable but exhausting. Now that Eva is walking, she can ride some of the rides with me. That made things a bit easier but since I had to keep putting her in and taking her out of the stroller, she was very unhappy. The rides she did go on, she loved. We may have a thrill seeker on our hands. Brendan is my boy and loved the rides that spin you in circles. This makes me happy since Jason will never go on them with me. The highlight of the day for me was the sea lion show, which I had never seen before.
Spending the day with family was a huge bonus. it makes me look forward to the family reunion even more. And man, we needed all those extra eyes and hands since the kids outnumbered the adults on this trip.
Here are some pictures. I don't have many since my hands were usually occupied with children.

Brendan loved the sea lions too!

Eva outside the butterfly habitat

This dolphin loved the kids and stayed really close to the glass for a long time.

Last Days of School

Well, Brendan has finished his first year of preschool. The last day is actually tomorrow but we are going to Discovery Kingdom with family then. Jason finishes in one week and then on to summer, when we have lots of fun shirt trips planned.
Brendan's last day was a little more exciting than I'd like.
Eva and I were outside waiting his bus. It was late. I figured it was stuck in traffic. But when the bus was 25 minutes late, I decided to call. They told me that they had called our home phone and left a message (which I hadn't gotten because I was outside waiting). I was told that the bus had broken down at his school and that I could pick him up or it would be another 45 minutes. Since it was getting to be lunchtime and it is only 20 minutes away, I told them I'd come get him. I got to the school and went to his classroom, figuring that the teacher would keep the kids there if they were waiting on a bus repair. The teacher already had her afternoon class there and looked at me confused She said that the bus left 45 minutes ago and she didn't know anything about it. She directed me to the office saying maybe he was there.
I went to office. The receptionist had no idea where my preschooler was either. She called the bus department. They said that his bus had broken down by the high school 3 blocks away. I loaded up Eva again and we drove to the high school. I drove all around the building and saw no bus. So I called the bus people again. This time I was pretty upset. They asked me if I was sure that I was at San Marin High School. "Yes and there is NO bus here!" I said. They called the bus driver again for a report. Now I have met this driver. She is very sweet but does not speak English very well. It all came out that she was on San Marin AVENUE waiting for the bus repair guy. They apologized for the miscommunication.
So I drove another 2 miles to get Brendan. When I arrived by the side of the road where the bus was and hopped on, Brendan's eyes were red from crying. He had been seatbelted on a stationary bus for over an hour. He told me, "Mommy, I miss you. I cry. I am so hungry," and named 4 foods he wanted to eat when we got home. Poor guy! We arrived home almost 2 hours after he was supposed to get home.
I understand that the bus breaking down was no one's fault. My problem with this whole scenario is the lack of communication. I was told by 3 different bus personnel 3 different places to pick up my son. That upsets me. When you are in charge of someone's child, you need to be on the ball and you need to be able to communicate!