Yosemite Total Chaos

Yosemite in April. Wow. I love this place. So many fond memories. Our kids got their first trip in October last year, but alas, there was not a drop of water to be found on that trip. This year the falls were in full effect. Amazing. The park was pretty crowded (guess everyone wanted to see the water, too), but still ever filled with natural beauty, wildness and vistas.



We did a little cooking over the open fire...


and a little camping...


gave Kiera nightmares about bears...


did a little hiking...


climbed treacherous logs over snow-melted rivers...


got really, really dirty...


carried cranky kids around...


had a lot of fun with friends...


and with 17 kids and 11 adults, we created 'Total Chaos' where ever we went.

Meat on Grill action

Mr. Sam Cannon came to town and we got a few of the old college friends together. Kent and Michaela graciously hosted all of us, including Tracy, for some bbq action. Kent is famous for his meat skills, and I now finally got to partake of the sweet goodness. It was amazing. Clay was going to borrow Kent's book "Everything is Better with Bacon", but the title gave away the ending.



We finally got to meet Kent and Michaela's kids, who are adorable. It took a little for Miles to warm up but once we started in on the battle games, he was in!



It was also taking Clay a little while to warm up, so we put together the Playmobile soccer set.



Miles played as Inter Milan, with Kiera as goalie. Clay and Neve played as Hamburger SV (although sporting red socks instead of their traditional blue.) Hamburg won the Fair Play Cup 2-1 with a brace from defender Bastian Reinhardt, who also hit the woodwork twice. Olivier Dacourt replied with a late, long-range goal for Inter.



It was the largest House of Fun gathering we've been to for years, full of old stories, loud laughter, clever irony, and poor jokes, reaffirming our knowledge that the HoF boys married way above their stations and that the second generation is awfully cute!

Important things on the agenda

We took a ride into San Francisco yesterday, and got to see daddy's office for the first time. The girls loved the windows. Kiera was just saying...I see the tiny people...them is walking...way down there...

Maren sat down on the swivel chair a took it for a spin. "Wow, Daddy" she schemed, "you could spend twenty five percent of your time spinning!"

California Poppies

So we got a great tip from Jenny that the poppies were in bloom and that we better head out a see them before they fade. So we cruised up to Mount Diablo to see what all the fuss is about.



Well, the fuss was all about amazingly beautiful blooms, a fun hike and good friends.




We managed to stay most of the day hanging out with the Barlow's and Lauper's first, then following it up with another hiking round with the Edgren's and Blatter's.




Thanks to Annie for this photo.

So much fun. One of the things I missed most about Cali when we lived in Memphis was hiking around. When I complained to any locals the conversation usually went like this:

Me: I miss hiking
Native Memphian: What do you mean, we have forests here as far as the eye can see...
Me: (thinking...how would you know how far that is since your view is always obscured up by all the forests...) Well, all the forests are flat here.
Native Memhian: And...
Me: Well hiking involves some kind of elevational change. You know...you go up...then you come down. "hiking" here is really just a nature walk. I miss the mountains.
Native Memphian: Y'all Northerners are crazy.






Anyway, I love being closer to mountains. OK, Mt. Diablo is really a bump comparatively, but I can get carsick driving to and from, so that is just fine by me.

futbol! futbol! futbol!

My baby's got a team. All his life he has wanted to live somewhere he could support a professional soccer team. So on Saturday, Clay and his brother Josh went to the season opener of the San Jose Earthquakes. Go team!

Superslideextreme08...the video

Update:  I don't know why the audio and video don't match on the movie...working on it.

Please don't feel obligated, a two minute movie of the mayhem.

Superslideextreme08

Since we wore out our original bounce house (pictured above), the nice weather helped us decide it was time to move on past our loss with a new fling. So we hooked ourselves up with this little number.



The weather was a lovely sunny 87 degrees on Saturday, so we christened the new "superslideextreme08" with our friends and neighbors the Blatters.







Sweet air.

Conversations

Kiera: I pooped! (short pause) You didn't wipe me.
Clay: I know.
Kiera: Mama wiped me.
Clay: I know.
Kiera: I wanted you to wipe me.
Clay: I know. I'll get ya tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Mom

Mom, you're the best. Love you so much. Have a great birthday.

My girl Annie

Happy Birthday. Love ya, babe. Do you want to do appetizers first or do the tour first, babe?

Central Park Day

So every Wednesday since we moved here we have gone to a play group at Central Park.  The day is always filled with fun, friends and a lot of neglecting children.  The mom's are just having too much fun.  The big kids are always a little 'Lord of the Flies', but they usually work it out {mostly peacefully}.  Maren says their favorite games are, chase the boys, playing haunted mansion in the play structure, and playing cheevy's (which apparently is short for mischievous) and fishing for doggie treats (leaves) in the pond.

The little ones always end up playing in the water, even if it is forty five degrees, they end up soaked and covered in sand.

Good times.

Black Rock Ranch

So I only videoed for the first five minutes of the day, and then again when the first fish was caught.  Rach we need to do a swap...photos for video.  Even after editing out the bad ones I ended up with 107 photos, but only a measly 3 minutes of video.

Good Ol' Fashioned Fun

We headed out this weekend to a friend of a friend's amazingly beautiful ranch in the foothills outside Sacramento. Four families with 13 children total=family fun, a.k.a utter chaos.



With a plethora of outdoor activities, we had a wide selection of fun creating options. The kids were on the four wheelers instantly, and loving it.





Canoeing was our next job, which seemed funner to the kids when they were still on the shore, and a little less fun when they were worried about the boat tipping, the cold water and critters in the water. Neve says I almost tipped the canoe over with 7 kids inside. (Naturally this is exaggerated.)



After a couple of trips around, we dropped all the kids on the shore to start fishing, and the four mom's took off in a canoe for a little getaway (just across the lake, but it was nice none the less). Clay became the "fish master of the dock", trying to help all the fishers at once.





The worms were a big hit with both kids and fish.



Many fish were caught (and released).



Clay then tired of it all, passed along the "fish master" duties to Bryce, and had himself some dirt biking.



As did Rachel and I.



Good Ol' Fashioned Fun for all.