Happy Memorial Day

We spent Friday and Saturday night out at the island. The boys got out to play between rain showers and managed to have some fun!
We love moving dirt around(in our shoes)!
Evan and Donald set up these beach chairs in the sun. They sat looking away because the sun was in their eyes. This is our 3rd summer hanging out at the island with Donald. He will be 3 in July, so he is right in between Evan and Alex and he plays well with both of them.
Alex likes moving dirt around too. They always want to add water to their projects. Alex managed to dump half a bucket of water on his shoes. Good thing he didn't get it over his head(had the bucket been smaller he would've). Hopefully warmer temperatures are on the way, and we won't have to worry about a little water on our shoes or clothes.

This floating platform is still on the beach, so the boys climbed up and did ring around the rosie.

Heading back to the boat slip on Sunday.

At the island the boys enjoyed putting these noodles off the back of the boat. They push each other to get more space in the tiny doorway.

After we got off the boat last night we went to the Drive-Inn for dinner and there was a bobcat doing some landscape work at the auto shop next door. They boys could not wait to finish eating, so they could go watch the bobcat.

This year Alex really does not want to wear his life jacket while we are underway on the boat, so he stays below in the cabin and watches movies on Daddy's iPad. He's trying to get me to come down there with him.

This morning we took the kids to LifeTime to go swimming. After nap we took them to a park they call the dinosaur park. With all the rain we have had there was a huge puddle on some pavement. Evan had to take off his shoes and run around in it. He managed to fall and get himself all wet and muddy.

Then his brother and Daddy had to join him. Alex managed to fall too and they were both soaking wet!

When we drive by this park on the road you can see this big dinosaur, so that is why they call it dinosaur park!

Eric brought the T-Ball set, but the grass was really soggy from the rain, so Alex just hit the ball a couple times.

Evan got a track extension kit for his Thomas Train set, so we can make a track for each boy to run a train on. They had fun playing trains this morning, because it was raining most of the morning.

The darn squirrels kept eating out of my bird feeder, so I found this squirrel feeder at Fleet Farm and bought it. They ripped it off the deck and broke the glass. Guess that didn't work!

We have a wild turkey that has been coming to visit our yard. The boys enjoyed watching it our our window.

Easter and the island!

New Kids On the Couch picture. Today we celebrated Easter a little late. We got to meet our new cousin Baby Regina "Rena". Isn't she sweet! As you can see Alex was not a willing participant. It will be fun to get this one out when he is a teenager!
Tuesday night we were able to have dinner out on the deck. It was a beautiful evening!

Alex hanging out in his Elmo Chair with George.

Last weekend we spent our first night on the boat. Saturday was raining and cold, but Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day! We changed some sleeping arrangements and the boys slept until 7:50 and I believe that is a new record! Hanging out in the cabin waiting for it to warm up enough to go outside and play.

Fun in the sand with dump trucks, cranes and bulldozers! We could play here all day!

Take a break from playing in the sand to go down the slide! WHEEEE Mommy!

Love the tongue sticking out! Fun on the tire swing!

I'm gonna go really FAST Daddy!

Friday night we took Evan to ride his bike at the local tennis court. He really cruises! You can hear Alex laughing in the background and he is swinging at the park.

Evan Falling off his bike!

He was so brave when he fell and didn't cry. When I showed him this video on Saturday morning he watched it 15 times and would gasp each time at the end. He's got the peddling down and loves going fast. He yells "THERE'S a MONSTER ALEX" and then you can see him start to lean and then CRASH. Notice the knee pads. They don't really help with this fall because he falls right on his back.

Happy Mother's Day Part II

This morning at daycare I had a Mother's Day Breakfast with Evan and he gave me this lovely handpainted vase. SWEET! Notice his picture is in the center of the flower:-)

Happy Mother's Day!

My Mother's Day gift from Alex is a small "Alex" hand painted and jeweled wooden jewelry box. He says to me..."It's pretty Mommy...there is nothing in there"

Eric did get me the Royal Wedding Catherine Middleton Inspired Faux Sapphire Ring for Mother's Day. My birthstone is a Sapphire, so I thought it was perfect. I did remind him a couple times that this would be a good gift for me.


I didn't get a picture with the boys today, but I did get this picture of Evan wearing my Faux Fisherman's Wharf sunglasses. What a ham!

Happy 5th Anniversary!

May 6th Eric and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary! We celebrated in Sonoma County in California!

One of the wineries we visited had a nice garden area where we set up the timer on the camera to capture the moment. A few moments earlier we were having a nice picnic lunch and a bird pooped on my arm. Eric thought this was pretty funny! At least it wasn't on my head. It just came down from the tree SPLAT! GROSS!
During our Honeymoon we ate at a restaurant called The Italian Affair and we went there again on our 5th anniversary. It is an area similar to Uptown in Minneapolis and the restaurant is in a big old house.
Many of the vineyards we visited had small plants and we noticed that these were huge in comparison. These plants are 70-80 yr old Zinfandel plants often called gnarly for their appearance.
Heading back over the Golden Gate on our way back to San Francisco!
When we were in California 5 years ago someone told us about a place you can go see whales, so we again headed out to Bodega Bay and the whales stood us up! The scenery was spectacular, but was rather chilly and took our breath away. It felt like it was about 40 degrees with 40 mph winds!

We found this hole in the wall last time we were in San Francisco and had to go back. They don't take credit cards and our dinners together totalled 12.25!
It has been there since 1947 and I don't think it has changed a bit. You walk up to the food counter and order and they dish it up right in front of you.
They have over a 100 different beers to choose from and the menu is printed up on this paper. Nothing fancy, but perfect for our last meal in San Francisco. We were still tasting it this morning. We had a red eye flight from San Francisco and got back about 5:30 this morning. Two hours of sleep and we got back to our boys!

On our way out of San Francisco I finally got my cupcake from Kara's! Delicious! We took it to the airport and you can see the box isn't so pretty anymore! I ate it at the airport, because it would not have made it home. Maybe someday I will go back to San Francisco and Kara's will still be there. I have a hard time believing a shop can sustain itself on selling just cupcake's, but she's in the right market:-) You could buy these little 6 packs that came in a long box..that would've never made it back to MN! If you are in San Francisco..check it out!

The boys had a great time with the grandparents, but they were really glad to have us home. Thank you to the grandparents for taking great care of them while we were gone! We know it was not easy:-)

Cinco de Mayo

Tuesday morning we got up and combined our breakfast and lunch and went to In-N-Out Burger. It said online that they opened at 10:30. We got there about 10:20 and there were people already eating.
DELICIOUS! I wonder if they will ever come to Minnesota?

Streetcars running along Fisherman's Wharf. We took one of these the other night to get to Palomino.



Before we headed out of San Francisco we went to check out The Painted Ladies. "Painted ladies" is a term used for Victorian and Edwardian houses and buildings painted in three or more colors that embellish or enhance their architectural details. The term was first used for San Francisco Victorian houses by writers Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen in their 1978 book Painted Ladies - San Francisco's Resplendent Victorians. This group of houses is easily photographed because there is a park across the street that has a large hill where we stood for this picture. You can see a nice view of San Francisco in the background.

A Firetruck for the boys:-) They were stopping for lunch at Boudin Bread Co!
Gas price of 4.35 in Downtown San Francisco!
Last night in Napa we had our Cinco De Mayo dinner a night early at the Red Hen Cantina. The bar section was filled with some San Jose Shark fans who were watching the hockey game.
Margarita Pitcher! YUMMY!

At one of the wineries this little lizard came out to say hello:-)
The Golden Gate! It is difficult to photograph while driving in the car.
Napa has a wine train you can take through town to visit some wineries. We didn't take it but saw it a couple times. Today is Thursday and it looked pretty empty.


We visited one of our favorite wineries Louis Martini!
These were some beautiful roses at V. Sattui Vineyards. They had a nice picnic area outside for visitors.


Vineyards in Napa. Hard to imagine these plants produce grapes that are made into bottles of wine.