Rainy Day Fun

This past weekend was pretty gross up here in SF. It actually rained for half of the day on Sunday! So, out of desperation to keep Jake entertained, we made our own marching band through the house. Jake continues to be kind of obsessed with marching bands, and continually orders me to march behind him in public places...nice. Anyways, we made him a marching band drum out of my colander, and boy did it make some loud noise!

New Start!

Yep...today Josh started a NEW job! After 4+ years at Tempo Payments, he took a 2 week break, and starts a new job at PayPal today! He is now the new "Director of Operations for the Point of Sale" group (did I get that right Goines?). Anyways, I'm so proud of him and excited for this opportunity. He was giddy like a school boy last night, ready for his first day of school. It's going to be a big change for the family (won't be seeing him until the weekends basically), and will also require us to move. There are only so many traffic jams Josh will be able to sit through as he drives all the way to San Jose every day, so we're back on the house hunt! Peninsula here we come!
Congrats Goines...so proud of you!!

Jake and Hunter

We went over to the Mould's lovely home on Sunday for a play date for the little boys, and some football watching for the big boys (you could call that a play date as well). The Moulds have a brand new 3 week old son, Jackson, who was just so mellow and adorable. Jake had a fantastic time with Hunter though, who is almost 2. Like Jake, Hunter started talking a lot very early, so they were having full conversations between themselves...too cute. They both were racing dump trucks up and down the hallways, and dancing around all afternoon. Aleena looks amazing for having a newborn and a busy 2 year old...so impressed with how she does it all! We are so happy that the boys get along so well, and we can't wait until they are doing soccer together this fall!

Academy of Science

As mentioned below, I checked out Family passes to the Academy of Science last weekend, so we decided to head there on Sunday. I haven't taken Jake there since he was about 3 months old, as it is actually really expensive to get in (unless you're a member), and we weren't sure how much Jake would enjoy it. Well, I'm glad that we got free tickets, because while he was interested in the aquarium and rain forest, he wouldn't give each exhibit more than 2 minutes before he insisted on moving on. The highlights for Jake were seeing Sid the Science Kid (Disney channel show I believe) and running around outside in the tiny garden.

We love the library

No pictures today...I just had to stop and write about how absolutely fantastic the SF public libraries are to visit. As an adult, I really hadn't made it to the library very often. But, since we have had Jake, I have been going more and more frequently. We have a very small little library branch about 4 blocks from our house. Starting about 5 months ago, I have made a habit of going to the library every Sunday afternoon to pick up 10-12 new bedtime books for Jake, 1 new movie and a book or two for myself. Story time at bedtime has become a very important part of Jake's routine. We go through 4-5 books a night, hence the reason for our very frequent visits to the library. The only way to keep story time interesting is to keep the new adventures coming every night. In addition, San Francisco has this FANTASTIC family pass program: each branch has 1 family pass to nearly every museum/activity in the city which can be checked out by any family with at least 1 adult and 1 child living in SF. They only have 1 pass per week to each museum, but if I luck out, there are some good ones left come my Sunday visit. This weekend we got a family pass to the California Academy of Science (pictures to come tomorrow on our visit)...major $$ saved with that one!! Lastly, Jake loves to visit the library as well. He actually has started to get quite upset when we pass the library by without stopping in, as he loves to go in and look at books. As we begin our house hunt again, a good library in the neighborhood is going to have to be a must for this family!

Jake's first Cal game

Josh finally decided to take Jake to his first Cal game. As most of you know, Cal is playing this football season at AT&T park, as their stadium is being rebuilt. Josh figured that it would be an easier venue to bring Jake, and a very mellow game. And, he was right! Jake did great apparently! Of course, the highlight for him was seeing the marching band before the game and at half time.

Reading to himself

I caught this cute video of Jake reading himself a good night story last night. It's just a big book of animal pictures, so he made up his own story about each animal going to sleep. Too funny.

Back to the harmonica

Jake has put down his guitar for the last few weeks, only to pick back up his harmonica. He is often bringing it to bed with him, he plays it so much! He seems to play the same tune over and over again...not sure if he realizes it or not, but it's interesting to observe.

Happy Birthday Granddaddy!

Today we send a BIG Happy Birthday hug to Granddaddy!! We had a little celebration yesterday at Central Park in San Mateo. We had our normal picnic, baseball, frisbee afternoon, although Jake really didn't cooperate very well this time. All he wanted to do was run through the beautiful rose garden maze over and over again. He literally did not stop running for 2.5 hours straight...seriously!!! But, at least Granddaddy and Josh got a little tossing time in. Here Granddaddy helped Jakey with his cupcake. Jake has all of a sudden become very aware of when he is dirty, so he didn't want to pick up the messy cupcake on his own. Granddaddy was happy to help out!

Happy Birthday Granddaddy!!

Circus Day!

Ok, we had to have one last adventure on the last day of our staycation. So, we took Jake to the CIRCUS!!! Yep...good ole' Barnum and Bailey is still around, and it was GREAT! We got there just at Jake's nap time (yikes!), but the loud music, animals and clowns kept him going the entire time. We got great seats directly in the center, but towards the back, so we didn't disturb too many people with Jake wiggling around a bit. Both Josh and I were in awe of the show....we're definitely going to have to make going to the circus a regular family adventure in the future.

Remainder of our staycation

Well, the remainder of our staycation has definitely been more mellow. Jake spent some time with Lee Lee and Millie on Thursday morning, and then I had a ME day on Friday. Friday was quite wonderful I have to say- I spent much of the day at the spa, thanks to birthday gift certificates from both Lee and Bill as well as Lindsay and Jonathan (THANKS again guys!). I tried SenSpa for the first time, and it was FANTASTIC! It's definitely my new fav in SF...it's enormous, (it's in an old barrack in the Presidio), peaceful and empty! It was a fantastic day of relaxation! Saturday was Mama/Jakey day as Josh was off at the Cal game. We hung around the neighborhood for the day and just hung out together. Today we headed up to Sonoma for the last hurrah of our staycation. We first went to "Traintown" where Jake went on multiple carousel rides and of course, on the great 20 min train ride. The train is definitely the highlight of this little place, and we all enjoyed it. Next we headed to downtown Sonoma and had lunch on the square and walked around. It was so nice to finally be in the sunshine, as it literally has been a fog bank the entire week at our house in SF. It has been a great week off of work, and we certainly tried many new Bay Area kids activities! We're still super sad to have missed our trip back east though...such a bummer!

Jake and Benny B

A few more comments about our great trip down to Monterey- The Bolgers have a fantastic, BIG backyard (our dream), and Jake could not get enough of it. There were apple trees to pick from, tons of grass to play on, water toys, and toddler-sized cars to play in...what more could we ever ask for?? Jake had so much fun in the car (although, he barely let poor Ben have a turn with his own car). The boys also played in the water table quite a bit, hence the reason for pictures of Jake without pants and shirt below, as he promptly got soaking wet. We also brought Jake's guitar down so that the boys could play their guitars together. On Wednesday we woke up and headed to Ben's "kinderjam" dance class with Jen and Ben, and then ended our great stay at this great little farm with fresh fruits/veggies and animals. What a trip! Jake continues to ask about where Benny Bolger is ever since we've left!!