Geese Flyover

Sandhill Cranes Landing for the Night

This video was taken on Saturday night near Lodi, which is about an hour and a half from our house. These Sandhill Cranes and numerous other birds winter in that area, so we went to watch them in the afternoon before sunset.

If you want to make this video (or any other video which we post on YouTube) larger and sharper, on the YouTube tool bar (below the YouTube logo) click on the 360 and set it to 720 instead and then go to the four arrows next to it and press it to make it full screen.

I know my bird friends

Thank You Mr. Waste Management!

Breaking news....the garbage man came up and gave Alex a high five this afternoon when he stopped by our house. How exciting is that for a 2 year old boy?! I must say that I have come to appreciate all of the garbage/recycling men so much more in the past year. They are really good at what they do and they are so nice to the children who are so enthralled with their less than glamorous jobs. Almost every week we get an "extra" dump or two in front of our house and they always smile and wave and this one even bothered to come over and high five. I think that all of the little fans out and about probably make their day much more enjoyable. The man who came up to us did mention that there are always children watching excitedly. When I was making Christmas candy this year, I contemplated giving some to them, but never did (I was concerned about how they would keep it clean....silly, I know), but next year, they are definitely on the list!

And as a side bonus, Alex is learning letters thanks to Waste Management as well. The other day we were reading an alphabet book and when we got to "W" he pointed and said "garbage truck". It wasn't a garbage truck at all, but he recognized the letter from the garbage truck. That may give you an idea of how much we watch these trucks!

"Mini Monday" Outing

Alex working diligently on a turtle craft project



Alex in the eagle's nest this week and Alex in March of 2009                                                                                                           


Owl! Yes, that is what he is saying so enthusiastically.

Once a month, Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek holds "Mini Mondays" for preschoolers. Essentially, these are workshop mornings, where parents and the little ones can go the museum and see the wildlife, work on craft projects, have interactions with animals and learn about a particular topic. Yesterday's topic was animal disguises and Alex had a fun time learning about turtles, owls, frogs, racoons and skunks. We will definitely be checking out more classes at the museum, as it was a fun morning.

As I was uploading pictures for this post, I was thinking back to when I first took Alex to Lindsay. I remembered him being very excited about the big eagle's nest. I went back and looked for the blog post and it was March 4th, 2009. I've posted both eagle's nest pictures for a comparison....what a difference a year makes!

Digger Man!

Alex on the digger



Thanks Digger Man for letting me get my picture taken with your digger


Johnny and Alex taking in the action

Imagine Alex's excitement this morning at breakfast when we realized that a whole crew of East Bay Municipal Utility District trucks were pulling up in front of our house. There was literally a squeal let out and the excitement grew as a "digger man!", a couple of dump trucks and a man with a jack hammer proceeded to work on the water line out directly in front of the living room windows. The excitement was so great in fact, that we actually changed the location of our playdate with Johnny and Carrie today, asking them if they would like to come over to be a part of the fun.

Similar to his beloved garbage men, these EBMUD guys were really nice and as you can see, they allowed Alex to actually go up on the "digger" after he watched them with Daddy for awhile. Quite an exciting day, indeed!

From what I have heard, this is phase one of a multiple phase project, so I think that there will be more "digger men" in our future.

Hang Like a Monkey

Alex loved the "zip line" at Aquatic Park on Sunday morning. He really enjoys "hanging like a monkey" as Alex would say.

Indoor Fun

Alex had a good time at Pump It Up! this morning. The obstacle course and the bouncy house were fun, but he said that the huge slides were his favorite. Since we went down the slide together, I don't have photos of it, but he definitely did enjoy it. Lots of crazy energy happening at that place, especially after three days of rain.

Rainy Day Playdate

Buddies Johnny & Alex

Johnny making "Mama tea" for his Mama who wasn't feeling well

Alex putting "more cheese" on the pizza

Alex and Johnny hard at work in the kitchen, making pizza and all sorts of other things

Cooperation on a puzzle...gotta love this when you are talking about almost 2 year old boys

Busy working with Automoblox

Reading and taking note of the page with the garbage truck, of course.

Steam Trains with Johnny

The Latest Creation

Alex has been thoroughly enjoying his Legos, which he received for Christmas. The photo above, a garbage truck, was his latest creation. I was working on a project and he was playing with his Legos and proudly brought this up to me. A garbage truck (still a fascinating subject for him) with Marcia driving it. Yes, her name is Marcia. Why? We would like to know the same thing. Alex named her Marcia and we have no clue as to why. We do not know any Marcias, but that was the name he picked for her. Funny how they come up with things. I thought it was a pretty darn cool garbage truck, so I took a picture to capture it.

Seahorses

Here is a video clip of the seahorses and prawns swimming around at the aquarium.

Sea Dragon

How cool is this? These sea dragons are in the same family as seahorses. They look just like a leafy plant, until you see their eyes moving. We saw some last year in Hong Kong at Ocean Park too, but this time we were able to capture some good video of them.

Monterey Bay Aquarium!

Holy mackerel!


Jellyfish at Monterey Bay Aquarium

I spot a pigeon


Chase pigeon!

Aaaaah, run pigeon, run!

I love this place!

We took a spur of the moment trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium on Saturday and had a great time! There were so many fun things to see, including the sea otters, lots of huge fish, jellyfish, a neat exhibit on seahorses and their relatives, and of course, there were pigeons and seagulls outside in the courtyard, so that was a hit as well. I'm going to post some short video clips of some of the seahorses, because the pictures do not do them justice. Really cool stuff!

Enjoying a sunny day

A day of testing toys (and being compensated with a new toy to take home), eating roasted broccoli and garlic pizza outside in the sunshine, followed by a nap and some time reading and playing at home.....not a bad day!

More Fun With My Boys!

Hanging like a monkey (the photo is dark, because it was dusk, but I never get photos of this activity, because I am typically the "spotter")


A race down the slide


Silly boy


More silly boy

After naptime yesterday, we went for a quick visit to Joaquin Miller Park, where Alex loves to "hang like a monkey". It was getting dark quickly and turned quite nippy after the sun went down, but that never deters Alex, of course. Afterwards, we went to Vientien, our favorite Lao-Thai restaurant for some yummy dinner. As you can see, Alex was having quite a fun time, as usual, when eating is involved. He loved the ginger pork and requested more "sticky rice" and broccoli quite a few times, which is always a good thing to hear.

Ladybugs!

Ladybugs covering a branch and the ground below


Look! I have a ladybug on my finger!


As you can see, there were thousands of ladybugs at this site.


Alex with some ladybugs


More fun with the ladybugs


They were everywhere, even on the poison oak.

On the advice of someone on our neighborhood Yahoo! group, we made a trip up to Redwood Regional Park today to see some ladybugs. I say "some ladybugs", but that is not an accurate description. We went to see thousands of ladybugs would be a bit more accurate. It was amazing! We go up to Redwood Park often, but not typically on the trail where these ladybugs were hanging out.

I did some research on the phenomenon and supposedly, every year a new generation of millions of ladybugs makes the trek from the colder California coast, over the coastal ranges to the inner coastal range where Redwood Park is located. They affectionately call it the "Ladybug Pajama Party", which seems appropriate. It seems that they stay in huge clusters to keep warm, keep up their moisture content and eventually mate, before leaving to return to the coast. It was quite a sight to see all of the ladybugs just covering the ground.

If you were not looking for them, you could have easily passed by them on the trail. They blended in with fallen leaves and looked like berries, until upon further inspection you realized that it was literally thousands of ladybugs making the carpet of color. If you double click on any of the pictures above, or any from any post, it brings up a bigger picture, which may make it easier to see the ladybugs in this particular case.

Paella Party!

The paella...yum!


Eating dinner....as you can see, Alex loves Ezra and was trying to coax him into eating some prawns


Some serious reading going on with Eli, Uncle Brian and Alex


Fun on the ramps (one of the best garage sale purchases EVER!)


Dancing to "Hey, I Love You" with Uncle Brian and Johnny


More dancing with Uncle Brian


Alex's new garbage truck was a huge hit!


Reading with Eli

Tonight we had a fabulous time with the Lee and Wankel families! Thanks for coming over and helping us celebrate the new year! We had some yummy paella which David cooked up, lots of fabulous wines to taste, courtesy of Pat, a lovely and delicious chocolate torte courtesy of Carrie and yummy apple pie and ice cream courtesy of the Wankel family. What a wonderful time everyone had! All of the boys were just having a good old time laughing, playing, dancing and running around the house.

We are so lucky to have such good friends to enjoy special times like these. Happy new year and here's to many more fun gatherings in the year ahead!

New Year's Eve

The family


Baby Tadgh is getting so big!


Happy New Year!


The top was quite the entertaining toy

Happy New Year!! Thanks to the Bertain Family for hosting such a lovely New Year's get together! We had yummy food, tasty champagne and lots of fun with the boys. Here's to a 2010 filled with love, laughter and happiness.