Recipe for a great playdate...

Hannah came over for a play date while her parents went on a real date. The kids, PJ, Cameron and Riley were very excited. So they made sure they had everything they needed....

Ball Pit? Check!

Safety Goggles? Check!

Princess Dresses? Check!!!

It was a very fun night for all..

Congratulations Aunt Juliet!!

This is Crenshaw. Cameron has had this little horse since her birthday, but we haven't really seen him much until today. She insisted that he needed to go with us. I agreed to let her "horsey" in the car and was informed, "This is not Horsey, it is Crenshaw." It was the first time I can remember that Cameron has named any of her toys and cannot for the life of me figure out where she got the name. Regardless its a great name for a horse.

We went to the Palo Alto Clay and Glass Festival with Tim and Turtle before heading to the city. Riley enjoyed exploring all of the exhibits, which was scary, but Tim was great at keeping him away from most of the glass. Cameron was pretty mellow and stayed in the stroller with Crenshaw most of the time.

Next we headed to Golden Gate park to see Aunt Juliet reach her goal of finishing the San Francisco Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. We missed her crossing the finish line, but caught up with her celebrating. She looked awesome even though she had just walked 1.5 marathons in two days. She trained for months and raised more than $5000 in memory of her mother. Her accomplishment was amazing and we are incredibly proud of her. Congratulations Aunt Juliet!!!

First Camping Trip

We headed to Mendocino for a fourth of July camping trip with several of our neighbors and friends (one and the same). The kids were super excited as this was their first camping trip. The drive up took a lot longer than we remembered. Cameron got really tired of the car and insisted we stop about a half hour from the campground. We obliged and had a snack at a rest stop along the way. Mendocino is a little town on the Northern California coast.

Our first outing together was to the riverbank which had a great beach. We played in the sand and planned out some other outings. We decided we would take a canoe trip (Jeff, Tims, and Riley opted out but we had a great time), explore Mendocino, check out the Stanford Inn, and of course stay for the parade.

The beach was really nice. The dogs especially loved it. There was a leash law so PJ obliged. He carried his leash around and enjoyed swimming and rolling around in the sand. It got pretty cold at night so we didn't mind the sand as long as he kept us warm. Although the days were comfortable, the nights got really cold. It was going to be a rough couple of days.

The kids had fun. I couldn't believe how dirty they would get. I thought about trying to keep them clean, but realized that was a lost cause. I don't think they have ever been that dirty before. Besides the fun in the dirt, and the running between campsites, there were things to explore. One of our favorite discoveries were the banana slugs. They were everywhere. It was pretty surprising how big they actually get. Besides the slugs we walked down to the Stanford Inn and saw theire gardens, horses, and llamas.

Each night we took turns cooking and enjoyed each other's campsites. We especially enjoyed the Tim's, which happened to be at a Bed and Breakfast near downtown Mendocino ;-) That was our pizza night and the restaurant was very cozy and warm!

On the day of the fourth we went downtown and watched the parade. We expected it to be very quaint, and was surprised how political it was. The displays varied from the fire dept's trucks, and people dressed as the Mendocino founders, to the local farm animals and SPCA animals in costume, to a float of several teenagers dressed as the Statue of Liberty wrapped in chains being pulled down by the media.... It was fun...interesting... and hot dogs were great. For more pictures from the camping trip check out our Picasa and Sonya's Kodak album.