Saturday, September 26, 2015

Auggie Turns 3

The Cake
Every time we go to Costco August has to look at the cakes.
Taking one home might have been the happiest day of his life.

He would open the fridge, say, "Ta da!" and just stare at it.

Last Sleep as a 2-Year Old
I get sentimental about that for some reason.

Birthday Breakfast
Donuts with sprinkles, of course.
He had a Sunday birthday so we bought them the day before.
Red's Donuts are the best here, but all his beloved sprinkle ones were gone by the time we got there.
So I added some at home.
And they just fell all over the plate.
But 3-year olds don't care.
And they don't mind that day-old donuts aren't that great.
You're welcome for that attractive picture.

Birthday Greetings
He watched the video from Sarah, Tes, and Meg at least 10 times.
My favorite is when he sang along with anyone that called
and added, "Cha cha cha" to the birthday song.

Presents
Drew and Sally asked if they could wrap presents.
I fell asleep laying with Auggie and woke up to this.
And loved it.
These two aren't always best friends, but they worked together great.

    
Auggie knew exactly what he wanted for his birthday.
And most of what he wanted were crap toys (a slingshot and a sword) that broke within hours.
This mini golf set was my favorite.

Happy Birthday


He had that cheesy grin on his face the whole time we were singing.

The Barrs and Hansens came over to share the massive cake with way too much frosting.

Owen told me he wouldn't have been happy if that was his birthday.
Between church, having to wait for Justin to get home after meetings to open presents,
to just staying home the rest of the day... not ideal for an 11 year old.
But for Auggie, the low key day was just fine.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

San Francisco with Sally


It was the last free Saturday we'd have in awhile before fall sports started up.
It was Labor Day weekend.
Justin had schoolwork.
Owen and Drew just wanted to be with their friends.
And I needed an adventure.
So Sally happily joined me for a day in San Francisco.

The number one thing she wanted to do was to play at the Fan Lot at the Giants' stadium.
It's open to the public when the stadium isn't in use.
The Giants were playing in Colorado so I thought it'd be all clear.
But Billy Joel had to go and have a concert there that night,
which meant there would be no Coke sliding for Sal.

So we got Subway.
And I wondered why I drove all the way to SF for Subway.
And we maneuvered our way through the local street dwellers to use the closest restaurant at McD's.
Where Sally requested a picture with the "M" made out of flowers.

Then we proceeded to my number one pick for the day: The San Francisco Public Library.
It is best library I've ever seen.
And it can probably hold 15 Pacific Grove libraries inside.
It has 6 stories. As in levels (Sally wanted to climb all the stairs to the top).
And it has infinity stories, as in the ones you find in books.
Just for fun I looked up the book, "The Day the Crayons Came Home."
There were 116 copies.
And they were all checked out.



The main reason I wanted to go the library was to see Clare Cassidy's photography exhibit.
Love her pictures.

Next stop was paddle boating Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park.

 This was our favorite part of the day.
We went one time around the lake, but Sally wasn't ready to go back.
So we reversed and went all the way around again.
She would've kept going if our pre-paid time wasn't up.

Our last destination was China Town.
Another Sally request because she wanted to find a fan.
On the elevator up from the parking lot she got pinned in the corner opposite me.
It felt like 15 people were between us, but according to this picture there was only 1.
Either way, it was funny.

And then we entered another world.
The park in China Town feels like going back in time.
Clusters of (mostly) elderly Chinese people playing cards and no electronics in sight.

We proceeded to search through tourist shop after tourist shop for the perfect fan.
After way too long, Sally finally found what she was looking for:
a white, lacy, pigeon-painted fan.

We ended our day at Hunan Home's for Chinese Food.
The decor was tacky and the service was s l o w (the long wait had exhausted Sally in tears).
But the food was delicious.

Tuesday, September 01, 2015

Day by Day

8/21
The grand prize of completing the summer reading program from the library: frozen yogurt.
She was the only one of our bunch to finish the whole thing.

8/21
Sarah was wiped out after her last chemo treatment.
We visited her in the hospital and she gave us a tour of her home for the last week.
There is awesome local art all over the hospital.

8/22
Took Auggie to the park in Oakland while Justin was in the temple.
All the rest of the kids stayed home with friends.
So nice to just have one for the day.



8/23
Sunday walk at Coastguard Pier and copy cats.

8/24
The 3-story slide at Fort Ord.

8/25
He thought they were hard boiled.

8/26
Went on Sally's first class field trip of the year, which was a walking tour of Pacific Grove.
Ms. D, Sally's teacher, knows EVERYONE.
Seriously felt like Mr. Rogers' neighborhood as store owners popped out to say hi,
friends ran up with tea.
 and we visited with the mayor. 
We stopped by the library, a book store, a park, the chamber of commerce, and city hall.



8/28
Drive in movie night at church.


8/29
Went to the museum for Science Saturday.
Everyone here is excited for "Big Blue Live" on PBS this week.


8/30
 Slingshot success.

9/1
He wouldn't go near this pirate in Moss Landing.

Went up for a few hours to try and find sand dollars.
And command the ocean.


Found 3 sand dollars.
He broke 2.
And a wave took him down.