With flowers in your hair

The BEST thing about moving to NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.....being SO CLOSE to my (second) favorite city by the bay...SaN FrAnCiCsO!

We took Monday off of work- Iknow, I'm shocked as well...we BOTH took the day off, weird...

But anyway, it was the last day of spring break and we needed to do something fun.

So we took a trip to the newly renovated, and hugely hyped California Academy of Sciences.

At $25 a head, we had great expectations....which amounted to a huge let down. Well, a huge let down for James and I anyway. Harrison had a great time just being out and about with both of us and exploring a new city. We took a trip to the academy followed by the winding car ride down Lombard Street and a huge ice cream sundae at Ghiradelli Square- triple yum!

Harrison spent about 30 minutes doing this....

The Academy does have a pretty cool Coral Reef with a ton of things to look at. There's also this guy who resides at the Academy:

And yes, that guy is real! It's an albino aligator and strangely reminded me of those marshmallow rats that we got in our easter baskets in 1986- remember that Amy and Ashley? So strange...

Finished Product

Okay- so James worked VERY HARD this weekend to get the stain onto the jacuzzi and gazebo. It's a lot darker than expected, but actually looks great!

Check out the before:

And the after picture:

And now for the jacuzzi before and afters:

Raingutter Regata

The past month, the boys have been spending a lot of time creating their Regata to sail against the other boyscouts at last weeks "Raingutter Regata". Here's a picture of them making sure the boat floats and practicing the "blowing" technique it takes to win. And here's Harrison and the rest of the pack at the even itself. We didn't win, but we had a lot of fun! And our boat looked awesome. James did an amazing job carving the boat and painting the skull and crossbones on the sail.

P.S. Harrison's new thing is his hair- he wants to grow it out to be like Zach and Cody (from Disney's The Suite Life). So, here he is with half-grown out hair. Great....

Spring, Sprang, Sprung

Spring brang with it some of our favorite things to do (and some chores we've been putting off all winter): gardening, backyard beautification, camping, cub scouts, long bike rides before dinner, walking the dogs after dinner when the sun is still out, and lots of gorgeous wild flowers springing up!

We've been very busy with Cub Scouts and with backyard projects. (explanation for the lack of blogging) We had a gazebo built for some shade this summer. We laid sod and just finished sanding down the jacuzzi, to give it a fresh coat of paint. Here are some before and after pictures of the back yard projects, which arent complete yet:

This was how our backyard looked before we started anything. We had a pool and some concrete. Here's the gazebo framed and the grass planted. We still have to stain the frame of the gazebo and hang cutains and sun shades from the sides. We haven't done that yet- that's tomorrow's project. Today, we worked on getting the jacuzzi sanded down, so we can stain it the same color as the gazebo. This is the before picture of the jacuzzi.

This is the outside of the jacuzzi- it's in need of a new cover and some new stain on the wood. We spent all morning sanding it down and now it looks like this:
And now we stain it! Wish us luck. It's fun having home projects when its actually your own home that you are working on!! Now I understand Homeowners Pride!!
I'll update with pictures of the final product to show off all our hardwork. Can't wait for summertime!

Cats and Dogs

It's raining CaTs AnD DoGs today....

So, the Dogs are inside, and are acting like Cats! I can't get them to wakeup. It's a lazy Sunday around here:

I have more cavities than my 8 year old!

I've known James for 5 years (almost to the exact day). In all of that time, never once have I gone to the dentist!
I don't know why- I just never needed to. I had dental insurance, it wasn't a matter of the money.
I just have good teeth- thanks Dad!
But I went this morning to the dentist- my conscious got the better of me- if I'm forcing Harrison to go every 6 months, I might want to force myself also.
I was expecting the usual tirade about how I don't floss enough, or I should be using an electric toothbrush, and I have gingivitis....bla, bla, bla.

BUT it turns out that my gums are totally health- thank you very much. However, I do have THREE CAVITIES! How is that possible? Harrison doesn't even have one cavity and he eats candy every chance he gets!
Hmm...maybe I should be flossing ever day like they told me to years ago....

Finally...with a few pictures.

So I guess I didn't take as many pictures as I thought I took last weekend- but just to show what an absolutely beautiful day in La Jolla it was, here are just a few ones at Seal Cove. Awww...

And here- Gretchen is reading me books! When did she get so old!