Some scenes from our trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We all had a pretty good time, largely because I decided that it was Just Fine that S & I spend a lot of time in this kids' area, instead of actually looking at actual sea life. We did see quite a bit of the "real" parts of the aquarium, like the jellies and the "funny fish" (sunfish) and we did catch the sea otter feeding, which was fun. Note for next time: set clear rules for the gift store before going in.

And one pic from the drive home, at the Black Bear Diner in Mt Shasta. They're mugging for the camera here, the food at Black Bear is suitable but nothing to dance and sing about.

Carnival

Yesterday was Open House at school, a yearly event. Sydney likes the face painting and was quite pleased with this one:

Isaac got into it too, with a "Spider Hero" face to match his shirt (coincidence):

Both of them enjoyed the Pony Ride, but Isaac especially --- he kept coming back! I lost track, it was either 5 or 6 rides:

This giant slide, oddly, didn't get any repeat business from our kids after they'd each done it once:

We both were delighted at how Sydney laughed and laughed at this clown --- she couldn't get enough of him:

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It took me 48 seconds to write the title of this post, and I missed "v". (Yes, I timed it.) Try it sometime, it's an interesting mental exercise. I mention it because at dinner last night Sydney started reciting the alphabet backwards! She did really well, too --- with a little encouragement and a couple hints now and then she made it the whole way. She seemed quite chuffed.

Isaac's been more receptive to practicing his language skills too, which is really happy to see.

Of course, it's not all roses and song, but let's just gloss over some of the noisier and higher velocity parts of recent home life ....

artifacts

Why a picture of this otherwise uninteresting toy? This is the first one that we brought out of "hiding" after it had been away for several months in a box in the spare bedroom. We'd always been planning to do this, but never quite got around to it. Well, the reception was very gratifying: Sydney rushed out of the Library shouting "Mommy! Daddy! Look! I haven't seen this toy in weeks and weeks [more like months!]. Isaac found it for me!" We didn't correct this last minor point ... a little inaccuracy in the service of sybling harmony seems like a fair trade.

These? The shoes Isaac was wearing on Gotcha Day. They've been in service all this time (not exclusively), but he's quite outgrown them. Time for them to go to the cabinet of memories. Sometimes I've wondered who GWJ was, who bought them new, and whose feet they graced before coming into Isaac's possession.

a fireman! no, wait ...

On the way to school today, Sydney and I were playing the Zoo Game ("I'm thinking of an animal, and it's huge and gray and has giant ears!"), and Sydney said she likes alligators and hippos and added that it must be nice to be a zookeeper. She sounded somewhat wistful, so I said "zookeeper would be a good thing to be when you grow up". She thought that was a good idea, and added it to her list: she's going to be a doctor - veterinarian - rock star - karate- - zookeeper.

Then she asked, "Daddy, what are you going to be when you grow up?"

Wish I knew ....

For Father's Day, I got this terrific new game calls The Coffee Game. The markers are coffee beans! And the squares have things like "give someone a hug" in addition to the more traditional "lose a turn". Pre-order yours today 'cause there sure to be the hit of the year!

We picked up this new pool at Costco. Isaac tried it out for a few minutes, but Sydney is really excited about it. She wants to go out every day, whether or not it's snowing (okay, we haven't had snow, but it feels like it should start any moment).
Having fun on the rides at the "local" mall --- even without putting any quarters into the machines.
The carousel at the same mall. We've been coming here for years, it's one of Sydney's favorite outings and Isaac is right there with her. Let me tell you, it's tough getting good pics of a moving carousel --- I burned through a lot of bytes to get this one and a couple others. I do like the way that digital cameras sometimes give this dream-like quality to a blurry image.
This is why we were at the carousel mall today --- KM and AM visiting from the Bay Area. Sydney was pretty taken with both of them, since KA let sydney rummage in her purse, and AM showed her some magic tricks and then let her crawl onto his chair behind him.

In other news, allergies are making Terrie, Sydney and I miserable!