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!

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend in NW Oregon: Safari Sam's giant indoor jungle jym,

Sydney trying on the coat she wore when we got her, and

Isaac making a new friend! Not pictured: church, Costco, friends over for dinner ... fun and exhausting!

Dozer Day, where kids get to climb on and even drive all sorts of bulldozers, loaders, backhoes, and dump trucks. There was also a fire engine, an ambulance, a sheriff boat which Isaac liked a lot, cement pumper, crane and many more. Also games, which Sydney spent most of her time a --- we think the crowds of people were a little off-putting. Both Sydney and Isaac were pretty luke-warm to the whole thing, but possibly just because they were both just about falling asleep when we got there. Lots of free stuff to bring away, like hardhats and stickers and posters.

More pics here

Here, we see Isaac fascinated by an off-screen goat. Sadly, the goats were having the day off, so no goat petting was to be had at this location. In the background are Heike, Sarah and Karen, who joined us at the zoo along with Tom, Dirk as well as Kyra, Karla and Ray (whew --- I'm starting to feel like I'm doing an Acadamy Award acceptance speech). We had a very nice and exhausting day with five kids to herd. Isaac enjoyed the zoo, and after initial trepidation regarding the volume of the steam whistle on the train, he enjoyed that too --- which is a good thing, 'cause Sydney and Kyra aren't likely to miss a train ride next time at the zoo. I collected a crashing great thump on the head, but I don't suppose it's worth sueing the zoo train for having such low eves.















In this pic, Sydney is showing off her latest acquisition: a really spiffy yellow file box! This has been one of the most successful "toys" for a long time, holding her interest well into the second day --- and counting! She got the idea from school, where each kid has a folder in a file somewhat like this. She's using it for drawings and stickers so far, and is pretty serious about getting it all correct. She helped pick it out at Bi-Mart.

Last weekend we visited Newport, Oregon with
the Crawfords, and went to the aquarium there.
This aquarium is not in the same league as the one
in Montery but we had a lot of fun, and I took a lot
of mediocre pictures like these.










These animal sculpture were in the park outside.