My Aunt Sheila came up for a visit to spend some time with us in the Bay Area and to see my mom. Since she was here for 4th of July, we did an all-American outing and went to see the SF Giants play. The didn't play that well, but this hand-tossed caramel corn was delicious.
Sunny day at the ballpark.
Our seats were pretty high up, but it afforded us some very nice views of the bay. I'm glad we got a chance to hang out at the game at this really nice ball park.
The next day we were off to explore the art museum on the Stanford campus. We took Grandpa Skip there many years ago. It's still a great spot to visit.
This art piece was very uncanny, and a little unsettling.
Straight from the Gates of Hell to the ice cream shop.
We had a really nice visit with Sheila, with plenty of good food and chatting in addition to our adventures.
I took Leo to his first Orangetheory Fitness class on New Year's Eve. It was a hard class, but he did awesome. It was my 1,200th class. I'm not kidding. I've been consistently going since December 2015 with a unfortunately long break because of Covid. Here we are with Coach Nate. He's my favorite coach there and Leo liked him too. They chatted about video games after the class.
Continuing the tradition of Serafina and Sunny ringing in the New Year together, Sunny came over for NYE. Here they are being goofy in my kitchen.
Here they are looking gorgeous in my entryway.
I made a delicious vanilla cake from my new baking book I got for Christmas. I tried to give it a cute sprinkle star, but it ended up pretty off-center. Oh well.
Toasting the New Year!
Serafina giving me some classic teenager side-eye for having the audacity to toast her.
We headed up to the mountains on Tuesday the 27th. It was pretty easy to get there and we were happy to have some time at the cabin since we had to miss a visit earlier in December because of weather. On Wednesday, the weather was clear but cold. The skiers headed out to ski.
Here's Leo's selfie.
Here's Serafina's...
I took Mousse for a snowy walk, which he loved, of course.
It snowed over night so we woke up to fresh snow on Thursday. They didn't end up going skiing because of the temperamental weather, so Tom joined us on our walk, which was combined with a game of fetch.
We drove home on Friday in a storm. It wasn't all that great and it took us a while to get home. It's good that our dry state of California is getting so much precipitation, but I have a feeling it will impact our trips this season.
Saturday the kids took turns running some errands with me, and then the rest of the weekend I was shuttling them to and fro to fun stuff.
On Sunday, Serafina went to Great America (our local amusement park) with her friends. I wasn't sure if it was the best idea with her boot, but I couldn't deny her a fun time with her friends. She promised to take it easy. (Spoiler alert: she didn't).
Here are the girls right as we arrived. Left to right: Serafina, Arya, Mia and Rozalynn)
Leo and I went through the gates to go to Guest Services to resolve an issue with my pass. On our way, he ran into Snoopy and had to take advantage of this photo opportunity. The line was too long at Guest Services, so we headed out. That evening he hung out with his friend Vivian.
Mia's mom Nina was serving as chaperone for the girls. She hung out with them and sent the other moms lots of pictures. Icee time!
They realized pretty early on that Serafina's boot could get them this special "green pass" so she didn't have to stand in line. The rest of the crew also got wrist bands to skip the line. We just might hang on to that boot for future visits.
They went on a #D ride. Serafina reported back that I would hate it.
Not only did Nina hang with them for seven hours on a holiday weekend, she also delivered all home! Here they are headed out and Serafina has her foot elevated.
On Monday, I drove Leo and his friends to see the Bob's Burgers movie. I told them I would be their chauffeur if he took a picture in front of the movie poster in his Bob's Burgers shirt.
It was a fun weekend with people coming and going. I'm so happy these kids are going out in the world and (knocks all the wood) we have still managed to avoid Covid.
Last week the kids had spring break. Before everyone dispersed to different vacation destinations, Serafina and Mia celebrated Purple's birthday at his house.
Here they are with Mia holding the puppy Purple's family was pet sitting.
It was warm enough for the kids to go in their pool.
They often act too cool so I was happy to see these pictures of them being silly and having fun.
Wednesday night we headed up to the lake house. During the drive up, a storm rolled in. Thursday morning we woke up to fresh snow. It snowed all day.
Mousse was happy with the snow but it was chilly. Apparently the fresh snow made for a fun, but slightly challenging day of skiing. Of course, no one took a single picture or video.
Friday, the sun came out in our neighborhood, so Mousse and I made sure to get out and enjoy it.
Snow zoomies are the best zoomies! Mousse loves the snow.
Tom and the kids headed to Palisades Tahoe (forming known as Squaw Valley) to ski with our old housemates. I told them to take some pictures to document this fun day of skiing with friends. I chatted with Tom at lunchtime and reminded him of my photo request. And guess what? They didn't take a single stinking picture. Anyway, they had a fun time even thought the skiing conditions weren't great. Saturday, the weather wasn't great, and everyone was a bit sore and tired from skiing so we headed home in the afternoon.
We were home for Easter on Sunday. Nana came over to hang out with us during the day. I didn't take any pictures, except of Mousse with his brand new duck toy that he got in his Easter basket.
It was another quiet New Year's Eve, similar to last year. But this negative covid test for Serafina was a ticket to having Sunny join us for the night.
She joined us for dinner, and there was lots of squealing and giggling. It really changed the tone of the night.
It made everything feel more festive and fun.
They came out of Serafina's room for treats and watching certain things on the TV with us.
This is how much Serafina felt she needed to squat down to take a picture with Sunny. Ha!
We toasted the new year and can only hope that 2022 is brighter and lighter than the past two years.
Sunny ended up going home about 1:30am to sleep in her own bed. After this long pandemic, a full sleep-over is a bit much, but I told her there is always next time.
We had our traditional Christmas Eve with my mom and lots of seafood for dinner. Tom branched out and made calamari. I missed the calamari course because I was on the phone with my cousin Dillon, but that's okay because I don't eat fish or squid. I didn't take any pictures while my mom was here, but after she went home, we made our annual butter cookies for Santa.
Serafina doing some decorating.
Leo decorating.
Here's the end result.
I found a picture from the first time we made these cookies in 2012. Look at those little goobers! So small and cute.
I didn't take any pictures of the kids opening presents on Christmas morning, only Mousse with his Baby Yoda toy from Tracy and Maya. Ha! I guess that's the new era we live in.
He was so happy.
I made them pose for a picture after dinner though. Serafina has on her new Christmas pajama pants and new slippers.
I told Leo to give me a good smile and this is what I got.
New ornaments! Beautiful Santa Mermaid from Sheila.
See's Candies centennial ornament from Santa.
There were renters at our house that were supposed to leave on Christmas morning. On Christmas Eve, there was a power outage that impacted the entire Donner Lake neighborhood. The power came back on around 5pm and the renters were gone. I guess they didn't want to be stuck there in the dark, even though the heat is gas. It turned out that they were smart to leave when they did because the highway closed early Christmas morning and it still hasn't re-opened. We were supposed to get a new group of renters today, but they probably can't get there with the highway closed. So much snow fell that when we checked the cameras this afternoon (after another outage), the snow pile in front of the house was almost to the roof!
