Half Moon Bay

Just trying to see how many trips to the beach we can fit in between now and August. The kids were super excited to go with their friends Anna, Adam and Haley. Later in the day, Isaac asked Curt--did you go to the beach with us? He must have been having too much fun with Adam--although in Curt's defense, he dug a huge hole, found sand crabs, and climbed the rocks with them!!

Happy MLK Day!

We celebrated with a playdate with lots of friends at a park, and ice cream cones afterwards. I was itching to go to the beach, but no friends would have been involved, so the kids won.

When you can't find Ryan . . .

HE'S EITHER DOING THIS . . . I've moved the brown sugar location several times now--but clearly not hidden it well enough. Look at his face! He knows he's in trouble.  This time was funny because I had just answered the phone upstairs and Ryan dissappeared . . . he's figured out the most opportune times to get his fill of brown sugar.



. . . his mug shot . .



. . . after I started laughing . . . he cracked a smile



OR THIS--he's been taking off his diaper and clothes and trying on multiple pairs of Isaac's underwear at a time. This happens several times a day. He actually is kind of trying to potty train himself, but that's another story.

What has Curt been doing EVERY night right after dinner for the past few months?

Yep. Maybe influenced by his Grandpa Salisbury--king of doing dishes? Maybe he's trying to tell me something? Hmmmm. All I know is that I've lost track of his brownie points. Too many to keep track of now.

Brave little Ice Skaters

Stanford Family housing took us skating! I was worried we'd only be there for a few minutes due to the kids being nervous and unstable on the ice. I couldn't have been more wrong! Both Isaac and Nicole skated the whole time (doing laps with me and doing laps holding to the side rails) and both want to go back!!

Leonardo da Vinci

Curt and I got to go to a pretty cool exhibit the other day called "Leonardo da Vinci 500 years into the future." They had an engineer day where we were able to get in for free, so we went. Otherwise we would have spent $25 dollars a ticket!! Yipes. There were two exhibit's really --one about the pre-Renassaince engineers that probably influenced him a little, and one just about him, his art, designs, machines etc. There were lots of machines built from his designs, and like they used back then. Curt thought it was pretty cool that all of the mechanisms we use today --like the gears, chains, bearings, etc. --originated from so long ago. Leonardo also designed the first Robot.
They had some exact replicas of Leonardo's notebooks, etc, that were pretty cool to see. They tried really hard to get an original, but they are too valuable. I guess Bill Gates bought ONE of them back in the 90's for 31 million dollars or something. Crazy!! Another cool thing was the replicas of the machines Brunelleschi used to build the dome on top of the Florence Cathedral. Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. The docent at the exhibit made us feel pretty special becuase this is the only place in the U.S. this exhibit was going to be shown, and it was the only time thus far that these two exhibits were shown together. I would have taken more pictures, but didn't think that you could! I guest most museum places let you as long as you don't use the flash. Now you know. There's lot more I could tell you, but I'm starting to bore myself!

More church outfits--this one's for you Mom

These were from Grandpa and Grandma Peterson for their Aunt Traci's wedding.

Christmas Break Boredom Busters

TRY ON NEW CHURCH OUTFITS FROM GRANDMA

PLAY OUTSIDE

GO TO THE PARK

A lesson in Centrifugal Force

GO TO THE SCIENCE MUSEUM--explOratorium

I was suprised, Isaac out of all the kids, could have stayed the longest. He wasn't ready to leave when we did and I'm pretty sure he tried EVERY single exhibit.

in awe of termites at work

Ryan had a hard time saying goodbye to these guys . . . I wonder where we could get a pet termite?

Curt found a robot--it moved when it sensed people near it

our defacing of our national currency tradition

and last but not least . . . GO TO THE BEACH!

One of our favorite tide pool beaches . . .

Yeah, yeah, we know you aren't supposed to touch the starfish, but some lady was carrying this one around and offered to let the kids hold it so . . . that makes it o.k. right? At least we got a picture!

GO TO THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

This was an accident. On the way home from the beach we saw lots of neat lights from the freeway. Pulled off to see if we could find it. 30 minutes of sitting in a line of cars later we pull up to the ticket booth--where you have to pay money--which we didn't have--no cash or check book. Were ready to turn around and go home, when the nice ticket lady let us in FREE!! Apparently someone had given an extra guest pass earlier and she let us use it. Good thing too. We WERE NOT GOING TO PAY $15, even if we had the money on us!!