Lassen National Volcanic Park

We spent Labor Day weekend with our friends Rebecca, Ted, Jamie and Gwen up in Lassen National Park.  It was pretty ridiculously beautiful and the weather was absolutely perfect.  We went swimming in lakes and went on hikes.  We saw a lot of cool fumeroles and other volcanic features and stinky sulphur.  There were some funny metal-heads on hogs blasting the Skynyrd song "ewww that smell" when they drove by sulphur works.  That song is still in my head and became a theme song of the trip.  Ezra did really great on the hike to Bumpass Hell -- I think he actually walked at least 2 of the 3 miles himself.  The kids also had a ton of fun making mud soup at cold boiling lake.  The weather was perfect for swimming in Summit Lake.  We stayed in a great house too in Mineral and ate good food and drank wine and had a great time relaxing.  I somehow convinced everyone to watch my favorite 80s movie Labyrinth.  Gotta love David Bowie.

Come on girls we're going to Boston...

Next stop, Boston.  We parties it up big time with grandparents and cousins!  More beach time with cousins on lake cochituate.  More beach time with more cousins at Nantasket.  More pool time in Brookline with Grammy and Papa and more cousins again.  Nothing says summer like family and swimming.   Above are pics of Grammy and Papa and their great grandchildren; me and Arlo hanging out poolside in Brookline; Ezra and his friend Sonia playing at the park under an umbrella; a couple of pictures with Uncle Eli and Nana and Grandma and Lake Cochituate (I've got to dig up the video of Ezra playing with his cousin Sidney in the inflatable pool post-lake -- hilarious!); Aunt Alison and Anthony and Virginia and us at the beach in Nantasket (Uncle Eli is there too but you can't see him because he's the man behind the camara); and me chilling with my glass of chardonnay with a sleeping Arlo on the best flight ever back to California with our free first class upgrade -- I'm never flying coach again, baby!  Oh, and while I'm thinking of it -- here's a link to a video of Ezra teaching Nana how to play Angry Birds on her ipad -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6KzmcG3e88. 

Down the Shore!

A trip back east wouldn't be complete without going down the shore.  We hung out on the boardwalk, played in giant holes in the sand, kickboxed the waves, and enjoyed soft serve at Custard's last stand.  We got to watch the air show too, which was cool, albeit a bit loud and kind of sent Ezra into a tailspin.  Pun intended.  Oh, and of course, we enjoyed sack o subs -- check out Noah's crazy sack o subs face.  Atlantic ocean, you are so much warmer than the Pacific ocean and we love you.  Thank you Junie for letting us stay at your lovely shore house!  And thank you Bobby for driving home by yourself, so we could fly the oh-so-lovely Spirit airline directly from Atlantic City to Boston (only a 3 hour delay!).

Philly!

This summer we jumped on a plane and made our annual pilgrimage to the east coast.  First stop was Philly.  We got to hang out with Bobby and John, Uncle Josh, Zeyde Randy, and got to see Liora and Merrill, and Ashlyn, Dylan and meet little cousin Josh, and other relatives and friends.  We had a great time!  We made it back to the Franklin Institute, where Ezra again wanted to go in the Heart at least four times.  A few pictures above are from the Please Touch museum -- you can see us in space in front of the blue screen and Ezra of liberty.  Arlo also really enjoyed hanging out with Zeyde in South Philly and getting in touch with his Italian side (see his slurping spaghetti above).  Ezra also enjoyed watching old episodes of Wishbone with Bobby, Arlo, and Buzz Lightyear (again, photo attached).  Noah and I enjoyed eating dinner outside and those warm summer nights.  Oh Philly and phamily, we miss you!

Ezra's first trip to the symphony

Ezra and I went to see the SF orchestra play the scores from the Pixar movies.  It was fantastic!  They played music from all of the pixar films with clips from the movies playing in the background.  Ezra loved it.  Only problem was he doesn't weigh enough to sit in the folding-type chairs they have at the theater/symphony, so we kind of squeezed together in my chair.  It was really fun!  The scene when Andy goes to college in Toy Story 3 gets me every time.

Arlo walks!

It happened at 13.5 months, just like it did for big brother Ezra, and Rachel.  Go Arlo go!  It's so fun now that he's walking.  Walking quickly led to running and wrestling, and Arlo and Ezra are having more fun playing together these days!  Here is a video from July.