Alameda beach, october 1

All weekend long, alison has been talking about going the beach on monday while the boys were at school. I am not sure what brought this about but the weather was very hot today so we went up to alameda and hit the beach. As you can see, it was a beautiful day.

Waiting for fireworks

11:30pm at the A's game. Bottom of the 13th inning. Freezing bay area summer weather. Waiting for the game to end so we can see the fireworks show. Not sure I can make it much longer. Now it is the 14th inning...

Ryan chillin at the swim meet

Ryan hanging out between races at the meet today. He swam on two relays and then did back and breast stroke. He is a tough competitor and works hard at practice. Both he and Jacob will be swimming at championships at the of July. Two more weeks of swimming.

(Since I am not on facebook and I have been feeling bad about not blogging, I have decide to post on the blog like others post on facebook. Maybe it is a babystep on my way to facebook. No commitments yet.)

Almost 4 years old

Alison will be four years old in just 10 days. Here is a picture capturing her last days of being three. Love it.

New park at lake elizabeth

Another reason to come and visit Fremont: there is a new playground. The city tore down the large tan playground (that used to be the big wooden one) and has put in a pretty cool new play area. No water features but I guess we will survive.

This blog is a test sending blog updates with my phone.

Halloween

We are bad, bad parents.  We were supposed to get pictures of our children in their Halloween costumes, which I think is parenting rule #107.  I did get a picture of Alison in her costume when she wore it to preschool on the Thursday before Halloween.  I also got a picture of everyone when they did a trick or treat service project on the Saturday before Halloween.  But did I take a picture on Halloween?  No.  Penance may be to eat 5 pounds worth of the Halloween candy that is sitting on my counter, including the tootsie rolls and the smarties. I am about 1/2 way through my punishment.   We did have fun trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and at the Hub (in the afternoon).  Alison lost all of her apparent shyness when it came to asking strangers for candy.  Jacob and Ryan discovered that they did not like strobe lights.

 Here are the pictures we did take. 

Alison as a butterfly

Jacob (hidden behind the green bag) is Charlie Brown, Ryan is a ninja without his hood,
and Alison is a butterfly reaching for the candy she just collected.

endofschoolsummerfunstartofschool part2

Time to finish the rest of this post before it is time for the HalloweenThanksgivingChristmas post.  So here is the rest of our summer and start of school pictures. 

A few cousins gather to say goodbye.  One last shot in Camas before we headed home to California after the reunion. 
We left on the 4th of July which was  not a bad time to travel.  The roads were empty as we returned to the bay area about 9pm.

This picture is to represent Alison's 3rd birthday.  We had a swim meet on the day of her birthday and then Stovall cousins came all the way from England to celebrate the next day.  The next week, we went to Sacramento to celebrate Alison's and Nicole's birthdays.

A picture of cousins together before Luke, Zach, and Elizabeth headed back to England. 
We were glad that we could have so much fun with them while they were in California and wished we had taken more pictures.

Alison and her best-girl cousin Elizabeth. 
They had a good time playing together this summer.

We took a few stay-cation trips this summer.  One was to Land's End in San Francisco and another was to Monterey.  Each was beautiful
albeit a bit cold and foggy. 
We had fun in Pacific Grove and then enjoyed sea food at the wharf in Monterey.

First Day of School:  The weather heated up in time for the first day of school.  Jacob and Ryan started on this day and then Alison started her preschool a few days later.  September and October were very warm months and the weather seems to have changed with the start of November.