Gilroy Gardens

Sarah and Olivia are in town and today promised to be cool, so we bought some tickets at Costco and headed south.

 First stop was the strawberry ride.

 It was a hit.

 I put Scott on his first solo ride and was worried about him.

 He looked slightly concerned, but just held tight like he was in his coupe and seemed to enjoy it.

 So next he tried the firetruck.

 He held on and occasionally steered. His blank expression made me wonder if he liked it, but as soon as he climbed out he ran over to the next one.

 The race cars! I still can't believe he's big enough for this sort of thing. They'd actually let little Olivia on, too, but she didn't have any shoes. Kind of a ridiculous precaution if you ask me.

 Then they went on the hot air balloons. 

 Scott's favorite part of the day was definitely lunch. He saw the salad display and leaned forward, kicked, squealed and pointed with all his might.

 He opens his mouth as wide as he can for food. He'll just keep it open until you feed him more.

 We went on the train, had lunch, then went paddle boating.

 Those tiny life vests were too much.

 The kids had to sit in their own seat. It seemed really unsafe to me, which was strange after the shoes rule.

 Scott liked watching the pedals turn and being out by water. He sat in his seat and held my hand while I took us around.

 Lucky Sarah got the swan ride. Olivia was not stoked and Sarah held her for a while, which I actually think was safer anyway.

 The park also has gardens, shows and educational exhibits. This bug one was freaky. The spider moved and reminded me of Harry Potter II.

It was beautiful weather and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect way to spend the day. 

Father's Day

When we woke up Sunday morning I made pancakes. Then Scott gave John his Father's Day gift.

 Hand-picked rocks!

 Scott was so happy and immediately took them back.

 He went to the kitchen and brought out his cooking supplies one at a time.

 While John opened his other presents, Scott cooked the rocks.

The baby gave John this book and I gave him tickets to the A's-Cardinal's game at the end of the month (We gave Alan tickets as his gift, too, so it wasn't really a surprise for John, but he's still excited).

 After church we had a birthday/Father's Day dinner at our house with some family. John's favorite part was likely the carrot cake.

Both our dads came (and Brian, Mark, John, Dallin, Karen, Joseph, Ryan, Katie, Lucas, Paige from John's side and Amanda from my side).

It was a good time as always.

Wendy's visit

My Aunt Wendy came to visit and get a little Scott fix. We tried to do some fun things while she was here, such as getting fresh churros--I mean going to the San Jose Giants game.

 The San Jose Museum of Art. This was actually pretty lame, but we went to the King library and Sonoma Chicken Coop while we were downtown and it was so hot at home that the air conditioned buildings made it worthwhile.

We went swimming with Becky and Anna at their community pool.

 We played at the park several times.

 Mondays John has softball games with his company team, so we watched parts of those after we wore Scott out at the park.

 John played very well. I think the tall socks helped.

 We went to lunch while Amanda was serving one day. Another day when she had off we took them to the Emma Prusch Farm Park.

 Scott's new skill of pointing comes in handy for communicating.

 He loves Amanda, especially when she rescues him from animals chasing him.

 This goose followed Wendy everywhere and pecked at her until she went to the car to get quarters to buy him food. He really scared Scott, who didn't want anything to do with the birds after that.

 The tractor was still okay, though.

 And he didn't mind chasing this little chicken.

 These pictures are when I was about 31 weeks for those interested in such things.

 Little duckling.

 Scott seemed to enjoy exploring even more this time.

 I had my sister take a picture of this bird to show John because he looked like Darth Maul.

 Scott loved all the playtime with Wendy. He followed her around the house and made up games with her.

 She bought him a little water table that was a big hit.

 He plays with it for a long time until he starts putting rocks in and it gets muddy. 

 We went hiking one Saturday morning at Quicksilver. 

 Scott collected many rocks.

 It was so hot and hilly and I turned us back around after about a mile and a half.

 John took Scott off roading while I slowly worked my way up a long incline. He found a geocache out there.

 Another morning we spent at Gizditch Ranch picking boysenberries and olalliberries. Scott quickly found out the bushes had something edible and started to help pick.

 Then some rocks distracted him. 

 It was surprisingly cool and pleasant that day. We had a picnic lunch, bought some freshly pressed apple juice and played with friends.

 Scott following Lincoln.

 He couldn't be happier than with his berry face and dirty knees.

 Scott likes playing fetch. Usually we throw balls, but he'll use anything that's around, like a pillow, Tigger, etc. He was playing fetch with Wendy and took it a step further and used his mouth. We don't have a dog and I have no clue where he picked this up, but it cracked us up.

Scott watches and copies us all the time. He liked seeing what Wendy was up to, especially when she was getting ready in the morning. He was obsessed with her baby powder and used it for cooking.

Thanks for coming to see us, Wendy! Come back again soon!