Song for a Monday

Some days, you take a little break at work from the spreadsheet madness and destroying peoples' lives and come across this song. And you stare out the window while listening and are glad all your colleagues are in meetings so they don't see you tear up.

Change "Gracie-girl" to "Gracie-pie" (although I also like the "girl" because Grandpop used to call me "Katy-girl"). I especially like the line "you're my friend" because our Gracie often asks these days, "Are you my friend?"

In search of summer

When Saturday dawned cold and blustery (it's not supposed to get out of the fifties this week and the wind is howling as I write this), I was very glad we had a long-planned trip to Santa Rosa for the day. I was less psyched about the reason - this was one of our last days with Emily before she moves to Boston next month (boo, who would want to move there, anyway?!). We picked Emm up and once we cleared the bridge, the sky brightened and it actually felt like summer. By the time we got to Natalie and Chris's it was close to 80 degrees and I was almost out of my skin with delight. Plus, Grace had napped in the car after pouting at Emily for a while.

We did a little belated first birthday celebration for Gavin... Grace was just itching to play with his present. She had already unwrapped it once that morning.

After Grace and Steve showed Gavin how to play with his new truck, we headed over to a very cool park. It had several playgrounds for different ages, fountains and ponies. I didn't know that Grace even knew about pony rides, but as soon as she saw them she asked "Daddy, my ride the pony?!" (My is sometimes "I" around here). She climbed on the pony without flinching, no hint of fear, and loved it. And then she was immediately ready for the fountains.

She marched in fearlessly, despite lots of bigger kids. A little boy kept walking up to her and taking her hat off and she would come up to us, bewildered and say "He take my hat off!" Then she she would call to him "No take my hat off!" Nevertheless, she had a blast running around, getting soaked, shrieking and giggling. Eventually we had to drag her away, although she did manage to be standing in the middle of a circle of fountains when the water came back on - she was already dressed again. She may have enjoyed getting drenched but I wasn't so crazy about geting soaked hauling her back out again...

We headed back to Nat and Chris's after some time on the playground and played in their gorgeous garden, eating strawberries straight from the vine, which Grace pretty much thought was more thrilling than ponies and fountains combined. We enjoyed fresh apples from the tree (Grace at 2 without them even being cut up!), and then Grace got serious about supervising Chris at the grill. She wouldn't even let us come outside to keep an eye on her.

We had a super yummy dinner of Chris's famous and fabulous grilled chicken and summer salads and looked over Emm's photos from the Vineyard trip. We finally had to hit the road at bedtime, but G was not tired apparently. She and Emily had a sing-a-long the whole way back (Emily-the-Patient we should perhaps call her).

We had a beautiful drive back through the hills of Sonoma and Marin in the the fading light followed by the view of the Golden Gate in the fog as we came out of the tunnel. San Francisco may be chilly, but it is nothing if not gorgeous. What a fun day... we'll miss Emily when she moves but it's nice to squeeze in perfect summer outings while we can.

All the photos here.

Songbird

Grace is full of songs, lately. They sing a lot at her school, and she seems to have picked up a lot of new songs. She sings songs we know, songs we don't, and many that she seems to make up.

Here's one of my favorites - she sings it regularly:

Gracie and the mommy and the daddy

And the mommy and the Gracie and the daddy

And the mommy and the daddy and the Gracie

And the boys.

Repeat, in various orders, over and over again. And every time, Steve and I wonder, "who are 'the boys?'"

'Tis the season

For weddings!

One of the best things about living in California again is being able to join family celebrations rather than just hear about them. A few weeks ago, we had a double treat. On Saturday was Katy's bridal shower. Lovely company and excellent food prepared by her Aunt Tina - all a testament to the bride-to-be. Katy is a beautiful person - inside and out, and she will soon marry a wonderful man (a certain flaw notwithstanding). My photos are not very good, but I think they capture a bit of the day. Grace and I were so happy to be part of the celebration. Now, we can't wait for the wedding!

On Sunday, there was a celebration of Ashley's coming wedding as well. We are so disappointed that we can't be with her and Paul in Mexico next week, but it was special to be part of her ladies' night out, and we can't wait for her reception back in Cali next month. Extra fun at the dinner was seeing a bunch of women from college with whom I'd lost touch. I arrived at the restaurant to discover my camera battery was dead, so here is the one shot of the evening. So fun.

Here's to new beginnings - we wish both couples joyful and blessed lives together!

Catch up

June was busy... in addition to work craziness, we packed a lot in on the weekends. Plus, San Francisco has been summery! So, we've been spending a lot of time outside. It's kind of like Washington in that I feel terribly guilty about being indoors on a sunny day. Anyway, I've realized I will never catch upon the backlog of posts in my head, so I posted a slew of recent photos here.

You might guess from the photos that Grace loves the beach! She went through a phase where she was afraid of the waves and insisted on being carried anytime we went near the ocean. But now, she can't get enough of the ocean and will insist we take her to the edge over and over again to jump in the waves. When we went to Half Moon Bay over the weekend the water was desperately cold, and Steve and I could hardly bear to wade for more than 30 seconds, but Grace was endlessly enthusiastic and we finally had to drag her away, chattering, blue lips and all. We have so much fun, though, especially with all the sand toys she received as birthday gifts.