My birthday!

I turned 26 yesterday!

We tidied the house in the morning, which I was very happy to do b/c it was a wreck and completely unenjoyable. Tim cleaned with gusto, which he always does, but it was still extra nice b/c it was my birthday and he was cleaning house :D

After Lily woke from her nap, we had cake (chocolate with chocolate ganache and chocolate chips!) and Tim and Jack sang Happy Birthday (which was awful, just like they do at his mom's house!), and I opened my present: Ball N Roll! We played with it and had a blast, then went to Foothills Park, the nature preserve open only to Palo Alto residents. We hacked our way up a hill, turned around when the underbrush got too thick, and discovered that we could "ski" down the soft dirt and got down in about 2 minutes flat!

We went to another spot in the park where we had a beautiful view of the Bay, then drove back into town for a little get-together of the young couples in our ward. We got frozen yogurt! Then we came home and tried to put Lily to bed, but she refused, so we played with my new toy for a couple more hours, then fell into bed.

And today, we all slept in. I got out of the shower to discover Lily had crawled over to Jack and was lying on her tummy with her head on Jack's bum; I thought she was all the way awake, but when I picked her up she laid her head on my shoulder and went back to sleep! I let her sleep for a few minutes, then laid her on the bed and she stayed asleep! I took her onesie off to put her dress on, and she stayed asleep! I put her dress on her, and she stayed asleep still! (Now, I did all of this as gently as I could, I wasn't TRYING to wake her, but still, she should have woken up!) I picked her up and laid her in her carseat, and she woke a little and went back to sleep again! Drove to church and let Tim pick her up and hold her, and she stayed asleep another 20 minutes or so. And when she finally woke, she woke groggy and grumpy; we fed her cheerios, which always helps, but she was still not a happy girl for the rest of the 3 hours we were there.

(On a side note, I'm pretty proud of myself and my family. We got up at 8 am and left the house at 9am, and actually got to take the sacrament.)

I got to help out in Jack's class again today. It was a little harder, there were more kids in the class today and there was one little boy who was having a hard time. He missed his mom, and he didn't want to cuddle anyone else but her, and he didn't like being told what to do. We had to be careful to be extra nice to him; had a really hard time when he and Jack were playing and neither one of them would listen to me and the teacher, but she had a great idea and put the other boy's chair next to hers at the front of the class, and we had peace.

And now there is quiet in our house as the kids play and Tim sleeps and I blog and knit :D

Visited Foothills Park today

There's a nature preserve south of Palo Alto that is open to Palo Alto residents (and their guests) only, called Foothills Park. 50 years ago, when the city was buying the land for the park, they offered to share the cost with other nearby cities, which all turned down the offer. Apparently, the city of Palo Alto was a bit miffed, so they decided that the park they bought would be open to their residents only.

It was beautiful! I'm so glad we didn't let the threat of mountain lions scare us into just staying home! Unfortunately, when I left our house we only had about an hour we could spend there, then I got lost on the way there, so by the time we got there we only had about 5 minutes we could be there. Undeterred, we got out and took some pics right off of Panorama Trail:

It's hard to get Jack to pose right. He gets all self-conscious and grimaces and arches his back. I would just take pictures without asking him to pose, but once he sees the camera in front of him he automatically poses (which is a good thing, but we need to work on that pose!). It's hard for me, b/c my son is hands-down the most handsome little boy on the planet, then these pics I take of him come out less than perfect, and it's sad b/c I can't show everyone just how adorable he is!

I offered to let him take some pics with the camera, but he wasn't interested. And then it was time to go :(

The outdoors here all smell so beautiful. Even right next to the bay, in the salt marsh that I expected to stink b/c it's a marsh, the smell was delightful. I wish I could describe it.

We don't take advantage of our proximity to this awesomeness nearly enough. I hereby declare every Monday: Nature Day! (Why Monday? B/c it is right now dedicated to reading, which we do every day.) We have beaches, mountains, grasslands, salt marshes, and fabulous sunny weather all within an hour from our house. It would be an absolute disgrace if we moved away from here without getting to know this land a little better!

I also have to brag on my son. We went to a Relief Society event tonight, a discussion of John chapter 15 and ice cream. I told Jack he would need to read the chapter with me so he could discuss it with us. I considered adding a "so you can eat ice cream" qualifier, but decided to hold out and see if he needed extra incentive. And he didn't! He sat and listened to the chapter, asked questions about words he didn't understand, laughed when I talked about "fruit" being good things that we do ("I never knew fruit could be that!" he said), and then happily played quietly while we ladies all discussed the chapter. I got so many compliments on my fabulous kids! (I was the only one who had her kids there; it wasn't really a kid-friendly event and I hadn't planned on taking them, but Tim had other commitments and I was NOT going to stay home and miss the ice cream!)

Good night, my friends!