Another Goodbye

I am soooo behind on these posts, so I'm just going to share some pictures today that are several weeks old. In April, we traveled to Oregon to attend Austin and Sophie's Great Uncle Myke's funeral. He was always very kind to me and I'm sorry they won't get to know him better. Tonight they are holding a concert to celebrate his life in Jacksonville, Oregon. I wish we could have gone, but instead, we went to Poor House Bistro, here in San Jose, and we toasted him with some blues in the background. That was the last place we saw him play, when he toured with Cee Cee James. We miss you, Grunkle Myke.

These are the pictures from the day of the funeral, which we tried to go to. The kids and I managed to make it into the church, but then Austin kept saying (loudly), "We're in a movie theater!" So we waited outside.

Happy Easter!

 So different from last year! Sophie is starting to talk a lot, even if we don't understand everything. She and Austin had a great time this week, doing practice Easter egg hunts with glow in the dark eggs. We dyed eggs on Tuesday and made egg salad Saturday. Some very lucky chickens got the leftovers and shells. On the night before Easter, it is a tradition for Austin to set out the baskets. Sophie's basket was new this year and I didn't realize it when I bought it, but it's much larger than the basket that has been Austin's. I let him choose which basket he wanted and he gave the big one to his sister! As usual, the bunny moved Austin's basket to a more secret spot and left lots of goodies, surrounded by eggs. Sophie's basket was moved to her car seat, so she would know it was hers. Both kids had just a great week and a fabulous morning, I think :)

great idea from http://www.playathomemomllc.com/2012/03/illuminated-easter-egg-hunt/

 Sophie's first Easter egg!

Here's some video I shot of Sophie opening her basket and holding court over breakfast :)





 And here are Sophie and baby Austin with their first Easter eggs. They make the same face when they taste them :)

Spirited Away

We are so lucky to live somewhere with places like this. I took the kids to Hakone Gardens because they were sick and so was I, and if we just stay in the house trying to relax and convalesce someone is going to get murdered. I need places for them to run and be outside without being near other people's kids coughing and sneezing and making Mom get dirty looks.

It just happens to be beautiful too.

the most nonchalant turtle I've ever seen. Austin even touched him and he never moved aside from turning to look at us.

This place is near and dear to my heart, because I took some of my favorite pictures of Austin here when he was just a bit older than Sophie is now. This was just before St. Patrick's Day, 2012, making him almost 17 months old. We finally got a membership this year.

Please note, I am significantly better at making sure the shoes are on the right feet these days.