Sunset Sail

We headed to the Harbor yesterday in the late afternoon and were happily surprised to discover that the fog hadn't rolled in yet like we had feared it would. We had a beautiful sunset sail in the Sabot--we all still fit! We met a man at the guest docks who was preparing to sail back to Hawaii today, and he was so thrilled that our whole family was sailing together in our tiny boat. He took a bunch of pictures of us with my phone, so we can finally see what it looks like to everyone else when we are all piled in there. We always get so many comments from people who think it is just about the coolest thing. 

Parker sailed the boat himself back and forth a few times, even pulling up to the dock perfectly about four times or more. He was SO proud of himself, and we were super proud of him, too. He was so excited that he told me right away that he is, "definitely going sailing again next weekend!" 

Parker's post-sail recap. While we were still packing up the car at the Harbor, Parker secretly told me that he was going to draw a picture of him and Jared sailing together as soon as we got home. Which he did--and so well! I think I'm gonna have to get this one framed :)

Car Fort

 

After-school Popsicles

 

Fall Carnival

 

About Daddy

I took these pictures with my phone, so they're kind of blurry. But these are Levi's projects that he did for Dads' night at school: a portrait of Jared, and a questionnaire all about him. I love his drawing/painting! You can see the circle for the head, circles for eyes, and I'm guessing lines for legs.  He definitely got it right with "spicy salsa" being Jared's favorite food! The other things...maybe not so much :)

 

 

Biking Buddies

I took Levi out for a balance bike ride around the neighborhood today, and was happy to see that he's getting really good at it these days. He is a lot faster and is getting better at steering and balancing. It was a bit tricky figuring out an acceptable route, though, as he was wary of so many things along the way--he didn't want to ride past the scary Halloween house (with its giant motion sensor spider that jumps out at you when you walk by), the other scary Halloween house (with its giant inflatable and moving Grim Reaper and dancing pumpkin-head skeleton), or the loud barking dogs. But we eventually made it to these cool dirt jumps that someone has built along the edge of the road, and he literally rode back and forth over the jumps at least twenty times. He had so much fun that we brought Parker back for more after school!

Dear Levi...

Parker does a lot of writing at school--each day, the kids are asked to either write in their journals or write a letter to somebody. Usually Parker and his best friend write back and forth to each other about all of the fun things they are going to do together on their play dates. But today he came home with a letter to Levi--I thought it was so sweet. They have really been having a lot of fun together lately...

"Dear Levi, When I get home we can play monster trucks and Super Parker and Super Levi! And then we can watch Phinneas and Ferb."

["Super Parker and Super Levi" is a game that they made up that they play together--it usually involves making secret plans in their "Super Lab" to attack Mommy while she's cooking dinner...it's super cute. Phinneas and Ferb is their favorite cartoon that they like to watch together.]

Anza Borrego State Park

We decided to take a quick camping trip this weekend while the weather is still nice out in the desert. We headed out to Anza Borrego State Park on Saturday without a firm destination in mind, which was a little confusing, since the park is the largest in California and is about 600,000 acres of desert! But we managed to pick a good spot and had a nice night of camping after a one-mile hike to some cool caves. We enjoyed exploring a canyon wash the next morning and did some 4-wheel driving before heading home. We took a dirt road for about an hour of the drive home, just to add to the adventure of it all :) 

We have a bunch more pictures (of course) that I'll try to get up on the blog soon.

Levi Reading

Levi is absolutely obsessed with monster trucks, ditto with this monster truck book Jared got for him. He pretty much knows the book by heart, and can fill in any word or phrase as you read it to him. He's doing a very loose interpretation of the text in this video, but he had fun making it up as he went along :)

Made by Parker

Parker loves to play with the photo editing apps I have on my phone. I'm very impressed with how quickly he teaches himself how to use the apps; he usually takes the pictures himself first, too. I often scroll through my camera roll and find all sorts of gems like these:

Staycation

Lisa shared some of her really great photos from our big family staycation at Liberty Station over Labor Day. I'm so glad that other people got some good pics of everyone, I think I was so distracted by Parker's ear infection that I really failed in the photo department! 

Ice Cream Date

Jared and Levi had a special outing together this evening, a trip to preschool for Dads' Night. Since they were going to be enjoying ice cream at their party, it seemed like a good idea for Mom and Parker to have an ice cream date, too :)

Buena Vista Lagoon