Slightly Disturbing

Ken and I find it slightly disturbing that when we asked Sage to make a funny face this is what she came up with:

Independently Wealthy

So this is what it would be like to be independently wealthy. Since returning from Idaho, Ken has entered his sit-back-and-chill phase of the sabbatical. This consists of such activities as making extravagant breakfasts, jumping on the trampoline with the kids, and shopping without weekend crowds. He even cleaned the garage. And one ambitious day we took the kids to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. One day our big excursion was to buy back to school shoes for the kids. Another day we visited Washington park in San Mateo where we leisurely explored the park. Last summer Ken dumpster dove for a small children’s bike. When he got it home he realized all it needed was one screw, so with all his free time he finally made it to the bike store for the part and taught Zad how to ride it. It only took him three days to learn to ride the bike completely on his own. He never even needed training wheels.

New shoes today.

Now I'll really never be able to catch him.

Sabbatical Watch 2008

After six long years at Genentech, Ken has finally earned his six week sabbatical. Ken took the first weekend and drove to BYU-ID graduation with his brother, Scott, and Zad and Sage. Unfortunately, they forgot to take the camera with them, so there are no pictures of their visit with his parents and grandfather from Chicago. His sister Katy drove over from Boise, and even his globe trotting brother, Todd, managed to make it all the way from Japan. Two general authorities spoke and the men were asked to wear white shirts and ties, so the whole thing felt more like stake conference than a graduation. Besides attending the ceremonies they were able to take in some exciting Rexburg nightlife. You know, a trip to the local frozen custard shop.

Beyond the graduation, the trip had plenty of memorable events. The air conditioning on the car went out in Nevada, and the battery warning light went on somewhere in Idaho. They managed to limp into Rexburg and change out the battery on their own, but it didn’t help. The auto parts store said the alternator was out, but there were no mechanics open on Saturday. They drove by a repair shop and saw that there were people inside and begged them to fix their car. They were really nice and fixed the burned out alternator belt in an hour and apologized for having to charge extra because it was Saturday, but were pretty sure it would have cost more than the $90 they charged including parts and overtime labor.

Number two, don’t speed in Idaho; we’ll leave it at that.

Not all of the excitement was unfortunate, however. They all got to meet Eric’s fiancée Lacy and her family. We now look forward to seeing the whole gang again in the fall at the wedding. Let’s all hope with a little less car related drama this time, especially since this time we’ll be taking my car.

Turning 3 Disney-style

We have a family tradition of taking the children to Disneyland just before their third birthday (when they can still get in for free). So we headed down to SoCal and fittingly spent three days park hopping tocelebrate Sage turning three. Here are some of the highlights of our epic trip.

We started with our traditional first ride:

The Tea Cups

We enjoyed the Princess Fantasy Faire so much that we visited it, not once, but twice!

Sage played model while we waited for the big kids and Dad to ride Space Mountain.

I’m not exactly sure why everyone is screaming about being in Tarzan’s Tree House, but that's my family for you: screaming where ever we go.

Sage has just disembarked from the Matter Horn Sleds and is describing the “scary monster inside.”

On our second day the reinforcements arrived upping our adult to child ratio.

We’re Melting: It was freakishly hot for April, so we rested in the shade for a few minutes.

On her second day in the park Mom wanted to rent a Rascal. Now I know why they are called Rascals: they are a complete menace to society. Not only was it hard to maneuver in the crowded streets and tricky to find parking for at times, but Mom also found it difficult to drive and there were many near mishaps, including a few haps as well: one which sent a woman to the first aid station bleeding, and another that took the wheel off of someone’s stroller.

Zad made it on stage for the Jedi Training Academy, but had a little difficulty getting the lightsaber to activate. It was really hilarious, if I can figure out how to do it I’ll post some video tape of it.

He eventually figured it out and got to fight Darth Vader. He graduated from his Jedi class and even received a diploma.

Here we are jungle cruisin’. It’s the corniest ride in the park, but still one of our favorites.

Thanks for turning three, Sage.

Sage's 3rd Birthday

Sage turned 3 on Sunday May 4th, but that didn't stop the festivities from starting on Saturday! Aunt Julie and Uncle David came over for some dinner, cake("with pink and strawberries") and "a present and a gift" (quoted requests from Sage). Sage received some cute clothes from them and David's parents which she enjoyed posing with. Jensen also got in on the act.

Sunday we had a small celebration with just our family. Sage wanted Patxi's Pizza (the best pizza in SF, and the ONLY Chicago style pizza worthy of that name I've found, outside of Chicago) and chocolate cake. We certainly can fulfill such modest requests for the birthday girl!

Go, Dec, Go

I love the crawling stage, but it's so short lived.

Spring Bust

The kids had the week after Easter off from school, so Ken took a few days off to spend with them. Camping at Pinnacles National Monument was the decided on activity. We arrived and got our camp site in the afternoon with enough time for a hike before dinner. The hike was really cool and partially through a cave with a creek running through it. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera, but I thought, "no big deal we'll get pictures when we take the longer hike tomorrow." We got back to camp and pitched the tent, ate dinner and settled into bed around 9 p.m.





Did I mention that on our way to Pinnacles we stopped and ate lunch at Mimi's Cafe? (See Brian's post regarding the day Stephanie gave birth.) Around 1:30 a.m., Jensen woke up sick. We got her cleaned up and rearranged the sleeping bags so everyone was warm, and tried to go back to sleep. An hour later she became ill again. At this point we were out of clean bedding, and she was crying to go home. So at 2:30 in the morning we broke camp and went home. Thankfully, Ken had bought everyone head lamps for hiking in the cave which made taking down the tent in the middle of the night much easier. We finally got home around 5:30 in the morning and spent the rest of the weekend recovering from the lack of sleep from that one night.