Weekend in Hayward!

Long, long ago - the weekend after the 4th of July, to be exact - Ryan took a couple days off work and we headed up to visit his family in Hayward! It was really an awesome weekend, we were busy the whole time doing fun stuff. Our first surprise was that Ryan's mom had turned the old "toy room" into a beautiful bedroom for Connor and Elise. Connor even got to sleep in a "big kid bed" for the first time. I had doubts as to whether he'd break his neck in the middle of the night, but he did great (Elise actually slept in her Pack N Play - she definitely can't handle real beds yet). Saturday, after Connor's favorite tradition of eating doughnuts, we went to the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Ryan got some of my favorite pictures ever of Elise. They have a bunch of exhibits on various animals and ecosystems, including a huge rainforest dome filled with butterflies. Elise kept holding out her chubby hand and telling me she wanted the butterflies to go on "Eeess awm, Eeess awm!" Sadly, none landed on her arm, but I did let her lightly touch one that had landed on a flower. I guess this is strictly forbidden, as another child doing the same thing got yelled at by a museum worker, but we weren't spotted! Oh, I have to mention my favorite thing about the Academy of Sciences. Their cafe areas have these elaborate systems of garbage cans, with separate places for various types of recyclables (of course) as well as compost bins and plain ol' garbage (which practically had a big frowny face painted over it). Ryan thought it was ridiculous, but I thought it was cool. I'm just not sure if it really works. People are easily confused, and I'm sure the compost bin would need to be thoroughly sorted for plastic wrappers, etc. (Not my first pick of jobs.) Anyway, after the museum trip, Helena and Ryan's mom did a great barbecue dinner with all kinds of stuff I'd never thought of grilling. We had corn on the cob, roasted potatoes, veggie kabobs, roasted strawberries with green onions, and grilled banana. Oh, and I think one steak. It was very educational. I'm definitely going to attempt to recreate the dishes at home now that I can enjoy food again. The next morning, Ryan took the kids with his dad and Helena to (of course) get doughnuts, and tour a warehouse Merrill is currently taking apart. I can't tell you much about it, but they say it was huge, and equipped with its own little electric cars. And a cocker spaniel. After they returned we went up to Tilden Regional Park, just north of Berkeley, and did their carousel and steam trains. The trains were really impressive - we've taken our kids on all kinds of mini trains since they were born, but this one was the best ride by far. Monday morning we headed back home, but not before the kids spent more time on the pelican slide. Ryan's dad had this and a turtle-shaped slide brought from (I think) a Great America he worked on. In other words, they were part of an amusement park. He keeps suggesting that we have them shipped down to our place, but I really don't see how that is possible. Besides, they suit that yard perfectly.

Just a really nice weekend! Thanks to everybody for all the fun. When we got home Monday evening, we saw that tree trimmers had massacred our yard. Mostly, it looked much better, but they chopped down one of my favorites. It's where this sharp-shinned hawk used to hang out, looking for squirrels. Here's a great shot of a suicidal squirrel trying to chase it away. Weirdest thing I've ever seen a squirrel do, I imagine.