Categories
Camping Photos

Camping at Big Basin

This year marks the second year we’ve taken the Micronaxx camping at Big Basin with a bunch of our Las Madres friends and their kids. Last year John was flying solo with the boys because I had a weekend workshop. So, this year was my first time going! We had a blast! We were the first ones to arrive at the camp site on Friday afternoon, so we had our pick of places to pitch our tent. The boys always get really excited about setting up and then testing out the tent and air mattresses, and then proceed to running around and exploring the campground.

There were tons of things for everyone to do, thanks to many of the crafty and camp-expert moms who helped plan the trip. We checked out a tipi made of large branches at the edge of the campground. And of course, we had s’mores after roasting hot dogs for dinner on Friday night. Then the kids ran around in the dark with their headlamps on – which looked like a giant swarm of fireflies.

On Saturday morning, the kids got to paint some bandannas and water bottle holders, which they then took on a short hike to the little waterfall down the trail. We also looked for, and found, banana slugs, which are now known as “bonobos” based on a TALB that was borne out of last year’s sighting.

Here’s a little gallery of all the proceedings.

Categories
Miscellaneous

Adventures in Railroading

Our overnight trip to Sacramento to visit the Railroad Museum was a big hit with everyone, but especially with birthday boy Henry! The guys loved riding the Amtrak up to Sacramento with Grandma and Grandpa Nack. We got to pass by the mothballed navy fleet in the East Bay, and saw some other interesting sites on our way up, including an old C&H Sugar processing factory outside of Richmond.

Our motel was literally right across the street from the train station on one side, and across the street from the Railroad Museum on the other side! And wow, the Railroad museum was amazing. It is huge! 2 acres of historic engines, passenger cars, memorabilia, a dining car, sleeping car, surveying gear, model trains, a mail car…well worth a visit. It is beautifully maintained and well-presented with lots of docents around and neat exhibits.

Our motel had a pool, which was great because it was 109 both days! I forgot to pack my suit, but the guys all got in the pool Monday night. Afterwards, we hung their trunks on the balcony rail to dry overnight, but when we awoke in the morning, they had disappeared! The motel housekeepers claimed not to have seen them, nor the front desk, and we looked on the balconies below and in the bushes. Not a suit to be found – and we had planned on enjoying the pool until our noon train ride!

But – the silver lining: there was a Macy’s 1 block away on the *third* side of the motel. Finny and I headed over there at 10am Tuesday, found 2 clearance sale suits for him and Henry ($4.50 each! what a bargain!), and I picked up a clearance swimsuit for myself because I was HOT. We spent the rest of the morning in the pool, then dried off and headed for the train station.

Our original train was having engine trouble, so they moved us to a back-up train further down the platform. Then that one had no fuel, so we had to wait for the fuel truck, and while we were waiting, the first train’s engine got repaired, so we shuffled back to that one and finally took off around 2 hours late. The boys were fine with their iPad & movies, and the snack car. Henry was wiped out from all the fun, and finally crashed out on the train ride home for about an hour – a sign of a great adventure!

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Photos

The Bifurcation Sensation!

As you may well know, Margot & I have long enjoyed calling one another “Peanut” (feel free to roll your eyes—I’ll wait ;-)), and long before we were even engaged, I made her a sort of bizarre “peanut car” from Legos. It carried peanut M&M’s, and I added the license plate “BIFURC8” for fun:

Here’s a clip of the boys discovering it yesterday in Margot’s office.

Anyway, it only took us the better part of a decade, but we’ve now kitted out a real car (the A8) with “BIFURC8”! That is some nerdy, nerdy family love—i.e., just our two-lobed cup of tea!

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Haircuts Photos

Haircut Agonistes

Henry Nack: Nothing if not theatrical in the barber’s chair. :-p

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Miscellaneous

Happy Father’s Day, Finnegan-style

“Dad-O, this is me, thinking of you,” says Finn. Aw shucks—is this a great first homemade card or what? 🙂

Categories
Miscellaneous

Offbeat Monologues in the Dark

For some reason a couple of months ago, Finn decided that once a month, Mom-O should do a sleepover in his room (cuddling with him all night). Never one to be left out, Henry decided that he should get a similar arrangement with Dad-O, and thus on Monday night we each headed to one of the dudes’ rooms.

Henry persuaded me quite foolishly to agree to stay in his room after I tucked him in, doing “homework” on my laptop in the lower bunk. Even after I shut its lid, he was so jazzed about my presence that he couldn’t stop monologuing into the darkness. Later I jotted down some of his bizarre utterances:


  • Dad-O, why do you love Manti Te’o so much?
  • I love Manti Te’o, too. We all do, ’cause we’re Irish people.
  • [singing] I just haaate my daaad doing home-worrrrk…
  • Your computer keeps winking at me!
  • When do construction workers build volcanoes?
  • Lava & magma are cousins.
  • Sometimes when smoke detectors get dusty, they freak out.
  • I’m playing tricks with that light [crossing his eyes]. Do you see??
  • Air conditioning sprays out ghosts.

And so on, and on, for hours. I was of course tired, trapped, and frustrated (just go to bed, Goonie!!). And yet I finally just laid back & resolve to enjoy the ride. We won’t have the wee man just like this for long. 🙂

Categories
Miscellaneous

If the Micronaxx sported jewelry…

…it just might look like this. 🙂 Their desire for cheese sandwiches knows no bounds. Margot thinks they should start a tiny, orange-bandana-sporting gang, throwin’ cheese-signs and getting into scuffles with rival preschoolers (the Colbys vs. the Muensters, etc.).

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Photos

Aquaman Jr.

Watch your back, Esther Williams. 🙂

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Photos

Heinstein

Comrades in silliness. 🙂

Categories
Milestones Photos

Kindergarten-bound!

Well, our first (pseudo)academic milestone has come and gone. Our man Finny “graduated” from preschool last week, and is now officially on his way to Kindergarten in the fall. The Maestras at Pasitos put on a really fun little ceremony and potluck dinner for the graduates and families. All the kids got to make gold cardboard mortarboards and decorate them, and they each got to walk up and receive a little certificate while the Maestras said something nice about them. It was very cute and Finny was very proud. At the end, all the kids and Maestras danced to “Guantanamera.”

Henry, on the other hand, had a complete and utter meltdown just before the ceremony started. Tons of shrieking and crying to the state of hyperventilation. (Of course, this happened front and center next to all the waiting families…) “No one is paying attention to me, Mom-o! No one is playing with me! Why don’t I get a present?” I think we finally got a big ol’ glimpse of sibling jealousy. I got him calmed down enough with a little lap time, and then he was off riding a tricycle behind the ceremony until it was finished and the rest of the kids could play.

Here’s a gallery of the afternoon’s proceedings, including a fantastic surprise visit by some Mexican heritage dancers in full costume. As Henry noted: “Mom-o, they’re not wearing pants, or shoes and socks..or shirts!” But they had some mighty cool feathered headdresses and rattles on their ankles.

Categories
Photos

Legcicle

May I interest you in a refreshing, ice-cold Lego on this warm day? 🙂

Categories
Videos

¡Piojos!

This past Memorial Day weekend, we discovered that the dudes’ heads were once again infested with lice. We had treated them several weeks ago, and done mountains of laundry, and tried to be as vigilant as possible to prevent their return, but those little buggers are tenacious! Sadly, we had to cancel our big Memorial Day BBQ because we didn’t want to spread it around to any of the families who’d be coming over.

Finny helpfully told us that the Spanish word for lice is “piojos” (pronounced pee-oh’-hoes), which sounds a little more lighthearted than “lice.” So, we spent Sunday evening and Monday combing out piojos, washing them out of all the bedding (again), and quarantining stuffed animals. On Tuesday I decided to call in the professionals – of which there are suprisingly many! – to come in and do a far more thorough job of nitpicking than I could do. They checked all of us for piojos, and luckily John, the nanny and I were clean. The boys, however, still had a ton of nits in their hair, which the “lice ladies” calmly and gently picked their way through (while Yvonne and I did yet more laundry).

They came back yesterday for another double-check and comb through, and happily the guys were piojos-free. Of course, in the meantime, I purchased lice-repellant shampoo and conditioner and better nit combs because I’m sure we’ll be dealing with this for the next few years as the guys go through school.

Update: Here’s Finn’s homegrown solution for depriving one of lice (and limb!):

Categories
Camping Videos

Essential camping provision: Two hams

Henry being the young king of the goofballs. 🙂

Categories
Videos

Jammin’

As Margot likes to note, Henry loves physical comedy & inciting his brother. Here those two great tastes go great together, with the big guy inspecting the little one for toe jam:

Categories
Videos

Lizard Kings

Behold, Finnster & Dad-O tame the snake rollercoaster at Gilroy Gardens. 🙂

Categories
Photos

Recent silliness

Finny enjoys an ice cream-induced “brain freeze”:

Henry attends the Preschool of Rock:

Hans & Franz, The Next Generation:

Categories
Camping Photos

S’more Camping Photos

Here’s a little gallery of photos from last weekend’s camping trip with our Pasitos amigos, including banana slugs, hiking, tent hijinks, and s’mores around the campfire.

Categories
Photos

Snuggleando

Oh, hello there. 🙂

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Photos

Headbangers Bawl

Yesterday morning certainly started off with a bang…and by that I mean Finny slamming his head into the edge of the car door as we were leaving for school. I had opened the car doors so all the boys had to do was come down the back steps, walk into the car, and buckle themselves in. Finny came bounding down the stairs, and ran for the car – not realizing the open door was pointed right at him. He ran straight into the edge of the door and then crumpled to the ground shrieking and gushing blood.

I was standing on the other side of the car when it happened, ran over to him, and picked him up. He was holding his forehead and his face was covered in blood. I shouted at John to grab some towels, and mopped Finny off enough to see the big, deep cut on his forehead. We jumped into action – all piling in the car with me pressing a giant wad of paper towels onto Finny’s head. John got behind the wheel and drove us to the urgent care clinic just down the street (thank God!), while I tried to calm my panicked, crying, hyperventilating child (while his poor little brother looked on…). He dropped us off and we made our way into the clinic. John then proceeded to take Henry to school so he wouldn’t have to witness all the chaos.

The crying and moaning and shrieking continued as I tried to fill out the required paperwork at the clinic. Thank God for the mom who was waiting there with her sick 6 year-old son. She came over and continued to press the towels to Finny’s head while I filled out the seemingly endless paperwork on the clipboard. She took the clipboard back, and we were soon ushered into the exam room. I managed to keep Finny calm by just talking and talking and talking to him about whatever I could think of. As long as I was talking, he was ok. I explained everything the nurse and doctors were doing while he got his vitals taken and they examined the cut. Luckily, it was just shallow enough to avoid stitches (Finny worriedly asking “Will they put my head under a sewing machine?!”).

John reappeared with the Leomarans just as the doctor was about to patch Finny up. Finny squeezed them (and Dad-o’s hand) tight while the doctor cleaned up the wound, squeezed the edges together, and put Dermabond (superglue for skin!) on it. Within a couple minutes, the glue was dry, he had a fresh bandaid on his head, and we were ready to go. The little boy and his mom who helped us out in the waiting room peeked in to see how Finny was doing, and I gave the mom a GIANT hug, thanking her for her help.

We went home and I kept an eye on my boy just to make sure he didn’t show any signs of a concussion. We watched a movie and went to the grocery store and car wash, and I kept wondering why we were getting all these strange, empathetic looks from people around us. I mean, Finny just had a bandaid on, it’s not like his entire head was wrapped in gauze! It was only as we were standing in line at the grocery checkout that I realized we both still had our bloody clothes on! No wonder we were getting weird looks!

After a long afternoon nap, Finny seemed to be feeling much better, despite the big knot on his head. I think the only thing that’s really damaged is his vanity…he was very emphatic that he did not want to go back to school because he didn’t want Magdalena to see him with the bandaid on his head! And he didn’t want to go out for sushi and have the sushi ladies asking about what happened, either. I told him he could disguise it with a hat, and he’d be fine. We did go out for sushi, and he’ll be seeing Magdalena and his other amigos at school tomorrow.

Categories
Camping Photos

Acampar Con Mi Mejor Amiga

This weekend marked our first camping trip of the season – and unlike last last summer’s all-dude foray, all four of us went. We even got ourselves our own tent and sleeping bags (last year we borrowed everything). This trip was with a bunch of families from our preschool, Pasitos, so the guys were surrounded by their school amigos, and we got to know some of the parents a little better.

The boys had been anticipating the camping trip for weeks & were ready to hit the road as soon as they woke up Saturday morning. They couldn’t wait to sleep in the tent, have a campfire, and make s’mores. And our Finny couldn’t wait to hang out with his best friend Magdalena. He reported that Magdalena’s family had a huge tent so there would be plenty of room for him to sleep in there with them, and that he and Magdalena had already worked out the details.

When we arrived on Saturday morning, we were just in time to join the gang on an easy hike in the woods. We were surrounded by huge, beautiful redwoods, steep ravines, and a clear blue sky. We encountered five banana slugs, saw (and ate) teeny tiny wild strawberries, and saw some neat hollowed out redwood stumps that looked like little houses. Finny and Magdalena held hands for almost the entire mile-long hike – Magdalena tugging Finny along when she wanted to get up to the head of the pack. Finny even dubbed Magdalena’s dad, David, the “hike chief” since he was the one leading the way.

The boys spent rest of the afternoon running around the campground and playing with their buddies, and helping us get our tent and sleeping bags set up – right next to Magdalena’s, of course. They also participated in a little scavenger hunt with Dad-o (find a spiky plant, touch some rotting wood, listen for a bird). In the evening, there was a cookout, a campfire, and s’mores.

We cleared the Finny/Magdalena sleepover with Magdalena’s parents, and all the kids got in their PJs. David read the kids a story in their tent, then they all came to our tent where John entertained them with some campground T.A.L.B. And to top it off, Finny offered to let Magdalena sleep with Leo! Now that is a true act of friendship. She did indeed sleep with the #1 buddy, while Finny slept with Big Lion, Cuddly Buddy, and the Leomarans. Hen slept in our tent. After some best friend chittychat, everyone fell asleep.

This morning, Finn and Magdalena woke up and totally entertained each other for quite awhile before the rest of us were ready to wake up. The two of them were pretty inseparable the entire time – it was totally adorable. Finny was actually really broken up about leaving the campsite today and missing his best friend (even though he will see her at school tomorrow!) – already asking when we can have her over for a playdate or go camping with her family again. This is the first really good buddy Finny has ever had – and he is already talking about how much he’ll miss her when kindergarten starts next fall (she is going to a different school). It was really fun to see the guys enjoy camping so much, and to see Finny hang out with his best buddy.