First Week of July

Here are some pics from the first week of July, including what we did for the Fourth.

We had to go buy more sunscreen one day. Really, the spray stuff just rocks. Z knows exactly how it works, so after we chose some I let him carry it. He kept "spraying" us, with full sound effects. He still does that.

For the Fourth, Paul and Maggie must have been out of town. That's pretty common for them. So we decided to go into San Francisco and watch their show. We took the BART (subway) in, which Z loved because we told him we were going on "the train." There were so many people there, and quite a few taking the BART. We had to walk about a mile from the station to where they shot the fireworks off - Pier 39. Anyway, here's Z and I in front of a random sculpture.

Short hair is harder to pull up! I had such a hard time. One day at home I got so fed up I put it in two pigtails, because that was the only thing I could do. Then I bought heaps of bobbypins.

Random building. J really likes some of the architecture that we come across, and it looked pretty neat with the fog.

So just like Thunder Over Louisville, we decided on our spot well before the show started. There was this hispanic couple with a boy about Zach's age. After hearing them speak in spanish to each other, I made a point to tell Zachary. When we introduced ourselves, I told Zach that the boy spoke spanish so he could say hello in spanish. I think I had to prompt him, but after he said "hola" the couple was kind of impressed. Maybe there aren't too many white people teaching their kids spanish, I don't know. But they seemed to think that was pretty neat, and the kids would say hi every now and then. Then at some point the father and son went off and came back with toys - one for their son and one for Zach. It was really nice of them, even if Z didn't like it when it lit up. It just started flashing all sorts of colors, fast enough that if someone was prone to seizures it would have pushed them over the edge. Later I heard the wife comment with some amusement that Zach didn't like it (my spanish isn't grand, but I get super basic concepts).

At first Z was a little frightened of the loud noise, but he seemed to get over it pretty quick. I managed to forget his coat in the trunk of the car, so we were constantly making sure he was wrapped up in his blanket. It was super foggy that night which turned the firework show into something we had never seen before. I overheard several people saying it was annoying as they couldn't see all the fireworks, but the foggy blasts were special in their own right.

Here's some pics of us watching the show.




Afterward we (with the throngs of people) made our way back to the BART station. There were several buses just packed with people. Packed. It was crazy. Now in Louisville for Thunder, they just shut some of the roads down and expect all the people on foot to walk there - there's not enough room on the sidewalk. But not in SF. The roads were open, and people who had driven were actually trying to drive through the masses of people. Didn't work very well. And there was a lot of honking and yelling. But seriously, they didn't expect that? We can't all crowd on the sidewalk. As one truck drove by, the passenger yelled at the crowd in general to walk on the sidewalk, as that's what it was meant for. There was this guy (maybe it was his personality or maybe he had a little too much fun) walking close to us who started being sarcastic with things like "Oh, is that what that is for?" Then he started yelling "sidewalk!" over and over again. But of course we took over the whole street. It was hilarious. And he had an accent, too.

We took our trip home on the BART, expecting that Z would go to sleep at some point. But there was just too much going on. While we walked back to the station from the fireworks, he was in his stroller, with his toy flashing inches from his face. He was crazy tired, but didn't fall asleep. On the BART he started to get his second wind, but he was so super tired. We munched on some trail mix and got back to the house around 12. It was a late night. But it was good.

Paul and Maggie have some trees that are still pretty little. You'd think they wouldn't need the support poles, but the wind sometimes gets whipping through there and I'm not sure they'd make it without them. Z likes to try to sqeeze through them.

Sometimes it works better than others :). He's never managed to get stuck.
J and Z playing around. I wish I remembered what was going on here, but I don't. I actually think Z might have been trying to smile.



I had wanted to go to the Happy Hollow zoo again, and good thing I checked online because they closed in July for over a year for remodeling stuff. It's such a neat place, so hopefully it will only get better. So we made time to go there before they shut down. Jason goes with Z into the goat pen :).

Here's a couple of pics of Z and I going down the slide. Taken by the phone so they aren't that great, but that's all we got.