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Swirl hat

OK I started the Baby Swirl hat over again… and managed to finally finish it in a size that will fit Chanler!!!! Hallelujah!!!!

For the record here are the “changes” I made to the original pattern to fit my 5.5 year old’s 20.5 in head

Hook size: K
Yarn: Bulky weight
First Chain:46 (for a working length of 45)
Total rows: About 60

I am not totally pleased with how the seam turned out, and had to crochet a patch at the top because I couldn’t gather all the rows together into a small enough circle to make my kid happy (he was freaked out there was a hole in the top of his hat) , but other than that it is done and Chanler is happy to have it. I have to say the key to finally making it work was being obsessive about counting the stitches to make sure I wasn’t dropping any. Once I decided to be manic about counting the rest was easy (ish)

Giants fans?

After their first baseball game (SJ Giants vs Stockton Ports)

Highlights:
“Kids run the bases” after the game
Ice Cream
Churros
Italian Night
Hanging out with Uncle David

Lowlights:
1st Inning
Ending Score
Walking the “Beer Batter” every time

Camping in the "cold"

We went camping with some friends over the weekend. Tried out Henry Cowell SP in Felton CA.

Things we liked:
Shady
Near Roaring Camp (cool steam trains)
Ranger activities for the kids

What we didn’t like
NO Alcohol policy (didn’t really matter much to me this time)
POISON IVY EVERYWHERE
it was wet, damp and cold (although not really the park’s fault – just bizarre weather!)

Overall we had a very nice time. The kids played well together, the trains were cool to look at, the food was yummy, the bathroom wasn’t too far…

I do have to say that camping is more challenging than I expected being pregnant. It is so easy to forget to do the routine things that keep my functioning (vitamins, exercises for my back, etc.) and the air mattress and walking outside to the bathroom in the middle of the night are NOT fun!

We’ll see if we make it to our planned trip in September?!?!?!

PS Thanks to Dirk I am seriously paranoid about poison ivy now. Had to google all about it when we got home and would really rather just burn all the possibly contaminated items (i.e all our clothes) rather than deal with them!

ETA: As of a few days after getting back we have only one possible poison ivy manifestation (on Chanler’s forehead at the hairline), but he claims it doesn’t itch or hurt and it is the size of a pencil eraser… guess we got off lucky.

Camping in the "heat"

Amazingly it worked out to get a Sibling camping trip together (minus David – Missed you!). We heated back to Caswell Memorial SP

What we like about this park:
It is on the Stanislaus River (this year we even managed to get a site with walk in river access)
It is between San Jose and Sacramento
Hot water to do the dishes
Family bathrooms and showers
Cows!

Not so favorites:
It is dusty, dry and HOT!
Lots of bugs (though not many mosquitoes)
Non Assigned spaces
Cows in the river!!!

All in all the kids had a great time. We ran into some friends unexpectedly so Chanler was thrilled (they let him use their fishing pole!!) and we officially have the smallest family tent now! Ironic no?

It's a...

HUMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a little joke (that I think is funny and don’t care if anyone else does)

Bye Bye Green Shug

We said goodbye today to our Green MDX and Hello to a Blue Honda Odyssey.

I am sad to see the MDX go! It was a great car and one that I loved to drive, but it just wasn’t set up for our family to use easily. It is difficult for me to feel “excited” about a minivan (even one with lots of cool features), just becase it is a minivan and it isn’t perfect. After many hours of research and many more trips to dealerships we decided that the Odyssey is the closest to what we want, but it is a far cry from what we wish were available.

Good bye old friend we will all miss you!

Boys and Dirt

We went camping with our friends the Robinsons this last weekend. We chose Portola Redwoods State Park because it is near by, shady, and generally nice. The kids had a blast! What more could you want than a whole hill side of dirt!
Boys and Dirt

We had a nice secluded spot (#42) the only down side was the incline to get up to (and therefore down from) the actual spot. Jessaleigh rolled down our hill a number of times!

We went for a short hike to the “old tree” (the largest in the park and one we had visited on our first trip to Portola Redwoods), checked out bananna slugs, listened to survivalist college students, and tried to generally keep track of all the children. Overall it was a lovely trip.

More Pictures

ETA
I almost forgot to mention that the camp ground was very buggy and when I say buggy I mean swarms of mosquitoes. We thought we did pretty well with bug spray and left with only one confirmed bite (on Scott of course). Today I am starting to think the Portola Redwood mosquitoes have some magical time delay in their bites. I have bites (or at least itchy spots) appearing all over or maybe I just caught some exotic rash…?