Twlight bliss

Four days until the fourth book!

One week until the reading/signing with Stephenie Meyer and the concert with Blue October in L.A.!

It's a good time to be a Twilighter...

Women's Pro Tennis

Man, do I miss playing tennis... Going to watch the Bank of West Tennis Classic up at Stanford certainly didn't help matters either. Stephen works right across from the tennis courts and made the most of his free tickets (and lunch hours) by watching a lot of matches. We went to one night match together and watched Aussie Samantha Stosur, who qualified for the tournament only thanks to Lindsey Davenport's knee injury, upset the #3 seed, Russian Vera Zvonareva. Such a fun match. And while we didn't get to see Serena Williams in action--she played the night before and then withdrew for a knee injury--we DID get to sit behind her dad. Good ole Richard Williams sat only a few rows in front of us with what I thought was another one of his daughters; she couldn't have been over 25 or 30. As the match progressed, however, I noticed that the way he had his arm around her was a little too much like canoodling... Stephen just laughed and called her his hoochie mama.

Quick sidenote on how much I like Samantha Stosur after seeing her play. Not only is she Aussie fiesty, which I always love in tennis, but she has an incredible serve that earned her at least ten to fifteen aces. Her forehand rocks--she kept hitting right-on-the-line winners with it--and she has a beautiful backhand slice that wore down that little Russian teenager's topspin like I couldn't believe. I'm not sure if the photos do her justice, but can you see the guns on her? Holy shoulder and arm muscles, Batman! And her outfit was so dang cute. Love the cut and color of the top, especially with the small and subtle flares on the bottom of her skirt, and my favorite part--the little black belt that you only see when she serves or hits a high shot.

Bedtime Prayer of a 3 year old

"Dear Heavenly Father,
Grateful for this day...
Bless us to be good... and kind...
that I can be kind to my brother...
Bless us to be careful...
that I can not fall and hurt my knee at Truman's park...
Bless me to get brownies and (voice begins to waver here) obey Mommy.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Can you tell that Bennett lost treats tonight for not listening to me? It sounded so hard for him to utter those words, "obey Mommy," as if it's the ultimate sacrifice of will. It is seriously so hard not to laugh sometimes. I do love that he prays for kindness, however, especially with his brother. (Please, let that prayer be heard!!)

Did I mention that he broke his collarbone on our trip to Jackson Hole? Thus the whole "careful" comment, since I spend the whole day reminding him to be careful. He was wrestling with his cousins and took an awkward fall, and after some x-rays at Aunt Lizzy's hospital in SLC, he was given a sling to wear for 4 long weeks. The poor kid moped around our backyard for days, unable to do just about anything he was used to doing back there (scooters, bikes, slides, swings). But now, two weeks later, the sling is just a bizarre-looking accessory that just sits on his shoulder, not really holding his arm at all, serving no real function other than my desperate hope that it will stop him from couch-jumping and tree-climbing.

Family Gathering

Camping with my sisters

After church in Jackson Hole, with the Millers (sister Jana and family)

Jackson Lake, near our campsite

The boys and the Tetons (that sounds a little funny...)

Pajama-clad Eli and Benito playing in the tent cabin

Ethan and Eli figuring out the soccer ball

Breakfast cook, Grandma Paula

Yellowstone National Park -- Elk in a pretty lil' field o' flowers

Kaelan, Kati, Jana, Nae, Ethan, Maina & Bennett

Bison, bison, bison

Upper Falls in Yellowstone

Relaxing, talking, laughing... doing what we do best (besides eating, of course)

Katie and Solana growing up WAY too fast (sniff, sniff)

Mom and big brother Jason at Lewis Lake in Yellowstone

Hooray for strollers and slings

Yeehaw! Jackson Hole Rodeo on July 4th

Kati on the Alpine Slide

Eli giving cousin Ethan a not-so-gentle nudge

Nae and I heading up the chairlift

Fourth of July in Jackson Hole

Just back from a week with my family (and I already miss them...) Our digital camera is in the shop again, so you'll have to wait for me to remember to drop off the disposable cameras and then actually remember to pick up the photos. Too much remembering for my scattered brain, but I'll try hard since I'm sure you're thrilled for our photo extravaganza! Ha ha.

Cable Cars

Liz and Benito getting ready to ride a cable car

The boys with their "Aunt" Lizzy in downtown SF

Lunch and pigeon/seagull-chasing at Herman Plaza near the Ferry Building

I'm coming up on six years of living here in the San Francisco Bay area, and yet I'd never been on a cable car until Liz's visit a few weeks ago. It's one of those downtown tourist staples that I can now vouch for as being pretty dang fun. Eli got cozy with the people standing on the side where we were sitting, grabbing their hands, playing with the buttons on their jackets, and stealing their tickets. There's nothing like a toddler to defuse that awkward invasion of personal space you feel when you're less than a foot away from a total stranger on public transit... Those people should be glad they weren't with us on the ride back, however, when Eli decided it would be funny to start screaming at random. Scream at the top of his lungs and then laugh his head off as I attempt to give him a time-out inside a cable car, to be more exact. That kid = loco. Bennett LOVED it, of course: big hills, big buildings, big views, big noise (from that mammoth stick shift in the middle of the cable car), and big opportunity for choice people watching.

Gray Whale Cove

I'm not sure how she does it, but Liz has a knack for finding amazing beaches. Whenever she comes to town we head to the coast and either stumble upon or luckily discover these small and obscure yet absolutely beautiful spots. This one was so small we drove past it the first time and ended up in Half Moon Bay, but back up toward Pacifica we drove until Liz's Cherokee Indian instincts kicked in and landed us atop the hidden Gray Whale Cove Beach. You can barely see it from Highway 1 way above, but the hike down proved well worth it. Enclosed on both sides by cliffs, the beach is windless and pleasant, a very different experience from the blow-your-hair-to-bits beaches that surround it. This place lives up to its name in terms of whales, too: we saw several a half-mile or so off the beach.

Apparently we're not the only ones who've found and loved this beach, however. While there were some surfers on our side of the cove, the other end of the beach seemed to be more popular with the nude crowd. There were only a few people at first, but things picked up as the afternoon went on; unfortunately (or maybe fortunately at the time) they were far enough away that we couldn't get a good shot of them. We were hoping to give Stephen a funny photo surprise!