Koen Turns Nine

I honestly don't know where to start in describing Koen, who turned nine years old today. It just has to suffice to say he amazes me every single day, often many times over. He observes the world far differently than most people, and he brings a level of detail to every conversation that has to be heard to be believed. I could fill an entire blog with his quips and comments, and another besides with the tragic scrapes that are just part of his every day existence. Koen is a remarkable young man in every way, and we are so blessed that he is ours to love and enjoy. 

Yuck! I mean, double yuck!

For a week now our two little dudes have had sick tummies. Wow. Just wow. I am so done with cleaning the floors and the sheets, and the door knobs, and the toilets, and then the floors again. 

Just so you don't think it's ALL been horrible, here is one sweet moment we managed in the midst of the chaos. That's the only good thing about being sick: You can eat as many juice pops as you'd like. 

You want to go where?

When we asked Koen what he wanted for his birthday he said his only wish was to go to Nevada. Okay.... 

We explained that there wasn't enough snow at Tahoe for winter sports and that it was far too cold to play at the lake as we do in the summer. He didn't care--he just wanted to go to Nevada. I decided that a trip to Reno was in order. 

Koen being Koen, we had to travel in style. He, Dillon and I took the Amtrak train from Martinez right into downtown Reno, then we only had to walk a half mile to our hotel, Circus Circus. 

Once we got used to the cigarette smoke (cough, cough!), we had a great time. The boys played midway games and video games to their hearts' content, and we even feasted at the El Dorado Buffet. That's probably the closest we'll ever come to being high rollers. 

It snowed throughout our entire train trip home. I wish I could say that the boys found it as lovely as I did, but I'm fairly certain they only saw the view of their iPods. I did point out some beautiful sights along the way, and they were gracious enough to pretend to be interested. 

As strange as it sounded, this ended up being just the perfect birthday adventure for our very unique Koen. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns into a tradition. 

San Francisco Field Trip, Part 2

After a not-very-fabulous night's sleep (Ah, the joys of sleeping with toddlers...), we jumped up and got ready for our second day of sightseeing.

On a side note: In case you're wondering how we financially manage all of these trips, I don't blame you. It is a stretch. We pack basically all of our own food, drinks, and snacks; I prepare many meals in our hotel room (This time, I used the coffee maker to prepare instant Annie's Mac & Cheese for the little guys.  When we go to Disneyland this spring I'll be bringing our rice cooker!)   We have grown very skilled at using discount sites such as Hotwire to rent our rooms; we use our AAA discount for lots of attractions. Most importantly, though, we don't buy souvenirs! We still have small struggles with the big boys over this, but they have to be content with the maps, ticket stubs, and memories of our adventures. (Sometimes a patch or postcard if they're lucky!)

Anyway.... We were blessed with a beautiful, warm, sunny day for this trip, which made the ferry ride to Alcatraz a special treat. 

The island and former prison were both absolutely fascinating to me, and as the history buff of the crew, I was expecting a leisurely stroll through the exhibits, imagining I'd carefully read and understand each placard. Uh, yeah right. I was there with two toddlers, remember? I did get to listen to some of the audio tour, and walked around to see some of the sights, but Hayden was such a train wreck from his poor night's sleep (on top of his utter refusal to nap the previous day) that he was just sad, squirmy, and fussy the entire time. He and I ended up sitting down at the dock watching the seagulls steal people's lunches. 

As all of our trips to 

San Francisco tend to, this one ended with a trip to Pier 39 for chowder in a bread bowl and ice cream cones. We watched the magic show, and Koen was chosen to "help" with one of the tricks. He was thrilled!

We were all utterly exhausted by the end of the day, no one more than Lawson, who ended up like this:

"Our spring break is like one long field trip."

That's what Koen said as we were heading out the door for a two-day San Francisco trip. As many times as we've taken the kids to the city, we'd never visited Alcatraz, and we still hadn't been to the new site of the Exploratorium.

 Although we usually take the little guys along on all parts of an adventure, this time we decided to divide and conquer. Kirk took the big boys to the Exploratorium; I took the little guys to the hotel pool. (That turned out to be a great choice, as they really put me through the wringer the next day...but we're not to that part yet...)

And here is what I was doing...

Someone was taking his nap as planned. 

Someone was NOT!

After Kirk and the boys were finished, we all headed into the city together and set about satisfying Lawson's train obsession. We managed lengthy rides on an historic street car and SF's MUNI (the underground portion, which was thrilling to Lawson!). 

If you must be crabby, go hang out at the beach with the crabs

This past Sunday I woke up with a bad case of "just-can't-stay-at-home-itis." I actually have a chronic case of that condition, leading to lots of last-minute adventures (some of them admittedly I'll-advised) but it had turned acute that day because every kid in the house was awake by 6:30 AM, and every kid in the house was CRABBY! (Okay, the mama was crabby too!) I decided we needed to go dig in the sand. 

A quick google search of Bay Area beaches turned up Dillon Beach, which automatically sounded like fun to us. (An added bonus was that it was right next to Lawson's Landing. Koen would ask in the car on the way home, "Is there any fun place with the name Koen in them? Maybe Koen Cove?)

I threw all of our beach gear in the car, packed a giant bag of snacks, we stopped at Target for a few provisions (because we really can't be expected to go to the beach without bubbles, right?), and we headed for the beach. 

We arrived in thick fog, but held fast to the promise that it would indeed be sunny and 72 degrees. In truth, the fog didn't leave until the very cold wind blew it away, right as we were packing up to leave. 

In true adventurer fashion, we had fun nonetheless. Everyone played in the sand, some of us ate a lot of sand. The big boys jumped off of the giant sand  dunes, and I even managed to get both of the little guys to take a nap on the beach. (Honestly, that felt like a huge accomplishment.)

(Those lumps under the quilts? Two sleeping toddlers. Victory was mine!)

Not content to have only one adventure per day, when it was too cold to play at the beach anymore we headed south to Kirk's fire station in San Mateo. 

You'd think firefighters' kids would get tired of going to the fire station, but nope. Mine still love it. They played ping pong, the big boys slid down the pole, everyone climbed on the engines and truck, and we ended our day with daddy helping them into pajamas. 

Busy Boys

Although we're in desperate need of rain, we are certainly not complaining about the beautiful weather we've been enjoying. The little boys and I are spending as much time as we can in the backyard, and they keep themselves very busy. Lawson likes to keep an eye on the peas he planted with my mom, and he especially loves to water them. We have a large pile of firewood in the side yard (the trunks and large boughs from all of our Christmas trees,just waiting for a special campfire or bonfire opportunity), and  the boys love to use the "logs" as building materials.