Mary's Farm

A few years back a great friend of ours left the big city for a quieter life in the picture perfect farmlands around Rhinebeck, NY. Mary and her husband Paul and daughter Willa now live in one of the mose beautiful and serene areas I've ever visited. Every view was a painting, rolling hills and bright red barns, blue skies with swirly clouds and fields with perfectly weathered fences.

The girls and the Dude had a blast because not only was there a little girl to play with but also a barn, and haystacks, and chickens, and horses (and horse poop), and fences and a friendly dog who would fetch endlessly.

All these fascinating distractions left plenty of time for the grown-ups to get caught up. I could have taken a thousand pictures, everything was so beautiful, but around the time the girls climbed up for their first pony ride my camera battery ran out. And I was forced to put my camera down and just enjoy the moment and all the surrounding beauty.

Oh well.

Here's my trying-to-be-arty shot.

This is Bean. The Dude loves her. Athena jumping off haystacks
and fence climbing

and more fence climbing.

Desi is a very licky horse.Willa wanted to adopt Athena and Zoe and have them stay forever.

The Little House on the Hill

We are whiling away our days at Yiayia's house. It feels very much like summer vacation, lazy mornings, fun-filled afternoons and no set schedule. Bathing is optional (who needs baths when you've been swimming all day) and bedtime is just a suggestion.
There is plenty of time for exploring. The girls like all the pretty wild flowers growing along the drive way, and the multitude of interesting rocks and bugs and lush grasses they are not used to in our dry town.
And the horses who live across the street love apples.

The Dude prefers to hang back and explore Yiayia's backyard

and perfect his t-ball swing.

It seems as if time stands still at Yiayia's house. Nothing is moved or thrown away and the same toys that Athena played with are trotted out for John Patrick. This apothocary box in Yiayia's living room has provided endless entertainment for all three of my children (there are still little lost treasures in some of the boxes).

The days are hot and humid, a combination we are not used too, but we've found relief in friends swimming pools and somedays it rains.

I've taken about 800 pictures of pratically every moment.

This week is flying by, we've only just gotten here and now its time to leave. There so much more to do and I'm just not ready to go.

*P.S. We extended our trip one more week!

New York Festivities

Part of the reason why we travelled cross country with three small children is that I work here. I happen to work for one of the most picturesque Shakespeare Festivals in the history of Shakespeare Festivals overlooking the banks of the Hudson River. Even though I live across the country in California, I only really need to show my face a couple times a year and can telecommute the remainder.

This year the girls came to see the performance tent before the grounds were open to the public. Its the ultimate playground, wide expanses of lush grassy fields to run and run, on the grounds of an historic mansion with a rose garden, apple orchard and fountains.

The girls enjoyed watching fight call for Troilus and Cressida.

Moments before they were performing their own play on the earthen stage

and charming the house management staff with their antics.

Zoe made it very clear she did not ever want to leave.

They are still waaaay to young to attend an actual production, but I like that they're getting a behind the scenes familiarity with the theater - a place I've always felt at home.

Head over heels

I am so in love with my camera. The colors, the detail, the shutter speed. Seriously. I have alot to learn about all the myriad of settings and possibilities of composition and lighting and focus, but I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy the learning. I hope my favorite little subjects don't mind the constant paparazzi presence.

Happy Birthday to Me

Guess what Momma got for her birthday!

Many many many many more photos to come.

Adventure Book

This morning Athena announced that she now has an "Adventure Book" in which she plans to keep a pictorial diary of all her adventures.The first entry is this weekend's trip to the Bay Area visiting our besties, Alaine, Ian, Delphine and Sophie.
Chris had plans for a weekend furlough, visiting Corey and seeing a Giants game. We tagged along for the ride, opting to spend the weekend without Chris in Berkeley rather than alone in hot Bakersfield.
We always have an amazing time visiting our friends. Alaine has been my best friend since we were 14 (and that is too many years to count) and Sophie and Athena were born two weeks apart.
With Chris at play, we took the kids to the California Academy of Sciences, an awesome museum that takes you on a journey from the bottom of a rain forest, up to the tops of the trees where butterflies reign, and then down an elevator to an aquarium below.
Up another elevator and you are on the green roof, which basically represents the turf that was uprooted to build the museum, thus diminishing its "footprint." So kewl...we highly recommend the trip.
We did a bunch of other stuff too, but I hardly took any pictures at all, too busy chatting and enjoying...except I did manage this cute one of my Dude looking like a big kid.
I suppose its a good thing Athena will now be drawing out all our adventures since obviously I can't be counted to to chronicle them.

Now onto our next adventure...New York!!

Uncanny

Chris circa 1976

16 months

Alright, I'm kidding, that last one is John Patrick. But it took you a minute, didn't it?

It's weird, it's like the same baby. That's my chubby little blonde baby, with like, funky 70's clothes and furniture and a random bag of potatoes. Man, these genes run strong.

And with these genes, we know exactly where he's headed...I believe Uncle Craig is responsible for the last picture
(and, yes, this is a picture of Chris).

*******
Post Script
Athena June 2006
16 monthsSee what I mean???!! It's spooky.

Cabazon

Twenty miles or so outside of Palm Springs, there is a peculiar sight. Massive dinosaur sculptures peeking out over fast food restaurant buildings at a random truck stop. Made famous by a little 80's movie called Pee Wee's Big Adventure, this bizarre scene also now hosts a robotic dinosaur museum.

It's at an awkward distance for those of us traveling to Palm Springs. On the way there we don't want to stop 20 minutes away and and you've only just gotten started on the drive home. But this trip we had a perfect storm of opportunity, it seems the moment we got in the car, everyone had to go to the bathroom or eat something and were not settling in as we expected.

So, we stopped at Cazabon. It was around 100 in the shade and windy, but how cool.

Inside the Brontosaurus there was a gift shop and inside the T-rex you could peer out his mouth.

It was super cool, but nothing like the scene inside the T-Rex from Pee Wee's.

The robotic dinosaur museum had all sorts of creatures that came alive when you walked by.

And a pretty cool dinosaur bone dig.

Some of them were kind of terrifying...

and probably capable of eating small children. Eek.

We'll absolutely do this again, because we discovered something...

...Dudes like dinosaurs.