Its the Pumpkin time of year!

Fall!! One of my favorite times of year:) Unfortunately, Kyle and I have been far too busy to do any real pumpkin patch hunting, but I did get a good punkin at Trader Joe's the other day. The girls thought it was a very interesting new toy for a bit. I bet they'll be even more interested when we carve the big fella.

Oh What a Month...

So my goal of updating the blog at least once a month fell a little short this month... But for those of you out there that still like to check in I'll catch you up.

I started out the month with a visit up to Sac to go wedding dress shopping with Lindsey. The trip was a success and she's got her dress all ordered up! It is beautiful and it makes her look so amazing. I of course cried. I didn't even cry when I picked out my own dress, but as soon as Lindsey puts on a veil I am a complete mess.

When I was there I got to babysit the nephews with my mom, and man are they stinkin adorable!
Here is Hayden taking a little swim with Grammie. He and Isaiah were all about the water that night since it had been a typical billion degree day in Sac.


Isaiah was happy to show of his mad somersaulting skills now that he doesn't have a cast on. Hayden on the other hand was all about the kicking.



As for the rest of the month its pretty much been work work work for Kyle and I. Kyle finally started school, so he is getting a taste of what grad school is all about plus balancing his career with homework and lecture schedules. I am taking on some new responsibilities at work this year developing curriculum for our target populations and collaborating with other sheltered bio teachers in the district.

We did take some time out to go to a Giants game when they played the Dodgers. It was Kyle's first major league game and it was a perfect day. The weather was awesome, the Giants won, and it was free hat day!

Here's the gang at the game. Note Dara, the lone Dodger fan in the group. Kyle and I played along and wore our free Giants hats even though we're not really loyal to either team.
The only thing I really cared about was eating some classic ball park food. I disgusted Natalie and Greg by ordering up some yummy nachos with that bright yellow fake cheese. To be honest I have been craving them ever since I saw pics of my nephew Hayden covered in the stuff. Don't ask why, but that fake cheese is sooo yummy! Even Kyle had some :)

The City That Never Sleeps

Bright eyed and bushy tailed! Ready to hit the city after a day of relaxing in Long Island. Kyle and I get a taste of public transit in NY. We got a pretty sweet view of the Manhattan skyline on the train ride. We stopped at Penn Station right next to Madison Square Garden, Home of the Knicks! We had lunch from a nearby deli right on the steps. After that, we just took the subway to random parts of the city to get a little taste of New York

If I had to pick a favorite part, I would have to say Central Park. I could walk around that place for an entire day and not get tired of it. Here I am picking Hans Christian Anderson's nose. Classy. They have a reading hour here during the week. How awesome is that!

"Lovers"
Kyle and I hanging out in an amphitheater in Central Park. Just before this we watched some street performers do some pretty sweet break dancing.

Kyle, Me, and Matt walking through Central Park. We were overlooking a huge open grassy field filled with sunbathers. It was a quiet zone so most people were napping or eating picnics. If not for the skyscrapers jutting above the trees you would think you were not even in the city.

This is a Police Station! I could spend a few years here just taking pictures of all the amazing buildings. For anyone that loves architecture NY is awesome!

Sooo many people! If not for the few extra million people, I could so live in NY. the whole place is just packed.

After a long day and a few miles of walking, We headed back to LI on the train. Kyle was feeling a little silly...

Why would anyone in their right mind be licking that disgusting beard? Kyle and his friends have a special bond lets just say that.

Like I said, special bond. Here is Kyle and Matt sharing a drunken moment in the middle of the night while playing an extremely silly game of HORSE and running through the sprinklers. I guess it really is the city that never sleeps.

We had so much fun and we could have really used a few more days/weeks/months there. Thanks Matt for being our tour guide and letting us stay. We will definitely be back!

Dolphins at Half Moon Bay

Today I went to Half Moon Bay with Natalie to escape the heat. It was a whopping 98 degrees here in Palo Alto today (I know you poor NorCal people deal with that all the time, I'll stop whining).

When we got there it was pretty foggy, but we did catch a glimpse of some awesome marine life! We saw seals and a whole pod of dolphins. I'm not sure what kind they were, but they were playing and eating and hanging out right by the shore the entire time we were there. It was a pretty amazing sight!

I got a couple videos of them, but I posted the shorter one. Enjoy!

Out to the Seashore

We stopped at a nice vista on our way to MacKerricher State Park to catch a peek of the beautiful view and to ease our tummies from the winding road trip.


At the visitor's center we stopped to take a look at the whale skeleton. Here's Hayden next to the whale's humerus.


We looked at all the whale's "arm" bones and Isaiah showed us where he broke his radius and ulna. We also saw where Ry broke his scapula.

These are the remnants of the whales "leg" bones. Since they no longer have a function, they're called vestigial structures.

The Peterson's on their way out to the tide pools.


It was tough to get too many pictures of the critters in the tide pools, but I got a few that turned out. The green looking blobs are sea anenomes that are closed up to keep from drying out. The shells belong to the hermit crabs that stole them from snails. We saw the crabs fighting over bigger shells that they wanted to move into and teeny tiny crabs the size of an ant running around all the kelp and trying not to get eaten by the big guys.














Here you can barely sea a purpley sea star clinging to the rock.














After the tidepools we went out to Glass Beach. I remembered going here in junior high and the beach was all colored glass that was left from when the area was used as a dump. There was still a little bit of glass, but it was mostly just a bunch of of metal and junk...

You can see old pieces of cars and who knows what else. The water here is all discolored from the metals dissolving and leaching into the ocean.
So sad...










It was kind of a sad way to end the trip. I hate when you have a memory of a place and then you go back to find that it wasn't like you thought it was originally. At least I can use this to show my students and help them learn to respect the planet.

More Camping...

We didn't take many photos of camping except of Hayden, so as we were cleaning up Kyle took some shots of the site. Here's Bill and Ryan doing a final sweep to make sure we didn't leave anything...

I'm helping out a lot by practicing balance beam on a fallen tree...

Poor Tucker was the only one that didn't get to shower at the campsite.

Isaiah has Ryan's luck when it comes to injuring himself. He had to deal with a broken arm the entire time and try to do the impossible for a 10 year old while camping - keep his cast clean and dry.

Erin's Worst Nightmare...

Dirty BABY!! AAAAAHHHH!

Hayden had such a blast during our camping trip rolling in the dirt, eating the dirt, and throwing the dirt. Perhaps his favorite thing of all was S'more time! He was a little hesitant at first, but when he got a taste of all that sugar...

He was all smiles! Then he was so hyper that he kept the entire campground entertained with his baby jabbering all night.

Here's Hayden and all his dirty baby glory hanging out by Isaiah's tent.

He is so cute when he plays Peek-A-Boo!

Here's the poor guy right before I smacked him in the face to kill those two mosquitos feasting on his forehead. Poor thing had bites all over his face no matter how much we sprayed him. Bugs must love Dirty Baby!

After a day of letting him get as dirty as he could, Erin just couldn't take it anymore and we had to give him a bath in one of our camping boxes. He was having a blast splashing anyone that came near his impromtu bathtub. What a cute lil nephew I have!