Family Farm Groupon

Mom is still busy, so Dad is taking care of the blog.....

We bought a Groupon for a Family Farm nearby. They had lots of fun stuff for us to play with and on.

First we fed some goats that haven't been fed in weeks. They were a bunch of starving mongrels.


The safest place to feed goats is from back here.


Then we practiced jumping in a bounce house.


And there was a rocking horse too. I didn't have the setting right for this pic, there is a little too much light. I was fiddling with the ISO and it's hard to tell if you have it right on the LCD.


Of course the best way to go down a slide is on your belly. I taught her that, of course her mom wasn't pleased.


Someone had fun in the hay bale maze....


....and someone else wasn't as entertained by such trivial activities....


And there was a rocking horse that kept giving me a frigging heart attack every forward swing.


Family photo!

Grandma Beck visited

Grandma Beck visited in the beginning of July.

We had lots of fun visiting the city again.

We had another trip into the city and drove down Lombard street.

Then we had a trip to the beach and played (and ate sand).


Then we went and visited Portola State Park and saw some redwoods.






Then we had an interesting drive back into the valley. It was a nice view, but some little girl inherited her mom's stomach and dislike for twisty mountain roads. We had to stop a couple of times to clean up vomit.


But it was a nice view despite the vomit.

Aunt Trisha visited

Mom is busy so Dad is catching up on blogs.

Aunt Trisha visited last month.

Amanda and the kids took her into the city to see the bridge.



Aunt Trisha was worried Josie was going to fall off the bridge.



Went to Ghiradelli Square and had (wore) ice cream sundaes.



We played in the sprinkler ball.



Josie showed off at the park.


And we told Aunt Trisha how awesome mornings are!!

All the Cereal I Can Eat

I'm in week 9 (according to my expert internet searches) and am finally getting over the morning sickness phase of pregnancy. I think it was a little worse this time but very little vomiting.

Around week 6 I began hating meat. It was disgusting and only made my stomach roll. Then I just felt nauseous all day. It didn't help that I had to make meals for the kids but the worse was when Chris had to work late and I had to make burger patties out of ground turkey. Grilling any meat was bad but actually having to shape it made me have to walk away and do some deep breathing.

So of course I turned to my trusty cereal to get me through. I'm mostly ok now with the occasional stomach roll, usually if there is fish involved.

I'm also getting a definitive baby bump. Depending on my outfit, sometimes I just look fat. Yesterday, as I unloaded the kids from the car, I saw my reflection in the window and pregnancy can not be denied.

Which also means that my clothes aren't fitting as well. Some shirts just pull a little tight but the pants are definitely digging in. I can't ask anyone in Ohio to go to our house, pull the truck out of the garage, go up into the attic (which has to be beyond sweltering with the 90+ weather there), find the right bin to get down, pick out the appropriate clothes and ship them here. Besides, they'd barely get here before I head back to Ohio.

After a few days of groaning and unbuttoning my pants when I sat down, Chris demanded a shopping trip for a few maternity shorts or capris. It was surprisingly difficult but we finally found a few things that would work. Now I am much more comfortable.

The Mysterious Case of the Mystery Fever

Wow, do I have a lot of catching up to do. Sorry for the lack in posts!

Last Monday began as normal with a breakfast, chores and a trip to my gym. When we arrived home and I picked her up out of the car I noticed she was a little warm. Within an hour I realized she was definitely feverish. But everything else seemed normal - she ate and played like any day. After nap time she continued with the low fever but playing and snacking on grapes.

That changed by late afternoon. Her fever was up to 103.8 and the medicine wasn't bringing it down. She still liked the grapes but would only cuddle up next to me. The fact that medicine wasn't bringing down a high fever worried me as well as not knowing what was causing the fever. I know fevers are there to take care of whatever the problem is but I didn't know what the problem was.

On top of that, we don't have any family doctors here and are between doctors in Ohio. I tried calling the practice we will be joining and asked for the on call doctor to call. He hadn't within 30 minutes so we decided to just take Josie to urgent care.

The hospital here has a special pediatric urgent care, so Josie was happy as a clam to watch the fish and read books while we waited. The receptionist, nurse and doctor were all great and soon Josie was diagnosed with a viral throat infection, kind of like hand-foot-and-mouth but without the hands and feet. It was predicted to take a few more days to play out.

And of course the on call doctor called in the middle of talking to the urgent care doctor.

The next day involved a small fever and she was fine by the evening.

Wednesday began the same way as Monday with breakfast, chores and gym. Then it was Xander's turn to spike a fever. And he did not take it as well as Josie. He spurned food and headed to bed at 5:30, insisting on Mom sitting next to him.

Thursday was a low fever and he was fine by evening.

The weekend went swimmingly.

Tuesday Josie had a fever again. It hasn't been high, so we haven't used much medicine. But this time she has a cough that is getting worse and her naps have been horrible. I just try to remember that this, too, shall pass. It will likely pass to Xander