Big Happy Birthdays, 28 & 30

Jessica and William have birthdays exactly one week apart. So our family tradition is to pick a day that's midway between the two and celebrate once. We have a family dinner, give them their gifts, and just have a good time together.

Here's Ezra helping with the clean up. He's stripped down to his diaper because once again he covered himself with food while feeding himself. The learning curve on handling a plate and fork is not a straight line. It's much harder than it looks.

Ezra LOVES reading the motorcycle magazines. It makes him very tired....

GREAT dinner.....mushrooms

Plenty of BBQ'd beef

Before dinner, when he still had clothes on.....

Reading motorcycle magazines with G.Pa

This is what 30 looks like

Great G.Ma with Mama and Ezra

Ezra having fun with the wrappings from the gift

Helping Grandpa

Dave is very particular about his garage.....and he likes to keep it clean. It's been a while since he's cleared everything out and mopped the floor. Now he has a grandson to work with him....sort of.....







And then he was whisked away by grandma to the bath tub.....Ezra, not Dave, he had to put everything back in to the garage.

Peek a Boo

Why yes, this is yet another post featuring my adorable grandson!

Amgen Bike Tour 2011

It just worked that I was going to the church building today, right around the time that the Amgen tour was to go down East Avenue in Livermore. So I decided to hang around with some of my friends and watch the bikes go by.

There were so many cars, officials, referees, and various law enforcement (TONS of CHP) leading the race.
Finally....the bikes went by...in a flash. But I got to try out my cameras repeating photos, very cool. The actual bikes passing was a little anticlimactic after all the other vehicles passing by.

A friend, and cycling enthusiast, was following the pack. There were many other cyclists hanging around to see the race. They worked it out so they saw them leave, and then biked over to see them on one of their twists through Tesla Road in Livermore, right past the Wente Winery.

These are our two preachers, they brought chairs

Our youth preacher's wife and baby, they were prepared for the wait and the rain

More of my friends. We lined up around 11:15, the race began at 11:30 and the bikes passed by 11:45. The opposite side of the street was lined with children from the local grade school.

This is really a big deal for the city. The streets were filled with people, and volunteers to keep them on the sidewalk, all over the city. Everyone was having fun. They were pretty quick about opening the streets up after the race passed by.....for a government operation.

If you have a chance, try to catch the race pass by. They headed to San Jose today.

Driving Already?

Ezra's new thing is the "Drive". One time he just climbed up front and wanted to grab the wheel. We're not encouraging this....but I did have to take a few photos....of course

Park Time!

Jessica tutored.....at a local restaurant, a culinary class, tough job.......we walked with her to the downtown location, dropped her off, and then proceeded to the nearest park.

This is one of those bridges that wobbles. Ezra was very careful and held on to the handrail. He did pick up his speed as he got used to it, but he's very deliberate.

It's a little tough to get around when you won't put down the water bottle

This is more of a teeter totter than a swing. Ezra is still too small to do most of the stuff at the park, but with g.ma's help, he has fun.

I didn't take any photos of the very interesting people we met while at the park. There was the father with his son that lives in a tiny apartment near the park. He works evenings and the mom works days. Six days a week. A very tough life. They have no family nearby so they barely get a moment to rest. They moved to Pleasanton so their son could be in a better environment.

Which is also why the next person that arrived moved here....or that her boyfriend lived here. Anyway, she left Kentucky, Harlan County. I asked if she watched Justified and she said yes, and that it was just like the show....drugs, etc. She worked all week at "an old folks home, which is VERY hard work" and then her husband would take her paycheck and go out and buy drugs. She was at the park with her 3 boys, ages 2, 4 & 6. She showed up with a bunch of ice cream sundaes from McDonald's and shared with all of us.

I did invite them all to church.....blank stares all around.......I just plant the seed.

Ezra got to exercise and socialize (his mama wasn't too excited about the people when I told her the stories) and I was reminded of just how blessed we are to live in this wonderful town near family & friends.

Sisters

Lindsay came back for a very quick visit. The official reason for her being back in CA was a cousin's wedding. But we all know that she missed her CA family and friends.
We were able to squeeze in a Saturday morning walk to the Farmers' Market and then coffee. The weather took a turn for the worse....she arrived to sunny and warm and left with cold and wet. Not enough sunny and warm to make her second guess her decision to leave CA....but we know she misses us.....because we sure miss her!