Near our house

Hopefully this keeps the squirrel population down:
Mercury news story

President's day weekend in snow

We enjoyed Valentines day and President's day weekend in a couple feet of fresh snowfall in Arnold at the same house we rented for Nate's birthday. The golf course across the road turned into a handy snow field, and between sled runs Nate and Julie did their best sliding penguin impersonations. Gina's brother Dan joined us for one night and braved Nate's frantic air hockey game. On Monday as we were leaving, the blizzard returned in full force and we quickly decided to head back down to avoid traffic and chains.

Hail storm

Wowee, lots of hail today and just in time to give us a taste of winter white before we head up into the Sierra mountains this weekend. Any bit helps with our current drought, so we're hoping for more, especially in the form of snow once we're out of the car. We have new chains, just in case.

"Daddy's Birthday"

The kids were so excited - both helped to make the birthday boy's requested lemon layer cake and made some fabulous cards for daddy as well as contributed great suggestions for "Daddy's Birthday Coupon Book". Julie illustrated her standing offer of a bike ride and Nate offered up a trip to the beach, family hike and picnic, and family bowling (now that he's recently discovered the joy of bowling...). Michael's big birthday present was a panini grill which we put to good use at dinnertime along with his own home made potato leek soup. All the revelers had fun and full bellies after dinner and cake.

Superbowl Sunday

 

Oakland Zoo

 

 

 

 

The next day we visited the Oakland Zoo. The new children's area is better than I imagined: new bug hall, alligators, reptile, bat house, turtles, and playground. Nate and Julie were least impressed by the petting zoo and the couple of bored looking sheep trying to hide in the corners.

Lawrence Hall of Science

 

 

 

Again. But this time just us, no kindergarden class (or free entry). Nate finally got to show Julie the T-Rex and Triceratops skulls as promised for the previous two weeks. Afterwards we hit Jupiter in Bezerkely for outdoor dining.