First Grade!

Henry started first grade at Capitol Hill last Tuesday. He was excited to see his friends and especially to not be a kindergartner anymore! He kept talking about how the kindergartners would be so small and probably not even come up to his waist. When I pointed out that even Nora was taller than that he just shrugged. His teacher's name is Ms. Johnson and she has been a teacher for about 20 years - mostly at Capitol Hill but she's also taught other places (and different grades). She is extremely organized and I think will be a wonderful teacher for Henry this year. There are 30 kids in the class! They have PE on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Art on Wednesdays. I hope to be able to parent help more in the classroom this year.

The first day of school was a big rush and I wasn't able to get any good, posed pictures. The first picture here is in the van on the way to school...

 He looks a little excited, right? The next picture is in his classroom - already busy at work!

San Francisco Road Trip

I have been severely ignoring the blog this summer. I am hoping that once Henry's school starts again in a week I'll be able to devote more time in keeping regular updates. Until then, here are our pictures from the road trip that we took down to visit Geoff.

We started off the trip with a visit to the Wildlife Safari in Winston.

Everyone loved getting up close to all the wild animals.

Our next stop was a drive through the Redwood Forest.

Geoff's house in Berkeley.

This was the closest we got to seeing Alcatraz...a replica. I didn't realize you had to make reservations a month in advance.

Cooling off in Golden Gate Park.

Superman meets Superman at the de Young Museum.

Spike's coffee shop in the Castro.

Nora's face doesn't show it, but this was the BEST popsicle ever - it tasted like strawberry Quick.

Cable car!

Pensive on the cable car.

On the ferry.

Sundaes at Ghirardelli.

Checking out the butterflies at the California Academy of Sciences.

Touch pool at the California Academy of Sciences.

Dino bones - California Academy of Sciences.

Chinatown.

View at night from our hotel - Alcatraz in the distance.

Picnic in Sausalito.

Sausalito.

Cable car ride.

Cable car.

View from UC Berkeley.

Playing at UC Berkeley.

Photo taken by Henry at UC Berkeley.

Street car ride - we rode all forms of public transport - bus, cable car, street car, subway and BART.

At the Exploritorium.

Reading maps at the Exploritorium.

Checking out the view on the ferry.

Checking out the rays and sharks at the California Academy of Sciences.

Hawaii! Pictures - Part 2

Henry trying on Forest Gump's shoes.

Scaling a volcano!

All tuckered out!

Watching Hawaiian dancers is serious business.

Henry making a sand-covered treasure box.

Showing off his final product.

Up in cowboy country.

Surveying the view in Waimea.

Pre-cowboy dinner in Waimea.

Henry testing out the branding iron at the cowboy dinner. He got to use it on some shingles later.

Nora was too scared/nervous of the horse to look at the camera.

Cowboy dinner.

Cowboy dinner.

Uncle Mike time!

Breakfast prior to snorkeling.

Cultural festival at City of Refuge.

Nora and Gigi learning a traditional dance.

Mango festival!

King of the seawall!

Black sands beach.

Black sands beach.

At the volcano.