Fairyland

We discovered a real treasure over in Oakland. Fairyland is a pint-size amusement park and features Mother Goose nursery rhymes.

Easter

Last year, Ryker was baptized at Easter. It was so overwhelming that I'm not sure he ever focused on the Easter bunny, etc. This year he got an Easter basket, found hidden eggs and discovered "Marshmallow!" Fortunately, he also loves his new toothbrush that plays "Here comes Peter Cottontail hopping down the bunny trail..."

At Mass on Sunday, I was carrying Ryker and the lay minister gave me the wafer. I tried to just get a blessing (since I can't take Communion), but she didn't understand and the line was too long. On the way back to the pew, Ryker was hungry and wanted my cracker, so I gave it to him. "Mmmm. Yummy! Want more!" I told him it was the body of Christ - "Mmm, want more body, yummy!" I nearly died of (surpressed) laughter. Andrew was horrified.

Taos, New Mexico

This is beautiful country! Big sky, tons of stars at night and lots of fresh powder for skiing. Andrew and I have been on the slopes while Ryker is in their camp (which he loves). I put him on his skis and he was dying to go up the lift so he could come down the hill. He needs to learn to stand on his own first. I'll enroll him in the ski school for a class and see how that goes... We went tubing in the afternoon and with the 3 of us tied together, we went really fast. Still, it wasn't fast enough for Ryker. Andrew had to haul the tubes up the hill and I had to drag Ryker up.

Bay Area Discovery Museum

This is one of Ryker's favorite places to go. We went for Chinese New Year and it was SO crowded. Ryker ran ahead of me and when I finally caught up with him, I had to tackle him. In doing so, I sprained my ankle and ended up on crutches. Andrew's TLC and ice water baths healed it in no time. We went to the museum again for "Irish dancing" because Ryker LOVES Irish music; he asks for it every time we get in the car. Still, his favorite things at this museum are the boat he climbs on and the ramp he rides the Tonka trucks down, over and over and over.

Alpine Meadows, Tahoe

Ryker finally got a chance to try out his new skis on snow! It had been pouring in SF (which means SNOW in Tahoe). They got something like 4 ft of the stuff last week. Ryker and I were recovering from colds so not in the best of shape, but nothing was going to stop us. The ability to ski in Tahoe is one of the reasons I moved to SF afterall. We hired a babysitter for our two days who was great with Ryker and while expensive, great for us to hit the slopes. Andrew snowboards and I ski, but neither of us had been for 5 years so we were a little rusty. There were no injuries and it was lots of fun. We put the skis on Ryker and pulled him around a bit. He's not quite ready to stand on his own. Perhaps Sandy will join us in Taos next month and succeed in teaching him?

PS I'm the one in the green jacket. Andrew is the other person pulling him along.

Skiing

Ryker got skis for Christmas from Santa Claus. Tahoe is being hit by a very heavy snowstorm over the next few days (we don't think we could get over the Donner Pass), so we're making plans to go this coming weekend instead. We managed to find all of our gear: boots, snowboard, skis, helmets, gloves, long underwear, jackets, pants. It is a lot of stuff! Ryker tried on his boots and skis and did NOT want to take them off. We're ready Tahoe!

Aquarium by the Bay

We have a membership since Ryker LOVES fish. Yesterday we went with some friends. Ryker loved petting the starfish and rays. He couldn't get close enough to the sharks, but I got him a little shark toy to attack everyone with...