California Trip, Part 2

Here are a few more photos taken by Griffin, or taken of Griffin, during our trip.

Cousins Nadja, Lisa and Emma and Aunt Jan on the train at Traintown in Sonoma.

Griffin and Emma on the train

Griffin and Emma playing bocce at Nadja and Greg's house.

Griffin at the NASA/Snoopy exhibit at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa

Charlie Brown and Griffin

Griffin's photo of the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge

Daddy and Griffin playing happy tourists at Fisherman's Wharf

Griffin and a cable car!

Daddy and Griffin on the Powell & Hyde cable car

The artist at work

Griffin's first California trip pictures

Griffin has taken over 200 photos on his camera so far, approximately 167 of them are from his seat in the car, trying to catch a passing truck going the other way. Needless to say, that is not very successful. However, he has captured a few nice shots and many of the scenery beyond the freeway. Here is the first set!

Mommy and Daddy at the Mt. St. Helens Visitors Center

flowers at Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center

Mt. St. Helens (in the clouds between the trees - see it?)

lilypads

tractor-trailer

cows (in the lower left corner)

three-trailer big rig

Some recent events

With the end of school for both Griffin and me, I haven't been great about updating our blog. What I really need to do is take a photo of our garden, which looks very different from the May photo! We harvested fava beans and sugar snap peas last week, and have a few green tomatoes which should be waiting for us when we return from California!

Recent events in Griffin's life:

Hugging an elephant at the Woodland Park Zoo

Feeding a horse!

Making sure the grass is cut just right, while being supervised by the horse.

The Gorge!

Pea Patch Garden

We are lucky to have a half of a garden space at Griffin's school this year, along with other parents, classrooms and community members who have plots alongside. The students have fun seeing the garden spaces as they move around the school grounds. Griffin and I stop by after school to water and weed at least three times a week.

So far we have tomatoes, corn, lettuce, fava beans, sugar snap peas, pumpkins, basil and flowers we planted last fall that have been blooming over the past month. Crops that have failed (so far): rosemary, radishes and rhubarb (strange, they all start with the letter R!). We have five tomato plants, three of which we started from seeds, so it will be an interesting experiment to see how all of them do.

Here are some less-than-perfect photos for now (I had to use my phone's camera, which is not up-to-date with the latest technology). More to come as our plants bloom and grow!

sign by the garden


fava beans, garlic, and tomatoes in back


pumpkin

our HUGE tulip, almost three feet tall!

University StreetFair

Is there anything else to say?

Early morning conversation

Griffin: Mommy, do you know something really important? When we eat strawberries at school for snack we have to have our tummies up against the table, because if you drop the strawberries they can sting your shirt. You have to be really brave to eat strawberries.

Mommy: I think your teachers meant that the strawberries can STAIN your shirt, not sting you.

Griffin: Oh.

4-year-old art

an upside down pear

Griffin's first written alphabet

Griffin self-portrait

Easter with Cousin Thad

Checking out Thad's toys:


Playing ball:

Playing boats:Enjoying brunch:

And, of course, finding lots of eggs!

(Thad says: "This one's ticking!")

Seattle!

During Spring Break we also visited Seattle Center. Griffin's favorite thing to do was ride the monorail. He was a little hesitant about going up in the Space Needle at first, but was glad that he did. (Me, too. I hadn't ever gone up there.)

A little video of Griffin on the monorail...
PS: the answer to his question at the end of this clip is "The Experience Music Project"




And we of course had to visit the Fun Forest while we were there...


Good times!

"I'm Griffin" by Blues Harpin' Griff

(© 2009 Griffin's Door Productions)

Spring Break! Imagine Children's Museum

We started in the farm area, where Griffin got to drive a tractor and milk a cow!The we moved on to the "water area", where Griffin had a lot of fun giving toy whales and dolphins a bath.


We then made our way to the roof, where Griffin dug for dinosaur bones and played a little chess (and we caught a great view of Sully's office, the Abraham Lincoln!)

Finally, we were both tired and hungry, so Griffin commandeered a bus and drove us home.

The incredible shrinking otter

Griffin Woods

Quotes!

Two gems for this week:

Griffin: "I don't want patience! I want it NOW!!!"

and!

Daddy: "Mommy and I have been married for seven years."
Griffin: "Why?"

Griffin being mad

"Say you're sorry, Mommy. If you don't say you're sorry, I won't be anybody's friend. I'll just be alive by myself."

Home sick

Griffin and I have been home together for three days, with Griffin having an early version of the flu (I think), and though we're a little tired of each other, there have been a few funny moments.

Griffin loves to play games on my laptop, preschool-level games for counting, alphabet practice, animal sounds, etc., and he's now generalizing that to other things. He's playing a game right now where he has several cars and trucks on his table and he says, "Click on the car that is different from the other cars." or "Click on the car that is tired." A whole new language for this generation!

His favorite word right now is "Sure!" when you ask him to do something or if he is all right. It's even more cute because his voice is very hoarse right now.

We've had little sleep this week because Griffin is having nightmares due to his fever. We (well, Griffin) slept in three places last night: the living room floor in a sleeping bag, the bed in the master bedroom, and the couch (together, that was interesting). I'm hopeful that things will get better so we can go to school at least one more day this week.

More language fun

Griffin talking about a teacher at his new school:

"And she's my favoritest teacher I ever knew in the whole world!"

Deep Thoughts With Griffin

Today at Griffin's PreK class, the theme was "What Do You Want to Be?"

The teacher (wonderful, fabulous Mrs. L) asked all the kids what they wanted to be. I'm sure many said firefighter, doctor and teacher.

Three and a half year old Griffin said, "Four."

At least he sets attainable goals for himself so he can feel good when he achieves them!