Summertime continued...

***back from karate, and temporarily ignoring both the huge pile of laundry and the adorable puppies***
When I knew we were spending 2 weeks in San Francisco, I did some (okay, a LOT) of research, and ended up buying a CityPass for myself and each of the kids.  Total was about $180, and we switched out the tour of the Bay to a tour of Alcatraz Island.  (It's a listed alternative, but we had to pick up the passes from Alcatraz Tours.)  Anyway, this gave us tickets to 5 different attractions, with some of them being choices between two or more different venues, like the tour of the Bay OR the tour of Alcatraz.  We didn't care for the Aquarium on the Bay- too small, and not a lot of things to see.  We also skipped the Museum of Modern Art.  I wanted to go, but nobody else was interested.  From experience :) I know that trying to enjoy anything with reluctant children is impossible, and very often painful, and so I removed that from my "List of Things to See."  Overall, though, the 3 attractions we enjoyed (Tour of Alcatraz Island, California Exploratorium, and California Academy of Science) were more than worth the price we paid (total admission price for an adult= $67).  Plus, the free week of bus/cable car rides was a nice perk!  

Now, back to the pictures :)

As you can see, I am having difficulty posting vertical pics again.  Happens every time Blogger or Picasa updates, so bear with me :)  I'll try to stick to horizontals for this post, but needed to have one pic from the Exploratorium, and this was the best of the pics I had.  Huge warehouse, full of hands-on activities for all ages.  Seriously, all ages- adults without kids (normal ones, not just the creepy pedophile-looking ones that seem to haunt all children's attractions here in the USA), teenagers, toddlers, and of course family groups.  We spent over 4 hours in that building, and STILL didn't make it to all the exhibits.  The only complaint I have is that the food they sell is expensive, and while I understand that organic free-range chicken is worth more money, I wasn't sure it was worth that much more.  So we left when the kids were more interested in eating than in staying to play.  This was an awesome place.  It was well-run, and interesting, and EVERYTHING was hands-on.  (plus they had a fiber section, with real people weaving, spinning, and fluffing fleece.  That totally made my day!)  I don't know if I would ever get tired of visiting the Exploratorium, as long as I could bring my own lunch :).

This is China Beach.  Behind the kids, you can sort of see the pilings of the Golden Gate Bridge through the fog.  Beautiful, slightly chilly, day at the beach.  We had this entire cove to ourselves :) which made for lots of screaming and chasing of siblings.  Everybody had what they most wanted here.  Walker had plenty of space to build a huge sand/rock castle, and chase his brother and sister around.  Morgen found some crabs, and built them a crab house.  Hyrum got to run and play and found several long sticks he used as swords, and as rather long pencils to write things in the sand.  And me?  Well, I got to see my kids having a wonderful time, and I also got to knit, peacefully, for a few hours.  Bonus: the parking was free :). 

No pictures of this next event, but a lovely family from the church we attended while in CA invited us over for dinner after the service.  We didn't know them, and they didn't know us, but it was a delicious dinner, and we had a lot to talk about.  My kids played nicely with theirs, and it was much better than hanging around our hotel room and watching the TV.  There are nice people everywhere, it seems!

Jared was able to come with us to the California Academy of Sciences.  Again, a wonderful place, although their exhibits lean more to "look and learn" than "interact and learn."  This pic was the funniest (to me) part of our experience there:

 That is my husband's head, and yes, that is a butterfly perched on top of his hat.  It stayed there through several levels, and we finally managed to remove it (gently, of course!) when we took the hat off Jared's head so Hyrum could get a better view of the butterfly.  It didn't like the downward movement of the hat, I guess. 

That pretty much sums up our SF trip.  Lots of riding the BART, and walking around SF, and beaches, and swimming at the hotel pool.  We had an exciting surprise waiting for us when we got home, too!  Our dog had her puppies, a bit early, (and the neighbor who was feeding her did let us know when they arrived) and they were waiting in the garage with their mom when we got home. 

Kachina had 7 beautiful, healthy puppies.  4 females (2 liver/white, 2 orange/white) and 3 males (all orange/white).  She is doing well, if a bit ragged from the constant feeding and cleaning her pups require.  The puppies are growing too fast :) and as you can see, are well-fed and content.  They are currently the star attraction for my kids, all of whom can be found petting and holding their favorites when they should really be cleaning up their rooms.   

Moving on...  Here are some of the things I've been knitting on this summer.  There are several dishcloths, mostly the waffle-weave pattern. 

That's because 1-I have the pattern memorized, and 2-dishcloths travel easily.  I am also working on this blanket:

I have entered the "black hole" stage of knitting (see the YarnHarlot's explanation for this very technical knitting term) with this project.  Actually, I'm debating whether I should pretend that I actually meant to make a beautiful, if rather rectangular, shawl.  Then I could cast off and call it finished.  :)  But I haven't quite used up all the skeins I bought for this project, and (amazingly enough) the yarn is still available for purchase (although I may have jinxed myself by typing that just now), which more or less means that I feel obligated to continue knitting.  Even though, no matter how many times I measure it, it is still as big as it was two skeins ago.  Like I said, black hole.

Now, this week has been much more quiet than normal, as my oldest son is at scout camp until Saturday.  In order to attend, he had to get a physical, and the results of that are: 63.5 inches, 106 pounds; completely healthy, quite tall for his age, and a bit under the ideal weight for his height.  I am not quite sure how my cute little 8-pound baby got to be so big, so quickly.  But I am grateful that he is clever and independent, and not afraid of hard work or new experiences. 

Gratitude List:
* 3 healthy, happy, intelligent children.
* 7 healthy puppies and a healthy mother
* Jared is working at his base this month, so no traveling for him, or us.
* Next week is the back-packing trip in the Uintah Mountains, and all the kids are old enough to go! 
* Morgen and Hyrum have played several games (without me suggesting any of them), and they are playing ther one right now, nicely, and having a wonderful time. :)
* We have gorgeous weather today- hot during the day, but cool in the morning, evening, and all night long.
* I tried 2 new knitting patterns for dishcloths, and they both worked out like they were supposed to.
* I've gotten a lot of scrapbooking in this summer, and I think I found my groove :) again.
* Audiobooks for long drives with my children.
* Good music, and interesting podcasts, and an ipod to store them.
* Wonderful friends and neighbors, and a loving and supportive family.
* A husband who has a great job, and who loves and supports me and our family.
* Enough food to eat, clothing to wear, and a house to shelter our family.
* God is good. 
* I am blessed.