More Oakland

We got to go to Oakland to see our friends, Britta and Shay, and their little guy Cal. We are so happy we got to go! It was so fun to see them and catch up with them. They live right by the Oakland Temple in the cutest little apartment. So fun!

They took us up to this lookout point. It was so pretty! You could see the whole bay, the Golden Gate bridge, the Temple. It was the real deal. Awesome!

They took us up to a little train park. Tyson is in love with trains right now so he was pretty excited. It was a great ride. The train is steam powered and run by the most friendly people around.

The cute Brunson family!

Tyson was pretty broken up about getting off of the train, so we tried to cheer him up by taking a picture with the conductor, super nice guy by the way, but it didn't really work. He continued to cry for about 5 minutes.

After that, we went to a little animal farm where you can feed the animals and pet them. So we grabbed some lettuce and celery and headed up there. It was really fun!

Tyson was pretty dang nervous at first. He liked watching Ivan feed the animals, but wanted not part in it himself. Once he got over his initial nervousness though, he loved it!

Cal got pretty brave too!
Can I just say that cows have the longest tongues ever.

A piece of celery fell on the ground while Shay was feeding the cows and he kept trying to feed it to all the animals, but none of them would eat it. Apparently they get pretty picky when they are fed regularly. So finally he hid the celery in some lettuce and tricked a goat into eating it. Victory!

We went to this amazing crepe place for lunch and it was so good! It is so fun to go to the city and get to try the little mom and pop shops. They don't have many of those in Roseville. We also drove right past Occupy Berkeley. Ivan was pretty dang excited. He has been wanting to see an occupy movement for a while.

Thank you so much Britta and Shay! You guys are the best!

Stanford and Oakland

On Thursday, October 20th, Ivan's mission president and his wife were in Oakland and they invited all the missionaries in the area to go down and have dinner with them. We jumped at the opportunity to see them and were super excited to go. The dinner was SO fun! It was great to see President Fotheringham and his wife and some of the elders that Ivan served with. Our camera died before we could get any pictures (so sad) so we are waiting to get them from the other guys. We decided to make a long weekend of it and we headed down to Stanford to stay with Heather and James and their boys Talmage and Everett. We got to tour the campus, which is gorgeous by the way, feed the ducks and go on an adventure. We had so much fun with them! Heather spoiled us. We had "cupcakes" for breakfast and received the royal treatment. Tyson was in toy heaven that's for sure! She had the most amazing white chocolate macadamia nut cookies I have ever had and Ivan loved the s'more bars. So yummy! We also got to see Heather's parents, which are old family friends of Ivan's family. They are such a blast!

At the top of Hoover Tower. It looked out over all of the campus. Gorgeous. We are so glad we got to see it!

A reproduction of the Burghers of Calais by Auguste Rodin.

In front of the Memorial Church on campus. It is beautiful!

They have a pretty awesome community park right in their backyard so we couldn't pass that up. The boys played on the toys, passed the football (and Ivan taught Talmage how to tackle, sorry Heather), kicked the soccer ball, and took a ride in a red wagon. Ivan pulled them around for probably about 20 minutes. They loved it! The only thing they couldn't decide on was which way to go. Tyson wanted to go backward and Talmage wanted to go forward. Decisions, decisions. So Ivan made the executive decision and they went sideways. So funny. Then they played a game where Ivan pulled them through the rope swing and the boys had to try to dodge it. They thought it was pretty funny. Tyson especially liked it when it hit his head. Sometimes we wonder about this kid:)

Ivan also taught Tyson to throw the bread at the ducks heads. He seems to have a knack for teaching kids naughty stuff:) He justifies it saying that he was aiming for their mouths, but we all know the truth. Tyson thought it was pretty funny though. He loved to see the ducks scramble after the bread. I wish I could see into this kids head because he thinks the wierdest things are so funny. Pretty sure he has the cutest laugh ever though so I don't mind!

The two boys throwing together. I love Talmage's face. Classic.

Talmage deep in thought about the ducks.

We went a little further down the road from the duck pond and found a little inlet of water. We went out on the dock and Tyson thought that the bird poop was rocks, so naturally he picked it up and threw it in the water. So gross. Talmage and his grandpa were causing an earthquake on the bridge and the boys thought it was pretty funny to hear their voices while they were bouncing. We also got to see some guys windsurf. It was pretty cool. Then the guy fell.
And Tyson crashed on the way out.

Thank you Wiggingtons for having us! You are Be-awesome! We had a blast!

Fairy Falls

About a month ago, we went on a hike up to a waterfall just outside a town called Wheatland. It is by a lake called Camp Far West (random name for a lake, right?). It was really fun though. The train is nice enough that we could take the stroller on it for Tyson, even though he didn't ride in it much on the way up. We passed by a huge blackberry patch right along the path and decided we need to make it an annual hike and go right during blackberry season. We caught the tail end of it and got a few good ones. We are excited to get lots more next year!

Having fun on Daddy's shoulders

All of us at the top. Tyson was not very happy about taking pictures. He just wanted to throw the rocks.

And...throwing rocks

The waterfall was actually flowing pretty strong for that time of year, we were pretty impressed.

Near the bottom of the waterfall, we found this little pool to play in. It was really perfect for Tyson. So fun! Even though it was freezing.

Ivan said the current of the waterfall was perfect to swim against.

On our way down, we ran into a group of people who told us about a rope swing just past the parking lot, so we had to check that out. So glad we did! It was way fun!

And then Tyson's diaper exploded from playing in the water too long, which was probably a good thing because he was pretty worn out.

Splash Parks

They have some really awesome splash parks here in the area. They are really fun! We got to go quite a bit over the summer. One is at the Fountains complex here in Roseville. They have a little train ride you can go on and the splash park and playground right by it. We went with our friends Crysta and her son Jacob. Tyson loved the train ride and then the boys went to play at the splash park. I am so bummed, but I can't find my pictures of it! So sad! I have some of other splash parks though. Tyson loves them! Especially when Daddy played with him!

Train Museum

Over Labor Day we went down with my friend, Jenna, and her 2 boys, Weston and Benson, to the Train Museum in Sacramento. They were having Gold Rush days down there and the museum is free over the weekend. It was way fun. They deck out the streets with old-town decorations and hay and horse-drawn carriages. There were people dressed up in old John Wayne style clothes (some more appropriate than others). The boys loved the horses, eating lunch by the river and the candy store.

We briefly walked around the first 2 floors of the museum, but there was nothing brief about our stay on the 3rd floor, where the Thomas trains are.

This was Tyson's first encounter with trains and train tracks and he loves them!

Thanks Jenna, Weston, and Benson for coming with us!

Just a little side story, on our way out of the museum we went up to the mall to let the kids play at the play area and there was this little boy, about 2 years older than Tyson, that took a liking to Tyson. He climbed in the play boat with Tyson and carried on a conversation with him for 5 minutes. Tyson pretty much just stared at him, but the kid just kept on talking. It was so cute!

Nimbus Fish Hatchery

About a month ago we got to go to the Nimbus Fish Hatchery here in Folsom. Apparently the best time to go is in October because that is when the salmon come to mate and jump and all that good stuff. So hopefully we get to post about that soon! It was pretty quiet when we went, but we had a lot of fun. We got to check the place out so we are more familiar with it when we go back. We got to explore the visitors center and watch the video about the harvesting they do. Outside, they have large tanks where the fish are kept and you can pay a nickel for a handful of food. This was definitely Tyson's favorite part. Whenever he threw a piece of food in, all the fish around it would jump to get it and Tyson thought it was the best thing in the world! He just laughed and laughed. It was so cute!

Tyson and Daddy in the sharks mouth!

Tyson pointing out something very important to us. Not quite sure what inspired the foot flip:)

I couldn't really catch his excitement on camera, but I promise he loved it!

Maidu Park

We live really close to a park/school here in Roseville. I love it! We are there at least once a day, or so it feels like. Especially during the spring and the fall. I am just loving this fall weather by the way! During the Summer though, we could only handle it during the morning or at night. It was one of our favorite family activities to go to the park at night, where there was always a baseball or softball game going on, and watch. We would usually bring a frisbee, baseball or football with us too and play some catch.

This particular night, Tyson thought it was more fun to roll in the dirt. Love this kid!

Cheering on the softball players.

The game is much more interesting than taking a picture Mom.