Crocs

Crocs, those lovely shoes that have swept the nation. In my opinion they are quite unattractive, but they do have some great qualities when it comes to kid's shoes! Crocs are all plastic (or similar substance), so kids can wear them out into rain puddles and mud, and all you have to do is hose the shoes down. Well, maybe take a brush to it to get them a little more clean, but that's all. Also no more tying shoes, and the best part is that young kids (like Nathan at 18 months) can get them on. So I love crocs! As long as I don't have to wear them myself.

So our story with crocs goes like this: this summer I realized the benefits of crocs and bought Colin a pair. A couple of weeks later, I noticed blisters on Colin's instep. Well, this is not suppose to happen wearing the most comfortable shoe in the world, so I figured that I got the wrong size. Got a new bigger pair, then Nathan started wearing Colin's old pair. Really cute, because both pairs are the same color. Really confusing too, because both pairs are the same color. So back to the store to get some "gibbits", which are little do-dad's that attach to the shoe to give some personality to the plastic shoes. I got 2 "C"s for Colin and 2 "N"s for Nathan.

So crocs are more than just summer shoes, just put some socks on and viola, winter shoes. But at first I didn't realize that crocs could be winter shoes too, so I bought a pair of sneakers for Colin when it started getting cold outside. The sneakers have not been worn once.

Anyway, last night Bob and I had plans with some friends, Bill and Karen who have a little boy, Fritz who is almost Colin's age. In order to save some money on babysitters, we had all 3 boys over at our house with one babysitter while we went out then split the cost. After the night was over, they left with Fritz and I looked down to see a pair of sneakers that I didn't recognize; Fritz must have left his shoes here. This afternoon while running some errands, I stopped by Bill and Karen's with the shoes. Bill looks at them and says, "These aren't Fritz's shoes." Omigawd, it's the sneakers that Colin has never worn. I didn't even recognize them! I was so embarrassed!

San Diego - Day 3

In the last post, I made a comment about how easy mornings are when you live in the East coast and travel to the West coast ... not so on the third day in San Diego after consuming way too much strong ale at the Strong Ale Festival. But I was able to put the previous night's mistakes behind me and go forth with the journey.


Our beer tour continued with a visit to Stone Brewing Co. which is the most polished beer establishment I've ever seen. WOW! The brewery is brand new and has a gift shop that you go through first, then you see the restaurant that has a wall of glass on one side that show cases the brewery. It's breath-taking! At the bar where Bob, Dave and Larry sampled, I could only drink cola at this point.

This is just Stone Brewing's growler filling station in the gift shop.

So many taps ... we couldn't figure out how they remembered them all.
Next stop was Port Brewing. We were spoiled at the last place so the lines and the waiting and the make-shift bar stools (grain bags on top of kegs) seemed so ... how do I say it ... so much like a let down. Oh well, I still was not drinking beer, but I'm sure the boys enjoyed their samples.


Then it was time to go back to the Strong Ale Fest. I finally drank some beer, but funny nothing really seemed to appeal to me like it did Friday night. There was no repeat performance, thank god! We hung around some friends that we met last year, Deanna and John. Last year Deanna was pregnant so she was happy to be drinking this time.

Deanna making up for last year!

It was an early night for us (again!). Our flight was early in the morning, and we didn't want to miss it. I was really missing Colin and Nathan by this time, and couldn't wait for my running hugs when I got home!

Some San Diego beer tour links to remember:
www.BrewHop.com
www.brewerytoursofsandiego.com

San Diego - Day 2

When you live on the East Coast and travel to the West Coast, mornings are so easy, at least easy to get up early! On the other hand, it's very difficult to stay out late.

So Day 2 of our Beer Fest Adventure in San Diego started at 6am for me. My goal was to go running on the beach. I planned out a long run so that I could stay on track for my marathon training. Well, 6am it was still dark but I did notice some mist in the street lights -- yuck! I hoped the mist didn't mean rain. At 7am I checked again, it was light but also raining. At 7:30am I finally convinced myself to just do it anyway, I might not run as far as I was planning on, but some running is always better than no running. The run was shorter than I planned, but I was really happy that I got out there. I saw lots of neat condos, some for rent. I also saw some porpoises along the shore -- very cool!

Then we checked out of the Surfer Dude hotel at Pacific Beach and headed up the coast to the not-so-good hotel in Carlsbad. The Strong Ale Fest is located in Carlsbad which I just don't consider as interesting of an area as Pacific Beach. Oh well, you gotta go where the beer fest is. After checking into the hotel, Bob and I grabbed a quick lunch then joined Larry and Dave in their room for a beer tasting pre-beer fest event. I tell you, the beer geeks are serious about their beer.


Time to go to the Strong Ale Fest. Remember that rain from the mornings run? Well it was doing the same thing in Carlsbad. We figured this meant that only the really hard-core, die-hard beer geeks would go so the crowd would be small and lines short. We were right. Unfortunately, I forgot that it was STRONG ale that I was consuming and by 6pm was done for the night. I won't go into the details involving my exit from the festival -- it was not pretty.

Tomorrow, more breweries and the last day of the Strong Ale Fest.

San Diego - Day 1

This series of blogs will diverge from the normal bragging and reporting of Colin and Nathan. Instead, I will follow our trip to San Diego without the kids where the Strong Ale Festival was our goal. But being that San Diego is in the heart of beer country, there were lots of side stops to make before we even hit the Strong Ale Fest. Now, some folks may say that Oregon is the home of the microbrewery which is not true, anymore! Something I read during this trip really put it into perspective for me. At the 2006 World Beer Cup, San Diego County alone won enough medals to place 7th if they were their own country.

So on with the trip details, our trip was with Bob, Dave, Larry and myself. The itinerary for Thursday included a stop at a beer store, two breweries, and a beer bar. First the beer store which was actually a convenience store/pharmacy. Larry found the place on the web and has been ordering beer from them. It is the South Bay Drugs & Pharmacy. Funny to go all the way across the country to buy beer at a convenience store/pharmacy, but that's what beer geeks do!



Next stop, Ballast Point Brewery where we finally were able to consume some beer! Lots of samples here.



Time to check into the hotel, the Surfer Dude, well that's what I call it, it's really Surfer something but I can't remember. I love this hotel. It's right on the water where all the rooms have an ocean view. It's also on Pacific Beach which has so much charm.

Then off to Alesmith! Yum, yum, yum! Alesmith does not do a bad beer, or even an average beer. Everything at Alesmith rocks!



Next O'Brien's, an awesome beer bar where we see a lot of the people that were pouring beers for us at the breweries. We meet up with some more Atlantans and beer friends here too.


After O'Brien's I turned in for the night. Larry, Dave and Bob went on to find more beer but I was done. Tomorrow, the Festival begins.

Birthday party!!

Colin's birthday party was last Sunday. He was so excited. We invited a handful of kids from school, our next door neighbor Mattison, and Grace from the old house. Being the holiday weekend, I fully expected about 50% to not be able to come. Well, big surprise! Everyone except for one family was able to come! At least it was going to be outside, I thought. Well, then it rained all day Sunday (day of the party), so everyone was inside -- good thing we have a big house and Colin and Nathan's rooms were clean so the kids could go upstairs too! We ended up having 12 kids and 15 adults here! Have you ever heard about that rule of thumb that there should only be the number of kids equal to the number of the birthday? That would be only 4 kids, oh well! Colin had a great time!

The day before the party, Colin asked if his teacher, Maureen was going to come. Didn't invite her, I told him. "Please, call her and invite her to the party," he says. So I did. She was very flattered, and said that she would stop by and make an appearance. All the kids were so excited to see their teacher at the party. It was really pretty cool.

As you can see from the pictures, Colin is wearing a pretty outrageous outfit. A blue/green striped long sleeve polo with a short sleeve plaid shirt on top of it! He picked it out all by himself. And I was very proud of myself that I let him wear it ... very montessori of me (and him!). I guess I figured that we have plenty of pictures of him looking like I dressed him, that it wouldn't hurt to have the pictures this time looking like ... well, that he dressed himself!

All the other birthdays, I've always waited to the last minute and got a cake at the local grocery store. The cakes were okay, but this time I was talking to someone at Bob's office that mentioned his girlfriend makes cakes. I was intrigued and checked out her website, www.rachmakescakes.com . I figure it's about time to get a professional cake for Colin's birthday. Bob and Colin came up with the idea to do a Dr. Seuss theme, specifically the Lorax. We've read this story to Colin several times, and he really likes it. So I asked Colin to pick out his favorite page in the book. It had Truffala Trees and Brown Bar-ba-loots on the page he picked. So I emailed Rachael scans of the pages from Colin's book. She said that she had some ideas and thought it would be pretty cool.



When the cake arrived, WOW it looked so cool as you can see from the pictures, and you can eat everything on the cake too. What I wasn't counting on was how delicious the cake was. Colin wanted chocolate cake, and she put chocolate chips into the chocolate cake which made it even more incredible. I think I've found our cake maker for the rest of our birthdays and holidays and get-togethers and whatever occasion that I can think of!

I think that just about sums up Colin's birthday party. Lots of people, Colin's crazy outfit (and I mean that in a good way!), and the awesome cake. Hope all the rest of the boy's birthday parties are this successful.

Moon book

Colin has a book that we used to read to him all the time when he was about 2 years old. Bob and I pretty much had it memorized. We always called it the "Moon Book", I'm not sure what the real name is because Colin ripped the cover off one night. The book was a gift from his Gramma Mary and has a moon that lights up when you push it (which explains some of the verses below). So here are the words to Colin's favorite book when he was little:

Night is coming
and I know that soon,
I'll go to sleep
in my cozy room.

I brush my teeth
before going to bed,
Then pull my pj's
over my head.

Out come the stare
that shine so bright,
So with a hug and kiss
I say goodnight.

There is no more
time to play,
But a bedtime story
will end the day.

My favorite is
about the Moon,
And the light it gives off
in my room.

My friend the Moon
will help me see,
And light my room,
staying close to me.

Whenever I wake in the night,
I push the Moon's face
to bring back its light.

I know that I
am safe and sound,
And my friend the Moon
will be around.

Then if I wander
in the night,
I can bring along
my own Moon light.

My Moon dims
and turns off its light,
And sleeps next to me
throughout the night.

Goodnight!

Colin's 4th birthday

Colin had a great day! He turned four on November 21st, and Grandma and Grandpa G.G. were in town to help us celebrate the occasion.

First the day started with Nathan and Colin climbing into our bed for some good quality time with us. (Grandma and Grandpa were still asleep.) Nathan practiced saying "Happy birthday, Colin" which came out sounding like "AA-kee dada Colnn". It was close enough for us.

I proposed that the grandparents and Colin and I go to the new Coca-Cola museum during Nathan's nap. But when I asked Colin if he wanted to go he said, "Do they have a playground?". Hmmm, maybe the Coca-Cola museum wouldn't be the ideal place to go for Colin. The adults would really like it (well, I would), but this is Colin's birthday, so the plans were changed. We went for ice cream at Zesto, then to the brand new playground at Piedmont Park.

For dinner we had steak, Colin's favorite. Although Colin was too excited about presents and cake after dinner that he barely touched his steak. Finally, it was time to bring out the cake, which consisted of about 16 mini cupcakes with flags and 4 candles. We sang, Colin blew and blew and one candle went out, he blew some more, and another candle went out. After several more attempts, all the candles were out which made Colin very happy.

Colin then opened his presents from Grandma and Grandpa G.G. (glow-in-the-dark dinosaur puzzle, Dora Candy Land Game and Dora Memory Game), and Grandma Mary and Grandpa Jerry (Moon Sand, Cars mini-books with CD and a horse painting set). Nathan also gave Colin a dinosaur puzzle. Colin received an art easel from Mom and Dad.

Happy Birthday to my big guy! I can't believe you are four years old.