Batter up!

Claudia may not have kept her eye on the ball, but look at that follow through! (I wouldn't have been able to snap a picture with the ball in mid-air if I had actually been trying.)Today was a field trip to a park in Willow Glen. 38 kids all wearing the same shirt - made it kinda hard to pick out your own, but I realized that in that situation, every kid becomes yours. The preschool has a bunch of field trips scheduled this summer. We already took a practice ride on the light rail; the one I'm especially looking forward to is the trip to Safeway. As I understand it, the kids get to roam the aisles trying free samples and then they get a tour of the back. I plan to volunteer or send a grocery list.

Wow... I completely missed the month of June for posting. The reason will become apparent soon... So here are some updates... Mickey Mouse has infiltrated our house. That's the TV show (it's a cartoon - not the live Mousketeers) that she watches everyday. It's pretty cute what she learns from them. On Father's Day we went to Big Basin and as we were walking around the giant Redwoods, Claudia would stop at the base and say "How are we going to get to the top of the tree? I have an idea! Let's use suction cups". Once she said we needed a tool to cut it into pieces and I asked her what tool and she replied with some really really big scissors. Here is a doodle of Mickey Mouse (by Claudia):
She likes all of the characters, but we like to hear her say the Professor's name (Professor Von Drake is a duck). Until just tonight she would call him Papessa on drake. But tonight she said Professa. Peter and I both looked at each other a little sad, because it was so cute to hear her say it her original way. Oh sigh, she's really growing up... About a month ago she started talking about her "new house" and all these things she had at her new house and her friends and family (including the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse gang) that would come visit her. I realized last week that her new house is the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Boy has it got some cool stuff!... We start our vacation on Friday morning (the 4th). We're driving (gulp!) to Yellowstone for 4 days to see "big bison (what she also calls Big Basin, incidentally), geysers, and lizards". I'm not entirely certain where the lizards come from, but that's what she tells us. We're lodging it at Yellowstone and are very thrilled that we're staying at the Old Faithful Inn. From there, we drive to the lake in MN to spend 8 or so days with the Nelson fam. All 7 siblings and their families will be there, plus Peter's folks and extended family. We're looking forward to seeing everyone and Claudia and I especially are looking forward to the fishing. After that we head back west making stops at Theodore Roosevelt NP in ND and Grand Tetons in WY. We'll be camping then, so that will be an adventure for sure. I'll try to post pictures along the way. We'll see.