Letter in the mail

Lena received a letter in the mail from Ramsey yesterday and was very excited. Here we are reading it last night after dinner (Thanks, Ramsey!).

Family visit

This past weekend Paul's mom, grandmother, aunt, and uncle came for a visit. Here we are at brunch this morning.
Morgan, Aunt Jennifer, Mom, Uncle Sol, and MomHelen's arm in the foreground.
Lena, Morgan, MomHelen, and Paul.
Momhelen and Sol.
Aunt Jennifer and Mom.
Lena also helped photodocument this weekend's activities. Here are a few photos from the "Lena's eye view".

Crazy animal people

A few silly photos from this weekend. Lena in tiger suit before heading to the farmer's market.

Bold squirrel outside our window.
Photo snapped by Lena of us trying to dance her out of the house this morning.
Lena wearing a rather eclectic get-up.

Misc photos from the past week

Here are some photos we've taken over the last week or so. Here Treat and Riley soak up the morning sun by our front window.
The next few pictures are one's that Lena snapped around our house. Here is her photo of a photo (a poster we hung up of a redwood tree from a recent issue of National Geographic).
Eying momma and the butter.
Still life of chalk.
Her pillow.
Mama!
Last weekend we went to the Palo Alto Baylands. They are really great and located ~ 4 mi from our house. We had a nice bike ride over and spent some time checking out birds and mussels from the boardwalk near the nature center.

Lena and Paul.
Binoculars.
View east across the bay.
Morgan and Lena.
Some cool-looking water birds.
The tide was fairly low when we were there and the mudflats and mussel beds were exposed.
Channel.
What family doesn't keep a hammer and nail next to their soap, toothbrush and toothpaste in the bathroom?

Halloween and the week before

We had a mellow Halloween at home in which we carved a pumpkin and several oranges (Vanessa, thanks for the idea!). Above are the little beauties lit up in front of our house. Lena was a hedge hog this year for Halloween but unfortunately we didn't get any snaps - you'll have to imagine a brown felt vest with lots of sewn on pieces of soda straws with hat to match. Very cute (and someone porcupine-esque as well).
One of our neighbor's' pumpkins.
A photo of Lena at Wilder Ranch from last weekend.

Lena riding her new blue steed.

Santa Cruz

This past weekend we spent some time in Santa Cruz with Mark & Becca (thanks becca for the photos!). Here are some shots from the pumpkin farm.Lena pumpkin hunting.

Morgan and Lena choosing out a pumpkin.
Morgan, Lena, and Becca having a snack.
A few photos from the fall festival at Wilder Ranch State Park. Here Lena tries milking a cow.
Eating corn in a hay wagon ride.

The day culminated with a trip to Natural Bridges State Park.
Mark at Natural Bridges.

The next day we went back to Natural Bridges and stopped by the butterflies (the monarchs migrate to this area and take up residency in a eucalyptus grove in the park).
Morgan, Paul, Lena and Mark on the rocks.



Paul and Lena checking out the geology - (26-27 million year old marine sediments of the Santa Cruz Mudstone).
Lena using her new binoculars.

A video of Lena and Kesey Cat. Lena was very excited to see Kesey and play.