Monday

Today we woke up and went to Liberty Park to play with Einar's friends and see some other moms. Liberty Park is one of the new parks in the Talega development in San Clemente and is known for a bit of shade over the play structures and for the marvelous sand that it has. Every time we go there I take off my shoes and just play in the sand.

Then we went to the grocery and the hot tub store for some more hot tub supplies. Karin is coming down this week with the girls and she and I are looking forward to some evening soaks after the kids are in bed so I'm starting with some fresh water in the hot tub. Einar got a blue balloon from the clerk at Farm to Market which kept him excited all of the way home until he started chewing on it and I had to take it away from my teething beastie.

We just finished a yummy lunch of Swedish meatballs (Turkey ones from the July Issue of Cooking Light!), Noodles, and frozen peas. Now Einar is napping and I'm thinking of going downstairs where it is cooler and where I might catch some shut-eye too.

The picture of me is of my new sunglasses that Jared thinks makes me look like an Anime superhero. I'm still trying to figure out all of my super powers.

Back from all of our travels

Einar and I returned home from our Minnesota adventure on Wednesday. We went back to gather for my 10-year college reunion at Carleton College--10 years!!!. I was disappointed that Jared wasn't able to join us until we got there and saw folks gathering from the class of 1936--there will be many more opportunities for Jared to have some Carleton adventures of his own.

We flew in early to spend time with my Minnesota Mom, Mary. She is my mom's cousin who lives in the St. Paul area who provided me with my home away from home while I went to school and taught me cribbage among many other things. It was great to spend time with her and have her meet Einar. She also had the rest of the MN family over for dinner on Sunday so that we could see everyone.

Reunion at Carleton lasted from Thursday afternoon till noon on Sunday. Einar and I stayed in a dormitory for the weekend with the help of some baby essentials that we borrowed from my friend Katie (pack-n-play, desk fan, some toys, etc.), who came to reunion with her two kids but went home to Minneapolis to sleep at night. The weather was extremely humid and in the upper 80's and 90's while we were there. Einar had a blast with all of the other kids his age that were there and even tried to scam some beer off of the guy that was in charge of the keg--he's always up for a party it seems. Much of the weekend was spent wandering around campus and admiring it for the things that I didn't notice while I was a student there. Einar loved the rock garden and a new outdoor sculpture called "Twigonometry" that he could wander around in and play with its sticks. THere is a lovely new dining hall on campus that even has a couple of high chairs in it, but you have to wake up early to snag those for breakfast. We went to bed early and took naps much like I did my freshman year, but we didn't do nearly as much studying, just catching up with old friends and making new ones. On the last day we even met a kid named ARlo who was born on the same day as Einar!

The following Monday we drove up to Virginia, MN to spend some time with my friend Kate Brady. It's about 3 hours north of the cities and is an old iron mining community. She took us on a walking tour of town and to a great park that Einar got to explore and where we saw the world's largest Loon. Virginia is also the home of some extremely large dumptrucks that are used to mine the iron ore. On the way home from Virginia we "enjoyed" a couple of White Castle burgers in the car. I think Einar like his more than I liked mine, but he could have just been intrigued by it's box.

Although we have had a great time traveling this month to both Seattle and Minnesota, it's really nice to be home in San Clemente again. It's more lonely now that Jared is in Okinawa, but it does feel good to be home. As you know we do like visitors so the lull won't be lasting long. Karin is bringing the girls down for a week starting next Thursday.

Let Him Out of the Cupboard!

I heard you all loud and clear and have finally let the little guy out of the cupboard. In fact we even let him out of the house and he just returned from a week and a half long visit to Seattle to watch the launching of Uncle Tor's boat, Yare. For those of you that don't know what Tor has been up to, he's been building a 34 ft, steel-hulled sailboat and we just couldn't miss the launching party that coincided with his 30th birthday. It was a terribly exciting event and Yare floats beautifully--Congratulations Tor and Jess!!

Einar got to eat dim sum at the House of Hong with his cousin Sammy and Aunt Jennifer. Einar particularly enjoyed the sticky rice and the barbeque pork. He met his other cousins, Cyrus and Annie at the Greenlake playground where Cyrus helped him out on the big kid's climbing structure and slide. He learned how to mow the lawn and chase rabbits at Grandma and Grandpa Bjorklund's house and got to play in Farmor's great garden fountain till Dad said that it was time for dinner. We even met up with our Seattle PEPS friends to see all of the other "babies" that are all walking about and climbing on things.

Jared and I went to all of the restaurants that were on Jared's to-do list and even went to a couple of movies while we were in town. Despite the colds that Einar and I fought and his crazy sleeping at night due to teething and being sick, we had a great time in Seattle.

Now we are back at home for a few days. Jared leaves for his Okinawan deployment in the morning (3am) and Einar and I head off to Minnesota on Tuesday for my 10-year college reunion. I guess the house won't seem so empty without Jared if we aren't here to notice.