We have been watching World Cup soccer every morning and most afternoons for the past two and a half weeks. It has apparently made an impression on Milo because this morning he started asking about watching soccer. I explained to him that there weren’t any games on today. He seemed to think that was a sufficient answer. I guess he still needed to experience some soccer today because he found a little ball and insisted that we play “soccer.”
Milo has decided that our “table” has to be specific places depending on what we are eating.
For breakfast, the “table” is in the TV/Computer area. For lunch it is there as well. For dinner though, the “table” needs to be moved into the kitchen area. Milo also thinks that the “table” needs to be in the TV/Computer area for ice smoothies. He is very vocal about the fact that we have dinner here and ice smoothies there. What an entertaining little child…
EDIT: I forgot to talk about fries. We learned the other night when we have fries for dinner the table belongs in the TV/Computer area. We aren’t sure why, but we guess that fries aren’t considered a real dinner to Milo.
Smoothies have quickly become a nightly ritual around this place. The “table” must be moved in front of the TV/computer area. Then as Dad creates the smoothies Milo begs for whatever stray chunks of fruit or ice cream he can get out of Dad. The word create was carefully chosen as each night the fruit and juice combination has the possibility of being new and different. Sometimes it is a hit and sometimes the combination will not be tried again. Take last night and tonight as an example. Costco was unfortunately out of frozen strawberries, so we grabbed a berry medley (blueberries, raspberries, and marionberries). I figured I would try a berry smoothie (raspberry ice cream, berry medley and peach/cranberry juice). It wasn’t so good. The taste was fine at first, but it eventually became an overpowering taste filled with seeds. Milo didn’t each much of his smoothie. When Monica and I had finished ours Milo asked me to make smoothies again. Apparently my creation didn’t pass the Milo test.
Tonight on my way home I stopped by Trader Joe’s to grab some frozen fruit (including the much desired strawberries). I like tropical fruit so I grabbed mangos and a tropical fruit medley in addition to the strawberries. I figured that a mango/tropical fruit medley, orange juice, and raspberry sherbet smoothie was worth a try. Yeah, orange or pineapple sherbet would have been nice, but our freezer is only SO big and we need to have more than smoothie ingredients in it 
After a hesitant first bite or two, I found approval with a hearty, “Me like it!” from the boy. Based on that ringing endorsement I figured I should publish my recipes. You can make more or less to suit you..it is the general proportions that are important.
“Ice” Smoothies (there is no ice included…but Milo is the smoothie boss and he named them) – this recipe was developed based on smoothie recipes from Amanda Yauney…thanks Amanda! I purposely don’t include ice as we never seem to have ice around.
2 large scoops of sherbet
2 cups of fruit (to remove the need for ice or additional freezing time it is best if at least 75% of the fruit is frozen)
1.5 cups of juice (or a juice/water mixture)
Blend it all up and eat! If you use fresh fruit you can put it in the freezer for a bit to thicken up.
We also have smoothies for breakfast which don’t require a spoon to consume. Milo “just” calls these smoothies. We credit Dan & Kim Vause (and Dan’s mother I guess) for help in developing this recipe.
Breakfast Smoothies
0.5 cups plain yogurt
1 scoop of whey powder
1 cup of juice (or a juice/water mixture)
1-1.5 cups frozen fruit
honey (optional…it makes the drink a bit sweeter when the fruit you are using may not be naturally sweet)
Blend it up and drink!
What a clean eater!
Milo has picked up a new word. The new word is “just.” He uses it all the time and it makes us laugh. He likes to say “just” peanut butter for lunch or “just” go to the park or “just” about anything.
So last night we went out to Costco. When we asked him where he wanted to go, he told us “just” Costco. We did our usual and went to In-N-Out after our Costco run. He told us he wanted “just” fries. When I get ready to say his prayers with him at night, he tells me that he “just” wants mom to say the prayer.
We “just” thought you’d like to know.
Milo is sleeping in his bed all night. If he comes into our room during the night, he sees that we are sleeping and goes back to bed. When he hears that Scott is awake he goes downstairs with him. That is progress.
Sometimes he will go to bed by himself without any extra help. Sometimes I have to lay down by him before he goes to sleep. We thought that music might help him calm down and fall asleep without our help. He has fallen asleep in the car to Jazz music, so I thought we could try that. He seems to like the music. We still have a couple of issues to work out with naptimes, but we are progressing.
I just wanted to say that I enjoyed our trip to see the Golden Gate Bridge. I would have liked to see the bridge without the fog, but I guess that will have to wait for another time.
It was a lot of fun to go see the lighthouses. I really enjoy seeing them. Scott has a few more lined up for us to see. I am excited about that. The fog on the coast was really depressing to me. It seemed like it was about to storm the entire time, but I’ve learned that is not what it means.
I am enjoying our adventures. It is fun to be able to go see things that I haven’t seen before and to learn more about the places we are going.
I am sure that at least some of you noticed our website was up and down like a yo-yo there for a bit. Our DSL modem decided to become unreliable shortly after we left SLC. I finally decided that it wasn’t going to get better and requested a new modem from Qwest. Dan was nice enough to spend an entire night on the phone with me last week to get it up and going. Sometimes I forget how nonstandard and involved my network setup is… So far it seems to be working fine, but I am sure that this post will change that. Anyway, we hope that the site will be more stable for the rest of the summer, and I won’t regret the decision to have it located on our server (which I was doing for the first month). Thanks Dan!
On Saturday we headed north to see the Golden Gate Bridge and a couple of lighthouses. I thought that it was a great trip! Monica and Milo may have a different opinion. When I think of San Francisco I think of fog and the Golden Gate bridge. That is what we experienced. Contrary to what I expected the fog season is in the summer and not the winter. Apparently the warm air of the central CA valleys rises and draws the colder ocean air inward to produce the cool evening breezes and fog. It had been rather warm the end of last week in the valleys which led to some significant fog this weekend. Good stuff!
We left a little later in an attempt to be at the beach around sunset. The Golden Gate Bridge was the first stop on our list for the day. Based on my reading the best viewing locations when the fog rolls in are on the north side of the bridge so that is where we headed. We will probably explore Golden Gate Park and the south side viewing locations during another trip. We first stopped at Vista Point which is the first exit on the north side of the bridge. It is a nice viewing area but quite crowded. I found it amazing that the fog seemed to cling to the bridge…almost as if it were teasing us foolish humans waiting around to catch a glimpse of the bridge.
We hopped back into the car and headed toward the Marin Headlands and Battery Spencer (Battery referes to a military installation. The San Francisco bay was quite well fortified during the Civil War and WWII.). I really enjoyed this spot. The wind was blowing which meant Milo claimed, “Me freezing!” Monica and Milo went back to the car after a few minutes. I stuck around to watch the fog roll in and out. It was a lot of fun to watch. I find it memsmerizing how fog can change the landscape (see the last two photos below taken from the exact same location).
Point Bonita Lighthouse was next on the agenda. It is only open 12 hours/week. It sounded like a worthwhile site, so this trip was planned around being able to visit this lighthouse. It wasn’t jaw-dropping, but it was worth the visit. The trail to the lighthouse takes you along the cliffs toward the lighthouse and is complete with a small tunnel. When you reach the lighthouse there is a suspension bridge that leads to the edifice. The suspension bridge has a limit of two people at a time (500 lbs.). This limit is enforced by a nice pair of volunteers. The bridge didn’t scare Milo at all, but he wasn’t exactly excited about waiting in the line to get across.
We left the lighthouse and decided to take a short hike down to Kirby Cove which has some nice views of the Golden Gate Bridge (when there isn’t fog). It is a very nice little beach. Milo was a bit afraid of getting down near the water, but we did hang out and watch the boats sail by. As we hiked up the trail (really a road) I again became mesmerized by the bridge and the fog. The fog seemed a bit less dense…so I managed to convince everyone to take the short trip up to Battery Spencer again. It was still very windy and foggy. It actually was a bit less foggy this time so we tried to get a family photo. The only problem was that Milo wouldn’t look at the camera. He just clung to Monica claiming, “Me freezing!” I guess the Yosemite experience really did scare him. We will have to work on that fear.
We hit the road again and headed up to Point Reyes National Seashore. We wanted to see a lighthouse there and hang out on the beach for sunset. It is the Point Reyes lighthouse and is supposed to be at the 2nd foggiest point in the U.S. (according to one of my guidebooks). We arrived after the “visiting hours” which meant we couldn’t descend the 300+ stairs down to the actual lighthouse. Luckily, I had brought along my telephoto lens. I managed to get a few photos without having to worry about people getting in the way. Yes, it was foggy. It was amazing how it worked. It was a beautiful blue sky until we started to get near the coast and then it fogged right up.
We decided to try and visit beach that was a few miles north of Point Reyes lighthouse with the hope of getting out of the gloomy fog. It of course didn’t work. We did have a nice time at McClures beach watching the waves.
We headed out a bit before dark and stopped at a small town Deli for dinner. It wasn’t anything special like the Taqueria we found on the way home from Monterey, but it was food. The drive home took us a bit longer than expected. We chose to go back via Highway 1 (it was really the only choice). The windy (as in many sharp turns), foggy road didn’t allow us to drive very fast. It was an interesting adventure to say the least.
I was quite impressed by the wildflowers on this trip. The moisture and temperate climate along the coast helps them grow I guess. These pictures don’t do them justice, but it is an attempt. The other thing that impressed me was the size of the curlycup gumweed! It was gigantic! I kept thinking I should take a picture of it with my hand in the picture for scale. I never managed to find the courage to do it, so you will just have to believe me on that one.
This is the park that Milo and I have been going to most days of the week since we’ve been here. Milo enjoys going down the slides. There are several different ones he likes to go down. There is a swimming pool that is for private use (I think) that he likes to stop and look at. He especially likes it because of its awesome blue and yellow slide that he’s wanted to go down. The park also has plenty of sand for him to play in and of course a lot of people to watch. We’ve even gotten Scott to go to the park with us in the evenings to kick around the soccer ball for a little bit. He enjoys the park quite a bit.
I have found a few other parks that I’d like to take Milo to, but he hasn’t been feeling the greatest the past few days and it has been quite hot here, so we haven’t gone out a lot. So hopefully next week we can go try them out.
Milo has really been enjoying his books the last few weeks. Before today (when we went to the library) he would always want to read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle and “Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks from A to Z” which Milo calls his “Apple Car” book. He has been enjoying them so much that they are getting tattered around the edges. The past week or so he has been asking to read them “meself.” And might I add that it is a treat to have him turn the pages on the book and tell you the story in his own sweet way. It is priceless!
So after going to the library, Milo had me read his library books to him two different times and then one time when Scott got home. He was so excited about it that he even wanted to read one of his library books before bed in addition to his Apple Car book. He was too tired and so we didn’t get far with the books tonight.