Weekend with Rachel II

Most of my posts are about 1-2 weeks after the actual event, but at least I'm consistent.

My friend from high school happened to be in the bay area again so we invited her to stay with us another weekend. This time I scheduled garage sale shopping, a train ride in a beautiful park, and some beach time at Half Moon Bay.

Will's current obsession is trains. Specifically, Thomas and friends. I think Thomas, Percy, Gordon, or Emily make it into every other phrase he spits out. Thanks to this TV show, he can say things like, "shunting trucks" and "engine shed". He also picked up "cheeky" and "bother" which is really cute to hear.
So I've been looking for trains in the area he can ride. I found a small train ride in Los Gatos (30 min drive for us) at Vasona Park. The best part is it's only $2 per ride! (I found another train in the Santa Cruz mountains that was more like $22 per ride.) They also have a carousel for $2.

We had a beautiful walk through the park after the train and carousel shut down.
There were baby geese! I can't help squealing with joy when I'm around baby geese/ducks. They're just so adorable I could watch them for hours.
We stopped at a wonderful Mexican restaurant in Los Gatos called Las Esquina (The Corner). We watched a cute Mexican grandma make our tortillas from scratch...yummm! It was so fresh.

Once again, I didn't take ANY pictures so I'm completely relying on Rachel's pictures and she, understandably, hardly takes pictures of herself. Here's some from our trip to Half Moon Bay.
The flowers below are called Ice Plants! I never would have guessed, but I love seeing these flowers. I learned the name of many plants while Rachel was here. I really admire her passion for gardening and nature. She even planted some flowers in my patio when I wasn't looking! I'm trying to make sure Will doesn't destroy them.
The highlight for Will was running after the many dogs and horses on the beach.
It was a beautiful, fun weekend, and well photographed thanks to Rachel.

The Beach?

I don't know why we haven't learned our lesson yet. We keep assuming that sunny and warm here means it will be sunny and warm at the beach. Not true for 8 out of 10 trips to Half Moon Bay. (rough estimate)
Some of Britton's family joined us early in the morning to beat the Memorial Day traffic. We ended up roaming the trails and beach in our sweatshirts and blankets before noon. But it wasn't crowded!
Will ate some more sand. Yummm.
Here's a shot of the older (more mature?) Olson boys laughing as the younger Olson boy struggles to get out of their sand trap.
I think this is a beach tradition for the Olson family too.
We ended up making a little cabana out of this chair by draping towels and blankets over the canopy. It was great to get a break from the wind for a little bit. Will was a pretty good sport during the trip. Especially after taking a little nap in our cabana.
It was fun to just play by the ocean even if we were freezing.

*Not pictured in this post is Derek's girlfriend Paola. (the real reason he's visiting) She was shivering under a blanket most of the time.

Lately

I blame my lack of posting on the nice faux-summer weather we've been having. I realized that we're not taking advantage of the great things to see and do in this area. It seems like having guests visit is the only way to get myself to explore my own backyard. So we have vowed to plan more trips and activities while we live here.
We took Will to the beach for the first time on Saturday. I heard about this cliff side trail at Half Moon Bay. Better to do this one before Will can walk! I think it's about a 100 ft. drop down to the beach. That didn't stop me from getting way too close to the edge myself for this shot!
The breeze was even warm!
Will got his first experience touching beach sand. He can touch playground sand anytime he wants to.
Later that day we visited our friends Matt and Sarah. Britton went to high school with Matt. They are only here for a limited time which also helps us to get out of the house and take advantage of our time with them. And take advantage we did! Unfortunately there were no pizza pockets, but we had a pasta dinner with them and this amazing chocolate/caramel apple, and we got to play with their cute little girl.
I don't have any pictures of what we did the rest of the weekend, but I have a feeling they'll be on Facebook soon. I wasn't sure if I should bother putting the beach pictures on here because it seems that everyone and their mom (literally) is on Facebook now.

Now that's it's cooler weather, here's the indoor activities I'm looking forward to.

1. Japanese class! (It starts today!)
2. Hanging out with my neighbor and Will's newborn friend Gabe!
3. Getting into some sewing projects. I really want to make my own diaper bag. That neon green on the Kaiser bag just isn't cutting it anymore.
4. Doing my best to decorate the house.
5. Sunday Fun Day with the neighbors:)
6. 24 Night with some people from church.
7. Getting into "couponing" check out the coupon queen's tutorial
8. Watching Will roll around
9. Blogging of course
10. I just wanted it to be a nice, even 10

Let me know if you have anymore indoor ideas :)