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.

1st Birthday and Bad Booboos

The time has finally come to celebrate Will's first birthday!! Our chubby baby is stretching out into a pudgy toddler. He's still working on walking, and has taken a few steps and stood by himself once.

Some of his favorite things:
Brushes. His current favorite is the toothbrush. Take it away from him and he will start wailing!
Piggyback rides
yogurt, bread, and strawberries
doggies
attention from adults, but more especially kids

His new favorite toy is the Little People airplane that his Aunt Erin got him. It sings an annoyingly catchy song that Will loves to dance to. As I type this he's pressing the button and waving his arms around.

For the double birthday celebration (Will shares his birthday with his Uncle Alex), the Olson clan rode the carousel and train at Tilden Park.
Like mother, like daughter!
We spent a little time in the sand and surf at an Alameda beach. Not the same as the real beach, but it met the requirements. (sand, warm weather, and not too disgusting water, although Alex did get sick...)
And we wrapped the party up with some more swimming, pizza, and ice cream cake at our place. There's 11 candles for Alex, and one for Will.
As you can guess from the title of the post, life is not all fun and games for the Willster. Yesterday morning I was holding him in the kitchen and he reached out and put his little hand right on the burner. Not even the musical airplane could distract him from screaming.
There's a blister on each finger, but the one shown here is the worst. It's pretty much the size of his finger! It's been over 24 hours and still hasn't popped. Hope no one is eating right now...but any advice for severe blisters?


A note for worriers
Will is fine. After a nap yesterday he was back to his normal, happy self. I'm using antibiotic ointment and band-aids on him.