The Dennis the Menace Playground

Nice Park, but a little too far to be practical.

Ha.  Just kidding.  This is an AWESOME playground.  It's more like a mini amusement park than a true blue park.  So here is a run down of the way cool things here.

A huge train for climbing on.

Climbing wall.

Bouncy bridge between two hills.

 

Various tunnels.  Who is that guy?  I don't know.  Apparently Kyle has no qualms about taking stranger's pictures like I do.

Enormous slides.

Huge bridge arch thingy

Playground type stuff.

 Bush maze with lookout tower.

Nearby paddle boat rentals.

Umm... I'm not entirely sure what this is supposed to be.

Here are some shots of us enjoying ourselves.

There were some signs saying how far we were from different cities.  Bonus points to whoever figures out where we are without looking at the end of this post.

Downsides?  

It was a little crowded on a Saturday.  Parking is scarce.  It is in Monterey so it's a bit of a drive just to visit.  

But this park is so awesome we will definitely come here the next time we are in Monterey.

777 Pearl Street, Monterey, CA

Scone Sunday

We went to Ada's House for conference and scones on Sunday. 

Here is how Adelaide paid attention.

And how Kyle paid attention.

Just kidding.  It was more like this.

 

All cozy!

Vivian loved River and chased him around.

We came home for the second session.  Meghan was entranced by the speakers. 

TV Tikes

Self Serve Peanut Butter

The Camera Story: This was going to be a post about the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but now it's a Crepe Restaurant Review

Last Saturday (March 26) we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with Kyle's parents.  

Kyle: Hey, we've got a whole summer ahead of us.  Let's go ahead and get the season pass.
Tanya: Well... Ok  I guess.

Kyle brought his super fancy 600 dollar camera that I hate lugging around because its so big, but hey, he bought it before we were married and he's carrying it so I can't really complain, right?  (Well, I could, but I'm a better person than that.) He took several pictures and was pretty proud of them.  Then I got stressed.

Tanya:  I am stressed.  There are too many people here.  They are crowding me.  Can we leave now?
Kyle:  That's why it's called a crowd, dear.  It's supposed to happen.
Terrie:  Kyle, your wife is so beautiful and perfect and you have to do what she says.
Kyle:  Ok. Maybe we'll come back later.
Tanya (thinking):  Ha. Like that will ever happen.  My evil plot is in motion.

So, we left. But we were hungry so we went to a crepe restaurant.  It seemed like an interesting and different place to go.  They served sweet and savory crepes.  It couldn't be too bad a place because there were bottles of Nutella all over.

Kyle:  Let's eat here!  It's different and interesting and not McDonalds.
Tanya:  Well, they do decorate in Nutella.  I guess it will be OK.

We had some crepes.  They were OK, if a little expensive and the order taker was a little rude.  I figured, hey, forgive the guy.  Rudeness is one of the big city symptoms you can't get away from like smog-lung and diversity.  We ended up leaving after eating, driving the 90 minutes home in exhaustion.

Then Sunday I made some fancy Shmancy cookies that I wanted to blog about.  So I asked Kyle to take a picture.

Kyle:  I can't find my camera. Where is it?
Tanya:  Just use mine.
Kyle:  Why do we have it if I never use it?
Tanya:  You could just use mine, it's easier than looking for it.
Kyle:  I want to use mine. Can you help me find it?
Tanya:  I will find it later.  Just use mine.
Kyle:  No! Hulk Use Hulk's Camera!  (tears off shirt and rampages)
Tanya:  Ok. I will look for it.  Just use mine while I do.

Well, we couldn't find it. We looked and we looked.  Nowhere.  I figured it would turn up.  But it didn't.   After much calm discourse, we decided it might be back in Monterey, possibly in the crepe restaurant.  So we looked up their phone number and tried to call them.  

Kyle (to the phone):  Hello?  Hello?  Hellooooo?
(Kyle hangs up)
Kyle (to Tanya):  They won't answer.  It rings and rings then a click and silence.
Tanya:  Ok.  I will try during the day while you're gone because I am brave and not a phone-phobe at all.
(much later)
Tanya (to the phone, sweating and slightly panicky):  Hello?  Hello?  Hellloooooo?
Tanya (to Kyle):  They won't answer.  It rings and rings then a click and silence.
Kyle:  Do you want to go to Monterey?
Tanya:  Not really.  I'm sure it will show up.
Kyle: (puppy eyes)
Tanya:  Fine.

So this Saturday (April 2) we went back to Monterey.  We listened to conference on Kyle's phone on the drive and yelled at children in what I hope is a religiously acceptable manner.  We parked and the first place we went was the crepe place.

Kyle:  I think I left my camera here last week.
Guy Behind the Counter (in a light (but should be heavy because it's funnier that way) Mexican or Mediterranean accent):  Do you know how many camera's I find here!  Lots of lost tourist cameras!  You should have come back last week maybe half an hour later.
Kyle: I didn't know it was missing until Sunday. I tried calling-
GBtC:  I don't take orders so the only calls I get are advertisers and I don't like to talk to them.
Kyle:  Then why do you have a pho-
GBtC:  You can't expect me to answer the phone when I work with so many customers and I'm busy and I can't be bothered by you tourists!  You should have come back sooner!  A week is too long.  You are inconveniencing me!
Kyle:  I live an hour away.  I have a job during the wee-
GBtC:  You should have come sooner.  You can't expect me to keep track of all the camera's you tourists lose.  Somebody could have taken it.  It's your fault for losing it.
Kyle:  I can describe it to you.  Its in a blue and black case.  Its a Nikon D50.  Can you just look?
BGtC:  Grumble grumble (goes in the back, comes back out with our camera)
Kyle:  Yay!  Thank you!

Well, since we were in Monterey anyways, with a fancy camera to boot, we decided to let our hair down and relax.  We went to the aquarium again, but only for a little while (advantage of a season pass).  Kyle didn't bother taking pictures this time because he already had aquarium pictures from last week.  We had lunch, but not at the crepe place because we decided that we didn't really care for crepes anymore.  Then we went to this huge and spiffy playground dedicated to Dennis the Menace (review forthcoming).  Pleased with our day, we returned home.

Then today I figured I would get to blogging about that aquarium visit we did last week.  I was excited to see how well Kyle's pictures turned out.  I plugged in the camera.  I opened the folder.  

Tanya:  Huh.  Where are the aquarium pictures?  What's this?  Kyle?  Why did you take this picture?

Kyle:  What? I didn't take that.

Tanya:  Let's see when it was taken.  March 31?  That was Thursday.  And the aquarium pictures are gone.

(realization dawns)

Kyle:  No wonder he was so angry about me asking for my camera back.

So instead of Monterey Bay Aquarium pictures, you get this:

And a Crepe Restaurant review:

The food was decent, if not very filling.  I found it a little pricey, although that could be understandable due to a location so close to the highly popular Monterey Bay Aquarium.  However, the staff are rude and unhelpful.  Do not try to call, they don't take orders.  Not recommended.  Oh, and they will delete all your Aquarium pictures.

Engineer Mom Take 2

Yeah. I'm too lazy to take them to the pool.

Mitchell Park

Nice park.  Too far to be practical. 

Loved the gopher holes though.

600 East Meadow Drive, Palo Alto, CA 94306

She Does Her Own Stunts

Coconutties

Kyle's New Favorite Cookie (TM)

Modified from the Despicable Me Blu-Ray

Coconutties

4 large egg whites

3 cups dried sweetened and shredded coconut

3/4 c sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 c all purpose flour

1/2 c chopped almonds

1 c white chocolate chips (or 1/2 semisweet chocochips and 1/2 white)

Directions:

Put egg whites, coconut, sugar, vanilla extract and flour in a large heavy pot. Mix Well. Cook on low heat for 6-8 minutes, stirring constantly so that it does not stick.

When mixture becomes thick remove from heat and let cool, still stirring occasionally. Add chopped nuts. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets and bake for 12-13 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and leave to cool completely on the baking sheets.

Once cool, melt chocolate chips in seperate microwave safe dishes for one minute on 70% power, stir. Cook for 30 seconds more on 70% power and stir again. Drizzle over each cookie.

Crazy Climber

Her fear of ledges, heights and edges has suddenly disappeared. Anything bottom rib height is scalable. Guess its time to block off the stairs. Or put a mattress at the bottom.

Haircut Repair - Round 2

So the scissor incident that resulted in the loss of Meghan's curls is still having consequences. Addy's hair is so thin and fine that while wisps on top are easy to ignore, longer length discrepancy means a strange uneven appearance. She also got the worse end of the self inflicted scissor accident with tufts of hair only an inch or two long. So recently, one of those tufts got long enough to mostly get incorporated. Admittedly it is a little shorter than I would like (oops on my part) but the point is to catch all the hair up to itself so that it looks more full. Here is the results of the evened up hairdo.

Addy delights in telling Daddy that "Mommy cut my hair! She was naughty and needs to go to the corner!"

I Love My Wagon

It makes walking back from the park so easy.

Here's the other babies.

Technically Addy will also fit in the wagon with Viv but she chose to walk with me.

Yes she's barefoot walking down the street. We're barefoot type people and only wear shoes when forced to by social convention.

Almond Happiness

I love big bags of almonds from Costco!

Nom Nom Nom Nom.

Grant Park

So I admit, after awhile all these playgrounds's equipment begin to look the same. I mean you've got the slides and the towers and kid friendly steps. If you're lucky you get monkey bars. And for some reason the metal posts are always painted green. I suppose its to try to blend in with the environment. "Look! I'm really a leafy tree!" (Personally, I haven't been convinced yet). Or maybe green is one of those colors science says is soothing and conflict reducing. You know, to cut down on the violence that naturally occurs whenever two or more children are located within 100 feet of each other. Not sure how much that works, but my kids continue to steal toys and yell at strangers without much regard to the soothing effects.

Color scheme aside, Grant Park is quiet. Super quiet. Like I could hear the white noise of nature quiet. Which, now that I think of it, is actually disconcerting because nature is rather few and far between in the middle of the city. Anyways, very peaceful and relaxing. It is separated from a quiet, residential street by fencing, a small parking lot, and more fencing. There are big swaths of grass for running and for flowers to pick and even trees on the far away fences that provide handy-dandy sticks. Hardly anyone was there on a pleasant sweater morning.

Oh yeah. Check out the climbing rock back there! I love climbing rocks. If I wasn't a mother of three and chasing them around half the time (and terrified of strange looks) I'd totally be sitting up on the climbing rocks. AND a tire swing! I thought I wouldn't ever see tire swings anymore. Admittedly there are warning stickers all over both of these playground treasures berating you to be careful and play with caution and to take note that the city is not responsible for your idiotic use of the equipment. But I'll deal with a little bit of slightly peeled, gummy paper if I get to have tire swings and climbing rocks.

Spider nets are fun too.

And mud makers. Officially it's a water fountain but we all know its real purpose in life - supplying water to the mud addicts.

I felt a little weird taking this picture, like I should be asking the parents to sign waivers and permission forms for me to photograph their kids. But I decided that I was just photographing my own kid and the other children were unfortunate casualties in the line of fire. I'm always paranoid about taking pictures in public because I just know one of these days some angry person is going to yell at me for capturing their child's soul in my camera. So I try to do it furtively without being furtive - quickly and discreetly, without the "I'm doing something wrong" guilty look on my face. Yeah, I totally think too much about these things.

All in all, Grant Park is an excellent, quiet park. Small enough to keep track of kids, while spacious enough for a bit of exercise. In fact, I can't think of anything to complain about. OK. I take that back (After all I am a master complainer). My one complaint: It's not close enough to my house. The city planners totally should have thought of that when they decided to build it. Selfish city planners.

1575 Holt Ave, Los Altos, CA 94024

Mobile Unit at the Park

Lazy Sunday Morning

Ahh. Relaxing Pre-Church Nap...

What the?

Huh?

"Hi Mom! Getting Dad ready."

Oh. Carry on then.