Safari Adventure!

In California, 4th graders are required to study the missions.  And at our school this involves visiting one, writing a report on it, and completing some sort of project.  Ella (with our encouragement) chose to study the mission in Carmel and built a model of it.  Delia (also with our encouragement) picked the mission in Sonoma and will be making a scrap book.  We had a long weekend and were excited to turn this mission assignment into a little getaway.  Upon inspecting the hotels in wine country, though, we were disappointed to learn they were pretty pricey!  But, then we were excited to learn that for just a bit more, we could have a real one-of-a-kind experience just a few miles from Delia's mission.  So, we booked a safari and an overnight at a little-known place called Safari West.  

Safari West is a privately owned property of 400 acres, full of exotic animals.  The owner is from a family that raised exotic animals for Hollywood movies and has maintained a love for collecting African mammals.  His wife is the former curator of the San Francisco Zoo, so together this couple is passionate about breeding the animals for the good of their population and then educating and sharing with the public through a unique safari experience.  

When you stay overnight at Safari West, you stay in a luxury canvas tent.  It has a bathroom and electricity, and the comfy beds are equipped with heated blankets to make your stay super cozy.  The tents are right on the grounds with the animals, so you hear animal sounds all night!  It was a very wet weekend, so we actually mostly just heard rain, which makes the most lovely sound when falling on canvas.  We were fine, and excited even, about staying in a tent, but this far exceeded our expectations.  It was very luxurious.  After our night in the tent, we were served a huge and amazing breakfast too!

Near the tent camp are numerous enclosures full of cool animals to walk around and look at-- tons of different monkeys, duikers, cheetahs, flamingos, our favorite the cute little fennec foxes, and an awesome aviary we could go inside for up-close bird encounters.

We spent a lot of time walking around visiting the animals at all times of day-- the afternoon we arrived, in the dark of night and then again in the morning.  And then it was time to take our 3 hour long safari ride!  A very knowledgeable and articulate guide drives you around the rugged back roads on an army-style Jeep.  With the rain, we were the only ones in our group crazy enough to want that bench on top, so we scored that.  Whenever a new animal is spotted on the safari, the guide stops the Jeep and hops out to give information about it.  This happened often-- the animals were everywhere!

We kicked off this tour with a real bang in the giraffe meadow.  These giraffes are used to the Jeeps rumbling through their land, so we learned quickly that they were FRIENDLY!!!  As soon as our Jeep stopped they started wandering over to check us out.  We were told not to pet them, but we totally could have, they were that close.  Up on top, we were screaming with delight and snapping pictures like crazy.  As we pulled away, Ella even cried some happy tears and said that was coolest thing that has ever happened to her in her whole life.  It was amazing, the highlight of the whole weekend, and completely worth the entire trip out to Safari West.

No other animals came as close to us as the giraffes, which was fine, because the other animals were all things like rhinos, zebras, watusi, wildebeest, various horned antelope, and cape buffalo.  We learned so much and were just thrilled to get such a neat look at these African mammals.  The rain did not seem to deter the animals from being seen and active.  The long drive around the rolling green back hills was very neat too.

Towards the end of our tour, the rain really started to come down.  At first this was just another fun part of the adventure and we laughed about singing "I Bless the Rains Down in Africa", but we got pretty soaked and were glad the tour ended when it did.  And we were REALLY glad that we got to see the giraffes as active and curious about us as they were, because when we went back through their land, they were all hiding from the downpour in the boma.

I'll end this post about an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience with this funny story.  At one point an ornery ostrich was right in the road we needed to take to exit.  Our guide pulled out her squirt bottle, which is apparently how they get animals in the road to clear off.  This made us giggle, though, as were in a downpour and doubted the ostrich could even feel the spray of the bottle.  We hung there for a bit, waiting for him to move. :)

We would absolutely recommend both the overnight and the the safari trip at Safari West.  Though it looks like a big splurge, you can save a lot by going in the off season (if you're willing to deal with a little rain), and you can remember that staying anywhere else in this part of wine country is not actually going to be that much cheaper.  I think we made some more forever memories on this trip, which is always my favorite kind of investment.

Stages

I've been thinking lately about how fast it goes.  How it seems like just yesterday our days were spent mostly at home, looking for ways to get out.  Now we are gone so much, we yearn to spend Saturdays doing nothing but being home.

The days of play dates, trips to the fountain park, wagon rides, errands that had to be squeezed in between nap time, feeding the goats at the cheese place, leisurely strolls around the Target, baking for fun, crafting to fill time, Tuesday morning Women's Bible Study, and overused, tattered princess dress-up clothes are long gone...though they certainly don't feel all that far away.

Now our lives are full of Student Council meetings, basketball practice and games, band and choir concerts, piano recitals, dance rehearsal, book reports, California mission projects, sleepovers, and church youth group meetings (strangely, though, not for Dave anymore--  now the girls!).

I am not necessarily complaining.  Sometimes I miss those good old days, but each new stage brings new adventures.  I am so proud of Ella for running for Student Council, nailing her speech, and being elected rep of her 6th grade class.  I'm delighted that Delia is so excited about what she's reading that she reads her book report books aloud to me as I wash dishes.  I think Ella will learn so much about teamwork and hard physical activity in her brand new experience on the girls' basketball team.  I love that Delia gets to be a part of a special youth group our church runs for girls in 4th-8th grade and I get to be her teacher!

When I do start to feel sad about how fast it goes, I will just find solace in reading all those old blog posts, where I obsessively recorded every single detail.  And I will thank God that I was blessed with that opportunity to stay home with my girls for a couple years, soaking in their early childhoods.

(Here are a few pictures and videos I've been collecting these past few months.  None of Ella in her school basketball uniform or Student Council shirt with her last name on it, though, I try to protect that info a little bit on the blog.)

 Ella making cookies for a Student Council sponsored bake sale.

 Delia's completed Pumpkin Biography project.  Can you guess whose biography she read? ;)

Ella singing in a choir concert.  Dave and I actually missed this because we were at the Cubs game, so the picture is from a friend.

Celebrating report cards full of straight A's at Krispy Kreme, where you get 1 free donut for each A.

A video of Ella playing "The Entertainer", one of her favorite songs this season, at her piano recital. She actually performed 4 songs-- one of them a duet with Delia singing!
 

Fly the W

As I mentioned this summer, we're starting to get our hopes up that this year it might actually happen.  Our Cubs are looking good and might just get to see some 108 year old history being made!  To celebrate the Cubs' easy entrance into the post season, the girls and I ordered this little present for Dave for October.  I posted this picture of Dave with his new W flag on social media and SO many of our local friends did not understand it, that I am going to link you to a W Flag explanation, if you too have never heard of this Cubs tradition.   

We've been excited that our W Flag is making regular appearances in our living room during this NLDS against the home-town favorite SF Giants.

Since it's become no secret that Dave is a big Cubs fan, and since we've been so excited about their success this year, and since our church friends are just awesome, on Sunday Dave was given a Pastor Appreciation Day card...that had 2 tickets to Game 4 in it!!!!  (Our friends also researched Dave's schedule and found a substitute to lead his Tuesday night class, and offered to take our kids for a sleepover, including bringing Ella to a band/choir concert.)

In order for us to see this Game 4 of the series, though, we had to actually root for the Cubs to NOT sweep the series in 3 games.  Monday night we stayed up late on the edge of our seats half wanting the Cubs to just win and advance and half wanting them to lose so we could go to this game!

Well, as you know if you watched that crazy game on Monday, Game 4 was a go!  So, off we went when I was done with school.  We put on all our Cubbie clothes and hopped on the BART to SF.  As soon as we got out of our car to walk to the station, we saw other Cubs fans and shared a "YEAH CUBBIES!" cheer with them.  At the ball park, we high-fived other Cubs fans as we passed them while walking around.  We had numerous conversations with Bay-Area Cubs enthusiasts about what part of Chicago they were from.  We laughed hopefully about how this was "our year."  I'm sure a playoff game in Wrigley is just amazing, but there was something SO COOL about this experience too.  We felt such a fun bond with the other fans in blue and took such pride in our Chicago citizenship.  Becoming BFFs with fellow Cubs fans, who were in fact total strangers, was half the fun of the night for us.

The National Anthem was especially cool!  The crowd was a near sell-out.  We've never experienced baseball with so much passion, enthusiasm and NOISE!  My heart was pounding the whole time, largely due to the excitement of the crowd!

 It was rally rag night.  I was excited to get a new, free dusting cloth! ;)

Okay.  Let's talk about this game.  90% of it actually kinda sucked.  We never had a lead.  We suffered through several Giants runs throughout the course of 8 innings and were just saying to the Giants fans around us, "It's okay.  We're used to this.  We'll get ya in the next game", when they said, "Sorry, Cubs Couple!" to us at what looked like the end of it.  THEN at the top of 9th, we lost our minds completely as the Cubs came back from a 3 run deficit to score 4 and take the lead!  Then when they brought in Chapman, Mr. 103-mile-per-hour-pitches, to shut the thing down he did in 9 straight strikes.  And suddenly, we were the winners!  Two Cubs fans, one right in front of and one behind us, lost their minds with us.  We were jumping, and cheering with each other and high-fiving! We whipped out our W flag for a picture and had Cubs fans from all over our section come and ask if they could borrow it for one too!

We made our way down the Cubs dugout where all the other displaced Chicagoans had gathered to cheer together.  We made more friends: our most interesting was a pair of guys who have been traveling back and forth to every Cubs playoff game this year and plan to continue doing so.  A round of "Hey Chicago, Whadaya Say?" broke out.  The players emerged from the dugout to do interviews and wave at us.  We chanted their names.  It was just the coolest.

So many things made this night one we'll remember forever.  The nature of the game and that insane come-from-behind win to clinch it, of course.  But also, the fans we enjoyed this game with.  I've already mentioned the kinship we felt with other Cubs fans in the park, but the Giants fans were so gracious, classy and generous too.  When our Cubs won, everyone around us high-fived, thumbs-upped and smiled at us.  Several people made a point to come to us and say, "Good game!  You guys deserved that!  We'll be cheering for you in the World Series."  We left the ball park late, after celebrating by the dugout, and AT&T Park employees, crossing guards, and people on the street on the walk back to the BART were all super nice.  Some Giants fans on the crowded BART even gave up their seats for us, saying "You won! You earned the seats!"  We have always thought of the Giants as our number 2 team and have enjoyed watching them win their championships the past 6 years.  We even let our own daughter cheer for them for a while! :)  We continue to respect and think the best of them.

And, obviously, our friends, who knew what the best way to honor and appreciate Dave would be and who went to the work of making this night happen for us.  We'll never forget it.  We suspect we may even be telling our grandkids some day about the 2016 World Champion Chicago Cubs and the NLDS championship they clinched in the most dramatic fashion...that WE WERE THERE FOR!

Mani/Pedi for Grandma Betty

About once a month, the girls and I go and visit a sweet 90+ year old woman from our church family named Betty.  The girls bring our tub of nail polishes and they paint her toes and fingers for her-- a job she told me her late husband used to do when her hands started shaking.  This has become a sweet time for all of us.  Grandma Betty tells the girls fascinating stories about what life was like when she was a young girl.  Then before we leave, she insists that Ella and Delia pick out necklaces and glass figurines from her collection.  She also gives them a few bucks.  The girls truly love participating in this act of service, and I'm so proud of them when they try to refuse her money.  But Grandma Betty says, "When you get old, you just accumulate stuff, including money.  It gives me greater joy to give it away than keep it."  What a neat lesson for all of us. :)

Back To School

So, here is my annual Three-Weeks-After-School-Has-Started "Back to School" post!  I guess I just need about 3 weeks to feel like I kinda got life under control again before I spend time blogging. 

This year is off to a great start!  I am teaching preschool all 5 days again, in the same classroom, with the same team of teachers consistently and I am so happy.  I have 2 neat classes of kids who have already captured my heart and added adorable sayings and stories to my collection.  There are just enough challenges in each class to keep every day interesting too. :)

 Here we are on the first day of school, sporting gleaming new shoes and some new school gear.

Delia is super excited about this year!  She got a teacher we've never had, but know is one of the best on staff.  Miss S. is actually a friend.  I bring the girls to help in my classroom the week before school starts, but then I often have to hunt them down because they have ditched me to hang out with Miss S. as she sets up too.  She is funny and cool and full of interesting teaching ideas.  Besides getting the teacher she has been wanting for years, Delia also got her sweet best friend Kate in her class.  The picture below was actually taken on the day that teacher emails went out telling us who was in what class.  We knew they'd be coming between 1:00 and 3:00.  This is where Delia parked herself while waiting to find out if she'd have Miss S. or not!

This year marks a huge transition for Ella as she moves to Middle School.  For some reason this honestly feels more monumental to me than when she started preschool or kindergarten.  She has a locker.  She has a schedule and switches teachers and classes.  She has study hall options (which she gave up so should could be a part of both the band and choir).  She can play sports on teams (which she plans on doing).  She can run for Student Council (which she also plans on doing).  She now totes a school-issued laptop around with her.  And she absolutely loves every bit of it.  It is pretty neat to watch our girl thrive in this adolescent stage!

Going Out with a Bang 3: Cubs Game

Our one big splurge this week was tickets for a Cubs vs. A's game.  If this does happen to be our year, (which it is kinda sorta maybe looking like?) we wanted to be sure we could say, "We SAW the World Champion Chicago Cubs team play this summer!"  This was a 3 game series and we're so happy that we could not only see the Cubs win on the day we went, but see them sweep Oakland this weekend!

We had the coolest seats in row 1 of center field.  Rizzo walked right under us!  Fowler actually waved back at us!  Every time an almost home run was caught it happened right by us!  It was a view of a stadium we have never had and we really enjoyed it!

What was SO fun about this game was watching it as the away team, but totally not feeling like the away team!  There was just as much Cubbie Blue in the Coliseum as green and yellow and the people sitting on all sides of us were Cubs fans too!  When the Cubs won, a sea of W flags broke out, as did the "Hey Chicago Wha'd'ya Say?" song!  Dave said the Cubs travel well, but we've seen them play in California lots of times and have never been in such good company!  Maybe everyone else is thinking the same thing we are: THIS is the year!  Better see them while we can! 

Going Out with a Bang 2: Bay Area Exploring

Another thing on that Fun Stuff to Do List was to find a great path and go for a family rollerblading outing.  We did find an awesome new path in the Bay Area, but quickly had to abandon the roller blades and just hike it when we realized how bumpy and full of cracks it was.

But, that does not mean we wouldn't totally recommend that our local friends check this path out!  Just bring your walking shoes or bikes instead. :)

The path we found was a 6 mile, flat, shoreline-hugging trail that wound around an actual island.  It had great views of San Francisco, the USS Hornet, and the Bay Bridge.  One part of the path took us right past the Oakland Airport runways, so we could see planes taking off right over our heads.  Another part of the path wound through gorgeous neighborhoods.  And the whole time we walked, we kept that beautiful view of  the bay in sight, as well as all the neat wildlife that lives in it.

  

One unexpected bonus to spending a day in the Bay Area was a reprieve from the triple digit heat we've been enjoying.  We kept our sweatshirts on all day in the 60 degree weather.  This was a perfect, nearby, free!, outing for us for this week!

Going Out with a Bang 1: Water Park Fun

While we don't officially start school for a week yet, the next one is going to be full of classroom set up and in-service days, meaning the week we just completed was kind of our LAST OFFICIAL WEEK of summer.  We packed it with fun activities and made the most of it!  Realizing he was not going to get anywhere near to taking his 4 weeks of vacation this year, Dave also took a week off.  This was one of the greatest weeks of summer for us!  We made two lists: one of neglected things to get done and one of fun stuff to do together.  Fun items were little things like "Go out for breakfast" or "Spend a day at the pool, all 4 of us" or "Have some friends over" or "Worship at a new-to-us church".  We feel both rested and accomplished in crossing nearly everything off both lists!

  

We kicked off this Last Official Week of Summer with a trip to the water park with Dorina, Shawn and their girls.  For this outing, Dave hung back to get work done before he took his week off.  We had the best time racing each other down water slides, bobbing in the wave pool, floating in the lazy river, playing tag in the fountain park, and catching up while waiting in lines.

  

After almost 8 hours in the water park, we had an awesome dinner at Pieology-- a new pizza place for us.  The girls amused us with their stellar selfie-taking skills.  Kinda scary just HOW good they are at this!

Spending a day in a water park is unintentionally becoming a summer tradition for us!  (Summer 2015, Summer 2014, Summer 2010)  Something about flying down a water slide brings out the kid in you!  I think it's such fun, we'll have to keep this tradition alive!