Beautiful January (Part I)

It was a very rainy January, but we like that. Rain means puddles to jump in, green pastures, wild mustard and finding ways to keep ourselves busy.

Morning runs with Mama.

Not every morning, mind you, but when I feel so inspired, we get out and explore. Isabella gets a cozy ride. She also gets acquainted with the neighborhood's horses, goats, pot belly pigs, pony, chickens, sheep...

Doing farm chores.
The red wagon comes in handy for loading straw from the barn for the chickens.

Chicken coop maintenence

Giving the very pregnant goats a little scratch behind their ears.

Isabella's favorite article of clothing: Frog boots. She got these as a Christmas gift from Uncle Dave and Janett. They are two sizes too big on her but she wears them everywhere.

Playground Fantastico.

Playground Fantastico is a fantastico children's park in Napa. Mark scoped out the grounds on our first visit there and quickly surmised that a "river" clean up was necessary due to the terrible pollution caused by The Others playing in the park. The mosaic fish were drowning in silt!

Katie impedes the conservation efforts by driving a small pick up into the river.

This minor setback does not deter Mark. He just rolls up his sleeves and works harder. He scoops, dumps, pours, and rinses, finally revealing the beautiful blue tile river bed.

Free at last!

* Post script: After an hour + of river clean up I had to pull Mark away from his project. Isabella was soaking wet and it was cold outside. It wasn't easy for Mark to give up on his work. Just as we were finally leaving, Mark detected a slight change of water flow in the river. "Did someone build a dam?" he asked alarmed and slightly peeved.

(That "someone" would be the three year old scooping up and dumping sand downstream.)

Nana treated us to a trip to San Fran. Isabella liked the ferry boat.

Once in the city, we took a nice long walk from the Ferry Building down to Pier 39.

Isabella discovers a machine holding a million little balls--and is smitten.

She does not like the camera. Or the carousel.

She does like the chocolate store with the "baboons" (balloons)

I like the Mrs. Fields cookie store.