The Girl and Her Bucket

Isabella's in a collecting phase. Go for walk. Must have bucket. Her favorite collection item: black walnut shells.

No matter the temperature outside, she must collect--the hotter the better.

The loot.

She inspects her treasure carefully.

Then she's off to collect more.

This year's harvest.

Our landlord has been gracious enough to invite us to pick as many grapes as we want from his vines. This is great news for Isabella, who collects then pops them in her mouth--seeds and all.

Our little viticulturist tending to her vines.

Why I even thought to buy white pants... The girl is all dirt, all the time.

Chasing her blue ball (when she's not collecting)

Off for more adventure!

Warm Springs, Cold Beach, Renee Flemming--End of Summer Adventures

Summer for us this year was slow, lazy and low key. Loved it. Isabella started to walk, went in a real pool, and hung out in the fog at the beach. Here's a recap of our last weeks of summer.

Morton's Warm Springs. Natural springs fill the pools at 90 some-odd degrees. The pools are then cooled to 80 some-odd degrees and people come to swim. They say that because the pools are fed by natural springs that waters have healing powers. We didn't have any ailments that needed curing the day we went, but it was Isabella's first time in a big pool and she seemed to really enjoy it.






The pools.
The swimmer.
After only a few minutes, she stopped clinging to me and started kicking her legs. She liked being twirled around in the water.
Little fish in a big pond.

Getting slathered in sunblock.
Another summer highlight: Seeing Jane Beal. She made a quick trip to San Fran. so I met her and her family at Golden Gate Park for a few hours. Jane Beal: elementary and high school friend. Former roommate--she lived with us during our senior year of high school.

Dillon Beach!
The Wentzel Family was kind enough to invite us to join them at their swanky beach house (rental) at Dillon Beach. There were 7 kids, 8 adults, and lots of deer and quail.

We spent our 3 days there going on hikes,

playing with puzzles,

making silly faces,

flying kites,

playing in the sand,

and meeting surfers.

My favorite thing about this trip, aside from being with fun friends and eating Allison's Devil's Food Banana Cake, was that Isabella started walking! Prior to our trip she'd only taken a few steps at a time. Maybe it was the influence of being around the other kids, but she took off! She cruised around that house like she owned it. It was awesome. Here are the three girls, Chole, Daisha and Isabella, coincidentally all dressed in green and pink.

Renee Flemming (as in The Soprano, Renee Flemming)

My dear friend Suzanne invited me to go with her to Calistoga to see Renee Flemming preform at a beautiful venue called The Castle. (An actual castle built by a winery owner--he apparently imported all the stone from Italy).
The concert was held in one of the courtyards. The weather was PERFECT. Renee Flemming was amazing. We school teachers sat there with the elite of the Napa Valley, enjoying the performance. Suzaane pointed out many of the winery owners in attendance. (Secretly, I was amused at their bad fashion. Big glasses, Big purses.) It was a lovely night.

Teacher by day...or is he?

"Mark is a high school special ed. teacher."
This is my quick response when someone asks me what he does. I asked Mark to take pictures of his work life on one of the last days of summer school, so I could expand upon my response, because there is so much more to tell. On this particular day, however, he was on safari--in Santa Rosa (about an hour from Napa).
Two of Mark's co-workers (Christy and Greg) and one of his students, Tyler. The job is hard, but does have some perks, i.e. safaris.
The program Mark works for is a day treatment program designed for teens who aren't in a regular classroom setting. Mark's position is purely instructional--he teaches, then the kids receive other services, such as counseling.
The school day is a little bit shorter, but Mark has to teach multiple subjects. On Fridays, the kids, depending on their week, get to participate in off campus activities, such as going on a safari.

Mario. One of Mark's students.

Although he'll never admit it, this little, er, big bird will tell you that Mark is well loved in this program. It's not always easy building relationships with his students, but he pushes them and has high expectations for them.

Movie Night and Train Town x 2

In an attempt to catch up, I'm throwing all this into one post. One of the parks in Napa shows movies every so often on Saturday nights during the summer. We got there at 7 and the movie didn't start 'til 9. We didn't know if Isabella would make the two hour wait. One unit of her time was spent playing with exercise bands.
Another unit was spent being flown and tossed around by Mark.

some time was spent admiring the double rainbow that suddenly appeared in the sky.
and the rest of the time she attempted to socialize with any kid she could find sitting next to us.

By the time the movie started, she was folded over in shear exhaustion. Actually, she made it through the first hour of Shrek (and of that hour probably paid about 10 seconds of attention to the movie), then she could take no more.
Train Town. A fun little place to take the tots.
For $5, you get to go on a 20 minute train ride...
...through the woods and to a small scale old western town.

Isabella did not like the train ride,
but was totally in her element feeding the goats during our stop in town.
Posing for an old fashioned photo (not really, actually she was sitting on the counter top of the town saloon-- waiting for her drink)
Isabella and Mark in the old school house. A future teacher?
Or jailbird?
Maybe she'll be a train conductor.
Our first trip to Train Town was actually with Brooke and her kids, Daisha and Keontay, who were visiting from Sacramento. 'Sha Baby is warming up the car.
On the train.
In the church in town.

Behind bars.

Isabella trying to make herself smaller than she really is.
On the carousel.

Isabella doesn't like the carousel.
Except when it's stopped. And the music is playing.

How Isabella got her groove back.