The Many Faces of Elliot James

A bunch of the cutest Elliot photos from the last few months. The only one that needs any introduction is this one:When my cousin Nate and I were about 3 years old, we sat in this exact spot under the old cedar tree and had our picture taken. Now, 30 years later, it's Elliot and me! What a special spot.

Go Fly a Kite

Recently (as mentioned in a previous blog entry), we acquired the most awesome of all kites. A large orange goldfish that contrasts nicely with the sparkly blue sky.

The other day it was particularily blustery and so the three of us trudged down to the local beach to fly ol' Goldy. I was adament that I was going to start the kite off as the last time the kite was flown I didn't even touch it. So, I threw it up in the air...and it dived back to earth. I threw it up again and tugged on the string a few times to get it to catch the breeze. It floated back to earth.

Finally, I threw it up in the air and at that exact moment a huge gust of wind carried it up...up... and away! It was flying! It sailed high above the bluff, dancing with the baby seagulls. (Here Jeremy gets the glory.)

Elliot couldn't stop talking about how cool it was and asking how it all worked (ok, I made that part up, but it sure seemed as if he was saying that). So, Jeremy decided to help him to fly it. He handed him the spool and viola!

Here's a picture of the bluffs overlooking the ocean that day.

Family Fun!

The passed few weeks have been filled with family, sun and the big city. My parents were in Berkeley for 2 weeks with my grandmother while my aunt and uncle (My grandma lives with them and is 96) were on vacation, so we went to visit. This is us, above... 4 generations!

Here's a tender moment between grandparents and Elliot... ahhh...

More family! My grandpa lives up in Santa Rosa, so along the way, we stopped in to introduce the now toddling Elliot. Grandpa Harry now lives in a beautiful retirement home with plentiful tomato plants growing on his little deck. He showed us off--ok, he showed Elliot off with much pride!
Elliot and Joel. Joel is my cousin, so that makes Elliot his first cousin once removed. Yes. Really.

Just a few cute pics of the darling boy.

Below are some of the many pictures taken at the million playground visits. The first is Totland; this was awesome! As you can see in the pics below, it was a sand pit with a little bit of grass, a slide and a few swings and HUNDREDS of plastic toys! Honestly, I was quite horrified at the well used, sun faded, half broken plastic toys spread all over the yard. But then to see how much fun Elliot was having driving around in the cars, I soon forgot my germophobia and had fun too!

Grandma and Elliot at a very normal playground.

Another crazy playground in Berkeley is called the Adventure Playground. There are only 3 left in the country now, but in the '70's there were many scattered all over the country. This is a place where kids can go wild... hammering, sawing, painting, running rampant... I was reminded of Mad Max: the sand, the sun, the haphazard structures. See the link to the left for more info.

Before we left the Bay Area, we had a delightful visit with our dear friends Hannah, Mike and Linus who were visiting family in SF. Linus is 8 months old and just a dream. We moved away from them just one month before his birth... tragic!! So, anyway, the timing was great to see them. Here's Linus and his dad, Mike. Thanks to Hannah, I now have a great pic of them.

When we had our fill of Berkeley, we came back up to Northern Northern Cal and rode on the train. It's an old steam train that does a little tour of the old logging communities. It's slow, loud and rickety but so much fun.

Next stop was the beach. Grandma bought Elliot a kite. And a dump truck. We had a great time flying the kite. Sadie barked and tried to catch the kite and was successful a few times. Elliot loaded and unloaded rocks all afternoon.

Below is us and a pear tree after a fabulous vegetarian meal by the sea.

And for something completely different.... Elliot with the world's biggest zucchini. (It is now chopped up and tasting very lovely in a sweet zucchini bread.)