We finally went to dinner to celebrate Tyler's birthday.  He chose McDonalds, and even though their food has improved in the past few years, I still give it 3 stars behind Wendy's 5.  But whatev, I hold McDonalds stock so I was happy to support Tyler.  He ate well and then played on the play structure.  Tyler has been difficult to parent because he is quite stubborn and Heidi and I have different perspectives on his eating.  In the morning, when he refuses to eat, I think, "Fine.  Starve.  Not my problem."  But Heidi doesn't want him to melt down in school, so she tries all sorts of tricks to get him to eat.  

His birthday bike was stolen on Wednesday, and that upset us, because that particular frame is not common.  I told the kids, "Every time that kid gets on your bike, he'll think, "I stole this.  I lied to God."  Scott seemed to understand.  Tyler, not so much.

Look at Blakey's shiner.  He ran into some trim at Heidi's parents.

Kira woke up at 6:22 this morning and wanted to eat.  I cooked waffles and then got ready for work.  Kira has been talking non-stop since she woke up and Kira is just a funny little girl.  Yesterday, after we were done eating and the screaming Tyler had to be escorted out of the restaurant (he wouldn't share his water but I made him share anyway), Kira waved bye bye to the employees.

Okay, time for worky.

STAS party

Saturday was the swim team's party at the Brentwood home of one of the swim families.  The home was super nice with a man-made, excavated lake, similar to 21st street pond in Ogden, UT.  

The food was good and the kids had a great time.  The bottom two photos are taken from the roof of the boat pavilion.  It was like being on the roof of the houseboat at Lake Powell.  Good times.

Unfortunately, the boat wasn't working.  The owner said it was overheating, and I was like, "Maybe it's the impeller."  He was really nice.

My mini-me

Whenever Blakey disappears, this is where I find him.  Kira likes to climb up, too.  She used to take the VFR's key out and then hide it inside the house, which did not make me happy.  The key has an elephant keychain which was given to me by one of my English class students in Spain, so it has sentimental value.  It has been my motorcycle key chain since college.  So now, I have to remove the VFR's key.  Kira's funny about the key, though.  She says, "I not taking your key anymore."  

Blakey:  My mini-me.

Tyler's Walnut Creek birthday celebration

Had a nice party for Tyler at Heidi's parents.  The big event was the spiderman pinata.  

Tyler's more into opening the gifts than actually playing with them.

He was excited about the skateboard, though.

After church we saw that Mt. Diablo was on fire.  This was taken from our backyard at about 21:15 PST, 10 second exposure, f5.6 on tripod.  They're saying 800 acres are on fire and it's 10% contained.  Yikes.

Tyler's bike ride to school

We made it to school on time with Tyler's new bike, even though he complained about his legs being tired.  We started off pretty fast, and I thought, "This bike is much easier for him to ride."

I pushed him a few times and he made a big skid right in front of the bike cage.  After he and Scott went to class, I raised Tyler's seat and increased the rear tire pressure.  We'll see how today's commute goes.

Tyler's 6th birthday

Tyler turned six on Wednesday.  Grammy had sent him a package with a bunch of gifts.  He got some clothes, shoes, yo-yo-, pez dispenser, squirt guns, puzzle robot, and a big ball. 

 Spiderman hoodie and BYU shirt from Grammy.  Tyler didn't want to go to school because he felt like since it was his birthday, he should be exempt.  But we coaxed him into riding insta-tandem with me.

Tyler wanted the special green chair for breakfast.  I made him his favorite, waffles, but Heidi bought those mini-doughnuts laden with saturated fat and one-upped me.

Then Heidi picked him up a Schwinn 20" bike from craigslist.  Tyler took a few laps around it and did well, and after he went to bed, I started working on it to get it ready for his morning commute.

It was amazing that he could ride it at all because both wheels were out of true.  The front was 5 mm out, and the rear was so bad it was constantly rubbing against the brakes.  I trued up the front to less than 1 mm, and I trued the rear to the point that the only area that binds is a huge bulge that needs to be hammered out.  I'll do that right before school this morning.

Happy birthday,  Tyler!  Thanks to Heidi for purchasing the decorations, wrapping the presents, making the cake, and picking up the bike in Livermore.

Labor Day

We had a nice labor day, starting with my riding the VFR to the Oakland temple.  I left at 5:07 in order to make the 6:15 session, and I was booking it so fast that I arrived in 35 minutes.  I got out at 8:25 and Heidi was there with the kids, so she went in and I took the kids outside.  I was both impressed and surprised that Heidi was able to get out the door and make it to Oakland on time.  

The new bay bridge was completed on Labor day, and we couldn't see it that well because of the fog, but Scott pointed out the golden gate bridge.  The temple has a good view of the bay.

Blakey LOVES motorcycles.  He was climbing up on the VFR, so I went over to take his picture and he climbed down to run toward me.

Then Tyler wanted a picture with the VFR, and Scott is photobombing it.

I don't know what Kira's doing here, either, but Tyler's still posing with his Mr. Congeniality smile.

This is taken from the southwest deck of the temple.  Lots of the fog had blown off by this point.

The fountain started flowing so the kids had to investigate.  Fortunately, no one fell in.

Then we took the van to Tilden.  We wanted to ride steam trains, but they weren't open yet.  So we went to Lake Anza and the kids threw rocks for an hour.  They liked finding big ones, and I taught them how to lever them out and that was a buzz for them.

Then we picked up Heidi from the temple and by that point, the trains were open, so we took a lap around on the Redwood Valley Railway.  It's pretty sweet that it's so close.

Yeah, my church clothes with my Honda hat.  I don't like wearing sunglasses even though Dad thinks I need to monitor my UV exposure, so I just wear a hat all the time.  Even when driving to church.  Kira's in her PJ's, and no one seemed to mind.

Then we went to Heidi's parents for din-din.  The weather was perfect.