Schlitterbaun

My work had a company picnic a few weekends ago.  They paid for everyone to go to Schlitterbaun in which they included a cater lunch score (well actually the food wasn't so great but it beat paying fifteen dollars for a turkey leg)!  They even threw in a 30 dollar gas card to get us there how could you pass up a deal like that?   Ethan has only had a handful of times were he has been in a big water setting, most of his water interactions consist of a bathtub or his baby pool in the back.  So taking him to the largest water park in the United States was a bit overwhelming.  He did so great.  We had  a lot of fun.  The picnic area that was reserved was right next to one of the many kid areas.  He was hesitant (thats probably an understatement) at first.  And when he took interest in the slide we thought why not?  Big mistake, he slid down and got submerged for just a second and freaked out!  From then on out he was glued to our legs.  We decided after an hour of trying anything to get him to play in the water that we would try out the wave pool.  Jenny let us borrow this really cool thing called a puddle jumper think a crossover between water wings and a life vest.  We snapped him in and Matt held onto to him and we went round and round.  He absolutely loved it.  He kept waving to the lifeguards as we floated by yelling "hi."  He liked it when the waves would push him and Matt really high up in the air only to jet them forward.  "More More" was all he kept saying so we just kept going ( that and Whoa and YAY). He was so fearless in that wave pool and you could see the envious looks on a few other dads faces as they saw Ethan and Matt floating by, because their little boys wouldn't attempt it.   After a while it started to get really crowded and it no longer became fun as it became jammed packed with tubes and people.  When we took him back to the kids section he acted as if it was child's play compared to the wave pool, which it was.  One of the funniest things about the whole day was the fact that he was absolutely insistent on wearing his sunglasses and hat, two things before that day he would have immediately ripped off if you tried to put them on him.  It was almost as if he saw everyone else wearing them so he wanted to sport them too.  By the end of the afternoon he was waving to people saying "BYE BYE BYE" blowing kisses and pointing at the water and saying "wa wa. "

All ready for the wave pool!

Ethan and Matt pool side

Hanging in the baby pool

I want to be just like dad with my shades and hat!

Highlights from our trip

I know I am late on posting some pictures from out latest trip to California and most of the pictures I have are from my camera phone.  We jammed packed a ton of stuff while we were there including, a trip to Yosemite, 2 baseball games, a trip to Cal Berkeley, a trip to Santa Rosa, a birthday party for Matt, and Ethan squeezed in plenty of grandparent/Uncle time!

Matt and I at Yosemite falls - we drove up in my mom's car with the moon roof open most of the way.  We stayed in house keeping and had the perfect campsite overlooking the falls and the river.  For dinner Matt cooked sausages over  a fire he built in our fire pit.  One of the highlights was on one of our hikes to mirror lake we crossed paths with a bear who Matt scared away with techniques he used from a show we like to watch called Wild Justice. 

One of two baseball games, I only made it to this one which we had Diamond level seats .  Matt also went to  a game at the Giants stadium with Shane where they sat in a luxury box and got a tour of the whole stadium.. 

Ethan really liked my grand-parents piano.  He was actually not bad he didn't even pound on the keys but  pushed them.  

When Ethan was finished with dinner he ran over to the piano and my grandma asked "Ethan are you going to serenade us?"  With which he replied "yah"

Ethan got to control the trains in the basement in the famous Vasconcellos layout!  He knew after watching carefully exactly what buttons and knobs worked what.  Great-grandpa was really proud!

Uncle Shane taught Ethan how to drive the fork lift at the Shop.  After taking it for a spin with Uncle Shane he decided  he could takeover from there by himself.  Watch out he might be running that company soon!

Uncle Matt and Ethan in Uncle Matts car.  One of Ethan's favorite things to do while we were there was to go "drive the car."  Matt would take him in the car and he would work all the knobs and buttons.  Opening the sunroof and turning up the radio.  He knew how to work the remote control to unlock the car and if you came by the car for a visit he would roll down the window and say "hi" or stick his head out the window

One of the cutest things was to see Ethan and Clarke interact .  They  are at an age now where they actually notice one another and can interact.  They played ball together on the stairs for 20 minutes straight.  It went something like this;  Clarke would throw the ball to Matt ,  Matt would catch the ball and throw it to Ethan,  Ethan would catch it and walk it back to Clarke... Repeat!

Happy 30th Birthday Matt!!  I know dinner wasn't great but it made for a good story.

Superman!!!  Ethan got some new hip jammies while in CA