4th of July Festivities

So as you know the 4th of July is the best day of the year in our house, though this year we trudged through and tried to do the best we could even though Michael Jackson is no longer with us. Rest in Peace, king, Rest in Peace. So we tried to move on the best we could and went to the 4th of July parade. Joseph was able to march in the kids and Bike parade, at the prompting of our neighbors. They inspired us to pimp out Joseph's car in order to march in the parade. It was pretty fun but I don't think Joseph cared much. Then we watched the big parade, which had some cool floats including a recreation of Iwo Jima.

Also we stumbled upon a great free activity for you to do with your kids. An unseen benefit to owning a house is the sudden importance of Home Depot. Since the parade shared a parking lot with Home Depot, we stopped by to see what was available. When we got there we saw that there was a free kids expo where the kids get to make a little project and get to where goggles and the orange Home Depot Apron. Better yet, they get to keep the Apron and they get a pin for each project they complete. They do this on Fast Saturday- or the first saturday of each month. Did I mention it's free?!

So we got Joe-Joe (or as I've taken to calling him lately, Draco in honor of the new Potter movie. Why Draco? The hint is hair color) his cute Apron and we built a picnic caddy and Joseph even pounded in the nails (until they got too bent and daddy had to help.) It turned out good, Joseph had fun and its free! We will be returning on Fast Saturday in August. I like Joseph's Zapatos del Barco (Boat shoes) with no socks. He wore that Home Depot apron all day and it is just so cute! We look forward to August.

Then it was back to our house where the BBQing began. We first had some brats and it was a chance to try out our new grill which I had just assembled. It turns out it worked pretty good. We ended up grilling brats, hot dogs, steak burgers and ribs. We had way more food than we could handle but it was all good. We got hampered a little bit by the rain at about 2:30 or so it poured rain most of the rest of the day. Joseph got a chance to see his younger cousin Kylie as they were in town for the 4th of July. It was fun to see her.

At night we went to the fireworks and Annie and I got cool- real cool, I mean check out these glasses! These would be like $50 in Disneyland.Got a few fireworks shots too!

The rain finally let up for fireworks and we saw a pretty good display and watched a couple of illegally parked cars go on to receive tickets after the show so it stinks to be them, but they thought they were better than everyone else so they deserved it.

Oh and our Family Fun shirts came out all right and we actually got a few comments on them and were encouraged to make them professionally. Nice work hon! And a tip of the hat to Max- we couldn't have done it without your support!

San Francisco

So It's been awhile since we've updated, but about a month ago we went to San Francisco- I had never been. Most of our objective in going was to see both the Oakland A's and the Giants play ball at their home parks. So we studied the schedules and found the only weekend both teams would be in town. So we booked our tickets on Delta and looked forward to watching the game in Oakland which started at 12:30. Our plane left Denver at like 6:30 or something awful like that- actually it was supposed to leave earlier than that and that is where the trouble started. To make a long story short, our plane left late, our connecting in SLC left early and we did not make it to Oakland Coliseum until the 9th inning. This is still tragic and a point of anger. I tried to take a lot of pictures to make it look like we were there more than an inning. There was hope because when we finally got to our seats the game was tied and I was desperately hoping for extra innings. But of course an RBI single wins it for the home team.

Here is our family picture (from left to right) Jared, Travis, Joseph and Leigh Anna Buck. (Travis is number 6)

Proof that we were actually there!

There's our boy Matt Holliday who's hitting a healthy .238 at the time of this posting, bet the $100,000,000 the Monforts were offering doesn't look so bad now does it pretty boy! (We'd still take you back)

Joseph "enjoying" the game, scratch that, inning

Fortunately, the A's play in the dumpiest stadium in baseball, though some vote Dodger Stadium is worse Jeez. After about 30 minutes at the game (including the time it took us to walk around the empty stadium) we went to get some food. Oakland isn't exactly the best part of town so we went searching for authentic, slightly dangerous Mexican food, which we found. We got 3 tacos, a cheeseburger, fries and a soda for like 6 bucks- not bad. Then we went to see the Oakland temple while we were there- Giant temple with golden spires which we assumed was a stupa but ended up being the temple. No Moroni made it difficult if you didn't know the temple already. Afterwards of course we could always see it.

HA! Finally got a smile!

Hugest Snail I've ever seen!

The next day we went and did the touristy stuff on the Wharf. Pier 39- overrated. Ghiradelli's square- lame. Everything was expensive and touristy. But we saw some cool stuff as well. Went and played at the beach for awhile, even though it was freezing cold. Actually, this was the only cold day we had while there. We went in some cool shops, including the International Spy Shop which we assumed would sell cheapo magic gimmicks but actually sells hard core spying stuff that can be used to spy on your wife and track them and bug their phones and stuff- fascinating but creepy as well. Just as the sun was setting we made it to the bridge and got a few shots.



There will come a day when Joseph thinks his Parents are no longer cool- this is proof to the contrary!

Do your parents hang with Spongebob?

Next day we were driving and realized that Emeryville was on the way from Dublin (where we were staying) to SF. So of course we had to stop here.

And here.

Then we made it to the bridge and decided to save some money by not parking at the meters and parking at this little park. We walked down to the Golden Gate State park and walked up the beach and onto the piers, got some snappy pictures. Then I talked Mommy into walking across the bridge. She said I've already done it so I don't need to. But she was a good sport. While crossing the bridge, we noticed the suicide hotline phones and wondered about a documentary we heard about which we watched when we got home. It's called "The Bridge" and it is a fascinating yet shocking delve into suicides from the bridge (24 in one year!!).

After that was the highlight of the trip for me- Oakland A's vs. San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park in SF. I read rankings of the baseball parks and there were only 2 parks ahead of Coors Field and this was one of them (Pittsburgh was ranked #1) We got there a little late (but before the ninth) and we didn't watch all the game because there was so many fun things to do at the stadium. There was a mini baseball park that Joseph played in and that Coke bottle is a pretty fun slide. We missed a few innings checking it out, but I would have to agree that this stadium is right up there with Coors among the best in the bigs.

The last day we went to Santa Cruz, which made Boulder look like a normal town. It was weird and we didn't stay long because we didn't want to miss our flight, which was, of course, late. And the same flying nightmare all over again. But besides the traveling part, a good trip.