Bekah and her Monkey Bars

To watch this on Youtube go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njBKgjIAooo

Mannequin

Bekah and Roxie love to stand in the storefronts and pretend to be mannequins. Bekah is a pro...she can stand absolutely still. It is funny to watch people react to her, they always do a double-take and laugh and some even have taken pics with their camera phones. Roxie isn't as convincing as she can't keep still...but it is pretty funny.

Yosemite Valley

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week we were in Yosemite Valley...the first time for the girls....it was astounding...breathtaking views. Danny hiked to the top of Yosemite Falls (pictured above) while the girls and I took in the sights from the valley floor and educated ourselves in the museums...Our hotel room was right on the Merced river which made for cool viewing, (first pic) and a really neat place to have coffee and contemplate things. The hotel also had an indoor pool which was awesome as it was cold and rainy the first day...there was a hot tub outside and that was cool to be in while it was raining on us...it was a neat holiday!!!

Central Valley Culture 101

Today Danny and I went through the Sonic Burger drive thru for ice cream as we had just finished a 10 mile hike climbing 2000 feet up Mt Diablo in the hot, hot central valley sun. Danny normally hates going through the drive thru, but after my urging he relented this time. And, boy, are we glad we did! In front of us were perfect specimens of "the Ugly American"...People who persistently demand unreasonable things from innocent bystanders...Today's issue was the Sonic Burger policy of only accepting one coupon per visit. This lady in front of us was not happy as she had multiple coupons at her disposal, several large, hungry people in her "urban assault vehicle" and many double bacon super sonic burgers to purhase (2 for 1, mind you). The Sonic girl calmly explained the Sonic Burger corporate policy, but the hungry lady yelled at her and demanded that the coupons be taken. Then she peeled out from the ordering station and abruptly stopped at the pay window where more yelling and arm waving ensued. The Sonic manager was now brought in to settle the dispute, but judging by the violent arm waving the matter was not to be resolved. As the precious, discounted Sonic food was passed through the window, the hungry husband proceeded to sniff his banana split and then aggressively point to the Sonic window....perhaps his sundae did not adequately resemble the picture on the drive thru menu...who knows. Finally, all the food had been procured and the harrassed Sonic girl tried to close the Sonic window, but the hungry lady jutted her hand out defiantly...soon napkins were pressed into her eager hand and they sped away....what a great time!!!

Fun With Nature

We went to the zoo today in Lodi...it was totally cute and we had a blast. There were some pretty funny moments as always when observing "nature". The red bunned baboon peed all over himself in full view which elicited some really awkward questions from Roxie. The fruit bats were supposed to be sleeping, but one couldn't get comfy and kept wrestling with his own wings (I have had nights like that). And the tiny Tamarin would only come out of it's cave when Roxie made her special "baby turtle sounds" which consisted of high pitched squealing sure to annoy all of the people standing around us. It was quite a day and we are so enjoying our mini vacation before we leave. (oh, there was this lemur who didn't like Danny and had a total psychotic fit with full screeching and threatening behavior whilst his cagemate looked at us as if to say "I don't know that guy, I just live here")

...have been purchased!!!

We are so excited that we finally have a date for departure! We will be leaving San Francisco on March 26th and arriving in Prague on March 27th after a brief layover in Paris. HOORAY!!!!

Manteca, here we are!!!

We are settling in at my father-in-law's house...he has made a cozy space for all of us and it is really nice!!! We feel like this is our vacation after all of the hard work we have done to prepare to move out of the country. As far as when we leave, that is still TBA....Danny should be purchasing plane tix today or tomorrow. We have been waiting to find out when a house will be ready for us in CZ, but we received advice yesterday that maybe we should just get the tickets and that would start the ball rolling over in CZ regarding our housing. So that is what we will do. The girls are being so good, and totally flexible as we have stayed with my parents and now with Danny's dad. I am hoping this is helping to prepare all of us for even more flexibility in the future....STAY TUNED!!!