Happy Birthday darling Daddy!!

This was Jon's birthday week! We partied all week long! Highlights include:

Monday climbing at Indian Joe Caves in Sunol:

Jon, freshly equipped with his very own climbing gear, wanted to hike up to the Caves in Sunol and climb. Cami & Crew and Nana and Papa joined us--we had individually made identical plans for the day, so we thought we'd just meet up and play together. We all enjoyed exploring the caves around the formations and also taking a turn climbing up the 5.8 route. It was a blast!! 

Larry did great despite his nervousness...

I made it to the top!!!-- up the easier route...

Jon Belaying and offering advice to climber Ansel.

Strength, Beauty... 

And flexability all in one: Remi! 

Dawna is our climbing nut.  She loves being tied in and going up!

Beautiful Landscape

He made it to the top too!

 On Wednesday, we had our family dinner of tri-tip steak, sour dough bread, Jell-o, and of course, cheesecake for dessert!

We Love our new camera :) 

Opening presents! The kids all wanted to help!

Jade's favorite part was the wrapping!

After dinner and dessert, Nana and Papa came over to put the kids in bed while Jon and I went to City Beach to climb! We had an awesome evening out together and came home to an Immaculately clean kitchen! Birthday bonus from our babysitter!!

And today, after my first choir practice as the director, Jon and I sang through all the Easter songs I picked out. Dawna, apparently bored, drew a portrait of what was happening. Yes, Jade is scoot-crawling around and Yes, she LOVES the piano pedals! It's a strange fetish of hers, but she goes after piano pedals all the time! During Dawna's practice, while I'm teaching, and while we're practicing for Choir...  

In case you can't quite see, the caption reads "Mom sings and Dad sings and maybe Jade (the thing on the floor)"

What happened this week?

1. Larry biked 3 miles to a friend's house! Jade rode in the bike trailer for the first time, and Xochitl, sitting in June trailer next to her, put her to sleep! It was a fantastic ride! 

2. We went climbing in Sunol last Saturday ( lots of pictures on google+) Xochitl almost lost her shoe down a narrow crevice, but I did some awesome shimmying down and squeezing and retrieved it! Go me!

3. I experimented in my Koberstein Test Kitchen, making raspberry cheesecake cookies and lemon garlic pasta with shrimp. Both were very successful in taste (which really is the most important feature) but left something to be desired in the presentation :)

4. Jon got to drive a Prius. It was not ours.

5. I discovered I may have the same random allergy that Cami has: purple cabbage plus running within 6 hours equals itchy rash and hives all over my body. So NOT fun! Fortunately, there was no difficulty breathing, but I'm laying off cole slaw for a while...

6. Jade learned how to click her tongue and does so incessantly upon waking. Very cute.

And looking ahead, Jon is turning 31 this week... Woah. He appears to be dying... But at least he's winning at Qwirkle. Lynn is here playing also, but he didn't quite fit In the shot... The Blooger app camera extension also leaves something to be desired... At least we have Monday off! Happy MLK day!