I almost forgot about these pictures.
On Sunday afternoon, Mema and Pepa took a little Mema and Pepa time to explore San Francisco, while the three of us went to the grocery. As we were getting in line to cash out, Sawyer walked up the bakery counter and begged for cake. I asked him which one he wanted and he pointed to the biggest, most chocolatey cake inside of the case. I was able to persuade him to accept a smaller mini-version of the same cake instead. He made it through the entire day before I let him eat it, for obvious reasons as you’ll soon see.
Here is with two of his favorite things from the time my parents shared with us, Mema and her iPad:
And there goes the chocolate:
He must have watched this fire truck book / song at least a hundred times:
Yes!
No!
Yay!
And with that it’s shower time.
In a weekend full of so many great moments, this one is by far my favorite. After a long weekend, everyone was tired, even Sawyer. He took a nice, warm shower, hopped in his nice, warm Elmo jammas, and read on the bed with his Mema and Pepa.
He rarely sits still this long:
He’s paying especially close attention too:
I love his little feet:
And his hands on his knees:
What a great moment!
On an even more beautiful Sunday afternoon, Sawyer, Mema, Pepa, and I drove to the Golden Gate Park in the hopes of finding Koret Children’s Quarter, otherwise known as the biggest and coolest playground in San Francisco (plus, it’s considered the nation’s first public playground). I knew roughly where it was, but I’m not all that familiar with that part of the city. As luck would have it, I found a parking spot just five minutes away. Sawyer was just happy that he got to see a double-decker bus on the walk there.
The first thing you see when rounding the corner is the historic carousel, originally carved in 1912. Sawyer immediately started in on his, “I wanna go in there, can I go in there, what’s in there, I wanna go see it, can I go see it?” routine, so the four of us got in line. From the moment I perched him on top of his brown and white striped zebra horse, he was all smiles. Looking at Mema:
And looking at me:
But he was positively beaming once the carousel started moving. Watch:
“All the animals are jumping.”
After the carousel, the four of us went out to explore the rest of the park. Sawyer, of course, gravitated to the swings first, but after a quick trip down the big cement slide on my lap, he happily settled in the sand. He managed to negotiate use of another little boy’s green truck and then proceeded to drive it all over, especially between Mema and Pepa:
It was nice and hot, too:
Sawyer and I took another spin on the carousel before leaving. It was the only way we were going to be able to walk past it. After that he insisted on racing his cars on anything at his level. I think he could have done this for hours:
Sawyer, that was the best park I’ve ever been to with you, and I can’t wait to go back with you very soon. Thanks, Mema and Pepa, for riding on (and paying for) the carousel too!
After an all-around chilly Friday, Saturday afternoon was warm (for San Francisco) and beautiful. It was still sunny on our neighborhood late in the day, so Sawyer and I took Mema and Pepa out to see Land’s End.
The last time they visited us, I showed them the scene from the top of the hill. It’s breathtaking from afar, but even better down on the water. We took the stairs down the hill:
And then walked all of the way out to the edge of the coast. Mema took some pictures of another family and one of them took some pictures of us:
I love this one with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background:
Sawyer really wanted to play in the water, so Pepa and I humored him with a walk down closer to the beach. Once there, he noticed a cave and begged to go in. I had no idea it was here, and plenty of people seemed to be coming and going, so the three of us walked in.
It was pitch-black dark, very damp, and kinda scary. Sawyer walked with Pepa until the end of the line (maybe 100 feet or so):
The view from the end of the cave:
We’re not the first to visit this spot:
Back out with Pepa:
And the view of Sutro Baths, Cliff House, Ocean Beach, and Seal Rock from the other side of the cave:
And when we were done, Sawyer climbed back up the hill:
He’s such a little dude!
It all started when Pepa put his hat on Sawyer. Sawyer, of course, promptly put it back on Pepa:
Sawyer didn’t like it when Pepa wore it wrong:
So he tried to fix it:
And once it was on right, he was able to concentrate on his crayons and coloring book:
See?
Until Pepa started in again:
Mema can play too:
I think he likes it now:
Sawyer is confused because Mema put the crayons where his cars normally go:
But everything was fine once she put them back in the crayon bucket:
Phew!
His back-and-forth with Pepa T and Pepa T’s hat really was priceless. The pictures don’t do the scene justice, I just wish I had grabbed my video camera instead…
With Mema and Pepa Truitt visiting, it’s time for Sawyer to turn on the charm. That usually involves making a mess of himself, especially when he attacks and devours his yogurt for breakfast:
Believe me, he’s just getting warmed up.
On the morning of our last day in Columbus, and yes I’m still writing about a trip that took place over three weeks ago, the three of us joined Aunt Sarah, Mema T, and Pepa T at a nearby park.
Pepa thought we might be lucky enough to have a train come across the tracks, which would have more than made his day. Unfortunately there were no trains in sight, so Sawyer had to entertain himself with the playground alone. (Of course, Mema T and I saw three when we went to grab lunch just an hour later. Oh well.)
I love his expression in every one of these pictures, and the dog’s expression too:
After he wore himself out on the dog, he convinced Aunt Sarah to push him on the swings:
And then asked Mema to take over:
There weren’t any trains, but he did see a bing-bing-bing:
He was clearly bummed about the lack of trains:
This was an equal parts sleepy and wiggly goodbye to Aunt Sarah:
This was the beginning to a very, very long day. He didn’t get a full nap in, and didn’t sleep a wink for the entire ten hours of travel, that is until he was five minutes from home.
What had Sawyer smiling from ear to ear in this picture?
Watching his cousins Laney and Simon play in the water at Antrim Park!
Here’s Laney:
And a soaking wet Simon:
They didn’t sit still for long:
Laney kept a watchful eye on her younger cousin:
Sawyer wanted swings, so we left the lake and walked over to the playground. There weren’t any swings, but he was able to entertain himself on the steps up to the slide:
Uncle Kevin, as always, upped the excitement level:
Inching his way down the slide:
And running around to do it all over again:
Two monkeys:
Sawyer loves when Kevin climbs trees, which happens often thankfully:
Sawyer snapped this picture of Mema, Pepa, and Kevin’s legs:
Abby’s friend’s son let him play with one of his trains:
Did I mention that he was barefoot the entire time? It didn’t matter if it was on hot asphalt, rocky ground, or damp grass:
To top it all off, he even saw a police officer exercising his horse:
What a fun morning with the Truitts!
He probably didn’t realize it, but he was definitely in the running for the best present my Mom received for her birthday. After all, Sawyer has a way of stealing the show. As usual, I didn’t get many pictures of them together, but the three I did were each special in their own unique ways.
They are discussing one of the eight new race cars she bought him, one to match each of the colors of the cars in his Speedy Little Race Cars book:
Sawyer noticed the dragonfly from across the room and ran over to inspect it while she looked on:
And this particular scene on the swing was by special request. He just had to have her push him:
It’s hard to believe we were just there a day ago.
After nine plus hours of travel in which Sawyer didn’t sleep a wink, he finally fell asleep just five minutes from home. When I woke him up to go inside, he begged to go back to Mema and Pepa’s house. He said the same thing when he woke up this morning too.
Just a few hours ago, after having been in bed for over an hour and ostensibly asleep, he began calling “daaaaaaada” for me to come see him. When I went in he said he had heard a fire engine and it was cool. It was also neat. And going to put out a fire. He then asked me to sing Wheels on the Bus with him, and after going through the wheels, the people, the wipers, the horn, the mamas, the dadas, he sang, “Mema on the bus says I love you.”
Happy birthday again, Mom! I love you and I am fairly certain sure Sawyer does too! =)
Even after all of the fun on Saturday with Mema and Pepa T, there was still more to do on Sunday. Since we still had the fancy truck , the five of us piled back in for a trip up to Sonoma, one of my favorite getaways.
Sawyer took a quick lap around the duck pond with Mema, and then went right for the swings. Pepa drew pushing duty, while Abby and I took a minute to relax on a blanket in the sun. At one point, Sawyer looked over to see me laying on my back and said, “Dada is getting his diaper changed.” My parents were nearly in tears.
After a good hour or so on the swings, we decided to grab lunch. Sawyer wasn’t even remotely interested in sitting still, and it wasn’t until Abby let him play with her phone that he finally calmed down. Here he is wowing my parents with one of his new favorite apps:
He’s really good at it too.
After lunch, Abby and my Mom took a walk around the square while my Dad and I took Sawyer for ice cream. I think he liked it:
Abby thinks he looks like an ice cream vampire:
Eventually, both my Dad and I tired of ours and let him have the rest. Sawyer immediately claimed Pepa’s as his own, and them judged it the best:
As if that weren’t enough excitement, we ended the day with quick trip down to Ocean Beach. This picture pretty much sums up the entire experience:
Yep, Sawyer just ran and ran and did everything in his power to escape and run some more.