Zoom Zoom Zoom!

Whew! I feel like a dog that's constantly chasing its tail lately, and even though we got back from vacation on Thursday, this is the first chance I've had to post our pictures. To compensate for the tardiness (see, I'm a teacher!), here are a zillion photos!

Our destination was Lodi, infamous for the Creedence Clearwater Revival song about being stuck there. After a four-day visit, I can say that it's a pretty nice town, which even features a gas station with "Ladies' Day," where women receive full service at no extra charge one day a week. This begs the question of how many lazy men show up in drag to see if they can get away with it, too, but sadly, we weren't there long enough to find out.

Our friends loaned us their portable DVD player, so Keira got to watch Toy Story (aka "Buzz n' Woody") when she started getting fussy on the way there. It's a 6-hour drive to Lodi, and we made a stop every 2 hours, so it took us a total of about 8 hours to get there. Keira slept exactly 28 minutes of that...the LAST 28 minutes, in fact. But, she was such a good girl the whole time!




"I find that a duck's opinion of me is influenced by whether or not I have bread."
-Mitch Hedburg

On our first night there, we went to the park near my parents' house to feed the ducks. (We have since learned that bread isn't really very good for ducks. Sorry, guys!)



Here's a video of us feeding the Other Ducks (like on the island in "LOST," these are apparently a different civilization who will ultimately meet up with the Lake Ducks in a two-hour, suspense-filled season finale showdown. Or, I watch way too much TV.) Actually, the Other Ducks were geese, as someone has laughingly reminded me!

Please don't report me to CPS for the fact that my daughter almost got her finger bitten by greedy fowl!


This is Keira's weird new pose/walk, as best as I've been able to capture it on film. Sometimes she bends over with her butt in the air and her elbows pointed up behind her, and then walks like a 100-year-old man trying desperately to run. We're not exactly sure why, but she does this sporadically throughout the day lately.


At the Sacramento Train Museum, which is HUGE!


They have this big line of phones you can pick up to listen to information about this train. I'm pretty sure this is Keira's vision of heaven:



Back at my parents' house...this is the bandana my dad wears when working in the garage. I present to you: Gangsta Binks.


On Monday, we took what turned out to be a 4-hour drive to Tahoe. We took the scenic route, which was VERY scenic, but so long that we had missed the last boat trip when we finally got there. Instead, we rented bikes and went for a drive, and were shocked to find that Keira did not flip out when we put the helmet on her!


After a couple of days without a nap, a bike ride was just what she needed:


Here we are at the Lodi Zoo, which only cost $2 to get in and featured some bald eages (which none of us had ever seen in person before...stunning), a sea lion, and various other small creatures, many of whom were injured or elderly. I guess the Lodi Zoo is the animal kingdom's equivalent of a retirement home, but for two bucks, it was well worth the trip!


On our last night there, Keira actually sat in Grampy's lap and had him read to her. She ended up falling asleep there about 2 minutes later! This from a kid who has been a little shy with the grandpas ever since she was born...I guess four days straight with him finally taught her that he's fun. And cozy!

After four days with no naps (save for the few times she dozed off in the car here and there) and staying up late--not to mention subsisting on a diet of chips, lemonade, and pizza, which were the only things she ate willingly the whole time--she slept for 2 straight hours on the way home, which allowed us to drive the first 4 hours straight through. We only stopped once on the way home, in fact, and she fussed zero times. How's that for some good numbers??


We had a great time and got to see my parents' new house, which they moved into the day we got there! I can't believe all the work my dad got done on it just while we were there, and can't wait to see it after all the work they're still planning to do.