Today is Grandma Joanie's Birthday. We celebrated yesterday in Saratoga. It's safe to say that without Grandma Joanie's help, Los Lynches de Redwood City would probably be living in a van down by the river right about now. Happy Birthday Grandma Joanie!! Thanks for everything you do for us!
Birthday greetings from many of Los Lynches to Grandma Joanie.
Grandma Joanie with her first born son, and two first born grandchildren.
Papa Jack is never one to pass up the opportunity to wear a Party Hat. Which led everybody to get in on the action.
Anne works the Party Hat.
Maeve with cake on her face and the Party Hat on her head.
Scott with the Birthday Hat (and Grandma Joanie's prescription sun glasses)
Papa Jack saw an article in the Mercury News last month about the Roaring Camp Beach Train. He asked if Los Lynches would be interested in taking the trip. We all thought it sounded like fun. But we had no idea HOW much fun it was going to be. "Wow!" is about how we'd all define it.
Los Lynches can't recommend this trip enough. You can make the round trip in as little as 3 hours if you happen to have any family members / friends with the patience levels of any unnamed Lynch family members. It's really worth every penny.
Here are a couple of videos of our trip, followed by some still pictures.
Part 01 of our day on The Beach Train
Part 02 of our day on the Beach Train
The entrance to the Roaring Camp Railroads. What kinds of fun lurk on the other side?
Papa Jack - synonymous with silly.
Here comes our train!
It's like something out 'Heart of Darkness', but in a good way.
Here comes the tunnel. Don't worry, I'm sure it's safe. After all, it was just built in 1875.
As it turns out, Grandma Joanie, not a fan of tunnels.
Maeve, Daddy and Teaghan in another perfectly posed shot on the train.
Once we got to the Boardwalk, the kids (and Daddy - do you see him?) went on the coolest and fastest Merry Go Round ever.
Family resemblance?
On the way back, Grandma Joanie, Anya and Teaghan sat in the coach which is a bit warmer and comfortable.
Papa Jack and Anne enjoying the sunny ride back down the mountain.
Maeve and Teaghan listen intently as Anne answers Teaghan's questions about bear/human interaction (no joke).
The bridge passes over and then follows the San Lorenzo River down the mountain. Who knew this thing existed? People were actually lazily inner tubing in the river!
Scott, Maeve and Teaghan pose with the talent after the train ride.
Grandma Joanie, Papa Jack and Anya disembark the train.
Our Engine prepares to turn around to head back to Santa Cruz to pick up the 4:30 pm crowd.
To top it all off, we even saw turtles on the way out. I like turtles.
Anne and the girls headed out to visit with her friend Jen (and family) on Saturday in the East Bay. Annie Wen and Kathy also came out to play. The kids had a blast, and ended up in a monster Ring Around the Rosy mosh pit.
Fortunately, nothing outside of a few rug burns were reported after the fact.
You try Ringing Around the Old Rosy about 40 times without getting exhausted!
A few weeks prior, Jen and the girls had headed out to visit us in Redwood City.
As a special treat, we got a reunion of what is known as the San Carlos Crew. They all lived together in a house in a rental house in San Carlos, CA that was described by Colum Lavelle as a 'Third World Country'. Well, technically, Annie Wen didn't actually live there, but she might as well have. In any case, they all look fabulous 10 years on down the road.
These two guys (Kevin and Scott) discuss how fortunate they are to have married into the San Carlos Crew. At least that's their story, and they're sticking to it.
On Father's Day, I got to sleep in until 10:30 am! Then I was presented with Coffee Cake. Shortly thereafter, we packed up the minivan and headed to Half Moon Bay for a quick trip to the beach.
A sobering reminder greets us as we head to the beach.
Hideous, aint it?
Teaghan did her best Indiana Jones impersonation while Maeve tried to get in on the action.
Maeve, Daddy and Teaghan at the water's edge.
Maeve curses the ocean and all its denizens for having the temerity to get her shoes wet!!! She will have her revenge!
Meanwhile, Teaghan makes sand angels in the ugh, sand.
Little Miss Pretty slept through the whole thing. That's ok. I'll just show her this blog entry in a few years.
The garden went in a couple of weeks ago once it started to heat up a bit.
UPDATE 6.16.08 - See the comments for the answers. Slackers!!!
I can hear you asking yourself, "how did you get such a fabulous looking garden?"
Answer: I had help.
Now here is where it gets interesting. Can you guess what kind of vegetable each of the following pictures depicts? Post your answers in the comments. I'll come up with some sort of prize for the winner.
