First Beach in Monterey

Technically it's not her first beach, but it's the first one she's actually been able to play on and interact with.  Back when she was 3 months old, she sat with us on a beach in Santa Barbara.  This time, she got to walk in the sand and waves.  Check out the photos of our fun time at the beaches of Monterey!

Monterey, CA

This past weekend, Matilda enjoyed the famous Monterey Aquarium and dinner with Andy, Ashleigh, and Olivia.  At the aquarium, Matilda got to see lots of fish and play with all the exhibits.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any of the sea otters at the aquarium, but we did see some wild otters in the bay when we ate at Bubba Gump's.  It was a quick trip, but we were happy we made it down to hang out with our friends one more time before they went back across the pond.  We will really miss them and hope we get to see them again soon.  Check out all the pictures of our time in Monterey on the post page.

Sacramento Zoo

Today Tilly went to the zoo with her buddy Olivia (and mommy Ashleigh).  We had a lot of fun even though the girls didn't get a chance to feed the giraffes.  They did spend alot of time with the monkey's and chimpanzees.  Then we somehow escaped the gift shop without buying any new animals.  After the zoo, we went to Cafeteria 15L for a really yummy lunch.  Check out all the photos on the post page.

Yolo County Fair

A couple weeks ago we went to the big CA state fair.  Today we went to our little Yolo county fair.  We went with one of Tilly's best buddies, Olivia, and her parents.  We got there too early, so we went for a walk through Burlington Coat Factory, where Tilly found a singing Elmo!  Once the fair opened up, we went through the exhibits and got pupusa's.  Then we found a kid area were the girls made bracelets and rattle shakers.  Check out all of the photos of Tilly at the fair.

California State Fair

This was Matilda's second time at the California state fair.  She started out by helping mommy at the Bohart entomology exhibit.  Then we walked through all the exhibits and spent alot of time looking at animals.  Matilda also spent a really long time at the petting zoo with the goats and pigs!  See the full post for more pictures.

Movie in the Park

We live really close to a big park in our neighborhood, and they are doing "movies in the park" during the summer.  We decided it would be fun to head out and watch a movie with Tilly.  We loaded up the wagon with blankets and pillows and even brought some popcorn.  They even had a Jamba Juice stand!  The only problem was that they advertised it starting at 7:30, but it didn't get dark enough to see the movie until after 9pm.  We stayed for the first little bit of Cars and then went home for bed time.  Check out more photos of the movie in the park!

Rare Stinky Flower

Today Matilda got to see an extremely rare event.  We went to the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory to see a rare flower (titan arum - aka corpse flower) bloom for it's first time after over a decade of growing.  These flowers have only been observed blooming in captivity about 100 times in history, and the bloom only lasts about 36 hours.  So we were excited to get to see (and smell) the giant flower bloom.

And wouldn't you know it, Matilda made it into the newspaper again. Well sort of. I kinda got in the way and stole her thunder. It's a bummer too, because this photo was one of the top news photos around the world for June 18th!  There we were smelling a stinky flower in the news photo slide shows with president Obama, floods in Asia, and riots in South America. We heard that it was run in newspapers all across the country! And, I stole Tilly's chance at world wide fame.  I blame the photographer for not using one of the other photos. Well, you can at least "Read more" for some of our own pictures of Tilly at the the flowering event.

Tilly Picks Fruit

During a visit from Grandma, Matilda got to go pick fresh fruit at the local you-pick farm.  She had a great time eating all the fruit faster than we could pick it.  She ate a ton of cherries and pretty much all the raspberries we could pick.  Read on for a video and pictures of Tilly picking fruit!

Kids Museum

Today we went to check out the Sacramento Children's Museum.  Matilda met up with Vivienne and had a great time playing with all the different activities.  She loved watching the golf balls roll, ping pong balls float, and tissues fly through tubes.  Tilly then showed us how to splash it up in the water area and got soaked despite wearing her splash jacket.  Read on for some videos and pictures of our fun day at the museum!

Annular Eclipse of 2012

Today was a special day because of the solar eclipse.  Unlike the total solar eclipse, this was an annular eclipse, meaning the moon was far enough from earth that it doesn't totally block the light of the sun.  This creates a ring of fire around the shadow of the moon.  Way cool.  The problem is, the moon has to be in just the right spot to be in line with you and the sun in order to see the ring.  You can imagine this window is actually pretty small (about 100 miles wide).  Total and annular eclipses are fairly rare, because of how often everything lines up right and that they pass over such a small portion of the earth.  Obviously, the closer to the midline of the umbral path or path of totality (moons inner shadow), the longer the eclipse lasts.  If you aren't within that path, well you're stuck with the common partial eclipse.  Today was special day because we happened to be just 30 mins from the edge of totality.  So luckily, we got to see this:

I'm really glad we got to go see the eclipse this year, because we may not ever see one like it again.  If my calculations are correct, the next path of totality for an annular eclipse to go over Sacramento won't happen again until Feb. 18, 2110 and the next total eclipse won't happen here until Dec. 31, 2252 (okay, so those are NASA's calculations).  Don't worry, if your calendar doesn't extend out that far, you can always settle for the partial eclipse on Oct. 23, 2014.  Redding, CA will actually have a total eclipse in 2045 with an annular eclipse in 2046.  Who knew Redding was the place to see total eclipses!  For everyone in Portland, OR, get ready for your total eclipse on August 21, 2017! (Tilly will be 6 years old then!)

Since these events are fairly rare, we decided it would be fun to have a picnic and watch it with our special glases.  And, in order to extend the time of the eclipse to 3 min, we drove about an hour and a half to Oroville, CA.  Tilly had her friend Olivia to play with as we convinced our friends Andy and Ashleigh to come along.  And if the picnic and eclipse weren't enough of a treat, we also got to see the oldest orange tree in California and drive across the tallest dam in the U.S.  All in all it was a pretty good day.  Read on to see some pictures of our awesome day in Oroville, CA.  Hi, I'm in Oroville.

Mother's Day Hike

For mother's day, Matilda and I took Leia on a day hike to an old limestone quarry up in Auburn, CA.  It was a really nice day and a fun little Hike.  We packed in a little picnic lunch, found a locked up cave, and hiked around the old quarry.  Plus, Tilly got to try out her awesome backpack.  She seemed to love it and even fell asleep on the hike back out.  "Read more" for a ton of pictures from our awesome mother's day.

Picnic Day

This was Matilda's second time attending Picnic Day, but she was so little last time she pretty much slept through the whole thing.  This time she had lots of fun.  She started off helping Mama at the bug museum.  Then she watched some of the parade and enjoyed the 5 DeLoreans.  She then got to check out the Biotech exhibits.  All of this before heading off to celebrate her best buddy Vivienne's birthday.  "Read more" for the picnic day photos.

Weather Dance Show

Yesterday Matilda went to watch a dance show and enjoyed watching our friend Kristi perform dances about the weather.  She even got to participate with all the other kids at the end.  Even though she was the smallest one up there and had no idea how to be a 'flower,' she seemed to have a good time.  "Read more" for some pictures of Tilly up on stage.

St. Patrick's Day Lucky Run

Matilda got up early to go watch mama run the Lucky 7 mile run.  It was cold, but she seemed to have a good time.  We even saw a 2 and 4 year-old running the 7K with their daddy, so Matilda has some new goals to achieve by next year.  "Read more" for some pictures.

Pig Day

Matilda has been enjoying her weekly trips to the farmer's market, but this week it was extra special.  It was pig day and we celebrated all things pig!  Plus the weather was great and we got to see all of Tilly's friends.  "Read more" for more pictures.

San Francisco

Matilda visited the City by the Bay for the first time.  It was a quick trip but she had a great time!  "Read more" for the rest of the photos.

Pumpkin Patch

The weekend before Halloween, Matilda went to her first pumpkin patch with her best friend Vivienne.  Not only did we get some good pumpkins, we got some good pictures as well.  They had a petting zoo, but we decided it cost too much and the girls had to just look at the animals from outside.  Such horrible parents.  We figured it would be boring anyway after having pet a giraffe in San Diego.  Click the link to see all the pictures of our little pumpkins in the patch.

Lake Berryessa Hike

Matilda went on her first hike at Lake Berryessa with her best friend Vivienne.  Because the location of the trail wasn't clearly marked, we decided to go with what we thought was the Smittle Creek Trail.  After following the lake shoreline for awhile, we realized we had come right back to where we started.  Eventually we found the real trail and continued our hike.  Tilly got to try out her awesome sunglasses and even rode backpack style in her carrier for the first time.  We stopped for lunch, and the girls got to enjoy their first taste of watermelon.  Tilly just licked at it, but Vivienne chowed down.  It was a hot day and the water levels were low, but it was a really fun little hike.  "Read more" for all the pictures of Tilly enjoying her first hike!

Tilly Goes to the Fair

Matilda wasn't too sure about corndogs.

Matilda went to her first fair, and it was a big one!  There isn't much to do at the California state fair except for look at things and eat fair food.  Matilda is a pro at looking at things, so we did all the eating.  She got to see all sorts of animals and really stared at the cows and baby piglets.  She didn't really notice the wallabies, kangaroo, or osterich, but she was totally checking out the parrots.  We had a great time with Auntie Monica as well as Mark, Alicia, and Vivienne.  They were even nice enough to watch Tilly so we could ride the Zipper!  The CA state fair is huge and a lot of fun.  Hopefully Tilly will still like our little Yolo county fair next month!  Check out more pictures on the post page.

Tilly Goes to the Beach

While in Santa Barbara, Tilly got to go to her first beach. The pictures were so cute I decided they needed their own post on the blog. We can't wait until she can walk on beaches all by herself. Okay, we can wait... she's growing up way too fast!  "Read more" below or click here to check out more pictures.