October 16 - 27, 2017 - 3 years 3 months

October 27 - 29, 2016 - 2 years 3 months… (very short) Trip to Oakland, CA!

The morning we arrived at Emily and Jen's place, we chilled in their backyard, recovering from the flight.

But that same afternoon, we headed out on a lovely hike with Suzy, Bug, Mya (pictured here), and Emily/Jen's dog Juneau in the Oakland Hills.  It rained intermittently, and Kadin was definitely a bit "fragile", but he loved watched the dogs and the birds and the raindrops.

The next morning, Kadin was eager to explore Emily's garage/workshop and quickly went to work with a screwdriver.  Cole would have been jealous, but he was already off to daycare.

Pre-wedding-ceremony fun, hanging out with the band and meeting new friends.

After the ceremony, there was an awesome puppet show by Miss Butterfly and Kadin skeddaddled his way up front and was enthralled.  More than once he needed some gentle encouragement to just watch and not try to participate by grabbing the puppets himself!
[also note that there are no photos of the ceremony… we lasted about 5 minutes and then had to find someplace else to go and fidget/run around.  Miss Butterfly helped us out then as well, escorting us to the play room where he could run around.]

Kadin was enthralled with a few of the older kids who could blow bubbles for him.

Suddenly alone in the spotlight, he wasn't quite sure what to do and looked right at me in all his adorableness.

Yay, the other kids are back and… with more ba-was!!!!

Oh what a night… 

Didn't even budge as I took off his shoes and jeans….

The next day, I left Kadin with Emily and Cole and went to a post-wedding brunch.  Here is the lovely bride Ama with her daughter Maya.  

Meanwhile, Kadin and Cole had a blast, playing (and fighting) with all of Cole's toys.
[BTW Cole, THANK YOU for sharing all your toys with Kadin – it was definitely a highlight of his trip!]

Emily, Cole, and Kadin spent the morning at the playground.  I haven't gotten any of the playground photos yet, but from this shot, I suspect they had a good time!