Will Turns the big "03"

This weekend was the grand celebration for William's 3rd birthday complete with live snakes, baby elephants, trained killer whales, circus freaks, and tricked out cars. OK, maybe that's not quite accurate....but we did enjoy some grilled dogs, a monster truck jumping house, some college football, and great company. Thanks to all who made it such a success! We couldn't have pulled it off without all the help!

The slideshow below also includes some pictures from the day after: swimming at Nana & Papa's hotel pool and a 2nd round of cake & ice cream with the neighborhood buddies!

Batter up!

These were just too cute not to post. Will and I played some ball this evening (no surprise) and he was in rare form. I asked him what team he played for and he correctly answered, "The Giants.". I asked him what team Daddy played for and he said, "The Yankee Giants." Note to Aunt Didi - Notice the Thomas baseball hat is getting lots of love lately. :-)

Birthday party for Nate Baird!

Last activity on Sunday was a birthday party at Pump It Up! for our friends Todd & Becky's son Nate. Nate celebrated big number 4! Being the big loser I am, I didn't even snap a picture of the birthday boy. I was too busy following my own kid around.

Oregon Zoo with Deckers

Sunday we hit the Oregon Zoo with our great friends Aaron, Tiffany, and their 5 month old, Griffin. They've just relocated to Portland from Santa Barbara about 6 weeks ago and, needless to say, we're freakin thrilled that they are so close now!

Fountain Fun!

Although it wasn't our original intended downtown Portland destination, we ended up having a blast at a couple water fountains on Saturday. We had intended on checking out the Portland City Fest activities but we were 3 hours early. Whoops!

Sacramento Part II

Last but definitely not least, we headed north and made another stop in Sacramento. Fortunately for us, Ryan's family happened to be celebrating the summer birthdays in the family so we had the opporunity to visit with some of the family that we hadn't seen in several months or more. After a quick evening and a short night of rest, we headed home and arrived just after 6pm. Its great to go on vacation but always feels so great to get home!

Disneyland

After the Pads game was over (Pads win 3-2 over the Brew Crew), we headed north and made the obligatory stop to visit the mouse. We met up again with the Bjarkes, Elsie, and the "bird" for a two day pow-wow. Before leaving town, we had to say a tough farewell to Auntie Shawn who we dropped off at LAX for her flight to China. Thanks so much, Auntie, for taking this trip with us. I know I already said it, but we couldn't have survived without you!

San Diego - Padres Game

Our 2nd and last day was spent attending a day game at Petco Park for a Padres game. Will was extra excited since we took the trolley to the game from the hotel. Petco was perfect for our situation - young family. Just beyond the center field wall is a huge sand box for kids to play in, followed by some bleachers, and finally a huge grass burm similar to what you see in spring training parks. They also have a mini ball field next to the burm for kids to take turns batting/fielding for the duration of the big game. After taking the obligatory walk around the entire park, we spent nearly the entire game on the grass lawn. Petco park has several very cool features in my opinion. The sand box, grass seating, and the old building (converted into a bar) are fantastic. My only complaint with the park is that it doesn't have the same brick facade and old fashioned feel that you get with some of the other new parks like AT&T or Safeco. All in all though, I highly recommend taking in a game at Petco if you have the opportunity.

San Diego - Legoland

After another late night drive to San Diego, we woke up and took on Legoland in nearby Carlsbad. Will had a blast riding the train, getting soaked in the water areas, playing on the several play structures, and being mesmerized by Miniland (several cities built from thousands of Legos). Auntie Shawn, Mom, Dad, and sister had tons of fun just trying to keep up.

Carpinteria Craziness

Carpinteria was just what we were looking for... great food (Delgados, Palazzio, Rose Cafe, Cajun Kitchen, and the Palms) and a great time with family. We took in some time at the beach (world's safest!), the SB Zoo, and several pints at Island Brewing. Dawn, Chris, Kaia, Truman, and "bird" met us at Elsie's place to keep the Thompson/Citrano clan in line. We also had the good fortune to see a ton of uncles, aunts, and cousins during a meet n' greet evening for Jessi at Elsie's house. On a sad note, Mel's Bar (a somewhat out-of-place dive bar in the fancy Paseo Nuevo shopping mall) is shutting its doors for good. Christy and I shared more than a few pints in this place well before we were married.

California Summer Vacation 2008 - Sacramento Part I

This years annual summer adventure was to Southern California, more specifically Carpinteria, San Diego, and Disneyland. I'd like to give a shout out to a very special guest on this trip, Auntie Shawn. (Crowd noise.) Since this was our first trip with both kids, we were lucky to have her with us. We truly wouldn't have survived without her. Our first stop.....Sacramento! After 10 hours of driving and one car sick two year old, we persevered. I'll never look at a cheeto the same. I think Will has thrown up twice in his life and both were on the 10 hour odyssey from Portland to Sacramento. Poor dude fought through it though and we made it to Nana and Papa's around 8pm, just in time for Will to put in a swim before bed. The following morning we hit the California State Railroad Museum to get Will a train fix. He absolutely loved it! We walked through several trains and capped the afternoon off with a steam engine ride along the Sacramento River. After a quick ice cream fix, we hit the road again, heading for Carpinteria.

Aloha Thompsons are back on-line!

You're favorite Aloha, Oregon tribe is back by popular demand....ok, maybe not so popular. Anyway, I've decided to revive the Thompson blog to keep our out-of-state and international friends up to date on our activities. Here's to our peeps across the US and in China!