ManleyHouse News

2009 Part 3

October 17 ~ The first day of FALL in JAX
We had a fun day today. The plan was Dunkin Donuts, Soccer, Lunch, Pumpkin Patch, Park.
Tristan is doing quite well. He needs to work on paying attention to the action and gauging his steps when running up to the ball in soccer.

Although, the peace is over, chaos has started. Lucius today figured out he could climb out of his crib after nap. He just showed up in the living room. We heard a noise but no thump, and then there he was in front of us. At bedtime, he didn't want to go to sleep. So I put him down in his crib. I heard a thump and cry. He tried to climb out but with the footies on his PJ he slipped back into the crib. He's fine. Just scared himself. So I lay down on the bed beside him and he took one look at me, swung his leg over the top side and crawled next to me to cuddle. I placed him on the toddler bed. Sat with him for a minute, then waited outside the door. I heard a noise. He sat up. Momma said... lay down and go to sleep. He laid down. Sleep? We'll see, but I put the gate in front of the door for safe keeping.

We had fun at the pumpkin patch. It is hard to say who had the most fun. Tristan was definitely the most excited before we got there but then they all were running around.

Jack I would say had quite a good time at the park on Kingsley afterwards. He has quite an imagination. There is a castle with slides, a plane, a train made out of wood, and (2) sand boxes, and a couple swings. Jack liked the plane. He was pretending to fly it. He took his "keys" out of his pocket to let you into the plane, then put them back into his pocket. Then took them out again to start the engine. It was great to watch him. Not so much into the slides or swings, as Lucius was. ~Valerie

October 15 ~ Tai Kwon Do & Soccer
Tristan also just got his green stripe orange belt in Tai Kwon Do. It is an in-between step from Orange Belt to Green Belt.
~Brett

October 10 ~ Maggie
She has started getting out of the fence- digging. So, we bought her a necklace… mmm Hahahaha! We are such bad parents; we need to train her better.
Her in her chair
~Brett

October 10 ~ Tank
This is the last of my German WW2 series, its a King Tiger. I’m going to start a new series sometime, maybe Soviet or British.
~Brett

Only AFTER he has finished all the models in the closet...
~Valerie

September ~
Lucius is talking up a storm.

August 24 ~ Tristan's First day of School
Tristan started 1st grade. His teacher, is getting her masters in elementary reading. We are excited, it will help Tristan in his reading skills.

August 17 ~ Tai Kwon Do
Tristan had his first tournament. He had a blast I think, except for all the waiting around. 8:30am – 3:00pm, all day basically. He got 4/4 in forms but second in sparring. I’m proud of him, he did really well. There are some really crazy kids in these tournaments. Parents complain about football being rough! Quite a few kids walked away balling, in one case BOTH fighters were crying. Surprisingly, it was the girls who were viscous. It’s kinda sick of me but I thought it was fun. Imagine dog fighting except using children. I couldn’t find where to place bets but it was a smaller tournament anyway.
~Brett

August 13 ~ Dog Eats Chocolate
We purchased quite a bit of chocolate from Ghirardelli’s while out in California. We got in too late at night Tuesday to really unpack so in a hurry Wednesday morning we shuffled through a couple of bags to get what we needed. I thought I had gotten them all up but one lonely bag found itself abandoned, completely exposed to vermin and canine alike. Sitting on the floor. She managed to unzip it, tear through the clothes in the bag. Soaking wet with drool.
If you do not know, our boxer Maggie is a voracious eater. I’ve never had a dog who ate like she does, she vacuums it up. Well, Valerie got home about 6:45 and found about 35 pieces of an 80 count bag of individually wrapped chocolates. We estimate that she ate about 1 pound. 5 wrappers were found from the missing 45. She was flush but seemed normal. Well, a phone call to the poison control, a trip to the doggy ER and about $400 later she’s fine.
Now all I have to do is pick up the “processed” wrappers in the backyard.
~Brett

August 16 ~ San Francisco Trip
We went out to see Maria in San Francisco again. Grammy and Grandfather also flew out. The trip was a blast. I LOVE the weather out there, I guess everybody does to. The crowds, traffic and cost aren’t all that appetizing though. It’s a wonderful place, none the less, and I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to visit. People talk about how Jacksonville has great things and they don’t understand why visitors were disappointed during the 2005 Superbowl, well… go see San Francisco. Here’s a quick breakdown:

Wednesday - Travel
Thursday - Steam Train Ride through the Redwood Forest., Santa Cruz
Friday - Downtown; Wharf, Presidio, Golden Gate
Saturday- Jelly Belly Factory, Olive Oil Tasting
Sunday - Asian Art Museum, Church
Monday - Aviation Museum, Alcatraz, Submarine, Trolley Train
Tuesday - Traveled home

~Brett

Wednesday...So we barely made it on the plane in Jacksonville. Apparently if you online check in and follow instructions it causes all sorts of problems. I.e. You can NOT curb site check in if you indicated you have "special bags" cart seats, strollers, etc. But the guy out front took pity on a women standing in line at 6 am with (3) kids, in PJ's with back packs, (3) car seats, (3) bags to check and (1) to carry on. You say where was Brett? He was dropping of the car. He made it back to meet up with us as the bags got checked in inside. We gave him a good tip. We made the first plane.
As for the connecting flight in ATL. Well, lets just say it is Atlanta. Our plane was to continue on to San Fran, but then once everyone started de-boarding they said we had to and then go to gate A25 and the flight would take off at 10:55am, not 9:40 am. We did not make the flight, as we were on stand by and did not know it. Finally, we were confirmed for a flight later that day - 9:15pm. But thank GOD, we were the last ones on the 2:55 pm flight. Some people were nice and switched seats so we all sat together. The boys were most excited to have pizza at Aunt Maria's and go play on the sand park. (Instead of mulch or dirt it was sand.)

Thursday...Jack was more than excited about the Steam Train. Tristan remembered it a little bit from before but was still interested. There were Native Americans with Lodges at the train station. Pretty cool.
Off to the beach, Santa Cruz. Wow. It was cold. But to be expected if Seal Lions are swimming in it. Tristan made it in until his waste. Jack put his feet in it, Lucius I think put his toes in and that was it. We played on (2) Hugh sand piles. We checked out the Board Walk. Rides, Ice Cream, Garlic Fries & Cheese fries. Great times.

Friday... Warf, downtown. Claim Chowder in bread bowls. Yummy. Presidio was pretty cool. A little military city. It had an exhibit about a World Fair on Treasure Island. They built the Island for the exhibit. It is the only thing still existing from the fair. What beautiful buildings created then tore down. The craftsmanship. So we took a stroll on the San Francisco Bridge. We walked half way across and then back. A beautiful site. The sun starting to set with the cool wind blowing, how refreshing. Dinner, did you say Ghirardelli’ Chocolate Sundays? Aunt Maria style dinner!

Saturday... One of Brett’s friends told us to check out he Jelly Belly Factory and since it is Grandpa Manley’s favorite treat, we had to take a trip. It was fun. Would have been cool to see the factory running full steam. They do tours but the machines do not run on the weekends. But I think it is best to let the people have the weekends off, that is a good company. So hind-site it would have been best to do JellyBelly on Fri and downtown on Sat. We had a great time anyways.

Sunday... The Asian Art Museum was the first museum, we took the family to visit. We probably won’t go to another one for a couple years. It was cool but a LOT of work. The boys were fascinated with the live exhibit of the Martial Arts Series: Northern California Kendo Federation and Northern California Iaido Association demonstrate kendo kata, fundamental techniques of attacking and counter-attacking with swords in celebration of Ming Dynasty Exhibit.

Monday... We got out early and hit the Heller Aviation Museum. We did this one last time but its pretty cool and the boys certainly liked it. Then we went to Alcatraz which I have to admit was very cool. I had little expectations for some reason, maybe thats why I enjoyed it so much. The jailhouse had an audio tour which was very good. It had sounds of jail cells clinking and inmates chattering. I'd say it was much better than a guided tour in that it made you feel like the inmates were still there.
Then we visited the USS Pampanito Submarine - cool of course. 400 feet into the deep blue with 60 other shirtless guys crammed into a closet...ouch!
The Trolly train is a classic San Franciscan tour. We got right up front hanging on. Tuesday...Travel, nothing interesting. ~Valerie

2009 part 2 Archive

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