Day: November 1, 2009

Leilani and I took Tuesday off to visit San Francisco. First we went to the “Mysteries of Egypt” exibition at the De Young Museum

Kids under 5 are free – Yay

But soon we knew why. It was not kids friendly, the exhibits were too high for her to see, and the nicer pieces had stayed in Egypt. Worst of all there were NO mummies. Absolutely none. Leilani had me ask the attendant when we were halfway through where they were, and that was it. We rushed through the rest, but I figured 2 1/2 hours at a museum is pretty good for a 4 year old anyway. And I had to promise her to see mummies at another museum soon… at least we saw photos of them in a book. She could not take this picture it would not focus for her so I had to take it.

We had lunch at the Shangri-La and then went to the playground with the cement slide. Leilani behaved pretty badly, but she did earn extra stars by balancing nicely on a narrow wall.

Help, help, the hermit crab got me and is carrying me of….

But at least the pelican is nice

And so is the turtle

Leilani specifically asked me to take a lot of pictures of her jumping. When I told her I already had a good one of her in mid-air she said we needed more, and I had to photoshop them… so I did.

One more golden tree:

Leilani was very lucky in Ohio, she got to go Trick-or-Treating on the Sunday afternoon before Halloween, which is when they schedule it in Canton.

She dressed up as a little green fairy:

She was a bit reluctant at first, but then she got into the hang of it, even saying thank-you without being prompted. She was also very good at going up and down the long walks by herself, Grandma and Daddy didn’t have to go nearly as far:

Showing Grandma all the loot:

Lelani had some of her chocolate and one tiny piece of a red-colored lollipop that Daddy shouldn’t have given her. She was very good about leaving most of the rest of her candy in Ohio, and even didn’t eat much of the little she brought back:

Guess who gets to eat all her candy:

The plaster handprint Leilani made for Grandma 14 months ago, her fingers were 1/4 to 1/2 inch longer:

A pretty holly bush outside of Grandma’s house:

A pretty early flight back through Denver on Frontier airlines (Leilani liked the animals painted on the plane, Daddy liked the on-time arrival):

Post-Script: the sad part of the story is that Leilani misbehaved so much on Halloween itself (she didn’t let Mommy and Daddy finish their lunch quietly at the sushi restaurant) that she didn’t get to go trick-or-treating again. I don’t think she really missed it because she had lots of fun handing out our candy to the children who did get to go door-to-door.

Well, that’s what the colors look like at least. In fact it was just a lucky day of sunshine after the first big rainstorm of fall that knocked off half the leaves. We were lucky there were still some left:

We went to the Duck Pond in Canton, looking for more colorful trees and some animals to feed–again, we got lucky with both:

Red eyes, cancelled flights and dinosaurs, oh my! The only good thing in Chicago O’Hare airport.

New kittens at John and Sharon’s, Leilani certainly couldn’t resist:

You have to admit, there are few things cuter than kittens playing together:

Except maybe Leilani with a kitten:

Great-Grandma asked Leilani to help her blow out the candles:

The card that Leilani wrote for Great-Grandma:

Andy and his cousins:

Great-Grandma as a toddler:

With Jeanne and Grandma Rosemary:

With Hunter and Leilani:

With Grandma’s scarf, because it was cold outside:

All the photos in this post are from Leilani. She loves to take pictures and often asks to take pictures, especially when she sees us taking lots of them. Leilani starts to take more pictures of people now:

This was very useful at Great-Grandma’s party, it’s always easier for her to walk up to people, point a camera at them and get a smile. Here she did a great job on one of the group photos of Andy and his other cousins:

Andy eating cake:

Hunter eating in the old high chair:

Everyone really wanted to see if Joe would let her take his picture. He did, but this one was more artistic, it shows how the subject recedes from view, you can feel the distance–or something:

Grandma Rosemary:

A ghostly cat:

Feet pictures are back!!! I missed them.

And then lots of still life pictures, first some of Sharon’s decorations:

All the cards for Great-Grandma:

And some grittier compositions:

Should we call it a self-portrait :-)