Kitchen Redo

We had big plans for a major kitchen remodel, but with half the money leaving over the last couple years I took a more practical approach. Nights and weekends for about 6 months and we have a hugely more workable kitchen. 50% more counter space, connection to the dining room, water and ice from the fridge and a dishwasher. I love to cook and now it is even more fun. The boys and I moved at our own pace and did most of the work ourselves. I want to thank Stacy, Birgit, Ian, Rich, Gar, and Beorn for their direct support or guidance. You are always welcome here for dinner. More photos here.

BEFORE:


AFTER:

We've Been Elfed

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Amy the Great and Sy Sy

SILAS SAYS: It is a really fun time with Amy so far and there are going to be many more fun parts soon. Cause today we are going to Haight street where there are really cool stores with old fashioned toys. She came to my class and we made poinsettias. she helped me fold the leaves and my dad helped me make a really cool shaped pot.

Amy took care of us last night because my daddy went out. We made chocolate chip cookies and instead of butter me an Amy put apple sauce in the cookies and it tasted really good because the apple sauce didn't even taste. and on that same night we watched the first Pirates of the Caribbean. And a few days ago George was here and we had a really fun time with him and we wrestled and he slept over for one night because he got here really late so he had to sleep over.

Thanksgiving a Few Days Later

We finally are getting around to our Thanksgiving blog. We spent 5 nights in Portland Oregon with the Grammas. Upon our return to SF we had a glorious day surfing at Bolinas. then the boys headed to their mom's for 7 nights and DaDa went to Vegas.

SILAS SAYS: We were at my dad's for seven nights and then we were at my mom's for seven nights. And while we were with my dad we were in Oregon. In Oregon we found a lot of letterboxes and we found two hitchhikers (a type of letter box). You can see the picture of the Steel Bridge and there was a letterbox on this bridge. We had Thanksgiving in Portland and we had a GIGANTIC! turkey. After we the turkey we had one more night there and at that night we made turkey enchiladas.

JASPER SAYS: In Portland I had a fun time going letterboxing, eating turkey and swimming. We went swimming almost every day. At the swimming pool they had a whirlpool and a water slide. First, you had to go through a river and then you went into the whirlpool. The letterboxes we did were really good stamps. The ones that I can remember by names are "Stellata by Starlight", "Punch the One-Eyed Clown", and "Lone Fir Cemetery". The "Lone fir Cemetery" was the hardest one because it was in a cemetery and you had to look at all the names on the grave stones and go in a compass direction and a certain number of paces. We tried to go at night, but it was way too hard. I think the turkey on Thanksgiving was really good. My favorite part about Thanksgiving is the food. My three favorite Thanksgiving foods are stuffing, cranberry sauce and turkey.

Sweet Melissa

JASPER SAYS: I think that Melissa is a great and beautiful snake. As you can see in the picture below, she is spotted. She is a girl as we have been saying she. This is our early Christmas presents. My friends mom came up with the name Melissa and I really liked it, so did my brother. Melissa can sometimes can take a bath with you. She can swim in the bath and she might tickle you a little bit. I really wanted a snake. I am glad we have Melissa.

SILAS SAY: Melissa is a really fun pet to have. I am so glad we have a snake now, I have been waiting. Melissa is a great pet, especially because you can hold her, and it is especially fun to have her because she sometimes goes into your clothes. We were thinking actually about getting a corn snake, but my dad told us about the Ball Python and we got it off Craigslist. It was a really lucky thing because my dad found it from a good home. She likes dark places like nocturnal animals. Since she is a really big snake she can actually eat three mice every two weeks.

BOO!

Candy, friends, candy, costumes, candy.

Planting Boxes

We have planted a total of nine letterboxes in two journeys. Visit the site, find the boxes, and log your finds.

http://www.atlasquest.com/showinfo.html?gBoxId=95244
http://www.atlasquest.com/showinfo.html?gBoxId=92348

Hardly Strictly

Last weekend we enjoyed a couple days at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park. This is a free concert with at least 5 stages and huge acts. First night we headed over and snuck up fairly close to see Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. I love their music, and it was great to see a rock n' roll hero for the first time. Loved their versions of Led Zeppelin songs. The boys loved being at the show.

Letterboxing

Image of the CrockerBoys Letterbox stamp.

JASPER SAYS: Letterboxing is really fun. It is when you go out and find a box with a stamp in it. And you stamp their stamp in your book and their stamp in your book. Today we went and found seven letterboxes in Sonoma. It was FUN!!

SILAS SAYS: Letterboxing is really fun. First you look on the computer for clues. Then you take them out and try to find them. Today we did seven letterboxes in Sonoma with the Turners. Yesterday I did four with my Dada only, and I went to a pool party too.

Fall is Our Summer

Last week we had a run of 8 days of sun and great surf. Hundreds of people out in front of the house. Of course the CrockerBoys could not stay away. Silas finally took to Boogie Boarding his "new favorite water sport." Jasper continued to get better at surfing. And, Dada surfed until he could not move any longer. Great days with the Sunset neighborhood kids. What a weekend: Clone Wars, beach, BBQ, Dim sum, clarinet, and friends.
Silas and Lila after a great boarding session.


Jasper enjoying using Dada's board.

Jasper on the wave. No help from anyone.

Silas on a long cold roller the first day of Fog on Sunday.

First Day of School 2009

Jasper Races to Nine

Birthday weekend for Jasper. Early rise to get to the Grand Prix when it opens. 20 laps with a best time of 58.608. Then water boats and the materialistic nightmare of an arcade, sucking cash and returning tickets for little plastic stuff. Then home to an intimate dinner party with a few families at the CrokerBoys home. What a great year for Jasper, the best is yet to come.

Brisbane, Reds, and Geochemistry

Last city for the this tour, Brisbane the home of the University of Queensland. After a day of business I met with my UCSC professor, who now teaches at UQ. Ken and Betty took me to a great little bistro in Brisbane. Ken opened a couple bottles of South Australian red wine he had cellered. It was great to reminisce. Cheers mate!

Rottnest, Quokka, and Cook

Caught the early morning ferry from downtown Perth this morning after a fast pace week of meetings in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth. Ferry headed west down the Swan River to Freemantle where we changed to a faster boat out to Rottnest Island. Rottnest is just over 8 kilometers long and sits in the warm Lewellan Current. So unlike the mainland 10 miles away, it is warm water, coral reefs, and quokka. The dive and surf shop was closed for repairs during the low season, so I was lucky to have the one fin I have been carrying all week. We rented beater bikes in the settlement area of the island. I chatted with the nice lady renting the bikes and jokingly asked if they had a boogie board or surf board I could use. Sitting in the corner was a tattered, but usable boogie she lent me at no cost, because I was nice. I was told Strickland Cove is the best surf on the island, and that the locals often tear down the sign, so look for the sandy track after Green Cove.

Beautiful bike ride to the break first seen over the scrub covered dunes as three kite boarding kites dancing. Over the dune to a crystalline white sand beach with a strong swell and winds. The kite boarders were winging themselves into the fast break and surfing it like regular surfers. I had no wetsuit and the wind was a bit cold, but the water was warm enough. I crawled over the reef and managed to get a large set wave right off, see the picture near the end of the ride. But alas, my tattered boogie leash broke and I was left to swim in over the reef. My work buddy spotted the board blowing down the reef, so I ran along the rocks and sand, climbed over another reef and swam out to my waiting board. After 15 minutes to warm up I paddled in again and got many great waves. During the lulls I hung low in the water to avoid the wind, but the cold eventually won and I went in.


Captain Cook's English cottage in Melbourne, presented to Australia as a gift and brought over brick by brick.

Downunder Begins

First day in Australia. Mostly business meetings, but got a bit of time last night to walk around the Sydney Harbor. Wont have time here for beaches or surf in Sydney. Head to Melbourne tonight. The flight was easy, with 8 hours sleep. Walked off plane into waiting towncar and straight into presentations. All is good with sleep and a good swim.

Family at Family Camp

JASPER SAYS: I like going to DeBenneville. One of the days we were there our cousins came down and we had a really fun time with them. I made some new friends at camp. My grammas were there also. We made bow and arrows when we were at camp. I also got to do archery and we built dams at the stream near camp. I had a very fun time at DeBenneville and I want to go back again.

Debenne Again in 2008

DeBenneville Pines Family Camp 2008 where I come to see my old friends, have our kids play together in nature, and be with the Grammas. The boys have found their tribes and roam the dirt, trees, and rocks of this 7000 foot elevation wonderland. I hope to see them a couple times a day emerging from the woods or forts or the pool, often with a homemade bow in their hands. I have been running some outdoor activities for the camp. Yesterday we did archery and today we built a rock and mud dam in the creek I spent much of my early teens wandering. Pool time, craft time, tie-dye, stepping stones and much origami. It is good to be here with old freinds and family, and I must say my heart is in a very different place than it was a year ago when we last visited.

Summer Vacation 2008

Starting our ten day CrockerBoys summer vacation. We are on our way to DeBenneville, the camp I spent my youth at for a week of Family camp. As is tradition we stopped at Chekka's house on the way down. Chekka and I went to kindergarten and high school prom together. They live in a hot part of the valley and have a great pool. So between swimming, Coronas, and Wii Fit, we have a great start to our time off. The grammas are with us for this adventure as well. This may be the last Internet connection until we are done next weekend, but we will post if we can.

No Snow in Tahoe; Lots of Smoke

Crazy like Dada!?!

A couple weekends ago we had a great 3 day trip to the Tahoe area. A friend of mine let us use her wonderful house in the Tahoe-Donner subdivision. Three stories tall on the side of a hill covered in yellow mountain daisies. We had a great day climbing with the kids at Donner Summit. Everyone got to the top of the big slab. Dada had a short attempt on a harder route and took a bit of a fall, two weeks later, my left ankle is still sore. Next day was lazy in the house, playing Risk and pool. Then a day playing tennis, making sand castles, and peddle boating and kayaking on the western shore of Donner Lake. Sunday Team CrockerBoys merged with the Trupelli's for a grand float down the Truckee River, long and lazy. A serene communion with the natural environment and 5,000 drunk natives.

Floating the Truckee River 12 in the raft.

George takes Jasper and Elijah for a spin.

Our Tahoe team.

Silas Climbs His Way to Six

SILAS SAYS: It was a really fun birthday. I got three Lego things for the whole birthday. Two were from my friends and one was from my dad.

I had the party at the climbing gym with about ten kids and some parents. It was the best birthday party ever because I climbed to the top of a big wall.

My gigantic birthday cake was a small donut with six candles. I chose donuts instead of cake because I don't like cake, I only like the frosting.

Thank You Berry Much

SILAS SAYS: Thank you berry much is the first thing that I want to say. We went ollalaberry picking and we found about 28 pounds of berries. And we picked about 5 boxes of ollalaberries. But, before we went ollalaberry picking we went surfing and playing at the beach. We found a giant layer of rock under the water in a deep hole. And the deep hole was a big layer of sand, then a hill, then a smaller layer of sand. And we played and played and played and played. We played so much our brain almost went down to our feet, but not exactly down to our feet just up to our knees.

JASPER SAYS: Thank your berry much for the day I had today. I liked the trip down to going surfing because we were just looking at places to surf and got to hang out with my friends and my family. When to got to Waddel Creek we got into our wetsuits straight away and surfed. I got go surfing surfing for the first time in a long time. When we went surfing I got like seven waves and I actually got to stand. After surfing we went to an ollalaberry farm and we picked a lot of ollalaberries. We picked about twenty pounds. We made jam out of them and we are going to make pies too.

Great full CrockerBoys day. Load up our car with seven people, five surfboards, 2 boogie boards, and some food. Leisurely drive down the coast stopping to check surf spots on the way. Ended up at Waddel Creek with small inconsistent sets. Jasper had his best surf session yet; standing on many waves all the way into the beach. The dads got to surf too. Ahhhhh. Picked tons of berries and watched the little ones eat more than they picked, spill many baskets, and color their faces with Oompa Loompa war paint. Made one batch of ollalaberry jam and have enough berries for at least three more batches. Then we blew some fire works off at the beach. Another chill day for the CBs.

Tennis Anyone

JASPER SAYS: We went to Santa Cruz for the first day of summer. When we were there we went to a tennis court and played tennis. I thought it was very very fun. We had a match, Gabby and I versus my Dad and Matt. I liked it so much and this summer I am going to tennis camp. Today I got my first racket and after we got my racket we went to a court in San Francisco and played tennis.

Jasper on the court

SILAS SAYS: It was really fun at the beach when we played. The waves crashed and then all the tumbling stuff after the wave crashed. We went in to see if it tumbled us around. If it did it was a Roller Coaster. If it didn't it was a Mousa Coaster. It was the first two days of summer vacation. I got a new wetsuit and booties. It was a whole wet suit it covered my whole legs and my whole arms and I got new booties. They kept me warm a lot, a lot.

Silas (right) and Maya play in the waves.

Gs and Cs in SC. See new wetsuit and skimboard.