Hey Old Man

Silas performed today in his class play. Room 12 presented Rikki Tikki Tembo. It was a great effort by all involved with lots of singing and a good moral. Silas played one of three old men who brought the rope to the well to save the boys. He was by far the most in character as he sloughed around with his cane and squinted like an old man. The kids and parents watching noticed our little ham.

The Best Doughnuts in the World (Freshest Doughnuts Ever)

SILAS SAYS: We went to Krispy Kreme, the doughnut shop, and we got some doughnuts and we got to see them make the doughnuts, it was really fun because there was lots of layers of white doughnuts and they went into this one spot. Then the went into this hot hot oil and then there was this little machine that flipped them over. Then they cooked on the other side. Then then they were just cooked and they went onto this tray and then there was this thing that poured sugar and the doughnuts went through it and it made it that the doughnuts were covered in sugar. If they didn't want to make the doughnuts all sugar they would take them off before the sugar thing that pours sugar went on them. And then it dries them off and puts them on this tray and then the people take them who works at the store and they sell them.

JAPSER SAYS: Today we went to Krispy Kreme doughnut shop. They had the best doughnuts that I had ever had in my whole life. I liked them so much because they were sooper dooper fresh. I will tell you why they were fresh. They sere fresh because they were baked at the shop. Now I will tell you the process they were made in. First, they made the doughnuts, then they put it on a conveyor belt that went up and down very very slowly because they needed to rise. Second, they got put into scorching hot oil and they got flipped onto their other side by a machine that flipped the doughnuts. Then, it went onto a conveyor belt and went for a little while to cool down and then went into a little liquid sugar waterfall and came out glazed. Then, the picked it off and we got to eat it. That's what I call fresh.

We Love Gramma (The Day of Gramma That Passed)

JASPER SAYS: Last week my Gramma came for eleven days and we did arts and crafts and she gave us a dragon calendar and a dragon pop-up book. On the first night she was here she made us sloppy joe boats. They are like sloppy joes, but they are in a bread boat. I really like sloppy joes. When we were going to pick our dad up we went to McInnis skatepark, but I didn't really skateboard because we went on a hike. On the hike we found a fennel bush that had seeds on it and I went and got some and ate the seed. The seeds tasted very good. When we went on the hike we also saw American Pelicans and a few other birds, like Blue Jays and Red Winged Blackbirds. On the hike my friend Noah came.

SILAS SAYS: Gramma was here for eleven days. She wanted to visit us for some reason. She did art with us and with my dad. Our Gramma came because our dad went on vacation to hot springs. I drawed a lot of dragons with Gramma. We played and played and watched a couple Scooby Doos. We love our Gramma so much, so much. She is our only Gramma inside my dad's part of the family. There was school days when she was here and she picked me up and dropped me off lots of times. She left today.

Ring Bearer Bearer Bearer

So the first of the San Diego cousins gets married... presenting Ben and Carrie Weston. The ceremony and reception were at the Martin Johnson House at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, apparently the same location that my father celebrated finishing his PhD. It was an amazing, hot day overlooking the Scripps Pier and Blacks Beach and a short loving ceremony presided over by Reverend Andrew Crocker. Hayden was the ring bearer, Silas was the ring bearer bearer, and Jasper was the ring bearer bearer bearer as you can see in the picture. Mia was the flower girl, and after a couple diva moments, she got into character and did a great job slowly walking down the path tossing white rose petals.

SILAS SAY: I got to hold Shaq (Hayden) in the wagon and Jasper got to pull us. Mia was the flower girl. Dada just watched, he was nothing. Shaq wore a white shirt and me and
Jasper and you know that Mia was the flower girl and she wore a yellow dress. Shaq is one year old, Mia is 3 years old, Jasper is 8 years old and I am 5 years old. There were a couple little hills and Jasper pulled us and we went sown and it was super fun. I got two Juice Squeezes. There was white chocolate shells on the cake and even i got to eat one. I did a toast and I went up and I sang "By the Rivers of Babylon". Mia was really sad because she didn't really want to be the flower girl.

JASPER SAYS: It was fun. I did not really have to hold the wagon, because it was downhill and I had to keep it from rolling all the way down. When it got dark I started playing Gin with my dad and I beat him by 185 points in one hand.

Six on Six

We had so much fun last time that we had to got back again.

Six boys climbing.

SILAS SAYS: At this camping trip there were six kids and six grown-ups. We had s'mores with Swiss chocolate every night. We went climbing and biking a lot and I saw four deers and about four blue jays. All the kids were Silas, Jasper, Noah, Ben, Jeremy and Lukie. And the grown-ups were Stacy, my dad, George and Gabe (but they are kind of kids), Andrew, and Kris. On the bathroom in our loop where we were camping there was the map of Pinnacles and it showed our loop and the camping ground, and the highest camping ground was 149. We were in 4 and 3. We got a lot of exercise when we were going hiking up the hills it was pretty long to get to The Sisters which was the wall we were climbing. And it was a long walk to The Sisters so we got some exercise.

Silas on Discovery Wall.

JASPER SAYS: It was very fun to go on a camping trip. When we got there we set up camp and we went to the pool. Then the other people started to arrive and we had dinner and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores with Swiss chocolate. The next day we woke up, had breakfast, then we ran to the shuttle stop and then we went to climb. On the way we went through the lower caves.

CrockerBoys plus one entering the caves.

We climbed The First Sister and went on a hike and then we went back home to the campground and rode our bikes to the swimming pool. Then we got some wood and went back the campground and had dinner. The next day we got up, had breakfast, stayed at the campground for a little while and then we went to climb.

Jasper on Ordeal.

When we came back we had dinner of Italian sausage spaghetti and we roasted marshmallows. Then George taught us to play Mexicali. The next morning we got up, packed, went home, and watched Harry Potter.

George and Gabe teach the boys Mexicali the last night after everyone else had left.

Boards, Cards, and Sunset Dads

Just came off a great weekend with the Westside Poker Dads at the Trupelli Manor in Truckee. Got two final days of snowboarding in heavy Slurpee snow; almost felt like wake boarding. Love the steeps in the soft snow. Great crew: Joel, Gar, Eric, Rich, Brian, Jim and Greg. All my buds from Sunset Coop and the Westside of SF, mostly OB dwellers. One very late night of cards and Foosball, Bengali Gimlets, and BBQ. Tahoe is beautiful in the Spring.

These guys have all been there for me and the boys over the last year. It would have been much harder without their friendship and support, not to mention way less fun.

Dada's B-Day

Thanks to everyone that made my birthday a very special and moving experience for me. We had a great gathering of old friends and new, heck even the Gerlach's made it up from Santa Cruz. We skateboarded, biked, and Legoed (is that a verb?). Thanks to Stacy for the Star Wars birthday cake. Why did you choose Darth Vadar?

I feel like so much has happened in the last year since my 41st, and life just seems to be getting better and better. I can't imagine what another whole year will bring. But I do know it will be filled with new friends and old and, of course, my amazing family.

Today, Sunday, we went for a bike ride and climbed trees in Golden Gate Park where they close the road. And we parked our bikes on Haight Street and wandered through some very silly stores. We managed to enhance our Harry Potter and Star Wars DVD collection too.