Apple Store opens at Hillsdale

There's a brand new Apple Store at Hillsdale. By the time we got there, the lines had died down. But alas, they had run out of T-shirts.

Cameron seemed puzzled that the Apple Store sold computers, not apples. Especially since we had just been at the Farmer's Market, so he was in a produce frame of mind.

But being 3, Cameron naturally preferred...

...but he preferred the Lego Store

How can computers compete with Clone Wars when you are 3?

Steven Curtis Chapman on CBS News

Pastor Steve forwarded this video segment to our church family, and I thought I'd share it here. It's very moving. We've been Steven Curtis Chapman fans for decades, and we are thankful and encouraged by the courage, heart, and faith the entire Chapman family has demonstrated through their unimaginable tragedy.

I'll let the video tell the rest of the story.

First jazz concert

I'd always wanted to go to Yoshi's, and we delighted to find out that they offered matinee concerts with family-friendly pricing (the kids' tickets were something like $5!) -- and were hosting Jane Monheit, one of my favorite jazz singers.

The venue was fabulous -- very intimate, great acoustics, easy parking, decent food served discretely before and during the concert. It was also a beautiful day in Oakland, and Jack London Square was hosting a farmer's market. (We've been trying to buy most of our fruits and vegetables from our local farmer's market.)

The kids had a great time especially since they have been going through a big Yoshi phase (he's one of the characters in the Mario universe of Nintendo games), though I'm sure they wished the concert was just a few minutes shorter (it only ran for an hour and 15 minutes or so as it was). On the flip side, this was the first meal where we had sushi and french fries (the latter were especially well done -- a crispy mix of Russet and sweet potatoes).

Fancy chocolates

We felt the Stanford Mall was upscale when we were undergrads. Ha! In our days, the Stanford Mall didn't have an Apple Store, Bose, Sony Style, or Bang & Olfusen. There was no Tiffany's, Louis Vuitton, Crate & Barrel Furniture, or Neiman Marcus.

And if you wanted chocolate, you scored some at the See's Candy, not the ultra-fancy Teuscher Chocolates of Switzerland.

Well, of course, all that has changed as we discovered on a recent trip (it's been a good long while). While hanging out with the other hoity-toity shoppers, we indulged ourselves with some of the super expensive but oh-so-cute and definitely tasty Tesucher Chocolate store. Yum. Check out the details on that dog! (I can't remember exactly, but I think you are looking at something like $15 worth of chocolate.)

One of our favorite pics from vacation

Fedora snapped this shot as Cameron decided he had enough of the cold water. 

New aquarium

There's a new aquarium with a few nicely down exhibits right next to the main park at Legoland. Probably not worth visiting on its own, but if you're going to Legoland, definitely worth checking out some of the innovative views of the sea creatures the designers have managed to create.

Water park

Colin and Ryan had a blast at the water park this summer. The water was pretty cold, but it was a hot day in Carlsbad. They eventually worked up to the nerve to stand underneath the big bucket of water.

If you've never seen it, it's an impressively large bucket of water that gets dumped on the kids every few minutes.

I love the reaction of the kid who turns around right after the water comes down. Also, go check out the stop-motion photos on Smugmug -- I finally got to use my little Canon's multiple-exposure feature, and it did all right for a point-and-shoot. :-)