Preston went fishing at Island Park with his Grandpa Peterson.

Four-wheeling at Island Park

Yellowstone

We all made some amazing memories at Island Park. We did everything we could (boating, fishing, four-wheeling, crawdad hunting, roasted marshmallows, settlers) except for huckleberry picking and trapping squirrels. Josh is disappointed that he couldn't pick berries. We had the Peterson vacation with minimal downtime. I was exhausted after our trip, but it was all worth the energy in doing as much as we could as a family.

-- Easter Day --

(I am in the process of picking a paint color for my entryway. That is why I have some random color behind him.)

Easy entertainment

Starting our Garden

We visited beautiful California! It was such a magical place with such lovely weather. I think we may have to do this every spring to get out of the gray, cold weather.

Josh and I visited San Francisco while Josh's sister took care of Preston. We went to the California Academy of Science. I highly recommend going.

We ate some amazing food. Thank you Tyler Florence!

You see Tyler Florence is our favorite chef to mimic his recipes. He has a restaurant in San Francisco, Wayfare Tavern. It was the BEST hamburger, mac and cheese, and carrot soup I have ever had. It was such a magical night enjoying such amazing food.

Back we went to San Ramon to watch Josh's grandma and his sister's little boy. Preston had the best time with a little friend all day everyday.

     So Sarah's father so graciously handed down an excellent 4-wheeler last weekend (we love it!), which Preston and I (Josh) took down the street where we have a huge outdoor, grass amphitheater that everyone in our neighborhood sleds down in the winter.  There was a ton of snow fall last night and this morning, so conditions were prime.  Better yet, I had the day off work and no one was in sight.  Preston and I had the hill to ourselves.  I bought a terrible Body Glove boogie board-like sled made for the snow from Costco, which turned out to be bogus.  My old snowboard was a far superior substitute and I even thought it was better than any sled.  We just sat right in the middle of the boots.

     Preston ate so much snow and that ended up all he wanted to do after awhile, despite his old man doing all the work, pulling him up the hill over and over.  A defining moment for a father to teach his son to distinguish clean from dirty snow, as he went after and stuffed his face with any of it.  

     I should have posted a picture of our kitchen before Sarah primed it, which contained about seven patches of different paint colors due to our indecisiveness.  Some visiting nephews were concerned that that was our choice of design and paint for our house.  Here you can see that we finally chose a color for our downstairs!  It has been months of browsing through magazines for Benjamin Moore colors, visiting Sherwin-Williams in order to get samples of such, and painting them all over our white walls.  For those interested, the color is hazy skies.  We actually toned it down to 50 percent of its actual shade.  I think Sarah and I both doubted that, out of the all the sampling we did, a color would finally click.

     I am 3/4 done with my wainscoting!!!  Or 7/8...or something around there.  Sarah knows I am terrible at gauging ETAs, whether when I'll get home, when I'll be done with work, or when some tasks/projects will get done.  It is a quite fulfilling project and I've learned a lot in the process; not to mention the capability to take on any wood-working project, given my tool collection now ;)  I decided to do the whole thing with select pine, and the backing is a 1/4 inch birch plywood.  I first spanned the walls with that backing, then laid the wainscoting right over it.  Check this picture out to see what it is I am replicating and how it will look.  Originally, we were going to paint it a linen white, but I think a creamier white would be best, matching our kitchen cupboards (I credit brother-in-law Matthew for the suggestion).  Hopefully, the process to pin down the color will not take as long as the walls.  

My life has pulled me away from the blogging world, but I am going to try to be better. I am planning on finishing my physical science class this month, and then I will feel free to do more. I have a home that desperately needs my attention of making it more attractive.

Preston fell in love with this batman costume and guitar.  He had to have both at the same time.  I am tempted to get him a guitar when we finally say goodbye to the diapers.  He has been more ready than I am with potty training.  It's really taking him to other non-familiar toilets that scare me.  He is doing AMAZING with the potty training except for going number 2.  Scares the poor dear.

We ventured to California over New Years.  He had so much fun with all of his cousins. So many people to play with.

Oh, this is our new couch he is jumping on.  I don't want to show the entire couch until our paneling is all done.  I know, I need to teach him not to jump on the couch.  I will start after my physical science class is done, too.  So much I can do after this class is completed.

Preston keeps recalling this lovely aunt of his over and over again.  If only they lived closer to us!