menlo park

 (i love this sign combo of my dad's name and the town he lives in).

our first week here in menlo park was spent with my dad, theresa, eva and matthew at their home where we planned to stay for three weeks.  they spent our second week in florida for the kids' winter break, during which we stayed in the house to take care of griffin, their welsh corgie.  we spent our first week doing some of the usual things we do: walking the dog to my favorite local starbucks, jumping on the trampoline, and this time playing basketball on the new court they had put in their backyard.  we went to ikea to get some birthday presents for indy and to the sporting goods store to get a right sized basketball for ezra.  ezra is such a nice age to help me with indy.  he can't do many of my tasks, but the ones he can, like pushing indy in the cart or just keeping him distracted at times, he does with all the fun shenanigans you can imagine of a six year old.  before the week was over, i got to partake in some beautifying at the local salons with eva and theresa.  thank you michael and theresa for the hair and nail treatments!  the night before they left, we celebrated indy's birthday with a song and a cupcake.  he reached for the flame a few times making us all say, "no!!!" to which he laughed and smiled.  i love everything about this town in addition to my family who lives here:  the old tall trees everywhere casting their shadows on the ground before me and spreading their boughs in a canopy overhead, the crisp, blue, fresh air - it actually smells blue, the close proximity to stanford and all the intellects, psychedelic san francisco bay, and the amazing energy that is present here probably from all of the things i just mentioned.  i long for this energy when i'm away and when i'm here i bask in it.