John Marius with John and Marius




Jack's name is John Marius, named for Grandpa John and Opa Marius. Jack had a great time playing "Go Fish" with both of them -- what a treat!

PUMPKIN CARVING

We had fun carving pumpkins with Opa and Ome Jits.

Jits and Kristina scooped out all the guts (picture didn't turn out).


Opa and Christiaan carved the pictures.












Jack and Mariana gladly took the credit...

PUMPKIN DAY!

We had a great plan for Saturday! We were going to go to Half Moon Bay to their big Pumpkin Patch Festival and spend the day there, watching a parade, going on some rides, eating...

When we got off the bridge into San Mateo, traffic STOPPED. Like a parking lot. After about 20 minutes of that, we decided to forget that and go back to Castro Valley and visit our more local pumpkin patch place at Rowell Ranch. The kids had fun going on rinky-dink rides, visiting the petting zoo, and Jack even rode a pony. We thought we'd then go to Starbucks, go to Target, and have a late lunch at In-n-Out.

Then, about a mile from the pumpkin patch, we got a flat tire!! Ugh! We had a jack and a spare, but no tire iron. So we called AAA, and a 20 minute wait turned into an HOUR and 20 minutes! With the six of us in the van waiting! Good bonding time! Finally, the spare tire was on, and we went home.

Lookin' Good!

Lookin' Good!
Originally uploaded by ChristiaanV.

Because Dad spilled a little gasoline on his dockers earlier, he stunk up the whole house all day. Kristina offered to wash his pants and socks. In the meanwhile, these American flag pyama bottoms will have to do on his way home. Hilarious!!