Bubbles!

The weather cooled down noticeably today. Rain had been predicted but there was none of the stuff. Still, it was a hot in the sun, while cool in the shade. It's windy now, outside, and colder than it has been in a while, but I can't really complain. I can't remember if the weather has always been like this during the Spring here in Vacaville, but it seems unseasonably pleasant. Living here again, after an absence of nearly 20 years, I'm continually struck by how beautiful are some of things around me, even though I grew up here.

We woke up today and discovered the photo of Vito and me pictured here on the front page of the local paper, The Reporter. It made our day! We received many calls and congratulations about it. This was one of Vito's first serious experiences with bubbles, having only dabbled in them a few days prior. The photo was taken by Joel Rosenbaum, Senior Staff Photographer for the paper. Additionally, the picture also appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for whatever reason.

Angela, Vito and me were at the park near our apartment, and I was on Vito duty while Angela was trying to fly a kite, something she had only tried, unsuccessfully, once before when we were living in China. I had surprised Angela with a couple of Chinese kites one day. After a few hours of failure, discussion and advice from neighborhood kite experts, and tree rescues, we gave up.

For Easter, I bought us a little mini dragon-shaped kite (like the one pictured here) and, we tried to get if off the ground, but it kept spiraling out of control. After a modification to the tail, it flew quite well, despite the thimble of string that was included which didn't really let it get too far up into the atmosphere. After this effort, we're going to try to get a serious kite and a long spool of string and really test our mettle!

Easter Eve

Easter is such a different holiday in America with our Easter Bunny and egg hunts. Angela and I were immersed in Catholicism last Easter, spending our time with family in Italy, following processions and church-hopping. Seems like such a long time ago, now, particularly as Vito hadn't joined us, yet. This Easter season, so far, has been happily spent with family, as well, too, albeit on the American side.

My parents are in town for Easter, back from St. George, Utah (which is where they live, now), so we've been spending all of our time together. They'll return to St. George on Monday. As I had Friday off from school, an early start to spring break, we spent yesterday dyeing easter eggs at my grandparent's house in Vallejo with my sister's three kids and had a blast, the partial results of which you can see here. I don't think I have dyed eggs in more than 20 years! Angela had never dyed eggs before so it was quite a new experience for her. After lunch, Vito slept through the egg dyeing and missed all of that action.

Today, continuing the family activities, we went to San Francisco with my grandparents and my parents. The weather was spectacular. We took a ferry from Vallejo, another first for Angela, and played tourists at Pier 39, eating lunch, looking at the sea lions, riding the merry-go-round, and shopping a bit. I took some sun and feel a little worn out as I put this together, but it was a great day. We'll all meet again in Dixon tomorrow to celebrate Easter at my Aunt Sue's house and close out this Easter weekend. We usually Skype Angela's family in Italy on Sunday mornings, so we also have that to look forward to when we wake up.

Vito Update: Our son quickly mastered the crawl, which was the new move I mentioned in my previous post, and has since learned how to pop up on both feet and cling around the house, further endangering unsuspecting books and closet doors. He's excited about the change and, I suppose, it won't be long before he can do it without the aid of walls and table legs.