Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Birthday with brother

OK, so I do realize that my birthday was about 4 months ago, but my birthday present from Ryan and Lailah was a gift certificate to a California Windsurfing company. No, don't be worried!! Windsurfing is in the title, but the company actually offers multiple rentals. I did a little bit of research online to see what exactly this gift certificate qualified for... Through researching the company I actually realized that multiple options were available to me. They actually rent multiple forms of water entertainment including paddle boards, kayaks, pedal boats, water bikes and windsurfing boards. Initially I was intrigued by the idea of attempting a "water bike" which essentially appears to be a bike which as you pedal it, it moves the propeller so you can navigate the lagoon easily and comfortably. This idea intrigued me, but I hadn't made any hard and fast decisions.

So, then Ryan and I headed into Foster City, (he's essentially a brilliant kayak-er), but he left the decision entirely up to me. We ended up renting two kayaks for about 2 hours. Now, considering my family's issue with sun exposure and all, I made sure to layer myself in sunscreen so that I was essentially protecting myself from the sun as much as possible. I had a true blast navigating the Foster City lagoon with Ryan and I even managed to capture a number of photos of him and the scenery with my phone! I would definitely show these pictures right now, except that when we had rowed our way essentially to below 92 Ryan had asked me a question (because I was riding a sit-on-top kayak whereas he was riding a legit kayak) about how wet my rear-end must have become because of my seat... I told Ryan that my butt didn't feel wet at all because there was simply a stagnant little puddle close to my butt but not under me. I felt as though I needed to prove this to him, so I sat up in my little kayak to show that I hadn't become excessively wet- JAMIE'S BIG MISTAKE! because when I stood up all of the water moved from the puddle to right below my butt and then my cell phone popped out of my shorts' pocket and fell into the lagoon. So, as a result I have zero pictures documenting our fabulous birthday excursion, but losing my phone and having to get it replaced didn't put any damper on one of the best birthday presents that I've received in quite some time!

Feel free to ask any questions, but I realized last night that I should write about this wonderful excursion because it was absolutely ideal and I love my brother for coming up with a phenomenal birthday present idea which we both truly enjoyed!

Friday, July 14, 2017

Day with nieces

Today I was excited to be able to spend a handful of time with my nieces! Collette is 3 and her big sister is a whopping 5... and Lailah had given me a few ideas of activities which I could absorb them in to catch their interest.

Lailah knows about my love of art and painting so today I helped my nieces create paintings of their own. Her exact words were that "Amelia will be able to listen, but Collette may just slather the paint on". Her words could not have been more appropriate! Technically the assignment was they were creating a painting for Lailah's sister Gihan (whose birthday is actually today), and I essentially gave them free reign regarding what they were going to paint. (As it's best if the painter actually cares about what they are actually painting)

Amelia really wanted to paint a cat for Gigi and Collette decided to go the more traditional birthday route and I sketched an easy birthday cake for her to fill in. I made a mistake... I sketched the outline of their painting subjects so that they would simply paint around the predetermined lines. But, I realized after the fact that I probably should have followed Lailah's advice and actually began the painting for them- essentially paint the beginning lines instead of using colored pencil. Oh well!

We had a blast together and I'm looking forward to this routine possibly becoming a little more regular during my summer. First of all I was able to give Martha (Lailah's mom) a little break from feeling as though she must keep them busy and entertained all on her own AND I completely enjoyed my morning/afternoon with my wonderful nieces.









Enjoy my captured photos/videos from today!!