The next state park I visited was Big Basin Redwoods, this time with TH as well as the kids. This park is one of the first ones suggested when I ask for must-see areas around San Francisco and the Redwood Trail looked like an interest trail that would be do-able with young kids.

Unfortunately all of the people who urged me to visit Big Basin forgot to mention that the drive is a long, twisty, nausea-inducing trip. It might be worth it for a long-day or weekend trip but we left late and had another thing to get to that evening so we spent close to 2 hours driving up, ate, walked the trail for 30 minutes, and spent another 2 hours driving back down. The park is beautiful and we enjoyed our walk, but we won’t go back until the kids are older and it’s easier to go up for an entire day.

In the 6 months we’ve lived in California the desire to get out and explore our natural surroundings has slowly been growing. I’ve never been a hiker (I flirted with rock climbing while pursuing a guy in college) but lately I’ve been ordering half-a-dozen pairs of hiking shoes at a time from sites like Zappos, hoping to find something to fit my extra-wide feet. I think back on all of the places I’ve lived (central Washington, Utah, Texas, Illinois) and I feel sad thinking about all of the opportunities I missed out on. I don’t want to feel that way when/if we leave California.

Wunderlich Park is one of many state parks sitting west of Stanford, about a 30 minute drive from our house in East Palo Alto. On a Wednesday in May I dropped T1 off at preschool and went home to pack up for an afternoon adventure with the kids. T2 fell asleep on the drive, so we let her sleep while we ate our picnic lunch, and then I packed the kids into the stroller* and we started off on the trail. It was a beautiful hike, but the hills were moderately steep and I was glad I wore really comfortable boots that day. There were several trail options that looped around and I’d like to visit the meadows in the Spring. I wouldn’t normally call this hike particularly strenuous, but with a loaded down stroller and two sleeping babies to push I was breathing pretty hard as I reached the summit of our trail of choice. I found a park bench halfway through where I was able to take a diaper change and picture break. I might wait until we’re done with strollers to visit this park again though - I had to dodge lots of horse droppings on the way up and down and there were areas where it was close to impossible to avoid it entirely.

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On Cinco de Mayo we went out over to Emma Prusch Farm Park to fly T1′s birthday kite. If you’re looking for a present for a 3-year-old a kite is a great one! T1 loves his and I love watching him run around screaming “TO THE RESCUE!!!” because his has Buzz Lightyear on it. We ate at Pluto’s, a Bay Area restaurant that has become one of my favorites (it reminds me of Zupas in Provo).

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There is something you need to know about Baylands Nature Preserve: It is really smelly. There are some standing ponds right next to the parking area that are very unappealing to be around.

But if you can get past that part, it’s a really cool place to visit! It has a variety of hills (which makes it great for riding bikes), some interesting art installations, geese, and some paths that take you next to the water (not the smelly water). I went running there once (and quickly realized that running during pregnancy wasn’t my thing), and we’ve been twice for bike rides with T1 after he received a balance bike for Christmas.

I picked up a pair of low-cut Hunter boots at Nordstrom Rack, and they’re the perfect shoes for bike riding (because he can drag his feet as much as he wants) but they’re still a bit big for him which meant a lot of pit-stops to put them back on. This annoyed him, but is good for us because that kid is fast and we had a hard time keeping up with him!

Each time we go we invariably stop for a rock collecting break. It is essential that he find some rocks and move them off the road to a pile or hole nearby.

Does anyone else think his helmet is on backwards? I bought it at Goodwill and it’s a bit too big and I need to add in some extra padding, and I think he keeps putting it on backwards. No instruction manual is the drawback to buying used in instances like this.

Consider this a recap of everything Christmas/Holiday related from 2012.

We kicked things off with a visit to the Los Altos Festival of Lights. We arrived right when it started and found decent seats (bring your own chairs!), didn’t have to park too far away, and found the length to be just perfect for T1′s age and attention span.

I pushed for a real tree, but we decided to get a fake one in the end. This one has a bit of a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree vibe, but it was inexpensive and pre-lit with LED and the perfect tree for us at this point in our life. I hope That Husband knows that eventually I want to go down to Santa Cruz and cut a real one down and bring it home!

T1 spent most of his time managing our efforts.
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