SMOAC Angel Island

Here are the pictures from our first SMOAC outing of the year. Per Clara's plan, we went to Angel Island and hiked all the way to the top! We left early in the morning to catch the BART to catch the trolley to catch the Ferry to the island. We took all day to hike up, stopping for snacks, lunch, boosts, and to admire the mushrooms. And by the time it started raining we were almost back to the ferry and so proud of ourselves it didn't matter! Yes, there were moments of frustration (like in the photo of Clara crouching - she was crying and refusing to go on even though we hadn't even started!). But we worked trough it, had fun, and I'm so proud of those amazing kids!

The Little Farm

On Friday we went up to The Little Farm with Tommy and Justine (and Chris and Amanda, visiting from LA), and Roxanne. Somehow I didn't get any pictures of Tommy and Justine, but I'm pretty sure their folks took some amazing pictures of them (they usually do!).

Everyone enjoyed feeding celery and lettuce to the animals, and the weather was a little chilly but really nice. Roxanne also got lots of use out of her Nintendo DS, which made me feel old and out of touch because all I can think of a Nintendo as is a game player. Which I guess this still is, but it's much more than the simple games I remember. She took loads of pictures and had a fun program on there that could record things (like her saying someone's name) and play it backwards, higher, lower, faster, slower, etc.

Berkeley Pier

The Zander-Gabardi clan had a lovely walk down the Berkeley Municipal Pier. The sun was realllllly bright (see the attempted pictures of me & Nouri looking into the sun), but it was nice that it wasn't too cold.

New Year's Celebration

And here are pictures from our celebrations - from the pre-celebration art-making, all the way through the candle lighting (which happened on new year's day this year). Every year is slightly different and this year Molly led us in a spiral walk (inspired by a solstice walk that she did at school). We walked to the center of the spiral and said something we wanted to let go of, then on the walk out we made a wish for the new year. It was lovely!