Almost there...

Trying to burn kid energy without running, jumping, swinging, leaping, and general roughhousing is, um, darn near impossible. So far, our strategy is to take them on walks in places where there’s plenty to see, but they always manage to work in some running and jumping anyway. On Friday, we took them to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (a fantastic aquarium). The kids had a great time—we were all mesmerized by the Outer Bay exhibit.

Yesterday we visited our friend Jonathan in Berkeley. The highlight for the kids was riding the steam engine trains in the Berkeley hills. The train rides and the drive to and from Berkeley helped keep the kids from getting too rambunctious. Here we are about to take a ride on a 7-1/2 inch gauge railway. It was a hoot.

Today, we went to San Francisco and wandered around Golden Gate Park. On the way home Kai complained that the skin-graft area itched a lot. He kept trying to rub the bandage covering it. We have a follow-up doctor visit tomorrow at noon and, hopefully, they can help us deal with the itchy skin graft. Then, we finally get to go home! It's been a really long week...