July

 In July, Ella started up preschool again, after a long 16 month break caused by the pandemic.  She was excited about starting school, but also quite shy and nervous, and it took her a few weeks to get comfortable with spending full days tehre. 

We had many visits to the pool...and invited friends whenever we could. 

Some days, we would just go hiking in our neighborhood. The kids loved leading the way. 

One of our fun adventures was a trip to San Francisco from Richmond by ferry.  We first went to Pier 39, where we had a good sampling of all the tourist attractions (carousel, hot pretzels, fair rides, and clam chowder in a bread bowl) before coming back to the Ferry building for ice cream and the windy ferry home. 

Later, we had another pool party at Babcia and Dziadek's house, with almost too many kids to count!

Ella and Auggie also got to attend one of their first birthday parties in over a year. Ella was very nervous around all the strangers and was ready to go home as soon as the party started, but when the piñata popped open and a bunch of candy fell out, she realized birthday parties were absolutely worth it.  

Another memorably family trip was our visit to the Van Gogh Experience in San Francisco.  Everyone enjoyed this beautiful and immersive art exhibit. 

During a fun day with Kristen, the kids got to make tie dye shirts.  Ella loves it whenever she can convince everyone to wear theirs at the same time.