Disneyland... A Mandatory Part of California Vacations?

Now, back in time again to see the last bit of our trip to California last month.  Of course part of the vacation was a trip to see the mouse.  Not that I mind.  Like my Dad, I am a sucker for most anything done by the folks at Disney.  Our trip to Disneyland was no exception.  We made it even later than I thought we would.  We even outlasted Dad!  We left without tears of exhaustion or vomiting from any family members, so I'll consider that a success.  So without further ado, here are some pics from our trip.


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Beautiful Nature in our Backyard

We went on a bike ride again yesterday morning before it got too hot.  Anya and Heather couldn't make it unfortunately.  Maybe they will be more able to join us next time.  It was beautiful back in the undeveloped area behind our subdivision.  The kids thought we should go on a picnic there soon.  Wanna join us?


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Running in the Desert Can be Surprisingly Fun

When I was growing up in California, my family and I drove to Utah.  A lot.  We drove there to visit family.  We drove there for Dad's business meetings.  We drove there to ski.  We drove to Utah for church events.  We drove there to visit family again.

I think you get the idea.  So, despite actually living in California, we spent a fair amount of time in Utah. Don't get me wrong, we liked going to Utah. Except we didn't so much like driving to Utah.  It was typically a twelve hour drive!  That is a kid eternity.  Mom and Dad did their best to make the drive livable, which included driving games, travel board games, and later on movies playing all the way from Thousand Oaks to Utah.  Actually, looking back on that from the perspective of a parent, I bet they did the videos to silence us rather than out of a selfless sense of trying to make the trek better for us.

Despite the valiant efforts of Mom and Dad to keep us happy (and quiet), there was still ample time for boredom.  My brother, Justin, took advantage of all such opportunities with great skill.  He liked to push people's buttons, and he was very, very good at it.  He was so good that sometimes he could get his siblings to go at each other without even realizing that Justin was the one who started the fight.  He wasn't so good that he never got caught though.

A long part of our drive was through the desert of Nevada near Las Vegas.  On one of these trips, while in this part of the country, Justin got caught.  I don't remember what the fight was about, but Mom was fed up with it and she kicked Justin out of the car.  And drove away.

Not very far of course.  Still, the rest of us kids were shocked.  There Justin was running in his socks along the highway about 100 yards away from us in the heat of the desert!  What parent would do that?  Was she going to leave him?  What would you have thought if it had been your Mom?  Of course Justin caught up, and it actually looked like fun to some of the other kids.   Michael liked the idea so much that he got out and ran with him for a little while.

I'm not sure Justin wasn't convinced that he wasn't getting left in the desert though.  He looked kind of frantic to me as he ran toward the car trying to catch up.  I will always have that image in my mind as I look back on my childhood with Justin.  We fought a lot, but we went through a lot together.  We are pretty different from each other, but maybe not so different as we used to think.  Happy Birthday Justin.  Glad you caught up.

Wild Sycamores: Justin, Mary, Jona, Michael, and me.

In the Beginning: Justin and Me

Justin and his Daughter Abbey

Cousins that Play Together... Spend Most of their Time Thousands of Miles Apart!

Sad, but true. So in celebration of the joyous event, here is a short but sparkling video documenting the happiness that was. Perhaps it will become a recurrence someday?

Santa Barabara is a Colder Place than You Might Think

So it is Southern California after all, you'd think it would be warm. Not so much. Still, it wasn't cold enough to stop us from adventuring to great heights! We went to the ruins of a mansion in the mountains looking for (and failing to find) an elusive geocache. Then off to the "downtown" Santa Barbara city park. Afterward we had a great dinner and sparkling conversation back at Mary and Ryan's place. Many books were discussed and Rex (the baby) cried a fair amount. I think this trip was the most tired I have ever seen Mary and Ryan. Maybe after Rex starts sleeping better, they will wake up.



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Anya Turned Five!

So Anya is a five year old now. To celebrate while we were at my parent's house, we had a little family get together complete with Dora the Explorer adventuring. Isn't Anya adorable?


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

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Breakfast at the Beach and Burying People Alive!

So my dad has great memories of going to the beach with his dad for breakfast when he was a kid.  We thought we would do something similar with our family.   This is the second time that we have tried this and I think it was a lot of fun.  Hope you enjoy some pictures from that day.



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A Trip to California

So we got the chance to go to California for our spring break this year.  We had a great time with all the family who graciously took time out of their schedules to spend time with us.  We had a great time.  I'll try to post some of the best photos from the trip.  For this first post, we went with Aunt Shirley and Jona to the park.  Much fun was had!  The kids loved playing with Jona, and I think he might have liked playing with the kids too.


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Graninni

My mom's mom died recently.  She lived a long full life and was a great influence for good on many people.  Above all, she loved her family and her descendants.  The last few years she has been preparing us that it would be time to let her go home to our Heavenly Father.  We lived relatively close to her while we were in Indianapolis and had several visits with her.  A little before our move we visited her knowing that it would probably be the last time we would see her.  Here are some pictures of that visit.  We will all miss her, but we know that she is happier now being able to move around without pain again and is waiting anxiously to see all of us again.  Who knows, maybe she is watching us now.