Belated Party at Chuck E Cheese

Ethan had been requesting a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese since going to one for a friend's.  Even though they have security checking ultraviolet hand stamps to make sure nobody steals a kid, I was stressed and tired just being around the pandemonium.  Check out the video!

Ethan Turns Four!

We celebrated Ethan's birthday on Sunday (our anniversary) since everyone had to work Monday.  The highlights included him receiving his first action figure (Bumblebee from Transformers) and a new bicycle!  I followed him around the neighborhood clocking him at 9 mph (much faster than his tricycle!) quickly followed by the first crash and scrape on the knee.

In other news, Ethan has become very meticulous with his art, staying in the lines and usually using every color to make everything like a rainbow.  While Liz' folks were here, Ethan and Opa built some very impressive structures out of Lego Duplo bricks.  Their parting gift to Ethan was another set enabling us to reach the ceiling now!


Anneliese still doesn't say much but she's got a lot of personality.  She has to walk to and from the car by herself these days.  She obeys complex orders like "go in your room and get your pajamas" or "go give that to your brother" and she does it.  "Ma" and "Da" are clearly audible...especially at 6am after she's woken up.

Click here or the album for photos!

Parents' Weekend Away

The arrival of Liz' parents for the annual summer visit associated with Richard's two-week class at Fuller Theological Seminary allowed just Liz and I to get away for a weekend. We elected to check out the various wineries of the Temecula Valley about 80 miles away.

We checked out Old Town Temecula where we sampled and bought an exotic jerky sampler pack at the Temecula House of Jerky. We also beat the heat and took advantage of the absence of kids to catch a few movies in a theater!

We stayed a night at the Pechanga Resort and Casino where we had one of our best meals ever at The Great Oak...$80 unlisted dinner special for two where we each had Caesar salad with dressing made from scratch right at the table, 7-oz. filet mignon, and chocolate soufflé!  Basically were only paying for the steaks.  Picking from nearly a thousand wines was overwhelming but we ended up with a great red.  After dinner we promptly lost all the savings at a Pai Gow Poker table.

We drove around a variety of wineries the next day (still reeling from finishing the bottle from the night before) but spent most of our time at Leonesse Cellars and at Thornton Winery where we had a nice lunch and bought 4 for 2 of the 2007 Gewurztraminer.  Scenery was nice though not as good as Napa.  It was also quite a challenge sampling wines everywhere in the extreme heat.

Click here or the album for photos!

Rocks, Cliffs and Dinosaurs!

The family took a trip to Denver, Colorado to stay with Liz' friend Allison and her husband Josh.  We drove the first of many drives towards Colorado Springs to visit the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center and then did a driving tour of the Garden of the Gods where Daddy hopped out repeatedly to snap quick pictures which turned out to be a good idea because days later when we returned to picnic it started raining.

We checked out the Denver Botanic Gardens where they had dinosaurs hidden around the grounds to make it palatable to kids.  Keeping with the garden theme we went to the Butterfly Pavilion where Ethan got to hold a tarantula!  At the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, we all got a bit of vertigo next to the world's highest suspension bridge, 1053 feet above the river bed. Daddy was 3 for 3 in tomahawk throwing there!  Next door we hit Buckskin Joe's Frontier Town and Railway where we had a stormy but pretty train ride over towards the gorge.

Somehow we had stumbled upon a brochure for the Focus on the Family Visitors Center which was free and really cool. Ethan was not happy however when we told him he wasn't tall enough for the three-story tall curly slide. We met up with Avery (Ethan's best friend from Stroller Strides who moved over a year ago) at a cool restaurant The White Fence Farm where they serve their famous hot corn fritters which essentially tasted like funnel cake as a side dish!

We also took a nice ride on the Georgetown Loop Railroad where the boys got to get off halfway and take a tour inside the Lebanon Tunnel silver mine!  Finally we had a night of watching 4th of July fireworks from the comfort of the rental minivan topped things off.

Click here or the album for photos!  (You'll see that Ethan like sticking his tongue out lately.)