Legoland!

Before Oma and Opa went back home, they took the family to Legoland for the first time (Daddy and Ethan went when he was 14 months old).  We had a great time and everyone stayed awake through the fireworks at closing.  We didn't get on a few rides like the new Lost Kingdom Adventure and Splash Battle because lines were long, but our tickets came with a free return visit anytime in the following 90 days so maybe we can hit them next time.

There were only two rides in the whole park that Ethan couldn't go on because he was a half inch short of the 42" requirement.  Ethan survived what was arguably his first 'legitimate' roller coaster...The Dragon...where the minute we flew down the first drop he spent most of the ride with his head in my armpit.  Ethan was cutthroat at the Volvo Junior Driving School where he deftly weaved in and out among all the other less competent drivers.  Too bad he has to wait until he's six (or can pass as six and be able to tell the attendant he's six) to graduate to the non-junior one.  Other fun things included some revamped sections of Miniland USA including the Las Vegas strip and a revised Capitol scene with President Obama being inaugurated. 

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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.

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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.

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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.)

Liz Injured at Stroller Strides

Liz had a chaotic and painful day today at Stroller Strides. She was running on some grass during their morning routine when she rolled her ankle in a hole masked in grass. The heard a good "crunch" and so she stayed put while another mom took Anneliese and a concerned Ethan on the rest of the trip while six lifeguards attended. Julie brought Liz' car to take the kids to Gigi's while Liz then drove herself to urgent care. However, our usual urgent was shut down because some idiot near the DMV had driven into a power transformer and the block had no electricity. So, Liz had to go down the road to go to one that of course wasn't in our network and was going to cost more. She was finally seen more than two hours after arriving and kicked out with a nebulous diagnosis and a shiny pair of crutches. Her whole ankle and foot turned a nice shade of purple and was very swollen. This was a real bummer occurring two days before our trip to Denver, Colorado.

Habitat for Humanity

At an adult ministries meeting for church a while back, I'd asked if we had ever participated in Habitat for Humanity. The group leader said no but that she'd look into it. Next thing you know I'm in charge of our first event (always happens when you speak up, doesn't it?). We were tasked with fixing up a ladies home in Lynwood as part of the Brush with Kindness program. Her roof had apparently decayed and was sagging into her house, so we arrived and were told we were roofing! Cool! No air guns? Not cool. Well, it was a fun day in the sun (with a decent breeze thankfully) putting up fascia, drip edge, and laying down black tar paper. We were in a little competition with the folks working on the garage which wasn't quite fair since they were dealing with a third the square footage and they had one more person than we did. Anyway, the next day my legs were really sore from working on the sloped roof.

Aaarh, we be settin' sail this summer!

We are all pumped that after for what seems like forever we are headin out on a summer vacation. And not just one at that, but two! Yes, we be pullin anchor this weekend for Denver to spend a week with Liz' long lost friend Allison who moved there two years ago to be able to buy a roof for less than a pirate's fortune. Then in August we be crossin ocean to spend some time on Oahu with Mémère and Pépère.

In case you're curious, Ethan decided to play dress up a few weeks ago so I took this shot of him in the family room then had fun in Photoshop. Click it for a large version.

Two is More Fun in the Tub

So we tried Ethan and Anneliese in the tub at the same time and they had a blast! Check out recent pics.

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Boob Tube Update

It's been a year since our last post on Ethan's television preferences. It's a very dynamic situation. We stick to educational stuff even though we turned out OK watching Tom & Jerry. We're transitioning off from Curious George and on to a regimen of hidden English lessons.

Word World (originally tipped to us by Uncle Carl) has recently come into the rotation. Everything is actually drawn with the letters of the word. Super Why has superheroes that fix stories that have gone bad by putting in the correct words. Word Girl hammers you over and over with a few words throughout the episode and then reviews them at the end showing the clips from the show that demonstrate the word.

There's still some fluff...Dragon Tales also was hot for a while. Now Lazytown (which Ethan used to make me turn off when he was younger) is now a big hit despite the weird plastic puppets. He either secretly likes the catchy disco songs or has a crush on the girl. Some of the things he picks up come at us out of left field. For instance, one day Ethan was doing big weird jumps around the living room and said, "Look, I did a Grand jeté! Turns out he'd learned it from an episode of Toot & Puddle where these young pigs are always gallivanting around the world by plane (must be independently wealthy yet choose to live in a country cottage).

SpongeBob SquarePants is still blacklisted though we hear about it now and then because it was always on when we channel surfed in our minivan during our free year of Sirius Backseat TV.

Planes, Trains, and a Lexus

The family flew up north to Sacramento for a long weekend and had lots of fun. The kids aunts and cousins Maddie and Grant arrived after a few days too. The kids fed apples to the neighboring horses, played in the treehouse, hunted for bugs, watered vegetables, played in a kiddie pool, went to the California State Railroad Museum, fed geese, and had a great time with Mémère and Pépère.

Click here or the album for photos!