Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Farewell Vancouver


If you're like me, your DVR was consistently near or at 100% max recording capacity during the entire 2 weeks of non-stop Olympic action. I love the winter Olympics and am usually envious of the athletes' events. Not that I could compete but it looks like fun to be out there!

Come on, was that Gold-Medal Men's final hockey game not T H E B E S T hockey game you've ever seen? It was 3 periods of every player going full blast, giving 110%. OVERTIME even! Incredible heart, stamina, passion. Even though we lost, it was still a great game. And great to be a Chicago Blackhawks fan since they had SO many teammates represented in these games, namely on the USA, Canada, and Slovakian teams. What a finale.

The big question? Now what do we watch in the evenings? Well, temporarily we get free NHL network for a week, so that will fill up the DVR, and our hankering for winter sports action, as we get "let down easy" after the end of the Vancouver show. By the way, what was up with that crazy closing Canook ceremony? Ey? A strange dance party with cardboard cutouts and Macy's Thanksgiving parade floatoons. Bizaar.

bye bye Vancouver... but now I know you exist, and I want to come visit very very badly - looks so beautiful there! And those dang NICE Canadians....

Friday, October 23, 2009

Birthdays x 2

Party!!! ...Didn't publish this in a timely manner did I? This was
2-3 wkd ago.



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Friday Busy-ness





Ok, I didn't have to go in to work today so we got to do some fun family things. After breakfast we went to a homeschool activity at church where The Bug Guy came with live specimens to show/touch. The leaf bug, black millipede and tarantula were popular.


Yes I had millipede on my arm like this kid.




After that we went to the brand new In-N-Out by the church for burgers.


Then to Costco for groceries and a car wash.



Then at dinner time Ang and the girls went to a girl party while us boys and Sadie had take-n-bake pizza and watched the first Transformers...coffee in hand. Then I finally completed the CRV engine reassembly and successfully got it running!!! It needs a minor valve adjustment but I can do it in less than an hour and a half. God is good.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Fire station

We had a great time at the fire station. The kids got to work the hose and we saw where the firemen live and we all got hats. Who could ask for more?


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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Pumpkin Farm

Drove into the foothills to a beautiful spot called Oak Glen where the orchards and farms are. Cloudy, cold & drizzly... Who could ask for a better fall day!

Oh that's us at Costco afterwards. And last night's puzzle completion.





























Monday, October 12, 2009

Reagan Nat'l Library

We took a little drive to Simi Valley to the Presidential library/museum there. Lotta fun!













































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Saturday, October 10, 2009

Visitors from Chicago

Picked up Nana & Papou from the airport for their week long visit. Kids are very excited. Planning to goto the Reagan Library this week. Great weather for it: 70s.







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Sunday, October 04, 2009

Apple Valley Airshow

Spent a beautiful Saturday working at the CA Guard's static display UAV.


The fam dropped by for the afternoon to see the Warbirds fly and walk around the planes.


The 5 or 6 warbirds made it a high quality airshow for one of it's small size.


I enjoyed chatting with locals, retirees, and listening to interesting personal stories. It was fun to see the junior ROTC cadets work crowd control and park planes like we did years ago. And I enjoyed sharing info on applying to the Air Force Academy.


Highlight though? The warship tight formations passing by the crowd at low level.




The winds kicked up in the afternoon at the time a brushfire began in the Cajon Pass 20 miles away and kicked the fire up the canyon right up to the ski town Wrightwood in the mountains we see out our front porch. They are still burning tonight and we pray for the firefighters and minimal
damage to the area including the homes of 4 people I work with.

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Tuesday, July 07, 2009

4th of July Oh-Nine

We had a super fantastic time this 4th. With a full schedule of visitors, there was never a lack of space, tasty food or things to do! Fri (3rd) we had Jason & Amy Porter down from Edwards for the day, along with their 2 boys, Isaac and Andrew. Moments later, Mike, Becky & Andy arrived to stay the weekend. After a light lunch of sandwiches, we hung out and then went out back to take some batting practice. Despite the 100 deg temperature, a nice Godsent cloud hovered over the field for a full 2 hrs keeping us relatively cool for the slugfest. We retired back to the house so Scott could fire up the grill for some pollo asada (spiced grilled mexican chicken); mmm mmm, lemme tell you! After dinner, coffee "appeared" like it always does around here, and then we stepped out back and played a beanbag game called cornhole, thanks to Ang's construction/craft/sewing skillz. Wind correction is everything w/ cornhole! Given the advanced conditions, this game went on for-EV-er! The Porters packed up the worn out boys and headed back home. Was great to hang out with them! And Gib was so incredibly happy to have other boys his age around. That night we snuck in a quick Halo competition on the Xbox 360.

That was just the 3rd! The 4th afforded us a lazy morning, breakfast, coffee (standard!), hanging out & playtime and then a light sandwich lunch. After lunch the Johnsons arrived with their 4 kiddos and the parent-to-kid ratio was way skewed! :) In a short period of time we packed in a pool party out back, highly requested DVR'd episode of Wipe-Out, fresh smoked salsa, and Ang's excellent turkey tacos. Sadie and Andy gained confidence on their tiptoes in the water. And Wipe-Out was a source of some serious laughter and shouting. After dinner, coffee, and then we packed up and drove to the local Minor League baseball game, the High Desert Mavericks.

How do those Mavericks do it? No kidding, just like last year, they tried to lose the game, were down a couple runs in the bottom of the 9th and then somehow tied it up with a base hit and a big triple. Then the next thing you know, the opposing pitcher hits a batter to load the bases with 2 outs and then throws a wild pitch to allow the winning run to steal home! Mayhem ensued after the storybook ending which closely mirrored last year's 9th inning walk-off victory. Then the big fireworks show began. Wow, from our grassy hillside directly beneath the fireworks, we were dazzled, no engulfed by the impressive bursts overhead. Not bad for $3 grass seats!

Kids inside, kids outside, good food all around. That's Andrew in brown and Andy in green. And Mike busy w/ utensil at work. Amy can't choose a salad dressing.



Laney takes photos of Jason & Scott's neverending cornhole duel.



Amy and Andrew on the swings, the cornhole game, Chip entertains the little ones and Sadie, Isaac and Andy figure it's just another day at the park.



Pool time is how you beat the 100 deg temp! Little troy did awesome with his floaty vest, and Katie was quite dangerous with a squirtgun. Andy is good to go (with ball and Mom within reach!).



Sadie slowly became comfortable on her feet with patient Chip.



Troy and Mike enjoy the game from the grassy hillside seats.



Scott and kids watchin' the game from the blanket.



Mavericks celebrating the walk-off win!



Post-game 4th of July fireworks extravaganza!


Monday, June 15, 2009

Sadie just a swangin'

Friday, May 01, 2009

Science Fair: Solar System

The kids with their saturn project.

Friday, April 17, 2009

But we got to wear cool shoes!

Real bowling is a little more difficult than on the wii. Who knew?