Family Visit

Last week we had all of Aaron's immediate family come for a visit. It was great! All the siblings, spouses and kids crowded into our apartment, while the parents stayed in their motor home on the street. We loved seeing everyone and taking them around the area. Well, as much as we could in a few days. The first day they were here we all went to the La Brea tar pits and the Santa Monica pier.

The tar pits were first and we had fun wandering around looking at the bones and excavation site. We then had a picnic out in the parking lot before moving on. A small group split and went to Aaron's lab for a tour and the rest of us went to the pier and played on the beach until the others showed up. My boys headed right for the water, while Amanda's kids took a calmer, more careful approach. It didn't take them long to start enjoying the ocean too.





I didn't think we would actually spend much time on the beach when we left the house that morning, or I would have dressed the boys accordingly. Oh well, they had a blast and I did have an extra pair of clothes for them. But not for me! True to form, Adam went wading out past his depth and got submerged fairly quickly. I, of course, came to the rescue and got wet up to my waist.




After all the excitement, we settled into digging holes and getting our toes wet. I dried out fairly quickly in the warm sun, and we all enjoyed a delicious dinner that night.

The next couple of days we spent at Disneyland and had a blast. The first day we all split up and went to our particular "must do" rides. For us it was the Buzz Lightyear ride and Star Tours. For cousins H and A, it was to see the princesses and others disappeared until lunch time.

My boys, especially Adam, love "Toy Story" and last year we got our pictures with Buzz. This year we finally found Woody and Jessie and my boys were thrilled! We knew they would be in this spot by the lake at a certain time and we waited for them. Just before they were to arrive, Samuel HAD to go to the bathroom (He was doing a potty dance and everything). So I took him, while Aaron and Adam stayed.


This is where they came up behind Adam.



This is Adam hugging Woody,

Adam sat down on a big rock to watch the water and wait. Quietly, Woody and Jessie came up behind him and sat right down next to him! It took him a few moments to realize they were there, and Aaron a few moments to get the camera out, but Aaron did get a few pics of Adam and Woody together.



As soon as I returned with Samuel, Adam HAD to go potty too, so I switched boys and headed back to the restrooms. They weren't too far away, but it made me wish the boys would synchronize bladders better.




Once they got their pictures, we then headed out to Tom Sawyer island. The boys decided that was their new favorite part of Disneyland. Caves, tree house, wobbly bridges, pirate skull cage to climb, etc. A truly fun place for little boys to climb and explore. They kept running off and disappearing, but eventually we herded them back to the mainland.





The next day we did mostly, California Adventure. Samuel loved the big roller coaster and we all rode it 2-3 times. They have a great kids area there (Bugs land) and we also went on the big river raft ride. I got COMPLETELY soaked and the rest of them got sprinkled and it was fun.



We all met up to do the Peter Pan ride (cousin H thought it was the best ride at the park:) ) before we headed back to our place. We had a fantastic waffle dinner (Thanks, Jon!) and collapsed.

Friday, we spent just hanging out and recovering. We loved chatting and getting caught up on what's going on in the family. We'll be going to visit them next.

Further Pumkin Progression

A couple of days ago, Samuel lost his other top front tooth. The Jack o' lantern progresses! He is so cute when he smiles, though he looks a little funny in this picture. He didn't want the flash to bother his eyes, so he closed them :P I tried to get a good picture, but this it the best of the lot. He's very proud that he had lost so many teeth and likes to show off the empty spaces.

Stephen Hawking.... WOW!

Professor Stephen Hawking is one of the most brilliant men on the planet. His work involving black holes is amazing and widely recognized. He is especially amazing, because he has carried on so well in the face of his motor neurone disease, ALS. He still does a large amount of work for anyone, much less for someone who is nearly completely paralyzed. I've pasted a paragraph from his biography below. You can read the whole thing here.


Stephen Hawking has worked on the basic laws which govern the universe. With Roger Penrose he showed that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes. These results indicated that it was necessary to unify General Relativity with Quantum Theory, the other great Scientific development of the first half of the 20th Century. One consequence of such a unification that he discovered was that black holes should not be completely black, but rather should emit radiation and eventually evaporate and disappear. Another conjecture is that the universe has no edge or boundary in imaginary time. This would imply that the way the universe began was completely determined by the laws of science.


Monday night, right here in Pasadena, Stephen Hawking gave a public presentation. Caltech is here in Pasadena and he comes for a month once a year to do some work with professors here. Amazing! I had no idea! Aaron and I and a couple of friends went to hear him speak. Well, listen to his prerecorded synthesized computer tell us his thoughts. It was cool! And a bit humorous. It was in a large auditorium and they had him enter from the back. They spotlighted the back door to the accompaniment of the theme to 2001: A Space Odessey! Hillarious! And very fitting. He slowly made his way to the front, (I was on an aisle seat and could have reached out to touch him, but that would have been creepy. Not to mention I probably would have his two VERY burly bodyguards tackle me :P )

The topic of Prof. Hawking's speech was, "Why We Should Go Into Space." He made several excellent arguments about why we should look outward rather than inward to help solve global problems. He gave the example of the space race in the 1960's, of how things developed in the space program spread and now have an effect on our everyday lives. Integrated circuit chips (you know, the things that make our computers work so well), velcro, Tang, etc. I really enjoyed the experience and I was glad to go to an open public presentation. I'm not sure I would have understood anything he would talk about at a classroom level :P

Jack O' Lantern Progression

Samuel is even closer to looking like a Jack o' Lantern! He lost another tooth the other night and he is very excited. The Tooth Fairy has been giving him a dollar per tooth and he almost has enough money saved up to buy some more Bakugans. I know, like he needs any more, but he loves the things. And he knows it's the only way he's going to get more, since I refuse to buy them.





He has recently lost one top front tooth and now a bottom front tooth. Soon, he'll loose the other top front tooth and I anticipate lots of whistling sounds when he talks :)

Huntington Gardens

The Chinese Garden

Thursday was the free day for Huntington Gardens, and our friend Annie gave us tickets so we could go. It was a beautiful day and Adam and I loved getting out and enjoying the gorgeous gardens.



Left to right: Owen, Caden, Adam and Lucy.

We ran into some friends from church and the kids loved watching the giant Koi fish in the Japanese garden. The fish are huge! You can kinda see them in this picture.





A nice lady took a picture of Adam and I in this beautiful Japanese garden. I really love these gardens. They are always so beautiful and soothing. And they are constantly being expanded, so there is usually something new to see.



Adam loves these dragons

Napped!

Yesterday, I had somehow kinked my neck during the night. All morning, my neck just got more sore until I could hardly turn my head. I fed Adam lunch and turned on the electric babysitter (the TV). Then I took 2 Advil and went and laid down on my bed with a neck pillow. I didn't mean to fall asleep, but I did for about 30 minutes.

I woke up, nervous about what Adam had done/was doing while I was asleep, it was too quiet. I went into the living room and was astonished! The TV was off! And the house was very quiet. I called Adam's name, but there wasn't any answer. So I checked his room and was even more amazed! He had put himself to bed for a nap! Yup, curled up in his blankets and sound asleep! I gave a silent cheer and went back to bed too, since my neck still hurt. We took a two-hour nap and both woke up feeling pretty good :) Don't you love it when your kids do such lovely and convenient things?!