Swimming Fun... ah, sort of.

Warm weather means the pools open up and start swim lessons.  This year we signed Cairo and Jonah up for one session at the Duarte pool.  They were both put in the same class.  Cairo did a great job and made it through the whole two weeks, re-familiarizing herself with the water and getting a little more comfortable and a little more daring.  Jonah is what we call a swim lesson drop out.  We convinced him to do it one day, but we tried again the next two days and all he did was yell and scream at us.  We didn't want to push it and his teacher was already busy enough with a class full of other students, so J dropped out.  I did manage to get a few pictures of him actually cooperating the first day.

Weekend Adventures

The Los Angeles area has a lot of great things to do.  It's easy, though, to get wrapped up in everyday life and get caught up in grocery shopping, laundry, house keeping, running errands, etc.  Lately, we've made an effort to try and get out and see what LA has to offer.... and we did some of it in the spirit of my dad's favorite guy- Huell Howser.  Each night my Dad sits down and watched Huell and California's Gold.  We decided to go out and visit a few of the places he went and a few places we've been wanting to go, like: The Reagan Library, Franklin Canyon Park, and Donut Man.  I also threw in a few trips to Disneyland with the kids.  They hadn't been in almost two years, so it was all new to them again.

We went to the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on a beautiful day at the end of April.  We left the kids at home with a sitter and my parents, Heather, Paul, and I ventured out for an adult day.  My mom and I go through museums in much the same way, we browse, read the things that pop out at us, and move on. Heather and my Dad stop and look at EVERYTHING.  For the first part, we all stayed together, listening to our ipod tour of the place, but after the first hour and a half or so my mom and I hit fast forward and sprinted ahead.  We met up for lunch then went our separate ways again.  It was nice learning more about the first president I remember.  I didn't realize until we were there how popular a president he really was.

Dad, Ron, and Nancy... as usual, Dad is the shortest.

President Biggle

Oval Office

A while back Huell went to Franklin Canyon Park nested in the Hollywood Hills.  It was at this park that the opening scenes of the Andy Griffith show were shot.  After a very slow breakfast (not our fault) we made our way to the park and spent a few hours walking around.  Here's what we found and did...

A hut

A kid in a hut

Two kids in the hut

Jonah was a great hiker.  Cairo, ah, not so much.  While Cairo complained the whole time about having to walk, Jonah found himself a hiking 'tick (all his s's are silent at the start of words) and carried it around with him all day.

We walked around one stagnant pond (lake?).  There were areas of nice shade and ducks swimming on the surface, but the water did not look very inviting... like to even touch.  As we were finishing our loop, we came across another smaller pond and this one was pretty neat.  It was loaded with fish and turtles.  Definitely the highlight of our walk.

Turtle stack

I don't have any pictures of our trip to donut man, but it immediately followed up our trip to Franklin Park.  They have these crazy donut full of creme, stuffings, syrups etc.  Pretty impressive, and also a place Huell stopped at on his journey around California.

A few weeks later I braved Disneyland with the kids.  Erik was still recovering from back surgery, so he stayed at home.  Funny enough, when we got out of the car our first day there, friends of ours, the Sparks, were pulling into a space two down from us.  To term is Disney phrase, "It's a small world after all."  We walked in with them and went our separate ways.  The kids and I pushed our way ahead to the submarine ride and the car ride, then, we proceeded to hit up as many rides as I could before the crowds came.  Heather and Xander met up with us a few hours later and we all had a great time exploring the park and going on the rides.  We stayed to watch the water show World of Color, but after not having great seats and having tired kids, we left the show early and headed home.  Luckily, I had a ticket that let us come back three time, so we have two more chances to have fun.

Someone was not being a team player- surprise, surprise.

Jonah was one crazy driver.

Cairo was so excited to meet Cinderella

Jonah just hung out with his peeps, the dwarfs.

Checking out airplanes at California Adventure.

Trike-a-Thon

Cairo's preschool- First Presbyterian in Monrovia- holds a trike-a-thon each year.  It's the biggest  fundraiser of the year and helps cover the cost of materials and supplies throughout the year.  They were also looking to update their playground area.  The night before the trike-a-thon we decorated Cairo's scooter up in typical Cairo fashion- pink and purple ribbons, bows, and flowers.  When it was Cairo's turn, she worked her way around the course- round and round in circles.  Good job Cairo.

Cairo's best buddy Malena

Planting Seeds and Warm Weather

The Easter Bunny brought the kids several packets of seeds to plant.  It took a month, but we finally them planted- two types of Sweet Peas and two types of Sunflowers.  The kids had a great time planting them and an even better time checking on their progress multiple times a day and watering them.  The only downside is that by the time they get big enough to bloom, we'll be gone to Northern California for the summer.

See, we reused a bunch of Starbucks cups.

The little gardeners

April showers brings May flowers, right?  Well, it sure does bring in the sunshine and perfect weather.  We've really been enjoying heading out the backyard to play in the afternoons.  Cairo enjoys here "huller-hoop" while Jonah  just like to get dirty and pick anything that is growing.  I think Jonah is a bigger nuisance than the dogs, gofers, and snails combined are.  The prettier something is, the more likely Jonah will pick it and add it to his dirt soup.

These pictures were shot in rapid fire in the camera (actually, there are about 50 more of these, but I wanted to keep it fairly quick)-

At one point in time, Erik and I thought this sand box was plenty big enough,  Of course, that was when Cairo was one and Jonah was still cooking in the oven.  Now, the kids manage to squeeze themselves into it, between all the sand toys.  Note to self, if you build a sandbox again, make sure that it is big enough to hold at least a few kids with toys.

While the kids are running around the yard having a great time, Erik sits back and relaxes... and let's his back heal.  It's a hard life watching those kids napping.

I woke Erik up from his cat nap to snap this picture.  Ah, the happy couple.

Then we heard this, "Mommy, Daddy."  We turned our heads to see Cario full on mooning us.  So, of course, I had to snap a picture (there's not such thing as too much ammunition).  Not sure where the mooning thing came from, but I really hope it's not a new trick.