Underwood Family Farm

We had some fun with Bennett the day we took him out to the farm in Moorpark. This farm is amazing for kids. In addition to being a working farm, they have pick your own veggies, and they have a whole section of fun stuff for kids. They have everything from tractors to animals to wooden trains to pyramids of straw bales to play on and climb on. They had every animal from emus to miniature donkeys to pet and feed. We picked lots of blueberries (which are Bennett's favorites!) We had a really fun day.

Bennett with the miniature horses.

The fun wooden train to climb on.

Bennett actually picked blueberries. He thought this was pretty "pun"(fun in Bennett language.)

Bennett navigating the tractor.

Bennett and Grammy hanging out in the wooden truck.

This is a video of Bennett petting the miniature horse and the goats.

Aquarium of the Pacific

Today we headed down to Long Beach to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Bennett had a great time. He got to pet a stingray, feed a Lorikeet bird, and run to his heart's content. He definitely recognized the little fish that look like Nemo from Finding Nemo. Mostly he loved the shark tank though. We stood there forever! (oh and he was oddly amused by the bead toy that they had in the nursing section of the bathroom as well. We probably could have sat in there forever and he wouldn't have gotten bored!) Great day - gorgeous weather, and lots of fun stuff to see.

Bennett and Grammy Pat feeding the Lorikeet birds.

We figured out that snack time is very important to a 2 year old! He is feasting on Goldfish crackers at the Aquarium. I thought that was funny.

Bennett heading out towards the lighthouse on the point. (He was of course outrunning both me and mom, but we caught up eventually. :o)

Bennett hanging out on the grassy knoll. He aptly pointed out the big boat in the background as he said "That big boat!" The boat is of course the Queen Mary.

Travel Town

Mom and I ventured over to Travel Town Park in Burbank with Bennett. He has always loved trains, so this was a great way to spend a day for him. He had a great time. It was a little hot, but it didn't stop him from climbing all over all the cool old trains there. We took him on the little train ride too pictured below. This park is so cool...best of all it is free to get in to! We just let him climb on everything till he was so tired he was ready to drop for a nap.

Me and B in front of the little train that goes around the park.

Havin' some fun on the train ride.

Bennett and Grammy checking out the big engine.

Stopping for a water (or wanner as he calls it) break. :o)

The two videos below are part one and part two of our little train ride.

Noah's Ark Exhibit

We visited the Noah's Ark Exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center this past weekend. What fun for the kids! Bennett just loved everything about the exhibit and his cousins Sam and Max did too. Here are a few pics from the day.

Bennett is starting young at his computer...much to the delight of his dad!

Part of the Ark.

This video is of Bennett and Sam putting the little animals on the conveyor belt that takes the animals up into the ark. Too cute. Bennett playing with the giant bee and bee hive exhibit. Bennett playing with the zebra which was made out of air vent covers (like you would find on a house roof), and the mane was made out of piano keys.

This video is of Bennett pushing down a handle that simulates wind and how the leaves blow in the wind. He stood at this exhibit for about 20 minutes!

Sam sitting on a turtle.

Joe and Max.

Max and Amanda petting the puppet fox.

Max and Grandma Ardis.

Crocodile made out of a violin case and rubber tire .

Elephant over top of the crawling tunnels.

Flamingo.

Owl.

Knott's Berry Farm

We recently took Bennett on his first trip to Knott's Berry Farm along with all of Dan's family. Bennett and cousin Sam had a blast in Camp Snoopy there. Bennett really had fun on the rides and had a great time despite the fact that it was nearly 100 degrees outside that day!

Bennett's first ride on a roller coaster...he already knew to put his hands in the air for maximum fun. :o)

Snoopy's Red Baron Airplane ride. Bennett and Sam had fun flying up and down in their airplane.

Video of Bennett and Sam flying Red Baron style.

One of Bennett's favorite rides was the semi trucks. Dan got to ride along too. The funniest thing about these trucks is that they have little clown horns for the kids to honk, and the kids like that better than the ride. Just sounds funny with a bunch of "Mack" trucks and little clown horns!

Video of the Mack Truck ride and the little clown horns. :o)

Grandpa helping Bennett get a drink of water on this very hot day!

Anniversaries

This past weekend Dan and I celebrated both our dating and our wedding anniversaries. They happen to be one day apart, so it is easy to do both. We have been married for 6 years, but together a total of 12 years. We got the wonderful opportunity to just get away for an overnight trip to the Lodge at Torrey Pines which is down near San Diego. It was so nice to just get away. My mom took Bennett for the weekend so we could have a little time alone. The Lodge was beautiful and very relaxing. Just happens that next week they are hosting the US Open there, so the golf course was being reformed with bleachers and tents, etc. Still the scenery was gorgeous! We had a room overlooking the golf course and the ocean and all of the Torrey Pine trees. We laughed because when we got into the elevator at the lodge they had a pine scent pumped into the elevator. Smelled good though! The grounds also had alot of Sage and Rosemary planted around, so the air was very aromatic. We had such a nice time, but I forgot to ask someone to take any pictures of us together and consequently got only scenery pics this time. Oh well. My mom made the weekend great by not only taking Bennett for us, but she had champagne and fruit delivered to our room as a surprise! We enjoyed it as we watched the sunset over the ocean.

Looking back at the lodge from the grounds behind. Our room is the top floor balcony between the two peaked roofs. Great room location!

View from the balcony of our room overlooking the golf course and the Pacific Ocean. All of the bleachers and tents were being set up for the US Open.

A lone seagull decided to visit us before we left.

The sunset from our balcony.

Champagne that mom sent us via room service. We felt like VIPs!

On the way down to the Lodge, we stopped off at Legoland and went in for 45 minutes on a shopper's pass for free. Took some cool pictures of some of the miniland there. They had neat replicas of most of Las Vegas, San Francisco, New York, Washington DC, etc. Thought I'd include a few here for those of you who have never been. We can't wait to take Bennett when he is a little older.

Mini Las Vegas sign made out of Legos.

Mini version of the Excalibur Hotel in Vegas .

Mini version of the Treasure Island Hotel in Vegas.

Mini version of a street in San Fransisco complete with moving cable cars.

Mini version of the Griffith Observatory in Hollywood.

Trash Talk

So...I don't know about everyone else's 2 year olds, but my 2 year old happens to be infatuated with all things regarding trash. He LOVES the trash trucks when they come to collect the trash. Friday (which is trash collection day in my neighborhood) is definitely the best day of the week for Bennett. Every Friday morning when we hear a trash truck Bennett says "Truck!" very excitedly and runs for the front door so he can go out and watch the truck picking up the trash. Most of the truck drivers know Bennett now and they always wait for him to come out so they can honk their horn for him. He just loves it! He also loves to throw stuff away (even things that aren't supposed to be thrown away!) So we have to watch that he doesn't throw away our car keys and things like that. :o) Cheryl was over one day and took this video of him asking if he can throw these balls into the trash can behind him. Pretty funny. Maybe I won't have a hard time getting him to clean his room when he gets older eh? One can only hope!!!

Farm Walk

This past weekend we ventured over to Pierce College, a local junior college, that opened up it's farm for the public to see as a fundraising event for the agricultural school there. They call it the Farm Walk. We thought it would be fun to take Bennett to see the farm since both our moms come from farming backgrounds. He loved the animals and the wide open space. The farm at the college has 225 acres of farm land in the middle of suburbia here. They had sheep, goats, cows, chickens, horses, hay rides, BBQ, music, and lots of open space to run. They had demonstrations on sheep shearing, wool spinning, etc. They also play Cowpie Bingo where you buy a temporary deed to a plot of land and they set a cow loose in the pasture. If the cow plops on your plot of land you win money. Hilarious! We had to play! We didn't win though. Bennett really seemed to have fun. Poor Dan had worked about 24 hours straight through the night before due to a power outage at work, but he went anyways, then came back and slept most of the afternoon. Oh and he was also horribly sick with a bad cold. He wins points for being a good dad!