Dan's Aunt Mona - 77th Birthday at Disneyland

Dan, Bennett and I joined Dan's dad Nick and Dan's Aunt Mo for a day at Disneyland. Mo turned 77 this year and had never been to Disneyland! She always wanted to go and what with this being the year where you get in to Disneyland for free on your birthday it was a perfect chance to go. She is out visiting here from Minnesota for a month. She said that her favorite ride of the whole day was Pirates of the Carribean. We had a great day.

Nick and Mo in front of the castle.

Me and B on the Tea Cups - he LOVES this ride! Something about 2 year olds and spinning around incessantly! Bennett finally got to meet Mickey Mouse!

Riding the train. Bennett kept shouting "All Aboard"...even when we were already moving. :o)

Finding the hidden treasure on Tom Sawyer's Island...well Pirate's Lair now....and the treasure isn't really that hidden!d

Snow, Snow Snow!!

My mom, Cheryl, Riley the doggie, Dan, Bennett and I made a trip to Lake Arrowhead to mom's condo to play in the snow for the weekend. The snow on the mountain off the back of the condo was great for sledding down, making snowmen, and having a few snowball fights. The weather has been great and we are having a nice time relaxing here. The condo doesn't always get snow that stays for very long, so it was fun to come up and take advantage of it right out our back door! There was about 2 feet of snow there.

Our attempt to get Riley to pull Bennett on the sled. She was totally willing to do it too!

Can you guess where this snowball is going to land just judging by Dan's defensive pose?? Smack on the head! :o)

World's tiniest snowman. About 18 inches tall. :o)

Yumm....Snow tastes good. We were just glad that his tongue didn't stick to it!

My one and only artsy shot of the trip. This is off our balcony with the twinkle lights on the railing overlooking the backyard.

New Years Day 2009

Caution: Content of this post may contain info about USC, all diehard UCLA fans skip this post if you are unable to read about USC. :o)

Just kidding...well, not about the USC part! We were rooting for USC to win the Rose Bowl this year. (I'm sure all of my friends who are UCLA fans were instantly Penn State fans for at least one day ;0) My mom brought a cake over the night before that just happened to have a USC logo that was exactly the same as the logo on the shirt Dan was wearing that night. Pretty funny. Had to also get a picture of Dan and Bennett wearing their USC shirts. Very cute...matchy matchy. :o) Dan was very happy with the outcome of the game...Go USC!

Remote Control Grandpa

Bennett will find any excuse to get someone to drive one of his remote control cars and when Grandma and Grandpa came over last week, it was no exception. He suckered...I mean...coaxed Grandpa into driving his remote control truck around the foyer till the batteries ran out. :o) Boys and cars...that's all I'm sayin'.

Happy New Year!!! 2009

We celebrated New Year's a bit early tonight with a USC cake for the big Rose Bowl game tomorrow. Bennett is wishing everyone a very Happy New Year in the video below!

Hope that everyone has a happy and safe New Year!

Annual Trek to Solvang

Every year both of our families make a trek north to a little town called Solvang at Christmastime and it has become sort of a Christmas tradition. It is like being transported to Europe for a day - Solvang is a little Danish settlement town with lots of shopping, food,etc. At Christmas they decorate the town, have horse drawn trolley rides, carolers, brass bands, etc. Such a fun way to get into the Christmas mood. Bennett especially loved that we found a few new toy stores this year with fun displays to play on. Passed the time while all the women went shopping!

Every year we try to get the kids to sit in the big red shoe outside of the Solvang Shoe Store. Last year Bennett wasn't too cooperative, but this year he thought it was one of those rides you find in the mall or the grocery store. He called it the Big Red Shoe Rocket Ship and asked us to put money in it to make it move. :o) Whatever it takes to get him in there! The pic below is of Bennett 2 years ago in the shoe...geez he has grown!

Bennett sporting Dan's sunglasses while getting a fun ride on Dan's shoulders.

Horse drawn trolley ride. Does anyone else see a letter missing on the little sign next to the horses? :o) That changes the entire meaning of the sign!

Bulgarian kids

Nick and Ardis took a trip to Bulgaria last year to spend some time with family and learn more about the family heritage. They brought back t-shirts with Bulgaria written on the front for the Sam, Max, and Bennett. The other night Ardis requested that we try to get a picture of all of them wearing the shirts before they all grew out of them! It's hard to get all 3 of them to smile at once. :o)

Pismo Beach

This year for Cheryl's birthday she decided that she would like to go to Pismo Beach for a weekend getaway. Dan was having a LAN party so we left him to his geek fest while we travelled north on the 101. We stayed overnight at a really cute inn - the Cottage Inn by the Sea - and it was right on the ocean. Seems crazy but we were out at sunset during the middle of December on the beach and Bennett was running back and forth in the waves...just feet of course! The sunset that night was beautiful. We had a fun weekend. Found a park on the way up and Bennett got to climb some cool rocks.

Sunset from the patio off the back of our room overlooking the ocean.

Sunset walk on the beach.

I thought this looked like a painting...the sky was so neat with the clouds.

Our stop at a park on the way up - Bennett climbing rocks...us running after him! He got a workout and so did we!

Bennett playing with the Christmas tree train in the lobby of the hotel.

Bennett found a (dare I say...) vintage quarter midget toy to play in when we stopped for a break at the Andersen's Pea Soup restaurant in Buellton.

You have to take this picture if you stop at Andersen's Pea Soup!

Goleta Train Station

On our way back from our Pismo Beach getaway, we stopped off to give Bennett some running time at the Goleta Train Station. It is a neat park with an old train depot museum and home on the grounds. They also had a little train that they gave rides on, since it was Christmastime it was all decked out for the holidays and called the Candy Cane Train. Bennett loved it!

Monarch Butterflies in Pismo Beach

We went to see the Monarch Butterflies while we were in Pismo Beach. There is a little grove of Eucalyptus trees that thousands of Monarch Butterflies flock to in winter from about November to March of every year. The day we were there , the estimated count was about 20,000. Such a neat sight to see...especially how well they camouflage themselves in the trees when their wings are folded up.