Red Car - San Pedro

Last Friday night just the 4 Lenhart Members of the family headed out for a rare night out together to San Pedro to go to a sing a long version of the movie Mamma Mia. Before we went to the movie we decided to take a ride on the red car line which is a replica of the historic electric red car that ran all over Southern California from the late 1800's to about 1961. It runs about 2 miles long now along the waterfront in San Pedro from the cruise ship terminals down to the end of the harbor. It was so much fun (even though it was horribly cold when we went!). We had such a blast at the sing a long too (which was a fundraising event to help restore an original art deco movie house that was originally owned by Warner Bros.) Crazy night...lots of rain, but lots of fun (Abba style fun)! Got to meet up with my friends Leah and David, but sadly I have no pics of them to post. All of these pics were taken on my cell phone, so the quality is not great.

We were absolutely freezing because it was windy and cold and raining and we didn't dress properly at all! This is Craig and Mom and Cheryl huddling together for warmth and waiting for the red car to come.

Red Car pulling in to the station. Bennett would say "ALL ABOARD" if he saw it!

Ridin' the Red Car.

Craig riding along ...in seats that incidentally were made just like the originals and the seat backs swivel so you can change which direction you want to sit...forward or backward. I thought that was ingenious engineering for the 1800's! Check out the video below...Cheryl is demonstrating how they work.

Playing in the Snow...

My mom, Bennett and I headed back up to Lake Arrowhead for Saturday and Sunday while Dan and his guys had their monthly LAN party at our house. Figured we would play in the snow again since it is pretty rare that the snow stays this long at mom's condo. It is so fun because we can basically play in the backyard of the condo. Bennett just loves it. This time Grammy took him out sledding and made a snowman with him. He loved getting dressed in all of the snowclothes and snowboots. Just makes me laugh that he walks like the StayPuff Marshmallow Man when he is in his snow gear. :o)

We have a Mr. Potato Head at the condo, and Bennett thought that it would be funny to put the funny tongue and glasses on himself....I think he missed where the glasses were supposed to go....I don't think you can see through your nose dork. :o)

Dan's Birthday - 37 years old - whoo hoo!

Happy Birthday dear Dan.....your 37!! Ugh - he will forever be younger than me! Well, we didn't rent a bouncy house for his birthday, we'll save that for Bennett! But we did have a nice dinner at home with my mom and Cheryl on his birthday, and the next night went out for an adults only birthday dinner at Vitello's with Dan's family. Always love an evening out. Happy Birthday Dan!

Cheryl gave Dan an LED flashlight that straps on to your head for when you work in places that you need to have your hands free to do so....pretty much for when he works on his computers. :o) (Especially since there are no mines around here for him to go trudging around in. :o)

Bennett is showing off his many multitasking talents...wearing the head flashlight and playing the harmonica at the same time....what can I say....he has skills. :o)

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)