Duck Hunting

So, we were driving home from San Jose on New Year's Eve (it's about a 5 hour car trip) and I kept wondering why I was seeing all of these cars from Oregon.... A lot of the cars where all decked out in green and gold with a big "O" on them.... Then it dawned on me! It was Duck hunting season! Did they win?



These were some of the cars I caught in the last 30 minutes of our drive home! There were a lot of ducks on the road!

Winter Time in LA

We had a bit of snow hit the mountains in the area. Nothing on the ground, but they wanted to have a little for decoration at work. They brought in blocks of ice (made in a freezer) and a chipper and ground up the ice to make fake snow for the front of our building. This was to celebrate the airing of Prep and Landing on ABC television. It made for a very festive decoration. You can see it along the edges of the walls.


Close up of the front lobby area. The snow was already melting but it had little bits that remained for a couple of days.


That night was the employee holiday party at Disneyland. They close the park around 6PM then open it to employees only till midnight. Shannon picked me up from work and we drove down to Anaheim. Temps were in the 40's so we dressed the kids up in their snow clothes.



As the evening progressed and it got colder, we went to the Disneyland hat shop and got hats for everyone.




Lines at the holiday party are short so the kids got to ride Dumbo and other rides multiple times.


We got a motel for the night so we could spend a second day at Disneyland. We encouraged the kids to jump on the beds. I mean,. what else are hotels for??



Next day at Disneyland we had lunch at Cafe Orleans to celebrate Shannon's Birthday.


Crawling through the caves at Pirate Island. They are not really made for grownups.


They added a Princess and The Frog show at Disneyland. It's a fun show that uses music from the recently released film.

Hollywood and Vine

Today, Matt and the kids took Grandma down to Hollywood and Vine to check out the local scenery!





Here they are with Samuel L. Jackson! (kidding, made of wax!)


They also had a sucessful stop at the Disney Soda Fountain....

Griffith Park and Observatory

Today we headed outside for the great weather!
We started out at Porto's bakery and got some goodies to take to Griffith Park.


Here's the carousel. It was beautiful.





Then, we headed to the observatory. We had never been, and it just reopened... so we checked it out! It is really neat! Lots of exhibits and I hear the planetarium show is fantastic... that will have to be another time :)






Here's a view from the Observatory and the over there, the Hollywood sign.

Summer is over.... and the 09-10 year has begun!

We started school really, really early this year! Here are the kids on their first day. Emily started kindergarten, Ben - 4th, Sarah - middle school (6th), and Brandon started preschool. Mommy starts school on the 24th. She'll be taking Intro to Potions (Chemistry) and Espanol.





I think Brandon's backpack is bigger than he is!!!

Camping at Lake Casitas and the Lazy River

The kids loved camping so much, that we decided to take a last minute camping trip to Lake Casitas. Located just outside of Ojai. It wasn't as nice as Yosemite, but the kids enjoyed it all the same. Here are the highlights of the campsite.







Our campsite was next to a play structure, which the kids enjoyed.


The kids and Daddy went down to the lake to check it out... I think they were daring Ben to get into the water... not sure..


Ben made an awesome fire one night. His fire building skills are getting better!




On the full day we were there, we visited the water park that has a lazy river and a water structure. It was nice to float around. It took about 9-10 minutes to make a full lap around the river.

A Day at the Beach

The kids and I went to Zuma Beach and hung out for a few hours. It started off really cold and cloudy, then warmed up a bit... I forgot to wear sunscreen... opps... and I'm smiling!! Must be the drugs ;)