Matt's Cube Rail

Matt moved into a new cube at work and set up his trains on the top of the wall. He gets a lot of attention from it...

Gene Autry Museum

Sarah had another school project... She has to find out about the life of a famous person and tell it to her class. She chose Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy.


Here we are out in front with Gene...

Here are some pictures of the kids dressing up in cowboy attire with the horse...

Matt's Antique Radio Display

Matt put together a display of old radios to show off at work. Here's the case. You may recognize a few of these. Shannon made the little signs explaining each radio.

Easter Egg Hunt and the Box House

We had a neighborhood egg hunt. Each family contributed eggs which were hidden around the nieghborhood. The kids went from yard to yard looking for them. Here's some of the kids lining up to get ready to go hunt eggs.


Here's Brandon with his basket.


Once the egg hunt was done, everyone grouped together for a picture.


One of my co-workers moved recently and brought over his extra boxes. I built some box houses for the kids. by attaching boxes together and cutting windows. After hunting for eggs, the kids all played in the box houses. Here's Ben looking out the lookout. Temperatures got into the 90's during the day so they had plenty of time to play outside.

Emily Turns 4!

Here is Emily with her birthday cake and some presents... She had a good day!

Emily's First Day at Preschool

Emily was so excited to go to preschool! She didn't even look back!!




When I went to pick her up, I got a snap shot of her cubby with her artwork and backpack.


Here she is having fun hopping in the playyard.

This is what happens when I take a shower...

Two weeks ago, Brandon flooded the down stairs bathroom.... this time it was only film...

Snow at Frazier Park

With the winter storms we have been having, the snow level has fallen down to the point that snow was within minutes of the house. The roads were open so we drove up to Frazier Park to let the kids play in the snow.


The road up to Mt. Pinos was closed unless you had chains, so we stopped along side the road at the Flying J truck stop. It seems like half of LA must have had the same idea because the crowds were enormous.

(Click to make the panorama bigger) Here's a panorama of the area where we stopped. The truck stop was swamped. I don't think the truck drivers or truck stop people were too happy about it because they were driving around chasing people out of the no parking zones. Though, it was no use, there were just too many people. Every time they cleared an area, it was filled back up within minutes.


Brandon didn't enjoy the cold very much.


Here's Emily enjoying the snow. I didn't get any pictures of Sarah and Ben since I was spending most of my time with Brandon and Emily.


On the way back, we stopped at "Vista Del Lago" near Pyramid Lake. There is a very nice visitors center with a small museum talking about water usage at the lake. Ah,. a nice warm visitor's center...


The mountains around the lake were snow-capped. This is about 20 minutes from our house.

La Purisima Mission

(Click to see the panorama bigger)
Sarah has to do her standard 4th grade mission project and she chose La Purisima mission near Lompoc. We drove up Saturday to visit the mission. Here's a panorama of the mission grounds.


They have a new visitors center with lots of displays that still need to be built. This one was on how they do restoration work at the mission.


They had a table of things that the kids could play with. One of the things was this doll. You can see an incomplete display in the background that shows what they plan to put there, as well as the estimated cost.


The mission is on the outside of town so it's like stepping back in time. There are a lot of animals. The kids enjoyed feeding and petting them.


Brandon and Emily enjoyed looking at the clothes washing pool. Bradon requested a penny to drop into the water. I gave him one which he dropped in. He then wanted another.

One of the docents showed Sarah how to grind corn. Sarah brought her friend Monique along for the trip. Monique got to grind corn as well.






We then had pizza in Lompoc and got back in the evening. Made for a long, but rather inexpensive and educational adventure.

Holiday Adventure

We traveled up north to visit family for the holiday break. The first stop was Matt's mom's house in Salinas.


We drove over to Monterey and went to the "Dennis The Menace" park. They had a great big train that the kids climb on. I didn't get a picture of the kids on the train, but here's the train.


Brandon was dwarfed by the wheels.


Sarah enjoyed the climbing wall.


We walked down to Fisherman's Warf and Cannery Row. On the walk back, Ben decided to run around on the sand at the beach. Of course, he had to get his feet wet. He had a great time running in the surf!


Unfortunately, the rocks can be slippery. Ben fell into the (very cold) water. Brrrr...


I gave him my flannel shirt to try and warm back up.


We then went over to the Tech Museum in San Jose. Here is a picture of the kids on the exhibit where they can build their own bobsled ride.


Friday we visited the kids great grandparents (my grandpa and grandma). Great grandpa had lots of toys for the kids.




Saturday we headed back home. The kids got a picture with their Great Grandpa and Uncle Mark before we left.

Christmas

Ah, Christmas at the Schnittkers... What a day!

Here is the house the kids built... then they demolished it soon after... yummy!

Ben is showing his little brother his candy that they received in their stockings from Santa.

I think Matt is a little tired here... The kids got up early to see that they got.

Brandon is snuggling up with my Grammy (87 years old)...
Everyone had a wonderful day!

Emily, The Little Christmas Tree

For the winter dance festival this year, Emily was in Little Christmas Tree... a very cute dance with the song by Stevie Wonder.