Busy, Busy Brandon

With all the hot weather we have been having recently, the kids have been spending a lot of time inside. Brandon, has been especially busy. He loves the kitchen. He especially loves to pretend that he is "cooking". The coffee pot, serving spoons, spatulas, cups and pots are his favorites.


Recently, he found a loaf of rasin bread on the counter and pulled out some pieces. He then sprinkled garlic powder on a slice and rolled with a rolling pin. He took a second piece and covered it with Cream Of Tartar. Here he is standing on a chair at his work space.


He then put the bread on a plate and brought it to the table. There was also a pitcher of ice tea on the counter. That disappeared, but the coffee pot and several cups were wet. I think he poured the tea into the coffee pot, and then into the cups.


While I was cleaning up, he promptly headed up stairs and started searching desk drawers. He was getting ready to make a phone call when I got back up stairs. He moves very quick.

Fort Tejon

Sunday, we drove up to Fort Tejon where they were doing a civil war re-enactment. It took about half an hour for the short drive up the 5 freeway. Here's Brandon at the entrance.



We toured the camp sites of the Union and Confederate sides.


The mock battle was fun to watch. The confederates were hanging out in the old officer's quarters.


The northern infantry attacked and got them to surrender.


The Confederate doctor was really good. He did a real good job of explaining how the field hospitals worked.


They had a store inside the old Adobe army barracks with period garments and items for sale. We got hats for the kids.

Sarah and Ruby

Shannon and Sarah visted a friend on Saturday morning where Sarah had a chance to go horseback riding. She took a long trip around the Moorpark area. She really enjoyed it.

A Trip to Columbia (California)

We took some time off over the 4th of July holiday to visit family. On one of the days, we took a day trip to Columbia, Ca. Columbia is an old mining town that has been made into a state park. The shops are all filled with period businesses. Some have been restored just for show, but most are operational.



Many of the buildings have been restored to contain their original contents. There is a restored drug store, dentist, Chinese goods store, dry goods store, couthouse, and Fire station. Here is the inside of the fire station.


There is also a museum with lots of displays about life in the 1800's.


The kids enjoyed the trip to the Candy Kitchen.


There is a restored Wells Fargo office, where you could buy tickets to ride the stage coach. Ben and Sarah proudly display their candy while waiting to ride the stage.


Shannon rode with the Emily and Brandon in the coach.


Sarah and Ben got to ride up front.


Everyone had a great time. The kids dressed up and got an old fashioned picture taken.


Here is one we took in a gazebo along the street in their 21'st century duds.

7-11 changes to Kwik-e-Mart in Burbank

The 7-11 near Matt's work in Burbank was one of about a dozen 7-11 stores converted to a "Kwik-E-Mart" to promote the opening of the Simpsons movie. He drove over with some co-workers to take a look. There was a large crowd of people waiting to get in and lots of activity in the area. Local newspapers and television stations were there to cover the event as well.


Bart and Millhouse were sitting on the roof.


The side of the building had Bart Simpson graffiti.


The 7-11 sign had been changed over to Kwik-E-Mart


Matt with Marge Simpson.

Lompoc Flower Festival 2007

Sarah, Benjamin, and Matt drove up to Lompoc Saturday to attend the Lompoc Flower festival. It's a big event for the small town which starts with a parade on Saturday morning. They watched from the old Downtown area which gave the parade a bit of a nostalgic feel. They were able to walk through several of the local mom & pop type business before and after the parade.


The queen's float was one of the largest, but some of the others were interesting as well.


Many of the local scouts were in the parade. For the most part, they were just marching as a pack holding a large sign for a local business, but this group had a float as well.


Betsy Ross, Abe Lincoln and the statue of liberty.


The pirate ship was impressive. Though, Matt wasn't sure what group put it together.



Many of the local clubs and buisness had entries. The parade definately had a small town feel to it.


One of the local politicians was driving a tractor. For some reason, this seemed a odd, but oh well. It all mixed well with the tone of the parade.


After the parade, they went to Ryon Park for the craft faire and concession stands.


One exhibt had a lot of elaborately decorated pedal cars.

Records, Scouts, and a Rattlesnake!

Matt recently acquired a large collection of phonograph records and have been enjoying sorting through them. With over 1200 of them, they were taking up a lot of room in the guest bedroom. So, Matt decided to build a bookshelf to hold them all. Here's Ben helping him put the finishing touches on the finish.


Sarah and Ben helped Matt move all the records upstairs and fill the bookshelf. He have the turntable next to the computer so he can convert the records easily to MP3.


Both Sarah and Ben transitioned to new levels in scouts recently. Ben went from Tiger Scout to Wolf Scout and Sarah went from Brownies to Juniors. Here's Ben in his Tiger Scout uniform.


And here he is in his Wolf Scout duds after the bridging ceremony.


Sarah's bridging meeting was held at the daytime. Here she is with her Brownie troop. The girls all have a green sash on their uniform to show that they have transitioned to Juniors. They get the green uniform later.


We had a bit of excitement with a snake in the backyard recently. Our cats regularly catch lizards, birds and large bugs. They bring them up to the patio or in the house to play with. This time, they were playing with a snake. Matt went closer to investigate and realized it was a baby rattler. The rattle had been removed and the snake was pretty docile. It was clearly beyond the point of recovery. Matt thinks the cats found the snake somewhere and brought it home, but hard to say for sure.


It was just a baby at a mere 16 inches long. The snake died soon afterwards. Matt was able to take a few pictures.


Close up of the fangs.

Yo Ho, Yo Ho!

They had a "lot event" at Matt's work to celebrate the release of the latest Pirate's movie. It's basically like a large outdoor party with booths from different company departments showing how they are supporting the movie. Shannon brought Emily and Brandon in to have lunch at the studio and enjoy the event. Here's Emily having lunch with a visit from Goofy.


We caught a picture with Jack Sparrow. Hmmm... wonder how this would look in the living room along side the power ranger....


They also had the large model ships that were used in filming.


The Black Pearl!


The detail on the ships is amazing!



The Intercepter!

Emily with her Pirate eye patch.