Spring Break Trip To San Diego, 3-6 April 2014

Thursday night (April 3rd), we found ourselves in San Diego ready for a retreat to cool weather, scenic beaches, and the color green. We stayed at a fun guest house we reserved through AirBnB, owned by a very friendly family (Regula, Ed, and their 3 children). We failed to take any photos of them, however, sorry. They liked us too, and invited us back, so hopefully we can stay with them again.

Friday morning we took Lucie to a dog park next to the Balboa Tennis Club. We had a double motive as we learned from previous experience that one can find lost tennis balls outside of tennis courts. We collected 6 of these abandoned balls for Lucie. She was most excited.

We then went to Balboa Park, looking for places to explore, and found a playground that entertained everyone for several hours. We ate a picnic lunch, played on purple plastic dinosaurs, took a nap, and met up with Emmy and kids.

 Nature Journal Moments:

Black Phoebe found nesting in the Women's Restroom

 

 My artsy photo attempt of a crow:

 Friday evening, half of the family ate some amazing Thai food and the other half ate pizza.

La Jolla Cove

Saturday morning, we watched the first session of our church's General Conference on our computer in the guest cottage, then we drove to La Jolla Cove for the afternoon.

Dallin was being a bit of a stinker and would not smile for photos.

The children always like to see the Children's Pool area with the seals.

This pup was nursing from its mother.

Another picnic lunch

Baby Sea Lion next to La Jolla Cove

Erin and Dallin were the only ones crazy enough to wear swimsuits and go into the freezing water.

  

 

 

Hermit Crab--note the cool blue stripes on the legs!

Pelican

La Jolla Shores Beach

We drove a little ways North to meet Grandpa Tsukamoto at La Jolla Shores Beach. 

Dad, Dallin (in Erin's coverup because he was cold), and Erin dug in the sand.

The rest of us still thought the water was too cold and went for a walk along the beach.

We almost crashed a wedding reception at the fancy hotel.

 

Yet another statue for silly photos!

Picturesque California Gulls

Sunday was the second day of General Conference, and we watched it at Emmy's and Brad's apartment. Several of the listeners were overwhelmed by so much spiritual insight that they just collapsed in a sleeplike trance.

 

Luke stayed busy "helping" his mom cook. She made some delicious sweet rolls that we didn't take any pictures of--they got eaten too fast. Emmy also fed us pulled pork sandwiches and bean salad. We did not go hungry. Thanks, Emmy!

Emmy and Brad had a Conference activity planned for everyone: Build a Lego Temple! Ian made the Mesa Temple, Emmy made the San Diego Temple, Brad made the Helsinki Temple, Dallin made the generic temple with the Darth Vader figure on top, April made the generic temples with the spires and Angel Moroni on top.

Our Spring Break had come to an end, and we grudgingly returned to Yuma to resume life. Megan is preparing for the ACT so she can apply to colleges in the fall. Kevin has a few weeks remaining for his job at AWC. Our homeschool co-op is starting back up.

Christmas Pillowcase Preview

Wendy H. showed April how to make these super cute pillowcases with hidden seams around the contrasting bands (see here for a good tutorial, although the dimensions were slightly different). Once she started making them, it almost became an addiction and we ended up with several fun presents for family and friends.

Space motif for a boy in our Primary who is undergoing chemotherapy treatments for leukemia;

we put together a care package and thought a pillowcase would be fun.

This was one of Erin's birthday presents. Owls, of course!

 

We made these for Carla S. who lets us ride her horses.

These are for some of Erin's friends.

Megan made this for her friend, Amelia, who likes dragons.

These are for the cousins, Scott and Dean.

We love the bright colors!

And, for our herp-loving friends: snake skin and lizard skin fabric.

Kevin got lizard skin pillowcases for his birthday, and April is kicking herself 

for not buying the whole bolt of fabric--it's no longer available.

It's a good thing we always are behind on our blog posts or else the surprise would be ruined for those who might see this before Christmas.

Happy Halloween!

This year, we surprisingly had NO Star Wars related costumes. What's up with that???

Megan was a Snow Leopard.

She did her own face painting, naturally.

Ian was Artemis Fowl, 

a character from one of his favorite book series.

 

Erin was a Great Horned Owl again.

She still LOVES owls.

Dallin was Flash,

not because he necessarily likes Flash a lot,

but because Flash wears a red costume,

and Dallin is currently obsessed with the color red.

We had a fun day, starting out with a group activity with our homeschool co-op. Sadly, I forgot the camera, but you can try to imagine a witch making witch's brew, children decorating Halloween sugar cookies and drinking the brew, eating the cookies, and eating some eyeballs.

Oh, we do have a photo of the "Edible Eyeballs" we made. We took these to co-op and sent a bunch with Kevin to share with his Anatomy students. (Note to Kevin: please insert the photo of your students with the eyeballs when you get a chance.) We altered the recipe and made them with rice krispies instead of doughnut holes (Megan's preferred choice) so they turned out a bit lumpier. We also used almond bark instead of the Ghiradelli white chocolate because AWC doesn't pay its employees enough to afford the amount of white chocolate it would have taken to make enough eyeballs for all the Anatomy students. They still tasted good and everyone really enjoyed them. Well...except for Dallin who spit out the gummy saver part and said he didn't like it--he likes gummy bears just fine--go figure!

 

The morning was so exhausting that half the family took a nap.

Dallin wore his costume ALL day long.

 

Group photo before going out to collect candy from the neighbors:

While we were trick-or-treating on our street, we left a bucket with candy on our porch to share with other trick-or-treaters using the honor system (we used to do this in Logan). When we returned, someone had STOLEN THE BUCKET AND ALL THE CANDY!!! So, next year if you come trick-or-treating to our place, you'll have to see us in person if you want to get any candy from us. (Side note: parents drive children from other areas of town to go trick-or-treating in the nicer neighborhoods, so we are guessing that random other kids were the thieves rather than our local neighborhood children.)

And, last, but not least, here are my renowned Halloween Scorpion Cupcakes!

They were mighty tasty!

 

Only privileged people get to have these, since most people don't appreciate the effort that goes into making them. Jim from the power line crew had made a special request. Look how excited he is to have some!

Eight is Great!

Erin's 8th birthday was today!!! She was so excited and had been counting down the days for the past two weeks. She opened her presents before church.

For some reason, she got a lot of presents relating to owls: owl DVD, owl necklace, owl pillowcase, owl cross-stitch pattern, and owl stickers among a few other non-owl-related items.

After church, she played with some of her new things, then we made a big batch of homemade pizza (but forgot to take photos), and ate her owl cake. Mom modified it from this design. We thought it turned out pretty cute!

 

We're taking a trip in a couple of days to the San Diego Zoo to celebrate the rest of Erin's birthday.