California Trip

It's been a while since we posted, but as the end of the summer approaches, we wanted to share a few pictures from our road trip to California!

We started off our trip a day early, and got to see a lot of cool sites like the windmill farm outside of Amarillo. The first big location on our agenda was the Grand Canyon:







After 2.5 days of driving we made it to Long Beach, CA, where we spent the night near a marina.




We also went up the road to Seal Beach where the kids had fun building sand castles and playing in the water:










The next day we got to spend some time with Mickey at Disneyland. Avaleigh seemed pretty fearless, but really enjoyed seeing Pooh:




On Monday, we visited the Santa Monica Pier, where Gavin wondered why we didn't ride any rides (how could they compare to Disney though)! We also went to Beverly Hills and got to eat at Pink's Hotdogs :-)







The girls also had their first day at Mather Dance's Summer Intensive, where they practiced with Autumn Miller:







The next day was one of my favorite mornings, since Jen setup a breakfast with Mickey and friends:







We also got to walk around Downtown Disney a bit. The kids stopped briefly for a picture at the Lego Store:




We also went back to the beach and even found time for golf!







Towards the end of the week, we went Disney's California Adventure (on Papa's birthday) and Disneyland some more:







As our trip came to an end, we saw Grandma and Grandpa in Vegas, where they were celebrating their anniversary at the fancy Bellagio:







On the drive home, we visited the Hoover Dam, and were excited to see Uncle Mel, Aunt Pearline, and Grandma in Albuquerque!










We had a great trip, and are thankful to be home!

MacKaron

Location:Airport Fwy,Hurst,United States

CA Trip

We had a great time after New Year's Eve going to CA!  It was our first visit, and first chance to see Disneyland, so we were happy to have nice weather and see lots of beautiful sites.  The best part was celebrating Avaleigh's 1st birthday...she thinks all birthdays have to be with princesses now!

Here's a picture before flying out on January 1st.  It was an early flight, and you can see Avaleigh was excited:

This was Avaleigh's first flight, and Gavin found a little dino who hadn't flown before either:

When we landed at LAX, I was pretty excited to see the home of Tesla motors, but no time for a tour this trip :-)  If you really zoom in, you can see TESLA on the top of the center building...

Since we wanted to see some sites, it was fun going to a few beaches before calling it a day (and getting rested up for our first day at Disney):

This is one of my favorite pics (thanks Jen...)

On our first day at Disney, we went to the California Adventure park, where Avaleigh celebrated her birthday like a princess (with the princesses):

Gavin had been excited about seeing his favorite cars, and was convinced all of them were real (except for the mean tractor, who was an "actor"):

Really, we had a 5 minute discussion about how Mater and Lightning McQueen are real, and it's hard to argue with a 3yr old, when it comes to life-size talking cars!

On the second day at Disney, we went to the Disneyland Park.  I'm not really sure why Disney calls Disney World's equivalent park the Magic Kingdom, and doesn't have a unique name for the Disneyland park, but we had a lot of fun (especially riding the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad):

Jen and the Kids on Big Thunder Mountain

We also celebrated Avaleigh's birthday some more (Mickey style, with everyone's own cake):

One of the coolest parts about Disneyland was "It's a Small World," which was all lit up for the holidays!

Gavin's favorite part was finding out dinosaurs are still alive, and they like to fight for the tourists.  The next day he told me, "Dad, you said all the dinosaurs are dead, but they have some at Disneyland!"

The coolest part of the trip (for me) was going to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor!  Jen surprised us with tickets, and we had lots of fun seeing an A-12 as well:

Here's a pic of me explaining to Grace that I worked on some payloads that went up on these shuttle missions.  She tried to act impressed...such a sweetie!

You would think I enjoyed this part of the trip the most, and yes, you'd be right!  It really makes you proud to be a citizen of the greatest country in the world...I hope we someday find the financial prosperity to have a viable space program again.

We wrapped the trip by visiting some more beaches, and eating at the never disappointing Boiling Crab (visit the one in Dallas, and I'm sure you'll agree):

We can't wait to go back, and understand why so many people call CA home :-)

Mulch and Full

We are officially 1 day away from startup, and with 100F weather, it's not a day too soon! Today we finished filling the pool, and had some rough landscaping put in. The kids and I have been prepping flower beds a little this week, so it's neat to see mulch and sod in place.

Here are a few pictures that capture the water color (although it's a little lighter in person), and basic layout of the flower beds...

Still Filling

After about 17 hrs of filling with 2 hoses and a direct PVC line, we are about 2/3 of the way full. At this rate, we should be full around lunch time, and estimate a 20,000 gallon capacity.

Here are a few pictures showing what it looks like so far. We're very happy with the plaster color, and are glad we didn't go darker!