Spring Break

JPL tour 60 images · 2 videos

1 At the airport ready to fly to San Diego!	2 After a long week of work and school and a lost hen and 4 errands in 41 minutes, we finally arrived in San Diego!	3 Yay! Sand! Sun!	4
5 We're on the Naval air station so a lot of planes coming and going.	6 Looking back over our shoulders, this is the Navy Lodge where we stayed - the red roof is the older building. There is a huge new building to the right. There are also cottages, to the far left.	7 Sand snowballs :)	8 Aiming for the birds?
9 Drip castles by mommy.	10 Very proud of this tide pool :)	11	12 Awesome sushi dinner :)
13 We've arrived! What is that bright globe in the sky? Daddy is pulling up to pick us up. He was in San Diego on business already. Do you like Eagle's roost?	14 Sam had ALL this in his backpack!	15 Next day, Friday, to the Globe Theater in Balboa Park. It was closed, but I nosed into the ticket office to talk to the nice man who works the desk. He showed us pictures of the inside and told us some of the history.	16 Ben loves this building. So do I.
17 Gotta have the vacation self-portrait smooch. Sorry. We are both very tired. Dave was up at 2:45 am for a drill the day before and I had an absolutely frenetic couple days on deadline before flying out.	18 At the San Diego Zoo! These monkeys are so cute. Tedious seeing zoo pictures, I know, so I'm only posting ones of my crazy animals :)	19 There they are! Watching a gorilla clean his toes!	20 And scratch while eating lunch :)
21 Nice hairdo!	22 Very big birds!	23 Eating lunch while lounging :)	24
25	26 Hi Grown-up Eagle!	27 Hi Mom and Richard!	28 Crazy boys don't do hugs - they just go nuts!
29 They loved this snake - a python!	30	31 Eagle really liked seeing all the reptiles, too.	32 A little rest break while the rest of the family feeds on snacks :)
33 Eagle says this guy is pretty big!	34	35 Hanging from an elephant tusk!	36
37 I think this has the texture of camel hair - yuck!	38 There's mom and Richard!	39 Off to the zoo store...	40 Ah yes - these will do nicely!
41 Pythie! A new treasured friend. The boys are so nice to their new animals. They get the royal treatment. I love to see their sensitive sides, even if they are not often directed toward mommy!	42	43 We spent much of vacation like this, with our new snake friends to keep track of :)	44 Rattlesnake!
45	46 Can you find the second snake?	47 Ben was so gentle playing mom's piano which she just had moved from her San Marino home.	48 At the Easter Vigil at the basilica.
49 Fr. Junipero Serra presiding.	50 The Boy Scouts started a fire outside for the fire liturgy portion. The vigil was more than 2 1/2 hours long!	51 The paschal candle being lit.	52
53 Oh my goodness...it's only 1/3 of the way through.	54 Transferred to mommy now!	55 Out on a bike/run to the playground!	56
57 Such fun boys - I love you!	58 Doing some mining at the playground! Cracking rocks by dropping concrete on them!	59 Wonder if this is ok? Certainly a little suspect, especially with bare toes!	60
61	62 Now barefoot! Sam is a strong guy!	63	64 He is so active he nearly falls off things because he starts boogy-ing and forgets where he is. I have to snap quick!
65 See? Now we're dancing on the high rock! Sherriff station in the background.	66 Heading back on the bike path.	67 Some treats for the boys!	68 Fun times visiting Joseph and Lelu on Easter Sunday!
69 We think that more than 160 eggs were hidden!	70 Mary and Isabella with Lola Cari :)	71 Sam stops at nothing to find all the treasures! He even lost a slipper on this venture :)	72
73 Snakes like to eat eggs, I think, right?	74 Lots of time to learn chess!	75 Tickling Benji :)	76 Looks like the Mexican flag. Look at the lips and the concentration! So delicious :)
77 At a nearby playground. They always need to be climbing on rocks and walls. Everywhere they are on walls!	78 So pretty!	79 Picking out a polished rock - agate and crystal for Sam, bizmuth for Ben.	80 Carrying the snakes all over ;) We will miss these days when they are little and so cute.
81	82 Richard has a fountain that Ben loves to play in. Each time we visit we get him a little boat to drive around in the fountain. He talks to the characters and makes them jump off the "high dive."	83 Playing football with daddy!	84 Off to watch horses schooling prior to a horse show!
85 Sam is WAY out there in the arena helping put a jump back together for Mickey Hayden, a well known trainer we happened to bump into. He is SUCH a nice guy. Said we need more guys to become horsemen!	86 There's Sam after helping Mickey. The rider is Lane Clarke. He is known for Grand Prix wins, jumping over 7' jumps. The horse he is riding is worth $80,000. He is schooling it for the owner who will show it over the weekend. The Grand Prix horses are worth $500,000-$1,000,000. This is a totally different horse world than I grew up in. Today, many horses actually have ear plugs in so they are not distracted!	87 Out on a walk on a horse trail near Gramma's. I didn't remember much about this trail because the last time I jogged it I was looking over my shoulder the whole time, worried a bit about big CATS - it is a bit remote out there. I carried large sticks with me and played Springsteen on my phone so as not to surprise one. So I told mom "It just has one big hill, but then it's a ridge walk." Well...that was sort of true!	88 This is mustard! Fields and fields of it!
89 Ok so there were many of these ups and downs, and the ground is dry so I was worried about mom pulling one of her slipping acrobatics :) She kept saying not to worry...but I felt badly for not remembering well! It was 4.5 miles by the time we were done!	90 Gotcha, Sam!	91	92 Hi honey! Having fun? Sam enjoys chasing lizards who are trying to bask on the fence you can see in the background.
93	94 Oh boy! This was funny. Ben put on these boxes after seeing Robot Combat League (see JPL folder for connection) and started boxing us!	95 Talking about People Smashers. And Spider Smashers.	96 They got into this after seeing the episode of Robot Combat League featuring Paulo Younse, the engineer they'd meet at JPL the next day. Thanks! I got it pretty good!
97 Yeow! Even with a pillow for defense he really got me!	98 Ha ha - see his moves!	99 I won!	100 See the left jab? This guy has some moves!
101 Now for daddy!	102 Now on the feet???	103 Nice family outting :) Aren't these trails amazing?	104
105	106 Mom enjoys hands-in-pockets-hiker. Not so good for breaking a fall, though!	107	108 So funny on the way back from dinner. All three boys in the back row. They loved it!
109 Funny back seat sillies thanks to Captain Underpants - I have banned that book!	110 The horse show about a mile from Mom and Richard's. We stopped in for a few minutes.	111 Funnel cake!	112
113 Caspar's State Park.	114 I got to go riding, too! This is Leah, the horse I rode 3.5 years ago! Such a sweet girl. 20 years old now.	115 The trainer, Cherilyn, put me through my paces. 7 days later I am still feeling it! Just what I wanted, though.	116
117	118 A couple movies follow.	119 I had such fun - but was SO sore! For a week!	120 My boys were kind enough to come watch. I can't shake the horse bug. I'm actively looking for a way to reenter the horse world, somehow, with limited time and money.
121 Nothing like owning your own horse and keeping it on your own property. I hope to someday? Nice to be back on a white horse. Somehow I always end up with a white horse :)	122 Lunch and mission tour afterwards.	123 A tour of the Mission San Juan Capistrano. Such a pretty place.	124
125 Swallow nests up there.	126 Family picture!	127	128
129	130	131 This is the old stone church. It was built 200 years ago but fell in 1812 during an earthquake, during mass. The basilica is in the same style and layout.	132
133	134	135 "Mom, why did Pilate want to kill Jesus?" in loud whisper.	136
137	138 Gardens and tanning vats to create leather. This was a very active place in Fr. Junipero Serra's day. Over 1000 people worked here.	139 See? On the walls again.	140 Running in opposite directions :)
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145	146 The original adobe walls.	147	148 Kinda hard to read the signage - can you tell?
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153	154	155 Intruiged by arrows!	156
157 Better look at swallow nests. San Juan Capistrano is famous for the swallows returning every year to nest.	158	159	160 Mom thinks we're doing a nice lesson here about the olive press. But we're plotting how to catch a lizard!
161 See 'im?!	162	163 Reaching around walls, sneaking up from the other side, bashing our heads on things we don't see as we try to get them.	164
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169 Daddy and Richard cooking up last breakfast! I hope we never repeat the crazy airport morning, though. That was so relaxing, until we found out we'd missed our plane! Thankfully it was delayed. MY GOODNESS!