Legoland California

We just got back yesterday from a fun vacation to San Diego. One of Little Robby's favorite places to go is Legoland, and we just had to go back since we had such a great time on our first visit. On this trip, we had fun taking my parents. My dad wanted to go back to San Diego because he served there while in the Navy a long time ago (I won't tell you how many decades it's been since then! ;)

This was our second ride of the day... the traditional "Teacup Ride." I wish I had pictures from the first ride that the boys took, because it was interactive, and I got to splash them with "water bombs" by pressing a button provided to spectators. It was great fun trying to time my sprays to get them wet!

One of the highlights of the day was for Robby to get a chance to play with the Lego Mindstorms. The last time we went to Legoland we didn't know that you had to sign up to play with them so we missed our opportunity because all the sessions had ended by the time we got there. This time we made sure not to miss out!

Lego Mindstorms are programmable Lego robots. You create programs on a computer to tell the robot what to do then you download it to the onboard computer and run your program. Very cool, I must say! As other participants left our session, the instructor even let me play with one for a while. It was great!

Here you can take a look at Mindstorms in action.

During the first half of the day, poor Jenna was feeling very left out watching Grandma, Grandpa, Dad, Mom, and Chap go on the rides when she didn't get to. She would watch from the side very forlornly and plead, "My turn?! Jenna's turn! Ride!" Eventually Daddy had pity on her and took her over to where there were rides that she was big enough for. She was so happy! The picture above was of her in the helicopter ride sitting next to Daddy with the camera.

Here she is checking out Lego Miniland USA (an area of impressive Lego made buildings).

Little Robby and Grandma and Grandpa stand in front of Legoland New York City. It was fun seeing the Lego version of buildings we had seen last summer on our trip to see Aunt Donnette (August 2006).

And to end a good day at Legoland we had to have pictures with everyone. First the kids with Grandma and Grandpa.

Then the four of us.

And lastly all six of us.

And finally our little Lego maniac in front of his favorite place -- Legoland California! Maybe some day we will have to go to Legoland UK or Denmark or Germany!

One last bonus pic... Jenna discovered that standing in the bathroom drawer in the hotel was lots of fun! What a silly girl!

A Budding Artist

Jenna has just started to draw things and tell us what they are. It's fun when kids get to this age and you can see their little minds at work.

Here we have Jenna's flowers. Jenna drew this while I was gone in North Carolina visiting my Aunt Carla Jean. Robby said that he liked the fact that she added stems to all of the flowers.

And this is Jenna's snake. Also drawn while I was gone.

Just Like Brother

With school in full swing, Jenna's desire to be just like brother and go to school has not diminished. Each morning he gets ready for school, loads up his backpack, and puts on his helmet to ride over to another boy's house for carpool rides. And many mornings Jenna has to do the same...

So here you go... Robby's ready for school,

And so is Jenna!

"Amulick"

So here's our funny moment of the week... When we have family scriptures, Jenna is usually bouncing off the walls. We do our best to keep her corralled, but we usually read right before bedtime and she is quite often loopy. I have decided that children her age have the uncanny ability to pay attention even when they don't appear to the paying attention. So we were reading about Alma and Amuleck in the Book of Mormon, and when Robby mentioned Amuleck for the first time a light bulb went off in Jenna's head. She started saying, "Amulick! Amulick!"

"Yes, Amuleck!" we replied and kept on reading.

Jenna ran to the toy cabinet in search of something, and returned a moment later exclaiming again "Amulick! Amulick!" and carrying... Mr. Potatohead's tongue! (Get it, "Amu-lick!")

Of course we all cracked up! Now, I will never be able to read that part again with out smiling a little.

This is our tribute picture to "Amu-lick!"

My First Karate Test (and Little Robby's 6th)

Well, we had another big day for karate testing. Little Robby is moving up the ranks to purple belt white stripe, and I am finally moving on to something other than white (in this case yellow). Jenna has been watching class on the side lines for a little while now, and I think she really wants her pink belt! Below you can watch and see how we did:

Little Robby performing his forms, as well as a little bonus footage.

And now, look out world, it's Karate Mama in action! Hi-ya!

Packed and ready for school

Monday was Little Robby's first day at his new school. Despite the fact that we had gotten to bed the night before a little later than planned, both Jenna and Little Robby got up early! Much earlier than I had hoped. Jenna came to arouse us at 5:40am (so much for my rest) and then we heard Little Robby up and about around 6am. The excitement of the beginning of school was too much for him! I almost think that he anticipates the first day of school with the same level of excitement as Christmas. I am certain that Little Robby's excitement rubbed off on Jenna because she was following Little Robby around wanting to do everything that Brother did, including wear a backpack (which they both paraded around with for the last half an hour before we left for school!)

Here they are ready for school!

Backpacks are loaded and ready to go!

Jenna didn't want to put down her backpack, and she insisted that she have it with her in the car on the way to the school. When we arrived at the school, we all went in to get Robby's schedule and see him off to his first class (since the school is brand new this year then we were still finding out information the first day.) Jenna was so happy marching around the school with her backpack just like all of the big kids. When we walked into Little Robby's classroom she went and sat down in one of the chairs just like she belonged. We had to coax her to leave the classroom, and then as we were about to walk out of the building, she threw a fit! She wasn't about to leave the school. As far as she was concerned, she was going to school, too! Dad managed to convince her to leave by telling her she was going to go to "Mommy School."

I think she thought that we were going to go to a special place, somewhere other than home. Boy, was she disappointed! Then things got worse when Daddy left for school also. After he was gone she questioned, "Where's Daddy?"

"He's at school, sweetie." I replied.

"Where's Robby?" she then asked.

"He's at school, too, sweetheart."

"Noooooooooo! Waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Yes, she wailed... and wailed... and wailed! She wanted to go to school, too! Poor kid.

Luckily, she has come to accept the situation over the last few days and we are past the wailing, although I am sure she still wants to go to the magical land of school just like everyone else!

Summer Vacation 2007: Petrified Forest National Park

Now let me catch you up on the end of our vacation. On our drive home, our last stop was to see the Petrified National Forest and Painted Desert in northeastern Arizona. I must say that I thought this was going to be a little more spectacular. It was one of those places that you can see once and be satisfied that you have "been there, done that." Unfortunately, the petrified rocks at the park have been plundered over the years, and most of the original petrified wood has been removed. I think things would have been more impressive if we had seen it decades ago before people had walked off with so many samples. One interesting thing I learned there was that petrified wood found in every state. Let me get on to the pics...

Here we have Little Robby and Jenna posing in front of the painted desert. It was really neat seeing the variety of colors in the landscape here. These pictures don't do it justice.

While there we got to see some pictographs from the people that dwelt in the area hundreds years before. We liked this one... A large bird carrying a baby (or is it a man.) We wondered was this a stork bringing a baby, or did someone lose a baby to a large bird. Or, did some big brother wish that his baby sister was snatched by a big bird and taken away. Okay, maybe not the third idea.

Robby liked the colors at this particular lookout called the Blue Mesa. Although things look grey in this picture they really weren't that grey. They did have some bluish tones.

Here we are sitting in front of "Old Faithful," the largest petrified tree in the park.

And lastly, Jenna is standing in front of a large polished piece of petrified wood. It is neat seeing all of the colors that come out in the the rocks.

Summer Vacation 2007: A trip to the Fort Worth Science Museum

On our last day in Texas Robby found out about an exhibit at the science museum in Fort Worth that was all about the making of the Star Wars movies. Since Little Robby is a huge Star Wars Lego fan we knew he would think that it was totally awesome. And we were right! We also had the fun of going to the museum with Logan, Wendy, Molly, and baby Will.

Robby and Uncle Logan are standing by their mag-lev Lego cars. Some parts of the exhibit were about how some of the technology ideas used in Star Wars are actually used today. This one was all about using legos and magnets to create a car that levitated and moved by magnetism.
Aunt Wendy had to help Jenna remove her thumb so we could see her smile.

Jenna enjoyed listening to the voice talking in the audible exhibit reader. (They were for the visually impaired so that they could have a voice read the exhibit explanations.)

Many of models that we saw in the exhibit were actually used in making the films. This X-wing was one of Little Robby's favorites, especially since he has his own Legos X-wing at home.

We are standing in front of the Millenium Falcon. It was really cool seeing the details the creators put into the models. (This lego set would be the ulitmate for Little Robby, but he'll have to save up his money till he's an adult for it since a Millenium Falcon set cost $500!)

One thing I didn't realize about wookies was that they were 2 meters tall! And here's our favorite wookie, Chewbacca!

One of the later parts of the exhibit let the kids build their own robot and then give it a simple program to tell it where to go. Little Robby thought this was cool because the concept was exactly like his Lego Mindstorms set.

Jenna wanted part in the building fun too!

And lastly, we have a trip to the pretend grocery store. When we first arrived Jenna was determined to stuff her basket full of produce.

She worked hard place each produce item she found into her basket.

She was so thorough that she almost cleaned the produce shelves off single-handedly.

But, what I liked best was the item she balanced carefully on the top of all of her healthy produce! It's okay to eat some, but only after you have your vegetables!

Summer Vacation 2007: Space Center Houston (NASA)

During our stay with my parents we had a great time going to NASA's Space Center Houston. Little Robby has always been fascinated with space travel, so we have always wanted to take him here. I was glad to finally have that opportunity on this trip.

We really enjoyed seeing all of the NASA artifacts on display. Here we see Robby in front of one of the Apollo capsules. As a kid, I don't think I fully appreciated the personal risk these early astronauts took. I can't imagine being sealed in a very confined capsule and attached to enormous rockets and blasted into space. Wow! I think they had a lot of courage. I realize people still travel into space today, but I don't think I would have wanted to be one of the first.

While at the museum, Jenna found her own ways of amusing herself by swinging like a little monkey.

Okay, so he's not looking at the camera, but I wanted to post this one because I think it is really cool that he has his hand on a piece of moon rock. Where else can you actually touch the moon?!

This picture and the next one are of all of us riding on the tram to go and see the Astronaut Training Facility and the Saturn V Rocket.

Jenna really like riding the tram and kept saying, "Weeeee!"

Little Robby, Grandma, and Grandpa are standing in front of the window overlooking the Astronaut Training Facility. Behind them you can see some of the life-sized models they use to practice their missions here on earth.

We are standing in front of the Saturn V Rocket. This was the biggest rocket that NASA has used up to this date. It was used to launch the Apollo and Skylab missions. How would you like to be strapped onto the top of that thing?!

Summer Vacation 2007: Family Reunion

The first full day after we arrived at my parent's house we drove about an hour to my brother's house in the country for a family reunion. My aunt (my dad's sister), uncle, cousins, and their children came out too. I am so glad we got to share this time with everyone. Here are some highlights:

We got to meet our new nephew Hayden for the first time. Isn't he a cutie?! He is now 8 months, and he weighs a whopping 25lbs.! (Jenna, who's just over 2yrs, only weighs 23lbs.!)

My Aunt Marcel, Charlene, and my mom chat together on the porch.

One thing was for sure, we weren't totally used to the humidity in Texas, especially after living in dry Arizona for the last three years. You can't tell completely from this picture, but Jenna's hair had a little bit of a wave in it while we were in Texas.

Jenna was really fascinated with Uncle David and Aunt Charlene's horses. She was interested in helping feed them carrots all until the horse's giant lips reached out to grab it, at which point I had to take over because she tried to jump back. I guess the horse got a little too up close and personal for Jenna.

Little Robby really enjoyed playing in Uncle David's playroom!

So did Robby! He's having flashbacks to his childhood playing Donky Kong.

We really had a great time visiting David and Charlene!

One last cute pic, Jenna and Little Robby with their cousin Hayden!

Summer Vacation 2007: The Alamo

Our second stop on our vacation was the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. By the time we arrived we had been in the car for about 5 hours, and we had only 3 hours to go till we arrived at my parent's house. Robby was really excited to see the Alamo again and to show Chap around. He could have spent a few hours there. Chap, on the other hand, had Grandma and Grandpa on his mind, and he only had interest in seeing the memorabilia and reading the explanations for about 30 minutes.

We did enjoy some time in the courtyard of the Alamo. Here Little Robby and I are near an old dried-up well.

Jenna decides that it is more fun to push the stroller herself than to ride in it! This turned out to be a bit of a problem when we were surrounded by others trying to look around the Alamo. Jenna is yet one more example of why young children can't have drivers licenses!

Awww! What a sweet family picture!

And lastly, here we are in the front of the Alamo. This was a fun stop on our road trip.