First self-portrait

Jessica is shown justifiably proud of her first self-portrait. I thought she captured her blue eyes especially well.

End of summer camping celebration

We went for a overnight campout before school started. Now that we live in Tehachapi, in the mountains, camping is just about 10 minutes away - very convenient. As usual, the favorite food item was s'mores or at least the mallows and the chocolate.

Activate house power on my mark

How often do you get to do this? Here is me switching on the electrical power to our house for the first time ever. Amazingly, the electric company showed up the day we moved in and installed the meter. After switch on the main breaker, we tried each of the individual breaker. No sparks! No smoke! We had to wait three days for the gas company to show up. I should not complain, though - a cold shower is always worse in the dark.

Bring on the school year

The last day of summer - cartoons in Mom & Dad's bed.
The school crew.
The place.

Meri looks and is happy in this photo. The smile disappeared when it was time for Mom to leave the classroom.

Fun in sun

I think we are ready for Baywatch. We just need a couple of those orange, banana, life-saving things. We visited the beach in Ventura before school just to make sure we were still living in southern California. It was a little further from our new home in the mountains but close enough.

Problem

Something is wrong with picture uploading. No new pictures for now. Sorry.

Perhaps as consolation you could check out my new blog, SRL.

Is that a buffalo or a bison?

 
During our homeless stretch, we spent a day in Yellowstone National Park. Of course, that is where the buffalo roam, right? Not this time. Though we saw some elk in the park, it was not until about 500 feet after exiting the park when we saw our first bison (not a buffalo).

En garde!

 

 

Brayton and Ethan took a fencing class. They really enjoyed. Unfortunately their large amount of lightsaber play carried over to their fencing. Most lightsaber techniques do not apply well to a game where you score by poking each other with the point of a sword. Oh well, they has a great time.

Wheel them in

 
Good thing we bought a hand-truck. It can be so useful for moving things.

Orion climbs to the top of the rope in gymnastics

 
 
 
 

The eagle has landed ... along with all the eaglets

Here is the new house. We are now residents of Tehachapi, CA. We spent about three weeks homeless as our Lancaster home sold before the Tehachapi home was finshed. Stay tuned for more pictures.

a temple in Laie Laie Hawaii Temple

Here's us outside the Laie Hawaii Temple. It's neat to see and visit such a historical building. I have always seen pictures of it (it has been around since 1919) and now I have lived it.

Thar she blows! (or at least waves)

We took a whale watch cruise from the North Shore. Nobody else had signed up so it was just us and two crewmen. Like having a private boat. The whale watching was just like videos that you see except that's a real whale and it's right there in front of you. Amazing! I was also impressed with the whale's breathing. Of course there is the blow when the whale surfaces but right before it dives, there is a very loud intake of breath. Whoooosh!

Ukulele lessons

Another picture from the island. This is ukulele lessons at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We brought a ukulele (should that be AN ukulele? It doesn't sound right) home and have been working on it since.

Aloha `oe, aloha `oe

I'm still not sure what that means. Part of our time away we spent in Hawaii. Well, some of us did anyway. Ylfelynn and I spent a great week on Oahu. Here is a picture of us the night before we came back (do we look at all like islanders?) enjoying a dinner cruise. There was a show downstairs after the dinner but we could not tear ourselves away from the show outside. We sailed across Waikiki to Diamondhead and back while the sun descended. Excellent scenery.

Belay that order! Lawn is restored!

Never fear. The new lawn has been installed. It was put in right before we left town for two-and-a-half weeks. When we returned, it had grown exceedingly. We are still trying to catch up to it. I'm starting to think of it of the big green monster in my yard. Maybe now we can sell the house. Here is the listing if you are interested.

Call the police! Our lawn is missing!

Behold our "scorched earth" yard, front and back. Just one day with the giant roto-tiller available at the neighborhood rent-a-center is all it took. Do you think the house will sell OK like this?

Construction continues

A view of our new house from the back yard (there is a little slope in the back of the back yard).

Another zoo trip, a new favorite

We went to the San Diego Zoo again (we bought memberships last year and we are maximizing our return on investment - they expire in April - and it was a good investment). Past favorites were the tapir and the okapi. Yesterday's favorite: Galapagos tortoise. The zoo has several that it acquired in the 1920's. That's 80+ years ago. And they have 50+ more years to live. It's a good thing, too. It takes them a while to do anything and go anywhere. Fascinating animals!

Meri - future air racer?

Meri is seen standing in Wildfire, air racing plane extraordinaire. I am designing the landing gear doors for it. The plan is to race it in Reno in September. We paid a visit to its hangar at the Mojave Spaceport on our way up to visit our house being built in Tehachapi.