Brodie Rows!

Brodie has joined Casitas rowing as his High School sport.  They meet 5 times a week for practice (the 2 days off are Monday and Friday.)
The team meets at Lake Casitas, the site of the rowing competition during the 1984 Olympic Games.  He usually rows as part of an eight-man crew.


Here's what Brodie's hands looked like Saturday after 3 hours of rowing.

Here's how his Mom fixed him up for Sunday's practice.

He's really enjoying the sport, and might have his first chance to compete in a race next weekend.

USS Halsey in Santa Barbara

At lunch on Stearns Wharf waiting for our tour.

The AVP Beach Volleyball Tour was on West Beach, so we caught a few games.

There were many pelicans in the marina greeting the 1/2 day fishing boats.

On board the launch, on our way to the Halsey.

USS Halsey DDG-97

On the foc'sle with the bridge and the mast array behind them.

Posing with the ship's bell.

Many Tomohawk cruise missles live under these hatches.

Nik poses with the M-240 gun on the port side.

Brodie at the helm.

Brodie poses with the 50-cal gun on the bridge wing.

 We had an awesome time visiting the USS Halsey on Saturday in Santa Barbara.  We even had some excitement as we were boarding.  Our launch, a converted tug boat, took us out of the harbor breakwater and into 3-5 foot seas.  To board the Halsey, we tied-up to a barge that itself was tied to the Halsey.  In the rising seas all 3 boats were rising and falling, but not at the same time.  Just a few moments after we had crossed the short gangway from the launch to the barge the bowline snapped free and the bow of the launch started to drift away, twisting the gangway.  It was quickly pulled back onto the barge before it could drop into the sea between the vessels, but it took some minutes to get the launch tied up again to deboard the remaining passengers.

The gangway from the barge to the Halsey was a stairway that rose about 40 feet to the Cruiser's deck, but the rolling motion of the two vessels caused the gangway to travel 6 or 8 feet back and forth along the deck of the barge.  Nik was very nervous about jumping on at the right time.

But after braving these hazards we successfully reached the deck of the Halsey and had a wonderful 1-hour tour before heading back to the beach with a group of sailors headed for a night of fun in Santa Barbara.

Nik's First Visit to Magic Mountain

5 days after visiting Knott's Berry Farm, Nik and I spent the day today riding even bigger coasters at Magic Mountain.  It was a hot day, but lucky for us the lines were short and we rode 15 or 16 rides in less than 7 hours.  Nik had a great time and is now a full-fledged coaster enthusiast!  Enjoy the photo album.

Nik's day at Magic Mountain

Mother's Day Hike - Piedra Blanca

Mother's Day Hike in the Sespe

 Although it was a lovely day in Ventura for Mother's Day this year, it was a little too foggy and dreary to hang out, so we went inland in search of the sun.

 We drove up Highway 33 above Ojai to Rose Valley, about 3,500 feet up in the coastal range. It was very warm up there and the boys were soon thinking back on cool, foggy Ventura with longing.

 

 

Here we're sheltering from the sun in a shady cave.










Piedra Blanca means White Rocks in Spanish.  It's a bizarre and huge outcropping of these white sandstone boulders looking totally out-of-place compared to the typical terrain in that area.
 
 

 

I've often wondered what causes the deep grooves etched into all of the rocks in this area?  Glaciers?  I don't think so.  This sandstone erodes too quickly to record events from so long ago. 

We let the boys explore on their own.  They got pretty far away.  Can you see where Marion is pointing them out in this picture?

It was a wonderful Mother's day for Marion, and for all the rest of us, too.

Easter Bunny Came Last Night!

We decorated our eggs and left them outside the patio door last night, and sure enough the Easter Bunny came in the middle of the night and hid them for us to find.












Easter Bunny left nice baskets for the boys, too! They both got a new watch. Nik was so excited! This was his first watch and he has really wanted one.






Ready to hunt for eggs.















Some of the eggs weren't so hard to find.















Got it!















It was a beautiful spring day for us.


















The Easter Bunny had a BIG backyard to hide those eggs in.
























Happy Easter everyone.

2011 Holiday Piano Recital

The boys both did a wonderful job playing piano at their recital. They both were featured more than once. Nik got to ham it up after his rendition of Greensleaves. Don't stop watching this video when he stands up to take his bow.



Brodie was the final performer in the 3 hour show. He did a great job with America the Beautiful.



And then Brodie played the entire cast of the show on stage for the Grand Finale with Pomp & Circumstance.

Yellowstone National Park

Each year our school district in Ventura takes a week off at the end of October for our fall break. It's a great time of the year to visit popular tourist spots without the crowds of summer.

This year we took a chance and booked our trip to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Tetons National Park. We knew the weather might be iffy; Yellowstone is scheduled to close completely on November 6th, so we were visiting during the last week before the closure. We got very lucky with the weather. Although it was bitterly cold, as low as 8 degrees farenheit on some mornings, we only had to contend with some snow and icy roads on our first day in the park.

In exchange for our gamble, we got to enjoy this popular area with no crowds at all to contend with. We could drive as slowly as we wanted and even stop in the middle of the road if we saw something interesting without worrying about blocking traffic.



Click the picture below to go to our Picasa sight to view the pictures larger.

Marion is inducted in the Antioch Sports Legends Hall of Fame

Marion was selected to be inducted into the Antioch Sports Legends Hall of Fame at the Antioch Historica Society Museum in her home town of Antioch.

To be honest, she is not the type of person to revel in the limelight, and she had very mixed feelings about recieving this honor. But when it was all said and done, the Historical Society did a wonderful job of assembling her display and it truly is something for her to be proud of.

Brodie and Nik were very impressed to see their Mom celebrated.

Oktoberfest!

Mud Run

Legoland 2011

Legoland 2011

Mother's Day Hike at Devil's Punchbowl

Marion started off her Mother's Day with some cuddling and loving from her 2 boys. Then, she had her special breakfast of matzoh-brei, granola-yoghurt parfait with fresh raspberries and blueberries, and coffee with hazlenut creamer.

The weather was a little foggy and gloomy in Ventura, so we packed up the car to drive out towards Palmdale for a hike at Devils Punchbowl, above Pearblossom.

The weather was beautiful out there on the edge of the Mojave desert. Notice the snow still in the Southern California mountains in May, and also notice the fog rolling over the mountains from the coastal side.

Beautiful cloud formations today in Antelope Valley.

Brodie got away from us for awhile to try his hand at free rock climbing. He just can't resist a challenge.

Gorgeous hike, gorgeous day. We had a late lunch / early dinner at Claim Jumper on our way home.

NLCC Flagship

Brodie's Sea Cadet unit competed in the 2011 Flagship competition at Los Alamitos Joint Training Base. The competition featured 18 units from all over the extended Southern California region and there were 180 cadets in attendance.

The competition included inspection, regulation drill, color guard, as well as several nautical skills like knot-tying, signal flags, stretcher-bearer, swimming and line-heaving. The competition was fierce, but Brodie's unit came away with 1st place overall, an honor they hadn't won since 2006. They won 1st place in Inspection and Regulation Drill, 2nd place in Fire Fighting and Signal Pennants, and 3rd place in Knot Tying and Swim Relay.

Congratulations, TS Minutemen. Ooh-Rah!

Pumpkin Patch

Sunday we had our annual visit to the pumpkin patch with our friends, the Urbans. We met Lysa and Mark on the day our children were born; Natasha was born one day after Brodie. Our tradition of going to the pumpkin patch with them dates back to 1999 when we propped our infants up against hay bales and pumpkins at their first Halloween.

Brodie, Nik and Natasha had a great time lifting pumpkins, driving the wheel- barrows, running in the hay bale maze, and watching the Rotary Club flinging pumpkins 250 feet through the air to a splattery death with their Trebuchet, a type of catulpult.

After, we went back to the Urbans' newly-built home and were honored to be the first dinner guests at Casa Urbana, their beautiful Spanish style hillside house with spectacular views of the ocean and the sunset.

Sea Cadet Promotion

Brodie had a fun weekend at Sea Cadets. On Saturday his unit trained at the Gun Club on base at Point Mugu and participated in some skeet shooting. Each cadet shot at 5 targets with a 28 gauge shot gun; Brodie hit 2 of 5, shattering one and chipping one.

On Sunday Brodie was promoted to LC2 and now gets to wear 2 stripes on his sleeve. He spent part of the weekend learning to command the lower-ranking cadets and training them in the basics of drilling and marching.

Slip 'n' Slide Sunday

It's Sunday, 10/10/10, and 85 degrees in Ventura. Good day to bring out the Slip 'n' Slide.

Mud Run

Brodie's Sea Cadet unit participated yesterday in the Salvation Army Dirt Dash, a 5-K run to raise money for Salvation Army children's camps. The run took place at their camp in the Malibu hills and combined cross-country running with an obstacle course. The last part of the course was a deep mud pit guarded by men with fire hoses. The only safe way through was to combat crawl; Those who stood were washed over with the hose.

After Brodie's race they had a kid's fun run for Nik, thankfully much shorter than 5 kilometers. The kids were then able to hose down and change into clean clothes for the rest of the day. There was a high ropes course to test the Cadets' courage, and a swimming pool for cooling off in the 90 degree heat.