Movember is over!

Tom grew a moustache for Movember.  Movember is over, so here is the picture he took with the kids before shaving it off.  For the record, the kids and I all LOVE how it looks, but I don't like how it feels.  But it's nice to know my husband can grow a great moustache!

Off To The Races

When I was about five years old my Dad's VW Bug's engine died and my life changed forever.  You see my Dad decided that he was going to learn how to rebuild the engine himself.  This led him to working one night a week, after his full-time job, at Ozzie's Automotive.  At Ozzie's he would shed his coat and tie for a jumpsuit, and clean parts and help put together engines, including his own VW's engine.  This experience, and reading about a German racing parts company, inspired him to start a small business called Power Haus Products. With the help of a friend, who happened to be a famous WWII test pilot (in Germany), he made a deal with Oettinger Okrasa to be the sole American importer of their Porsche and VW racing parts.  For the next eleven years I helped my Dad ship and sell crankshafts and pistons to engine builders across the U.S. and Mexico. 

By the time I was seven or so we were regularly attending midget class races at the half-mile dirt track at Ascot Park in Gardena, CA.  This included the Turkey Night Grand Prix held every Thanksgiving evening, which I must have attended at least seven or eight times.  We also attended drag races, speedway motorcycle races, Formula Atlantic, Formula One races and Indy car races.  I was very familiar and fond of the smell of burned methanol and motor oil.  I also spent a lot of time in the garage handing my Dad wrenches and cleaning parts in solvent. 

I lament that for the last couple of years I have not been able to make cars as much of a part of my kids' life as it was for me. But there are some bright spots.  There is a Friday Night car show not that far from where we live, which since Lukas was a little guy we check out a couple of times a year.  We have also attended Monster Truck "races", which is technically a motor sport.  This year I was able step it up.  I took the boys to their first dirt track race and drag race. 

Yes, drag races can be very loud

Tennis balls in the intakes and cans on the exhaust

 

At their first dirt track races (in between potty run #4)

Lukas is nowhere near where I was at 9 in understanding cars, but it's a start!  I hope they all develop some appreciation for motor sports.

Happy Father's Day!

How could you not have a happy Father's Day after viewing this?  The kids had so much fun with this Father's Day card.

Happy Father's Day, Tom!  The Happy Ones all know you are the best Dad ever!

Here was our Father's Day breakfast:  ham and eggs, hashbrowns, toast and melon.

And Tom's batch of Bircher Muesli (a Swiss meal that he requested) for lunch after church.  I found muesli at a store recently, so I got the ingredients for Bircher Muesli and Tom mixed them to get the right proportions.  Tom's wearing one of his Father's Day shirts.

For dinner, Tom chose pasta with pesto and meatballs.  We had a feast with kale, salad and melon too!

Tom tried to read after lunch, but Lukas and Konrad kept interrupting with special Lego creations they made for Father's Day.  I think he finally read something without interruption, but it wasn't easy.  I think it was a great day, and I think Tom had fun too.  I know the kids had fun!

Happy Birthday Tom!

We had a fun birthday celebration for Tom this weekend: visiting Chris and Jim on Saturday and then birthday breakfast, lunch and dinner on Sunday.  Tom's favorite dessert is chocolate eclair, so that's what I made for his birthday.

Natalie did a great job bringing Dad's eclair out to him.

The view from Tom's seat, as we sang Happy Birthday, complete with bells and kazoo.

Happy Birthday Tom!

I commented that making eclairs is easier than baking a cake...I should do it more often than just on Tom's birthday.  I know he would agree!  And eclairs are starting to grow on the kids too...  I mean, they're starting to like them--they don't have eclairs growing on them.

Saturday we drove by Tom's childhood home in the Valley.  He was impressed that one of the junipers that his dad planted when Tom was a baby was still alive.  Even though it's a beautiful tree, Tom looks better, don't you think?

Spring Break Part 2c Calico

Why oooh, why have The Happy Ones been so quiet?  Our new computer has made posting blog posts really frustrating.  Actually it is Windows 8 that is causing most of the frustration, followed by our smart phones and "the cloud".  We thought we would have made it past the learning curve by now, but 8 takes over when it wants to, and my phone cannot decide if it is Cindy's phone or mine, and our pictures are floating over our house somewhere  in space.  So anyway...

This is the post you have all been waiting for.  Yes, this is the final chapter of our spring break camping trip to Rainbow Basin near Barstow.  On our last full day of camping we went to Calico Ghost Town, which was a relatively short drive from the campground.  If you are not familiar with Calico, it is a ghost town, but it was turned into a tourist destination in the 1930s by Walter Knott, the berry farmer who created Knott's Berry Farm, in Buena Park.  This is the second time The Happy Ones have been to Calico this year, but this is the first time we were all there together.  We had a lot of fun riding the train, going to the stores, panning for "gold," exploring a mine, going through the Mystery House, and such.  Afterwards, while Dominik was napping, I gave Lukas and Konrad a shooting safety class in the nearby hills.  We talked a lot and plinked a little, and then hauled off a trash bag full of other people's junk that they left behind.  On the way back to camp we stopped off at a train museum in Barstow, and had a treat at Del Taco.  Have I mentioned I love Del Taco?  Barstow is the mecca for Del Taco lovers, because Del Taco was founded here.  Del Taco #1 is no longer but we ended up having treats at #2.

Old steam powered fire engine

Taking a bath

Checking out a mine

"Danger!!!"

Trying to stand up "straight" in the Mystery House

The train

Target shooting

Watching Dad

Train stuff

Old computer that monitored the trains years ago

Packed up and heading home

Where is Barstow?  These signs will tell you where, in relation to cities around the world.

The Concert (or Visiting Your Cousin At Work Day)

Jordana, Lukas, Leif Jr. and Leif Sr.

Lukas' second-cousin Leif is in the band Jeremy C a m p, which regularly tours through California.  While Jordana was here I thought that a concert would be a fun activity, and she and Lukas had never been to a really big concert before (the arena seats 11,000).  We arranged to meet Leif before the concert and got the behind the scenes tour.  We were able to get seats right in front of the mixing boards, which according to Leif is the best spot in the house.  I think it was the best spot, but it also was probably the loudest spot (note to self; bring ear plugs next time).  I believe there were a total of eight bands and Jeremy C a m p was second to last.  We really enjoyed most of the bands, and I really liked the big and clean sound of Jeremy C a m p and MercyMe.  Did I mention it was really loud?  It was fun watching Leif work, and it was nice hanging out with him before and during the concert.

Leif hard at work

The tour bus

Jeremy C a m p

A Day in The Old West, Civil War Style

Sitting a spell

On February 17 (I am playing catch-up, too) I took Lukas, Konrad and Jordana to Calico Ghost Town, in the Mojave Desert.  There was a special weekend of Civil War reenactors scheduled, so we packed up early and arrived just as things got started.  There were hundreds of people dressed in period clothes (both sides), including soldiers, ladies in their Sunday best, chaplains, gunslingers and a whole marching band.  We listened to people talk and tell stories as if we were living 150 years ago.  Lukas brushed up against a gunslinger, who almost drew on me until he saw that I was unarmed.  He gave me a stern warning to teach my son to not bump into people (he complimented Lukas later for good behavior). 

The ghost town itself has a lot to see, so we were somewhat overwhelmed as to what to look at first.  We checked out one of the mines, panned for "gold", helped the blacksmith, went to the Mystery House, climbed around the hills and watched a battle reenactment (the North lost the 11:30 am battle, but I think they rallied at the 2:30 pm battle).  After we ate lunch we explored the nearby desert (I love my van with its all-terrain tires).  While we were in a dry desert canyon, an extreme rock crawler gave us a great show.  He completed 95% of the 200' of dry waterfall and then broke down on the last obstacle.  I think he would have had better success if his passengers walked (he would have been 600 lbs lighter) and spotted him (acting as a extra set of eyes).  I had fun spotting him here and there.

We headed out and stopped off for some snow play just off the freeway, and made it home just after dinner time. 

The view of Calico from the hill.

One of the many parades that were held

Lukas helping out the very entertaining Amish blacksmith

The bottle house

Waiting for the battle to begin

It begins, conveniently, in an outdoor theater

The amazing rock crawler (there is a diesel truck somewhere in that mass of tubing and sheet metal)

About two minutes before he broke his transfer case

Tank monument in Barstow

A little snow play with a little snow

Sea World

Did I mention we got Sea World passes?  Annual passes are not much more than the cost of one visit, so we got passes and have gone down a few times with Jordana while she's here.  Last week was a beautiful visit!  Great weather, light crowd, lots of fun!

I mentioned to Tom that Dominik hasn't had many pictures taken of him on our outings, so Tom made sure to take a lot of pictures of Dominik on this trip!  The kids always like to go up the Sky Tower first thing.  They call it "the double-decker doghnut."

We started to sit in the same section for the Shamu show as the last time...then I remembered that the sun shines in our faces there and we quickly moved.  Natalie enjoyed the show sooo much better this time!

 

 Left to right, Jordana, Natalie (in a poncho), Tom and Lukas (in a poncho).  They get very wet on this ride...apparently the couple in the raft with them were a little surprised at how WET  you do get!

Konrad is so photogenic!

Dominik, Jordana and Lukas enjoying the Pets Rule show.

We'll try to go down one more time before Jordana leaves...and then take a break from Sea World for a month or so!  It's a lot of fun, and especially when we go more than once, it's easier to plan our visit.