Waffles and an Aquarium

Our waffle iron died last spring in a dramatic shower of electrical sparks, and we'd been hemming and hawing about how to replace it, especially given our desire to eliminate synthetic non-stick surfaces (and associated heat-released chemical compounds) from our kitchen. We ultimately settled on a refurbished, vintage waffle iron from 1948 - the Manning-Bowman SubDeb from http://www.toastercentral.com/  - and fired it up last night. It makes absolutely amazing waffles!

This morning, we drove up to Long Beach to check out the Aquarium of the Pacific. Mama and Dada arranged for their marine biology students to go there as a class assignment and had discounted tickets. The boys had fun touching jellyfish, sharks, sea anemones, and urchins, and Finn loved the puffins, the cave under the penguin tank, and the sea lions. 

Santa Barbara

For Memorial Day weekend, we drove up to Santa Barbara for a couple of nights. It's one of our favorite places - Mama and Dada lived there for a year while Mama worked on her Master's degree at UCSB, and we've visited many times since - and we were really looking forward to hanging out there with the boys. It ended up being one of those trips that you tell other parents about when you're commiserating about life with kids.

Bottom line: Finn started throwing up in the car on the way there. And at the zoo. And everyone felt pretty ugh after that. Eventually, all of us succumbed to norovirus: Finn (again) and Dada on Monday, Caden on Tuesday night, and Mama on Wednesday. Oh, and Finn was sick again on Wednesday night and also had an ear infection. Poor guy!

We definitely had some fun times in Santa Barbara - Mama visited two amazing orchid nurseries and we had a great day exploring Stearns Wharf, the waterfront park (where there was an art fair and carousel), and State Street - and we can't wait to get back up there sans norovirus.

Caden and the lion

Caden's family tree

Stearns Wharf

Finn meets a parrot

Waterfront playground

Finn on the "choo-choo horsie"

Orchids

We cannot go to school today

Back to normal - fun with big bubbles

The choo-choo horsie

We spent last weekend in Santa Barbara, and one highlight was the neat, old carousel in the waterfront park near Stearns Wharf. Finn and Dada discussed options for him to ride - there was a sleigh for the littlest kids to ride in - but once Caden climbed up on a horse, Finn demanded to ride next to him. And he loved it! He called his trusty steed his "choo-choo horsie" and waved and blew kisses to Mama as he sped past. 

Juggling lessons

For Caden's birthday last month, he got a set of juggling sticks. The set consists of three sticks, one held in each hand and the third flipped into the air and caught. Caden first saw these in New Zealand - he even received a brief lesson from a street vendor in Christchurch - and he quickly mastered basic catches and flips. Of course, Finn wants to try to juggle, too, and this clip shows tonight's juggling lesson.

Mama's shoes

On Mother's Day, Finn decided to walk around in his mama's shoes.

Finn tries pop rocks

Turn up the volume to hear them pop!

Wild in Idyllwild

We just returned from a weekend trip to Idyllwild, a small town in the mountains a couple of hours from here. We spent Friday night at an inn - work, school, and baseball kept us in Irvine until late Friday afternoon - but we camped on Saturday night. The town is great: we found a yummy bakery and a breakfast spot, an expansive and interesting playground, an informative nature center with live snakes to hold and touch, and lots of trails to hike and rocks to climb. One challenge was to keep Finn from climbing the same rocks as his big brother...

Breakfast at Tommy's Kitchen.

Finn meets a gopher snake.

Rocks to climb.

Native American grinding rock. The pits were used to grind acorns. 

Setting up camp.

Playing on a chilly mountain morning.

Other fun events over the past couple of weeks have included Cub Scout activities - the Space Derby race and a Bear Den meeting at our house to learn about cooking - and a great visit from the Walger crew from Massachusetts. 

Building the Space Derby rocket.

Finn has decided that drinking fountains are pretty neat. 

Hanging out with Jack Henry and Oliver

Finn catches a roly poly isopod. 

Caden's new haircut.