Easter vs. Christmas

Ben told Mommy today on Easter:

"I like Easter better than Santa cuz bunny no spy on me"

(Santa knows if you've been naughty or nice, whereas the Easter bunny brings you candy regardless...)

Christmas 2007

Quick recap of Christmas this year:

Santa delivered:

• Bennett - Rokenbok set. He was loving these in the month leading up to xmas - always playing at the toy store at the outlet mall.
• Connor - Age of Empires III. Since thanksgiving when daddy played AoE II against cousin Zack, Connor has been hooked.
  
• Avery - American Girl Doll. Looks like her - blond hair, additional soccer uniform, etc.

Jamie's haul: crockpot / slow cooker thingy. (We already had the maiden voyage, cooking pot roast a couple nights after xmas)

Dan is getting snowboard gear. Starting with a new jacket, maybe some pants, and maybe bindings and boots at the end of the season.

Some memorable moments:

We took the kids to the dollar store and let them buy for everyone else in the family. We took them in in shifts, doing the different combinations so we wouldn't know what they got for each other. Some of the cool gifts:

• Ben to daddy: balloon rocket crazy pump thing. Played with it today at the park.
• Ben to mommy: a bear figurine. After giving it to her xmas morning, said to mommy: "now how much you love me" :)
• Ben to Connor: chargers cards
  
• Connor to mommy: xmas candle
• Connor to daddy: football pillow
• Avery to mommy: clip on book reading light
  

Now Ben has it all checked off his list: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Santa, ... now what comes next?

Biking around Coronado

Today we went on a bike ride adventure around Coronado. It was really the first time we've all been out to ride with the kids on more than just around a campground or the neighborhood.

We parked near the piers (where the cruise ships come and go) in downtown San Diego, and rode the ferry across to Coronado. From the drop-off pier, they have dedicated bike trails for most of the routes around the island.

Check out the bike tail map here.

Went around the east side of the island under the bridge and by the golf course, making our way along the only street (Glorietta) you have to use to get to the west side. Over by the Hotel Del Coronado, there are a bunch of places to eat (we went to Village Pizzeria) and then played on the beach for a bit. Back on the 4:30p ferry as it started getting colder (probably down in the 50s, this IS San Diego after all) :)

Ben - the IT man

Bennett is more and more of a computer nerd these days. The eMachines they have is a bit flaky recognizing the PS/2 keyboard, so sometimes it comes up to the login screen and the keyboard doesn't work.

Ben knows the solution, and was telling me the steps the other day:

WEAVE IT TO ME. I FIS IT

FIRST YOU PUSH YIS BUTTON, YEN YOU PUS YIS BUTTON. YEN YOU WAIT FOR IT TO RESART

YOU YUS HAVE TO DO IT ADAIN ADAIN ADAIN AND YEN MAYBE IT WORS.

Dan's Height Chart

Since we've been charting our kids' height all along, I've always been curious how their height compares to mine when I was growing up. I also often get asked, "how tall were you in high school?"

• 12/16/80 (12 yrs) -- 5' 2.5"
• 02/20/82 (14 yrs) -- 5' 5"
• 05/09/82 (14 yrs) -- 5' 5.5"
• 10/10/82 (14 yrs) -- 5' 7" (Start of HS fr yr)
• 10/10/83 (15 yrs) -- 5' 11" (Start of HS so yr)
• 02/09/84 (16 yrs) -- 6' 1" (Middle of HS so yr)
  

So I don't have data for when I was entering college (will have to get that from Freshman year Stanford volleyball program), but suffice it to say I grew a bunch in '82 and '83 !

Y = Th

In Ben-speak, the "th" sound is still too difficult, so a Y fills in the place just fine.

On the way home from Palm Desert last weekend, the kids were watching a DVD in the car. Ben complained that he couldn't hear it. We look back to see that he was fiddling with his headphones, after they had fallen down.

Asked what is the problem, Ben:

"I have yem yike yis, yen yem go yike yis ... " rrrrrr " .... (headphones falling down noise)"

Firestorm 2007 - Evacuation

Ugh - we've had a rough / stressful couple of days, along with everyone else in San Diego county. Once again, the October Santa Ana winds (notice Easterly winds from "90 degrees" direction) combined with dry conditions to create the perfect storm of fire throughout the county.

This time, we were almost affected, having been served a voluntary evacuation order here in Carlsbad. There is tons of info about it, but here and here are a couple maps that show what we were up against.

The reason I'm blogging this here, is because of the kids' reaction to it all. It was sad to see them worry about the evacuation. Jamie and I were busy packing up the essentials, and it was obvious to them something was going on. We had them pack each of their suitcases, explaining that they should take whatever they can think of that is important to them.

So here then is an inventory of their suitcases:

• Bennett - Piggy bank, Buzz Lightyear bank, and ALL of his "tags" (pajamas with tags that he likes to rub on his face). That's it - it's all that's important - money and tags.
• Avery - Books, various "Webkins" stuffed animals, some swim meet ribbons, money bank, soccer team picture, soccer trophies.
  
• Connor - Books, Webkins, baseball "game balls" (autographed), swim meet ribbons, money bank, pokemon cards, soccer trophies.
  

Luckily, it all turned out ok - evac for Carlsbad was lifted this evening. Others in the county were not so lucky. Something like 300,000 people evacuated (so far) in SD county, over 1,000 homes destroyed.