Xander 5.0

On Saturday we hit the beach for Xander's birthday party. My beach day started a bit earlier than expected; we headed over to Goleta beach around nine to scout out spots and seeing that one prime spot was already taken I decided to stay behind and guard a table. I only had to sit there for an hour and a half without much to do, but it was worth it as another table camper showed up about 20 minutes later and was bummed that I was holding the table that I was. Had I not stayed we would not have had the nice shady table that we ended up with.

We ended up with about 13 kids, two "big kids" (as Xander refers to them, otherwise known as Kent and Rudy), and around 25 adults. Having so many adults there definitely made watching the kids much easier; as you can probably imagine, there were kids running every which way between the playground, bird chasing, the beach itself, and the party favors (bubbles). And once the presents were open there were plenty of new toys to test out as well. The cake -- another Lisa "Ace of Cakes" Oglesby show-piece -- and pinata booty helped to fuel the festivities. By the time four o'clock rolled around we were all exhausted and there was a very happy birthday boy.

As usual there are lots of pictures over at Flickr.

Birthday King Visits the Pizza Guru

For Xander's birthday he wanted to go to Pizza Guru for dinner so we had a little family celebration down there. The crown was part of his haul from the birthday celebration at school; though I don't think the meaning of a crown soaked in very well as he was only as demanding as usual, not more demanding as one might expect from a king. And when we were done eating Xander insisted on clearing the table, very un-regal type behavior. While eating pizza and cup-cakes are hard to top I'd say the highlight of the dinner for Xander was doing graffiti in the bathroom.

As usual there are more pictures at Flickr.

It didn't quite go swimmingly

Xander had his first swimming lesson today over at the recreation center on campus. He was excited to be there until he actually got into the water; after about ten seconds he was screaming his head off and despite the teacher's, lesson coordinator's, and my best efforts we couldn't get him back in the water again. Maybe we needed a fourth person like they needed the last time he got shots at the doctor's office. The most he was willing to do was sit on the side and dip his toes in. He has promised that next Sunday he will get in the water and I have a few ideas on how to make things go smoother so hopefully he'll spend more time in the pool next weekend.

What happens at kindergarten stays at kindergarten

So it seems like Xander's first day of kindergarten went smooth. So far the only details that we've been able to get out of him are that the teacher read them a book called the "kissing hand" and that his teacher, Ms. Campbell, is nice. At least he wasn't kicking and screaming like one of the kids. If you look closely at the pictures -- click the picture above to go to the gallery -- you'll see that one of his classmates has a rather interesting hairdo. Lisa only lost it a little bit as we were leaving and I have to admit that all day I was wondering how he was doing in the back of my mind. Hopefully we'll get some more details out of him in the coming days.

Hank's 88th

I'll spare you guys the detailed write-up of this weekend since anyone reading this blog was probably there and lived it. I've posted the pictures from this weekend over at Flickr. They're behind the friends and family wall so to see them you'll have to log into Flickr and I have to have marked you as a friend. If you need help let me know.

[Paul: I copied the pictures onto your computer before we left but some of them needed some post-processing, especially the shot of the whole group, so you might want to check them out and download some replacements]

Pre 4th of July trip to PH

I finally got around to posting my pictures of our latest trip to Pleasant Hill over on Flickr.

Colorado

A couple of weeks ago (I lagged quite a bit on getting pictures posted, sorry) we headed to Colorado Springs to visit Lisa's cousins. Some highlights of the trip:



Quinn does a pretty good job on the plane, especially when you have a row to yourself and she can just go crazy in an empty seat. She didn't really complain until we were descending and then she fell asleep.



There can be a lot of thunder storms in Colorado during the summer. Every day we were there we got a deluge in the afternoon.



Emily's kids are really good at wearing Xander out.



When you drive a large SUV with one man, two women and a bunch of kids around town in Colorado you will have to constantly explain that you are not polygamists.



The Colorado Springs zoo is nice, but you will be walking uphill most of the way.



The Falcon trail around the air force academy is fun, but it is strange to have your DI checked and the car searched on the way to a trail. But then the guy at the shop where I rented a bike asked if I had anything strange in my trunk before sending me to that trail. Also I rented a 29'er and didn't really see what the big deal is about. (Julie and Dugan will probably be the only ones to understand that last bit.



Beware rental car upgrades. We upgraded to a dodge charger because the person at the counter though we would have trouble fitting the car seats into a ford focus. Lisa then proceeded to get a speeding ticket 10 miles from the airport on the way home. Oops. At least speeding tickets in Colorado are much cheaper than in California.

As usual I've post pictures over at Flickr. Though I have changed a few things, I've ponied up for the "Pro" account so full size images are now available to grab to make prints form or you can order prints through Flickr. Also I've set the photos so that they can only be viewed by "friends and family". This means that you will have to create an account on Flickr (free) and add me as a contact, at which point I will mark you as family and you can get to the pictures. The Colorado pictures are here. If you view the slide-show be sure to turn on the captions using the "Show info" link at the upper right of the slide-show page.