The Molar Manor

Tiya, Devyn, Grandpa and friend


Tiya, Devyn and Me


Devyn taking candy from a monster and Tiya with her secret admirer- He just couldn't keep his eye off of her.


Devyn and I dragging Tiya through the haunted house.

Dad, Michele and I picked up Tiya and Devyn today and took them to "The Molar Manor." It's a haunted house that is put on every year by their dentist for charity. They had people walking around outside with elaborate costumes and they had a talent show with kids singing Halloween themed songs. It was a lot of fun. Dr. Singer, their dentist, collects movie props from scary movies and the collection out grew his house so he moved it to a warehouse in the Valencia Industrial Center. The haunted house was like walking through the grave yard part of Disney's Haunted House. I had to practically carry Tiya through she was so scarred. Devyn just laughed the whole time. I was afraid that it was going to be too scary for Mckenna so we didn't bring her. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be so next year we will bring her for sure.

Mckenna's Thumb Toe

Mckenna had me cracking up over the weekend when she referred to her big toe as her "Thumb Toe." It makes sense I suppose. I have heard people refer to their little toe as their pinky toe so why not a thumb toe?

An Amazing Maze of Maize

Mckenna and I went with Dad, Michele, Steven and his three boys to a pumpkin patch in Temecula on Saturday. It was a long drive to go to a pumpkin patch but Mckenna had a great time. Pumpkins were really inexpensive and the kids got to go on a pony ride and a hay ride. Mckenna got to hold and pet a Golden Retriever puppy. We spent a couple of hours trying to make our way through a maze that was made of corn. The corn had to have been 8 feet tall or more and I'm guessing that the maze was several acres in size. It was really amazing and the kids had a great time trying to find their way through it. On our way out Mckenna picked out a pumpkin that we will be carving soon. I will post photos soon.

On our way home from the pumpkin patch we stopped at Tom's Farms in Temescal Canyon which is like a farmers market. We went wine tasting, bought some wine, ate pizza and the kids got candy of course, after all, Grandpa was with us. It was a long day. I didn't get Mckenna home and into bed till 10:00 PM. Boy, was she tired. I wish Tiya and Devyn were with us. They really missed out. Devyn spent the day at Magic Mountain with his girlfriend Clarissa (still sounds funny to say that) and Tiya was with her Grandma.

I'm a Vegetarian! But only for today.

Mckenna and I went to Burger King this last weekend, sat at one of the booths and ate our hamburgers and fries. At some point Mckenn decided that she had sat long enough trying to eat while staring at the play area. We don't go to places like this after all, to eat right? It is all about the play area. Mckenna appeases me by sitting there talking to me while I at least finnish eating.

"Daddy, I'm a Vegetarian." She says this of course after just finnishing a hamburger.
Bewildered, I respond, questioning "Vegetarian?"
"Yeah, I don't like meat anymore."
"But you just ate a hamburger silly."
"Yeah, but I just don't like meat anymore."
"Really. So you're not going to eat hamburgers or chicken or fish anymore?"
"Daddy, I'm just a vegetarian today!"

What more can you say to that?

Jr. High Open House

We all went to Devyn's Jr. High School open house last night. Parking was difficult to find and I ended up parking quite a ways from the school. Not such a big deal normally but not fun on crutches. We made our way from one class to the next listening to each teacher give their speach about goals, school and home work, rules and behavior.

So, please tell me! When did all the teachers become younger than me! Nearly every one of Devyn's teachers looked like they were just out of high school. Some were pretty cute by the way. The teachers suddenly went from too old to date... to so younge they probably wouldn't want to date me! "Just kidding Devyn!" :) I fear that this paragraph has hints of mid-life crisis.

It was nice to see Devyn's classes and his school. We grabbed a bite to eat after the open house and didn't make it home till 9:00 pm.

1st Day of School for Mckenna

Yes, now it is Mckenna's turn. Mckenna starts her very first day of school today. I'm excited for her. So far she is anxious but we will see what happens when she gets to her new kindergarten class. She has the afternoon class. There is one boy from her daycare that is in her class.

She will be going to before and after school care on the school grounds. The facilities seem pretty nice and it looked like the kids that were there were enjoying themselves.

Tiya and Devyn Start School

Tiya and Devyn started school today. This is Tiya's first day of High School and Devyn's first day of Jr. High. They were both nervous at first but quickly got over it. They seemed to really like the new experience. Tiya got a surprise today when she walked into her math class to find her older brother Steven. I guess Steven's jaw dropped too. I'm guessing that Tiya will end up helping Steven with homework.

This is Devyn's first experience with changing rooms. He liked it a lot. I guess Devyn doesn't know where to hang out at lunch yet because Tiya has him scared that certain types of people hang out in certain areas. I suppose he will figure it out before too long. It was much simpler when I was in school. You just hung out with your friends.

Big Sur and Monterey

So I am finally getting around to posting photos of our camping trip. Yes, I am a procrastinator by nature but I had legitimate reasons this time. Since our camping trip I broke my ankle and am just getting over the flu. Talk about adding insult to injury.

We left on Wednesday morning. We didn't get up early. We just got up when we woke up, packed the car and left. I put the dvd player in the back so the kids could watch movies on the long drive. We made it to Limekiln State Park (our campground in the Big Sur area) in about 5 hours.

This was our camp site. We were right in the trees with a beautiful river right behind us. The river was so loud that at night that was all you could hear.


This is the river behind our tent and a couple of deer that were in front of our tent one evening. They came down from the hills to feed. The area has so many deer and seals-it's incredible.


Eating breakfast.



Pictures around our campsite.


Tiya and Mckenna playing in the river where it emptied into the ocean.

The park's name comes from the actual kilns that were used to produce lime in the 19th century. There is a nice hike up through the redwoods to the lime kilns. Limestone was quarried above in the hills and brought down by pack mule. After the lime was baked, barrels of it were slid down a wire to the beach area and taken by boat to ships anchored off the inlet.

Here is a picture of one of the kilns that we hiked up to and Tiya crossing the river.


We also hiked up to the waterfall and Mckenna found a friend as usual but this time it was a tree.

Thursday was Devyn's birthday so we drove up to Monterey. We were a little further from Monterey than I would have liked. It took us about an hour, on a long winding road, to get into town. Tiya and Devyn didn't do to well with the drive but we made it to town without anyone getting sick. We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium where we spent a good portion of the day.



These are pictures from inside the aquarium. It is such an awesome place to visit. The kids had a lot of fun and Mckenna didn't want to leave.

After the aquarium we took Devyn to dinner for his birthday. We went to Bubba Gump which was within walking distance of the aquarium.

The kids ordered special drinks and they sang happy birthday to Devyn.

We stopped along the beach a little on the way back to camp. The kids loved playing in the tide pools and on one of the beaches they even braved the cold water and got in briefly.
The next day we drove into Monterey again and took our time exploring the tide pools and coastline.

Mckenna discovered Hermit Crabs and from that point forward she wouldn't let me pass one without picking it up for her to hold and believe me there were hundreds.

We drove through 17 mile drive where the kids got to see a lot of deer and seals. We had another nice day in Monterey. On our way back to camp we went by the grocery store and got hamburgers to cook for dinner. We spent Saturday around the campground hiking and playing down on the beach. We had a nice fire and saw a slide show that they had at the ranger station about Elephant Seals. I had no idea how large these animals got. They were saying that this time of year the elephant seals were just south about a half hour on the beaches so on Sunday while driving home we stopped along the side of the road and watched them.

We had such a great time! I think next year it might be Yosemite.

A Camping We Will Go

I reserved a camp site up north for next week. The kids have never been that far north along the coast before. I don't know if they are getting excited or not but I am. I can't wait to take them. I love the area we are going to. I get to take them to Monterey, Carmel and Big Sur. I'm planning on taking them to Monterey Bay Aquarium, 17 Mile Drive, Pebble Beach and Carmel. I'm hoping they love it too.