California 2010 (part 1 of 3)

 

 We went to California for Spring Break and had a GREAT trip.  The first two days we spent with Jim's Dad and step Mom.  We did our usual traditional trip to Bate Brothers nut farm.  We have been going there on every trip since Brady was a baby.  The kids all like feeding the animals.  (Thanks grandma for collecting and freezing bread crumbs all year.)  It is always the goal to feed the shy picked on animals rather than the aggressive more dominant ones (Braden really got into that this trip.  You would hear him talking to the animals saying "not you dirt bag" or "Yeah, I got the old one to get one!" ) After feeding the animals the kids get to pick candy from the barrels.  Everything in there is yummy. Jim and the boys especially liked the counter of free samples until a kind lady came up to them and asked if they were there for the paid continental breakfast!  Whoops!

With it being conference weekend we were able to just spend some time at the house relaxing and visiting.  Katie loved patches (Fat cat- as Jim calls her!)  Which made Jim, Cameron, and Megan allergic to her as well as the cat.  The girls loved, loved, loved doing stuff with Grandma Laureen.  They read, they talked, they picked tangerines, made fresh OJ,  made 2 kinds of brownies, dyed Easter eggs, and laughed.  Of coarse we celebrated Easter there as well.  Laureen went all out with separate gift scavenger hunts for the kids, lots of good food, hiding the eggs, and of coarse our second Easter egg roll down the driveway.

 On Monday we went to see an aircraft carrier.  We wanted to do something a little different.  It really was pretty cool.  It was huge!   All of the pictures above are either on the top deck or lower decks.  We thought it was pretty interesting to get an idea of what Papa was on for a little while in the navy.  We preferred the captains and admirals sleeping areas over the other birthing rooms.  (What an odd name-but it fits the small spaces they slept in.)