Views on Camping

           
                                            
Views around the house, just before leaving.

                                   
View from the car on the way.


View in the car.  (Jonathan was in the way back and was sleeping when these pics were taken.

                
Okay.  So we get there, set up the campsite, make and eat dinner, etc.  As it starts to get dark we turn the lantern on and, unsurprisingly, it draws some bugs.  Surprisingly, the bugs stick around.  They bump into the lamp, crash onto the table and stay.  And more of them come, and they stay.  There are something like 30 of them, totally placid, hanging out in the light of our lantern.  It’s not until much later, after the kids are in bed, that it occurs to me that the lantern is downwind of all the smoke from our campfire.  The smoke seems to have drugged them.  The really awful part?  As soon as the fire died down, the still-intoxicated beetles got just enough energy back to dive bomb the embers.  Every single one of them.  We made sure their carcasses were well-burned so we wouldn’t have to explain mass suicide to the kids the next morning.  The whole thing was very, very bizarre.

            
Having rid the campsite of bugs, we start out the next morning for some new adventures, challenges and explorations.

                               
Science class: bark textures . . .

 
(See?)

counting wood rings . . .

                          
and the unusual behaviors of transplanted wildlife.

                    
Good little nature observers.

                    
Of course, we might see more if they were . . . well . . . quieter, but we work with what we get.

                             
And what we got this afternoon was a stop at the nature center with some nice views on the way back.
                     Thank you cameraman!


Rock climbing might have to be considered our new family sport.

                               
Along with collecting oddities.  That’s a sport, right?

By the way, Pumpkin is demanding a lot of sleep from Mommy which is making it exceedingly difficult to work on the blog.  I may never get caught up . . .  I suppose that’s the price of creating cuties like these.

And on that note, g’night all!

Off with a Bang!

Hello again!  We’ve got a lot of catching up to do . . .

This hadn’t happened in probably a year or more, and it hasn’t happened again since then either.

                     
These sorts of things happen quite often though.  In the second picture, Naomi is observing nature—she pulled up a chair to watch a snail go by. 

We greeted Uncle Jonathan in the usual way.


We also made heavy use of his superb construction skills.

       
Monkey learned to play the piano and a work crew took over some garden space.


Then there was a medieval battle in which the enemy knight/ogre/dragon hid himself within the castle, yet he was still soundly defeated by the overwhelming power of giggles.  And yes, all princesses wear hippo pajamas.

                               
More of this and a little of that.

Oh yah, Jake was still here then!  Except he was getting ready to go to Bridgeport for a month.

    
Taking in the sights as we walk down the beach to find a nice spot to watch the fireworks.

              
Just hanging out and enjoying the SoCal scenery.

Freight train!  We don’t see these go by during the day, so this was extra-exciting (and super long)!

                                
Breaking out the glow stick toys means we’re almost there.


Happy 4th of July!  (Which just points out again how far behind I am here.  Oh well!)  The first photo gives you just an idea of how great our view was: the rockets going up on the right are our own fireworks (San Clemente), the large burst on the left is Dana Point and the faint set low on the horizon in the center are (I think) San Juan Capistrano.  The cumulative effect made it the best fireworks show I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen more than my fair share of them.