Huntington Library

I absolutely love the Huntington Library. It is one of my favorite spots. The first Thursday of every month is free and it so happened that it was also Nathan's birthday.....July 2. I gotta confess though that I didn't enjoy myself too much that day. First of all I was so tired. Nathan had a rough night which means I didn't sleep too well. We actually took him to the doctor before going to the Huntington and found out he had a double ear infection. Josiah wasn't feeling too well either. He had a bad cough and was feeling lousy. Second of all it was hot, way too hot! The heat, plus two sick boys, plus me not getting enough sleep equaled two cranky boys and an impatient mother. Nonetheless we tried to enjoy the morning as much as we could.

The rose garden still had some beautiful roses.



The Japanese garden is my favorite but some people hanging out in this area were being a little too weird for me. They were being very "one with the garden" and meditating. That is just so not me. I almost felt like we had to be real quiet out of respect.


The boys forgot how yucky they felt at the children's garden. They really had a good time. It was my first time seeing the children's garden since it opened and I was a little disappointed. I think they could have done more but maybe it was because of the stinky mood I was in.

Father's Day

On Father's Day we celebrated by going to the happiest place on earth without our two boys! That sounds awful but we were being selfish and wanted to enjoy Disneyland and California Adventures one last time. It was really great because we got to do a ton of stuff we normally never do with the boys. Such as going together on a lot of rides that we usually have to take turns going on. We also got to see Fantasmic and the Electrical Parade without having to keep two little boys entertained for an hour as you wait for the shows to begin. One of the highlights was going on Tower of Terror. I absolutely love roller coasters but I hate rides that are just straight up and down. The last time I went on Tower of Terror was in Florida and I was with my nephew and my brother-in-law (at the time) who worked for Disney. The ride was fairly new and so we tried it out. He wouldn't tell me what was going to happen. Had it not been for my youth I think I would have died of a heart attack. That was 14 years ago and this time I knew what I was getting into. Let's just say I screamed like a banshee (according to my husband). I was hoarse for two days after.


It's the year to celebrate at Disneyland. Not only were we celebrating Father's Day but we also turned it into our 9 year anniversary outing (July 1)


We also ate at the Blue Bayou. The last time I ate there was when I was in 5th grade. I had a great teacher by the name of Mrs. Watanbe and myself and a handful of other students were her "pets". She took us everywhere including Disneyland and treated us to the Blue Bayou. I don't know how she could have afforded taking us to all the places she did on a teacher's salary. Anywho, Jon and I had a delicious meal. We made sure to save room for funnel cake later on in the evening after the Fantasmic show.


We also got to go on the Haunted Mansion. Josiah is terrified of this ride so we never go on it, It was so funny because as we were getting on our doom buggies (isn't that what they call them?) this crazy Japanese lady was trying to get into the buggy with us but being the rude "Russians" that we are we shoved her aside.


We also went on Indiana Jones. I love this ride. I remember going to Disneyland with 15 other girls when this ride first opened. We waited in line for 3 1/2 hours. We were being so annoying also. We were loud, obnoxious, and singing annoying songs but it was a blast.


Well Jon and I had a fabulous time. Even though we missed the boys (well not too much), it was just great being the two of us.

Beach Day

I absolutely love the beach. When I was single I would hit Zuma Beach every Saturday possible in the spring and summer months. It was fun taking Josiah to the beach with his cousin Madison considering he hasn't been on a California beach since the age of 1. The morning started out overcast but by the early afternoon the sun was out and it was such a beautiful day. The beach is definitely my happy place.


The white boy has never seen this much sun and had to take cover!


Here's Josiah totally wiped out on the way home!

It's Official

Out of all the cute little girls Josiah has to choose from he told me the other day that he is going to marry Hannah Montana.

Underwood Farms

Have you been here before? I never have! Thanks to the Chau family for posting about it on their blog. Aside from Disneyland, I think this was one of my favorite things that we did during our time in California. We actually got to go strawberry picking and enjoy all the fun activities at the farm. The boys and my niece Madison had a blast. It was so much fun picking strawberries......a first for me. Nathan got the hang of it real quick except that he kept picking green ones or would pick them off the floor and eat them. Josiah also got the hang of it and he and his daddy had a lot of fun. My niece Madison was frightened by all the bees but she did end up having a blast. After the strawberry picking the kids rode on a very pricey train, played a ton, and we walked around looking at all the animals. My niece Madison didn't want to get too close to the big pigs just in case they had the Swine Flu!

Homemade ice cream!

We had the opportunity to spend time with the Champlins one evening. They had the great idea to make homemade ice cream on one of their antique ice cream makers. It was so much fun. The boys were more interested with the end result though. The ice cream tasted delicious and even though I'm not an "organic" type of a woman it was great just to see only natural ingredients go into the ice cream maker.

40th Anniversary

40 years ago man landed on the moon. I am not usually interested in history but I was reading this article in "USA weekend" from the Daily News and I absolutely loved it. The author asked several key figures what the moon landing meant to them. This is how John McCain answered:
"I didn't find out about the moon landing until a year and a half after it happened. When I was in solitary confinement in North Vietnam, they always played propaganda on a loudspeaker. One day, someone on there was giving a speech about war and said to the effect of, "America can put a man on the moon, but it can't stop its war upon us." It was just meant as an aside, but we prisoners were all astonished. More U.S. prisoners were captured and brought in after the moon landing, and we wanted to know all about the event. We weren't allowed to talk to each other, however, so we communicated using a "tapping" code on the prison walls. Because were were aviators, we were exhilarated by all of the details about Neil Armstrong's first step. During a time that challenged my fellow prisoners and me, our spirits were boosted by the optimism of unlimited possibilities."

High School Graduation

The 12th of June was my nephew Anthony's graduation. He graduated from Arcadia High School. The graduation had over 1,000 students and so it had to be held at Santa Anita Racetrack to be able to fit all the family and friends. Around this time I was watching the news and saw that two high schools in L.A. were not able to fit all the family members because students had forged graduation tickets so hundreds of family and friends were left out of the ceremonies and not able to partake in celebrating with their children. Anyway, Anthony's graduation was a blast but a bit long. We left after they read his name.........Jojo and Nathan had enough.