Gardens of the World

One of the fun things about living in a new town is finding all the new places to explore. When my mother-in-law visited in December we took her to Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks. There is no entrance fee to these gardens which of course is a huge plus! The gardens aren't very large either so it doesn't take forever to walk through them. The only thing I didn't like is that you are not permitted to take pictures of people while you are in the gardens. They require you call them and get a special permit. Of course everyone does it but when you're trying to set an example for your children about following rules...well you follow the rules! I would love to go the gardens by myself to read a book and just relax. Maybe I'll sneak out one day soon!

Oxnard Maritime Museum

Since Josiah is studying American History this year I thought we'd try out the Maritime Museum located in Oxnard. We've been learning about the early explorers and was hoping they'd have some boat models of this time period.........thankfully they did!

It's always fun to make history come alive!

 

 

 

There were also some other amazing models............

Bible lesson? Yes, Jonah could have fit into the mouth of a great fish.....

 

The museum is situated right on the harbor and every once in a while sea lions come and visit.....I was too slow with the camera though.

The museum isn't too expensive. I bought a Groupon deal and it was $10 for all 4 of us. A docent leads you around and the one we had was quite informative! I learned a lot and bonus points.......this trip counted as a field trip! Yay! And yes I have become that homeschool mom!

Balboa Lake

Another beautiful day in California today! A friend of mine posted a picture of all the snow in Samara on Facebook right now and even though I do miss the snow and cold......it was just an absolutely gorgeous day.

So, we headed out to Balboa Lake. It's basically a huge park with a man made lake and lots of walking/biking paths. There were a lot of people out today so it was also fun for people watching. I overheard 6 different Russians as we walked along the paths.

The boys finally had a lot of fun riding their Razors.

The day was so nice that after lunch we headed to a different park closer to home.

Hooray For Hollywood

So, we did it. This past Saturday on we took the boys to Hollyweird, I mean Hollywood. I have only been there once before and I absolutely hated it so I am not sure why I thought it would be different this time! The boys weren't too sure what to think about it but they were in sort of a shocked state.........mainly because there were so many people. I suppose that if it's your first time in California and you're star struck it's a fun place to go. It's also a great place to people watch. It's also a great place to be thankful that you are just a normal person because there are sure some weirdos hanging out there!!!

Of course it's fun to find the stars of some of your favorite celebrities such as ........

Even Jon found a couple of his favorites, Kiefer Sutherland and.......

RUSH.

The boys even found a star they like..........

You may run into some characters.........

 And you will definitely be entertained by the street performers........

After a few pictures we headed home.

I recently read an article in the newspaper about plans of "cleaning up" Hollywood a bit. They really have a long way to go. In general it's dirty, lots of homeless people hanging out and begging, certain areas just STINK, and I even saw a prostitute. I did notice that a Ghiradelli's is going in right next door to the the El Capitan......so maybe in the future we'll return for a movie and some Ghiradelli's! It is definitely a touristy spot. I heard so many different languages being spoken and could even pick out the out of State American tourists!

Fairmont Fair

AWANA held it's annual Fairmont Fair a couple of Saturdays ago and the boys did not want to miss out!  The leaders did a great job setting it all up and the boys had a blast.

Nathan with his pal, Sparky.

We also saw our little buddy, Collin!

In line to play a game......

It was a gorgeous day once again!

Forneris Farms

In our ongoing efforts to get out on Saturdays, we headed to Forneris Farms the weekend before Halloween so that daddy could enjoy a pumpkin patch too. Forneris Farms is located right across the street from where I used to work. They have amazing produce and probably the best ever strawberries! I love that they're local and have been around for over 40 years.

The last time we were here, Jojo was 2 years old...........

and now he's 10 years old..........

The ladies at the grocery stores were right.........time flies!

It was another gorgeous day! Actually it was quite warm.....I still can't believe it was the end of October and we were so hot!!

We basically just went to take pictures and hang out but Jon and the boys did go on the train because I had promised the boys. I guess they have an amazing corn maze. I'm thinking next year Jon and I will have to go out on a date and try out the maze!!

Griffith Park Observatory

My husband and I decided that on Saturdays we really need to get out and explore! The great thing about Southern California is that the weather is always so fabulous you can really do just about anything. Two weeks ago we headed towards Griffith Park to enjoy the Observatory. The boy are studying Astronomy in Science so not only was this a fun family outing but also counted as a field trip.

At first we were going to take the boys to Hollywood 

but they quite didn't understand what  "Hollywood"

was all about! So we told them from the Observatory

we would be able to see at least see the Hollywood sign.

Galileo- we have done quite a bit of reading

on him.

The pendulum held our interest for quite some time. Pretty amazing!

 

You can't quite see it from this picture but Earth's sun is one of the

small yellow dots. This chart compares Earth's sun to all the

other "big stars" in our universe. 

The Universe! This is quite humbling......earth

is a tiny speck on this picture.  You can actually

see a small red arrow pointing to where the small

speck is. Made me think of Psalm 8:3-4

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, 

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you are for him?

 

We really enjoyed ourselves but I think it will be more enjoyable

once the boys are a bit older. And it was completely free! No

parking fees either. Since we went on a Saturday morning

we had to park a little bit away but it was no big deal.