Lens Time!

Whoo hooo! A whole day with my friend (and photography degree holding) Jen! Just the two of us and I couldn't wait to bounce off the knowledge that I had learned in my photography class. My DSLR camera has a lot of bells and whistles and the course I took only scratched the surface of what I can learn using it.  Jen was great at answering the myriad of questions I had about exposure, F-stop and the like. Here are some of the pictures I took at the San Diego Zoo and the Cabrillo National Monument. All pics were taken in 'manual' mode.

2010 Pumpkin Patch at the Bates Nut Farm

After I finished my photography course, I was anxious to get the San Diego and go out with my friend Jen and take some pics at the Zoo and around San Diego. While I got to do that, Bill, Shirley, Aunt Kristen and Jordan took Brenden to The Pumpkin Patch at the Bates Nut Farm for some Autumn fun.
For over 30 years families have made it an annual tradition in October to come out to Bates in search of the perfect pumpkin. The Pumpkin Patch is the largest, oldest and most famous in San Diego County. You get to choose the pumpkin you want and feed the menagerie of farm animals that are on this 100 acre ranch in Valley Center, CA. He was in awe of the animals he could feed and had a blast!

VMA-513 Lady Nightmares T-shirt Design 2010~

The C.O. and his wife Arica wanted to have a shirt made for the wives of 513 as a gift from them. I volunteered to mess around with the current logo which is pretty masculine. Dave came up with the idea of putting a flower in "Earl's" hair to give him a feminine twist. We have since renamed her "Earlette". It was fun messing around with the design of it. Here is the finished design which made it onto the backs of all the wives:

Summer trip to Salt Lake City

Time to visit my parents in Salt Lake City! Brenden always loves going to see Grandma and Grandpa and also Aunt Laura and cousin Dan. The pictures are proof enough!

Disneyland isn't for the faint of heart...

So it has been mmmmm.... fifteen or so years since my one and only visit to Disneyland and I was excited to go with my sister and seven year old nephew Dan both of whom had never visited the Magic Kingdom. We all three were motivated to spend two days there even though our tickets were good for three. Turns out Disneyland is exhausting! It took us a full day to figure out how best to do the 'fast pass' on the popular rides. By the second day (which we actually left after lunch) we were dialed in for minimizing the wait but it seemed our walking had increased. It really isn't even that big of a park but I really can't imagine going bigger. We didn't go into California Adventure Park - maybe in a few years after I have regained my motivation for it. That being said, we did have a great time. Dan got to ride serious roller coasters for the first time. He was a bit shy at first but came around after we did Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. That ended up being everyone's favorite ride. Our least favorite and most annoying was of course... It's a Small World. No further comment on that ride..

Cooling off for July 4th

July has proven to be a busy month for us. After my friend Beth came for a visit, we went for the weekend 4th of July celebrations to San Diego. It was a fine day at the Weems' annual party up in Valley Center. The weather was unusually cool though so swimming in the unheated pool was only for the strong willed. Dave got in because Brenden wanted to but otherwise the adults stayed on the sidelines and drank beer/ate hot dogs. We also got to see the crazy car collection of Mr. Weem. That guy has some serious money to spend on his 'hobby'. One is a redone '57 Chevy and the other is a souped up Corvette that he actually races at the track. Oh to be him...

Beth and Aidan's visit

My very good friend Beth and her son Aidan came down from San Luis Obispo for a visit this last week. It had been a year since I had seen them when they came to see us in North Carolina but as with some lucky friendships, it seemed like no time at all had passed. Aidan is a year older and getting tall. He and Brenden had a lot of fun together doing all the water activities that we could get our hands on. Being 112 degrees made it mandatory pool/sprinkler weather.
There were two places that I wanted to take them to that were new to me as well. One was the Carver Water Feature Park and the other was the Valley Aquatic Center. Both offered welcome relief to the oppressive heat! Of course our swimming pool was well used at the end of the day as well with plenty of bloody beers to go around. Brenden had a big moment when he discovered he could kick on his own around the pool (with help from the awesome 'Puddle Jumper'). He is definately a water boy!

Queen Califia's Magic Circle in Kit Carson Park

Just a few miles from Dave's parent's home in Escondido, CA is a nice park tucked away from the freeway called Kit Carson Park. Within the park is a sculpture garden inspired by the story of California's namesake, Queen Califia of the Amazon. French sculptor Nikki de Saint Phalle created the garden as a tribute to her majesty. Featured in the huge walk-in Queen Califia's Magic Circle are nine large-scale sculptures, mirrors and colored tiles galore.

 The sculpture garden, which opened in 2003, is located in the Iris Sankey Arboretum area of the park. The garden consists of nine large-scale sculptures, a circular "snake" wall and maze entryway, sculpturally integrated bench seating, and native shrubs and trees planted within the interior plaza and around the perimeter.

The centerpiece is the 22-foot Queen Califia and Eagle Throne, where you'll often find people sitting within the bird's legs, just enjoying the whimsical setting. The circular snake wall welcomes you into the garden, and as you navigate the mosaic maze, you deposit into a plaza of an array of totems, all bearing the unmistakable stamp of the artist."Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden" is a wonderful spot to disappear into and escape into a magical and fanciful world, even if only for a few short minutes as I did with Brenden, my niece Jordan and Shirley.

Legoland = great Memorial Day!

We decided to do a 'staycation' on Memorial Day and drive to San Diego for the extended weekend. I had been eying the military discount on Legoland annual tickets and thought that with it being relatively close to us, it would be worth the splurge so we loaded up both cars and the dogs and went due west.
We braved the crowds for three days and took Brenden on his first amusement park experience. Granted we could only stay at the park from 10-12 each visit because of his nap schedule but we were able to do a lot in the two hours we were there each day. Since Brenden is just at 36" in height, he was able to ride some of the rides that kids his age probably couldn't. Not that we took him on anything extreme or anything - unless you consider the kiddie planes and helicopters extreme. The one ride he sort of got overwhelmed on was the Pirate boat ride where everyone has water guns and you aim them at other riders. Not a bad thing but then the general public has access to some on the outside of the ride - bad thing. We got absolutely drenched and he freaked out about that until after the ride when my friend Jen and I were laughing so loud at being completely wet and then he got the idea it was funny. He also loved riding the little train and the little toddler splash park. The kid loves water!!  Looking very much forward to taking him many times in the next year.