Memorial Day - Prairie Creek

We went to Humboldt County to a place called Prairie Creek for Memorial Day. It was a little cold and soggy, but so beautiful. There were lots of elk all over the place, including our campground

This is at the top of what I think was called a ceremonial rock. It was huge and a boy scout troup was repelling down it.

We started by going to a recreation of a Yurok village. These buildings are used still for Yurok traditional ceremonies. When we first saw them, we thought it must be a tribe of little people.

Addison in the little house.

King of the world!

I love the circle entry. Can you see it on the right of the building?

So, they actually aren't a tribe of little people. All of this houses are dug out inside.

Coming out of the circle door.

Having our own ceremony.

Addison's outfit is all his own... So is his hairstyle. I thought about making him put on something different, but then I remembered we were in Humboldt County, and thought he'd fit in better this way.

Seriously, elk everywhere.

This is a really bad picture because I took it with Tom's phone and I don't really know how to use it, but Addison and Tom started a frisbee game and were joined by several crazy campers.

Our 8 hour drive home took us about 12 because we stopped at every place you could possibly stop. One of the placed was called The Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz County. We've talked about going there before, but never had so we decided to stop. It's one of those places where water runs up hill. They built this little house right on the area, and it was so crazy. I couldn't even walk through it without being so dizzy. I mostly had to stand outside it and not look in because I thought I might lose my lunch.

Tom and Addison are hanging from these bars and you can see that the gravity just pulls their body forward. The ground is totally flat though and they are not on a hill.

When you stand on the flat ground you are leaning.

I think I've been to this place before. Have I mom?

And then, of course, we had to drive our car through a redwood tree. I know we have a picture of us driving through a redwood tree in our blue van. Was it this one?

Introducing Theodore

Addison's class was taken over by famous people a couple weeks ago.  Mostly dead ones, but it was still exciting.  The third graders did biography reports and Addison chose Theodore Roosevelt.  He really enjoyed learning about him.  I've never seen him read a book with  the enthusiasm or sustained interested that he had reading the biography about Teddy.  (That's what Addison calls him.  They're pretty much best friends.)

After much work trying to figure out how to make a monocle, we ended up with this... which worked great, until we realized Theodore Roosevelt actually wore pince-nez.  

Teddy and Louis Braille.  

The parents interviewed each historical figure.  Many people were interested to learn from President Roosevelt that the Teddy Bear was given its name to honor him.  

There were 3 Sacajaweas, 2 girls and 1 boy.   

Teddy answering a very serious question.  

Otter Trot/Santa Cruz Camping

Addison and his friend Jaden ran the Otter Trot this year. It's the kid's race that is associated with the Big Sur Marathon. Addison ran it last year and had a lot of fun. Tom and I, and our friend Micah (Jaden's dad) ran along, too. We had lots of fun, even though it started out a little chilly!

Just before the race.

I love this picture. He looks so happy to be out running!

Look at those long-haired boys!

After the race, we drove up to the Santa Cruz mountains to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. It was the first national park in California, and has lots and lots of, you guessed it, redwoods. They still freak me out as much as they did when I was 15. They are so big. When I look up and get to the point where I think they should stop, that's where I start feeling a little dizzy and scared. Really weird, but seriously they make me nervous. It was really sunny in Santa Cruz, but because of how tall the trees are and how many of them there are, it never really gets super warm as it's always so shady! We set up our tent and had lunch and then headed out on a hike.

Santa Cruz is famous for having a lot of banana slugs. In fact, the banana slug is UC Santa Cruz's mascot. I had never seen one, and before we even got out of our camp, Addison spotted one. In my opinion, they are pretty disgusting. My friend's daughter went to a science camp where they learned that if you kiss a banana slug, your lips will go numb, and all the kids at the camp tried it. Addison, thought about it....

But, decided not to.

The following are a lot of pictures of us in trees...

Addison in a tree.

Addison and Mom in a tree.

Addison and Tom in a tree.

Blogger says I can post from phone. Trying it out

Spring Break

We stuck around here for Spring Break, but I tried to do something fun every day so that it didn't feel like we were missing out on a vacation!

On Monday, we went to the aquarium.

The new seahorse exhibit is awesome!

On Tuesday, we went to see Monsters vs. Aliens. So cute! I loved Bob.

Then we went to TCBY where I discovered my new favorite treat... A frozen frappe!

On Wednesday, Addison had an all-day play date with Tyler K, and on Thursday we went swimming at the Monterey Sports Center.

Friday through Sunday, we went camping with some friends. We ended up with quite a group, and had lots of fun! We went to the Andrew Molera Campground in Big Sur. It was so great. There were lots and lots of kids (all boys!), and we had a great time running around the camp site, hiking, and eating lots!

At the camp site.

Just before our hike. I should have gotten a picture of our whole group, but never did. This is me and Meridth.

At one of the vista points on our hike.

Crazy boys hanging off a cliff!

Camping in Big Sur

On Friday, we made a last minute decision to go camping. The weather has been beautiful here, and we wanted to take advantage of it. We ended up going to the Big Sur Campground. I didn't know anything about it, but it ended up being absolutely perfect!


Addison knew we were in the right place when the lady directing us to our campsite and said, "turn right at the basketball court." That is pretty much how he spent his time. He was a little celebrity, too. Everyone around was watching him sink shot after shot. People kept coming up to him and telling him what a great basketball player he was. While I was playing HORSE with him, a guy told me that I shouldn't expect too much, because that kid (Addison) had a better shooting average than anyone else on the court. Addison felt pretty cool! (Because he is, of course!)



The campground was surrounded by redwoods. It was a really beautiful place. This is Addison looking up, up, up at one of the ones by our campsite.


The campsites were really close together. It would be fun to have a bunch of families go and get sites right next to each other. It was really crowded while we were there.


Delicious S'mores. Seriously one of my favorite treats ever...

One of the coolest things about this place was that Addison felt totally confident wandering wherever he wanted to go, even after it got dark. I kept asking if he wanted me to walk with him to the bathroom or to brush his teeth, and Tom kept saying, "Let him be 9!" ...It's hard!

Addison can't get enough pictures with bunny ears. It never gets old...
We played Clue and Phase 10 Twist. The main cabin had games you could check out, so we got Sorry! and played that, too.
The next morning we ventured over to the playground, and then played more basket ball.

This was a fun tree with a slit in the bottom perfect for a hideout. When we left the campground we drove to Andrew Molera State Park and walked down to the beach (about a mile). There was this little fort that someone had built out of driftwood that provided much entertainment for Addison.Of course, Addison got soaked in the water, even though it was windy and a little chilly. That child has no thermostat.

After the beach we stopped at Big Sur River Inn and ate lunch. We ate outside by the river. They have these chairs and benches in the water that are so fun.

We came home tired and a little sunburned and had a wonderful weekend!

Addison's 9th Birthday

For Addison's birthday, we did an Olympic themed party. We set up several events: Basketball tournament (which was actually a free throw competition), javelin toss, parallel bars (going across the monkey bars), sprint races, long jump, and the ever popular Olympic event - popping the balloon that is tied to your opponent's ankle. The kids had a lot of fun, and best of all, it was all outside and required little preparation and clean up!

We first divided the kids up into 2 teams for the basketball tournament and relay races. We let them paint their faces with face paint... which was one of the (several) nerve racking moments of the party. They went a little crazy with the paint, and as they were washing their hands to get the paint off before starting the games, we realized that it looked pretty permanent. Tom and I kept looking at each other like, "what did we just do?" I wondered how I was going to explain to these parents that their kids were going to look like they had been beaten (if they were on the red team), or like they were about to throw up (if they were on the green team). I went through a whole package of baby wipes wiping paint off their faces on and off throughout the whole party. By the end, most of them had somewhat normal skin color again, and I was feeling better. I still had a little explaining to do to some parents, but they were all great about it.

We had a "hang off" on the monkey bars to see who could hang on the longest. Some of these kids are super strong!!

This was just before another heart stopping moment. This little girl who is about to go across (the only girl there) is our neighbor and keeps up just fine with all these crazy boys (thanks to her 2 older brothers). She was going across the monkey bars and fell flat on her face... Hard. She was upset, but seriously so tough. If explaining face paint was going to be hard, I didn't even want to think about explaining stitches. She was fine, thank heavens.

Tom cut some bamboo stalks for a javelin toss. I wish I had taken more action pictures, but I was too involved with everything else. The kids thought this was really cool, though. On a side note, notice the torch behind Addison. This was our "Olympic torch" which we lit before we started the games. The kids loved it. Getting that torch almost killed me. I'll just say that if you want a tiki torch anytime before the month of June, you're going to have to work for it...

Preparing for the balloon pop game.

Opening presents. He got lots of Tech Decks and ramps (but none of the same ones... which was perfect!), a Lego pirate set, a model airplane kit, Life game, and gift cards.

For his cake, we had doughnuts and frosted them the colors of the olympic rings. The kids thought frosting on doughnuts was awesome! We also had pizza.

You can see some of the paint still on these kids.

The medals before the games.

For the party favors, I got Gatorade and put a sweatband around it and slipped a kids ClifBar in between.

I feel like Addison has really grown up this year. I keep saying he is starting to be a bit of a "tween" in so many ways. He really is between little boy and young man. He certainly has some of that obnoxious (but sweet) boy sense of humor, but he is so witty and funny, and always good company. I love that he still wants me to snuggle him at night, but won't hold my hand anywhere near his school. Much of The Lord of the Rings is too scary to watch, but he loves to talk to his friends about the battle scenes that aren't. When I suggested watching Monsters, Inc. the other day, he told me I had to be kidding, but this morning when I went in the living room, I caught him watching Handy Manny. No girls were invited to his birthday party, but he can't stop talking about the little girl at school who is "flattering" with him (flirting). I love this kid and feel lucky every day that I get to be his mom!