Getting Creative

After watching me use Lightroom to edit some pictures, E decided to take a crack at it.  He discovered that you could change the colors of the pictures using the white balance sliders.  Here is what my pop artist made:

Sonoma and the Napa Valley Marathon

Another season, another marathon for Bob!  This time he ran the Napa Valley Marathon and we decided to make a weekend trip out of it.  Good thing because he was only in town for a brief two day stop in between back to back trips first from Ireland and then to India.  

We decided to stop in Sonoma to go on a wildlife tour so we can see some animals up close and personal.  But since it was the first Saturday of the month we had to make a quick pit stop first...at Home Depot.  Priorities people.

This month's kit was a red race car.  Super fun!

Finished product.

Off to the races!  We were one of the first ones at the workshop so it was a solo race, but that only means one thing!

1st Place!  Woot!

Then E made Daddy get second.  =)

With all that woodworking behind us, we were off to see the animals with our tour at Safari West.  

The waiting vehicles.

Before boarding, we first took a 30 minute walking tour around the grounds to view some of the birds and animals that lived on the campus:

A pair of ring-tailed lemurs

A badling of white-faced whistling ducks

Cheetah ready to pounce

A confusion (had to look up the collective noun for this type of bird!) of helmeted guinea fowl

Demoiselle crane

Ethan was more interested in the bamboo grooves that we wandered around.  He is really interested in learning about bamboo and cacti these days.

At the end of the walking tour there was a learning center set up where volunteers showed us some reptiles and arachnids up close:

We got to touch and pet a snake and a tarantula.  After which Ethan was super keen on having a tarantula as a pet.  I may have talked him out of it...temporarily!

We got to ride on top of the vehicle for the first part of the ride.  E was super excited.

Flamingos and girafes 

Ready for our bumpy ride!

Dama gazelles

East african crowned crane and it's shadow

Masai giraffe

Roan antelopes

A pair of white rhinocerous lazing about

At one of the scenic stopping points we switched to let others ride on the top.

At the lower level, Ethan had a great view of the different gauges and was super excited to learn what each one monitored. 

 A happy Bob

Some battling gemsboks

A lone eland

Ostriches!  Which was my favorite part of the tour.  They were very friendly.

Bob getting nipped by one

Cape buffalo during feeding time

The next day was the marathon!  After dropping Bob off at the starting point, E and I took went to take a quick tour at the Jelly Belly factory before coming back to cheer him on at the finish line.

The original jelly belly!


Jelly VW's.


Jelly Bean Art.


All dressed up for Easter.

When asked if Ethan enjoyed the visit, this was what I was presented with.  =)  He actually has never heard of jelly beans before and even though I said it was sweet and it was candy he still refused to try any samples until the very very end.  At which he point he exclaimed 'wow, these ARE actually yummy'.

Happy finisher with a time of 3:29:53!  We had a hard time finding parking and just missed seeing him cross the line.  Boo. This was the second time we missed his grand finish, the last time we were actually there cheering but after staring at every one crossing we, I don't know maybe, glanced at our shoes or something and didn't see him cross.  We are not the best cheerleaders but the thought was there!  Anyways right afterwards we raced to the airport since Bob had only 40 minutes to catch his flight.  All in all it was a great weekend!  

Beards and Mustaches

Every since Christmas, Ethan has been interested in Santa's facial features and can't wait to get his own white beard and mustache.

 Bubble beard!

Paper beard when on dry land.

Yaya has to have his own set as well!

Big Island - Day 4&5

Day 4:

Another day, another beautiful sunrise.

We have a fantastic breakfast, this time at Island Java Java where they had the best shrimp benedict.  

We explored the waterfront in Kailua Kona for a bit and E met Captain Jack.

Then we finally spent some time at our resort!  

The morning we spend paddling and playing at the pool.

And learned how to make a lei.

Then we made it off to Mauna Kea to view the sunset.

We were warned to beware of invisible cows on the road to the visitor center.

View from Saddle Road.


See that yellow dot?  That is Bob.  With a cute 40 lb package on his shoulders hiking up to the vista point to get a good view of the sunset.


Finally reached the top.  Above the clouds!

Driving back.

Moon breaking out from the clouds.

Day 5:
We only had a few hours left in Hawaii before heading back home later that morning so we of course had to have another great Hawaiian breakfast, this time trying the Big Island Grill (E loved the pancakes with coconut syrup and the loco moco was pretty darn tasty).  We have had pretty good luck with the brunch places we tried out and this time was no exception.   Afterwards we stopped by again at Kahaluu Beach Park to see some more fish.




Afterwards we did a bit more water sliding at the hotel before heading off to the airport.  *sniff*  When asked if he liked our trip to Hawaii, Ethan responded with a resounding 'Yes'!