Fun Summer Stuff

Okay, after multiple frustrating attempts to figure out Blogger's new editor, I finally figured out that it only lets you place pictures between paragraph blocks, not in the middle of chunks of text.  Go figure.  So, I'm now going to try to catch us up to the exciting present.  Or current season, at least!


Earlier this summer, the venerable Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey came to town.  I hadn't planned on actually watching the show.  We got me a ticket basically because I didn't want to send everybody to do something fun while I stayed home and cleaned, or something lame like that.  I was cool with walking the halls of the Staples center with a squirrely Evan.  But, you know what?  That little dumplin' was content for nearly the entire show, even when it got kinda loud. 

I have to say, Ringling Brothers has gotten pretty good at putting on a circus after all these years.  It's a little ADHD, in that there are a few too many acts going on at once, and everything is enhanced with sparkling lights and pyrotechnics, but we weren't complaining.  And I didn't see any blatant signs of elephant abuse, despite what the PETA guy out front said.  (To be honest, I wasn't in the mood to feel guilty, so I just sorta told myself that the most famous circus in the world would have been run out of town by now if it was doing anything too horrific.  Yeah, denial is handy!)  Anyway, it goes without saying that the kids had a blast.  I mean, it was a CIRCUS!  Oh, and although the lemonade was a very reasonable $12, we opted instead for the $8 cotton candy that came with its own wacky hat.  

Afterwards, when I asked the kids what they would like to do in a circus, Connor said he'd want to be the guy who walked on stilts, and Elise wanted to be a dancing girl.  I was expecting tiger tamer or trapeze guy, but whatever.  Oh, and Elise has a band-aid on her nose simply because she scratches it constantly while sucking her thumb.  She was wearing a big bloody hole in her nose, so we've been wrapping it up occasionally for the last few months to keep it safe.

A weekend or two later, we went over to Hansen Dam for a helicopter show.  It was free, so we didn't expect much, but it was kinda fun nonetheless.  The kids got to sit in about a dozen display choppers, and watched a few taking off.  

This guy who looked like a character from MASH was displaying antique army equipment, and was really patient to explain everything from landmines to flashlights to Connor.  I think the guy was talking for over 20 minutes, actually.

Ryan's favorite part of the helicopter show was when we came across this booth near the exit.  It's a company that sells "personal ultralight helecopters" to idiots.  I'm sorry, I mean aspiring pilots.  The bigger ones require a basic pilot's license, but the smaller ones require no training at all.  You're only allowed to fly them in unincorporated areas, though.  I guess that's so you'll kill fewer bystanders.  We went home with several brochures.

On July 27th, just a couple weeks shy of his 6 month birthday, Evan has his first taste of people food - baby sweet potatoes.  We fed it to him to the tune of "Thus Spake Zarathustra" playing on the laptop.  (In case you're not familiar with that piece, it's the opening music for 2001: Space Odyssey.  You know, with the monkeys.)  I'm not sure why it was on our computer, but it made an ideal background for Evan's discovery of strained vegetables.  His opinion of food hasn't improved much since then, either.  Maybe when he gets some teeth he'll find something he likes.

The Saturday following that was Ryan's office party at Long Beach.  For some reason, we didn't get any pictures of that, despite the fact that Connor won the kids' limbo contest, followed by Ryan winning the grown-up limbo.  I had no idea this was a family talent.  When the barbecue ended, we drove around Palos Verdes for awhile, just coveting stuff, and found a public beach access trail that wound down beneath a super-fancy resort, so we took an evening walk.  It was one of those really rocky beaches that you just don't see much here in SoCal, with a cool cave that was only accessible when the tide was out.  

The coolest part was the sound the waves made as they dragged the stones back towards the water.  We sat and listened to it, while the kids threw rocks.  Too bad the resort is like $500 a night.


So, in closing, here are a few more of Connor's photos.  I delete about 95% of them, but a handful always turn out pretty good.