Pismo Beach

Last month, we finally took an overnight trip to Pismo Beach, known as Clam City, U.S.A. Ryan had been obsessing over the idea of going clamming for months, so he did a little research on the internet, and discovered that this was the best place in California to do it. We left after church on Sunday, and drove about three hours north to a place called The Cliffs Resort. We wanted to take Portia and Wiley with us, and this place is well-known for being really pet friendly. We had just enough time to take the kids swimming (it was dark, but the pool was pretty warm), then went to bed. We didn't spend a lot of time there, but I'd recommend the place to anyone traveling with dogs. The next morning, we had breakfast at a little cinnamon roll shop. Elise was kind of overwhelmed, but she got over it. Fast.
At the resort and at the cinnamon roll place we were asking everyone we could about clamming, but nobody seemed to know anything. They acted like we were the first people they'd ever met who wanted to dig for clams. We got our hopes up when we drove past this giant clam on main street, but the sign next to it proudly declares, "Clamming Is Illegal!" We stopped at a ranger station near the beach and learned that, indeed, clamming hadn't been a practical pastime there in 20 years. It isn't totally illegal, but you can only keep ones that are 4 inches across or more. Basically those don't exist anymore. They're not sure if the place got overfished, if a disease hit the clams, or if pollution killed them, but Clam City is pretty much deserted of Pismo Clams these days. We were kind of disappointed, after all, that was the reason we had planned this whole trip, but as soon as we drove up to the beach we forgot our woes. Pismo State Beach is incredibly flat and shallow (I guess that's what made clams so abundant there in the past). And, for some reason, they let you drive on it! Our van actually drove in the Pacific Ocean. I can't imagine why the clams would all be dead, huh? Anyway, we found a spot, parked, and let the kids and dogs out to play.
On our way back from the beach (still in Pismo Beach, though), we noticed a sign for a butterfly grove. Since we still had some time before heading home, we parked and walked in to a cluster of tall eucalyptus trees. I could remember hearing about monarch butterflies, how they migrate south for the winter and stay in these specific areas each year, but I'd never seen it. It almost made me cry. It was so pretty, it was almost unbelievable. At first, all you notice are a strangely high number of butterflies flitting about under the trees, but then you realize that the clusters of seed-pod-looking-things on the branches in front of you are actually hundreds of thousands of napping monarchs. So, everybody takes pictures for a while. Then, for no apparent reason, one tree just explodes, filling the sky with butterflies. It was so, so, cool. Connor wasn't as impressed as the rest of us, but on our way out we steered him past a display table with a chart of the monarch life cycle, and a potted plant covered in caterpillars. He was amazed. Ryan eventually went back to the car to give the dogs some air, but Connor watched those caterpillars for at least half an hour. He refused to leave, it was cute.I'm not normally a fan of 24-hour vacations, but this one was pretty awesome. We had sand stuck to our car for more than a week. Oh, and we did stop at a local restaurant on the way out to get clam chowder and steamed clams, though I have no idea where the clams really came from.

New Year's Visit, Part 2

So, my parents left on New Year's Day, after the Rose Parade got over (we watched it on TV - there was no way we were going to camp out to see that thing in person!) We spent the remainder of the day looking for celebrities' addresses that Kelli found on the internet. She did a great little photo spread on her blog - I highly recommend you check it out to see Harrison Ford's garbage cans.

The next day, Ryan went back to work, and Kelli, Kyle, the kids, and I all went to the zoo! It was cold and foggy, but we had a ton of fun anyway.

The above picture is what happens when your kid wants a photo booth picture, but you're too dang cheap to pay the $1.50 or whatever it costs.

Saturday we made a quick run to the beach, where Ryan and Kyle pretended to throw a football around. Then we got some lunch and said goodbye. Kyle and Kelli are a ton of fun to be with, and we hope they come down again soon!

After his Aunt and Uncle left, Connor decided he was Santa Claus, and went around giving people boxes of toys to "open". I had to get really excited for each present, or Santa just wasn't satisfied.I have to include this picture of a gift Ryan received from a client at work. Everybody laughed at him when he couldn't even pronounce the type of wine it was. He ended up giving it to a coworker for Armenian Christmas, which happened to be that same day.Ryan continues to enjoy his job, but last Thursday the company was forced to lay off about 10% of its employees. We're really thankful that Ryan was spared! Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who are out of work in such lousy economic conditions. Hopefully things take a turn for the better soon.

New Year's Visit, Part 1

As some of you may be aware by now, we had a great visit from my parents and brother and sister-in-law over New Year's. The day before New Year's Eve, my mom and Chuck arrived in their RV and were able to stay for two days. The day after they came, Kyle and Kelli arrived (after driving all night.) Here are Mom and Chuck in a battle-to-the-death game of Wii tennis: The next day we all went to the LA County Arboretum (Yes, I just posted about that place a month ago, but this was with different people, which makes it totally eligible again!)Connor thought it was his job to attack the bamboo forest with sticks. And yell. It was a little embarassing.Kelli was obsessed with getting a picture of these turtles. The turtles didn't seem to mind, though.To those of my family who were up nights wondering what this cool bird was, it was a "Black Crowned Night-Heron". Nobody cares, I know, but I have a nerdy interest in this kind of thing.You have to look really hard in this picture, but Ryan and Connor are in the upper right hand corner, above the waterfall. They hiked up a trail to get there, and the rest of us were too lazy, so this was their moment of triumph.Elise in the rose garden. She would smell a flower, then look at me, nodding her head, and say, "Mmmmmmm!" I don't know if she could really smell anything. I'm trying to decide which of these pictures to blow up and put on the wall. I like that little girl.So, after the arboretum we went home, Kyle and Kelli took a nap, and we eventually ordered some nasty pizza for dinner - apparently you can't get last-minute food at 9:00 on New Year's Eve. We then ditched poor Kelli and Kyle to go look at Rose Parade floats. (Kelli was feeling wretched with child, and Kyle had to stay home to appreciate her sacrifice.)

Ryan's coworker lives in Pasadena, and wrote on a map showing him where to find the floats and where to park. The night before the parade, they stage all the floats along these residential streets near the parade route. It's actually a big production, which surprised me. There were flood lights all along the streets and tons of people. Thank you to Ryan's friend, or we would never have been able to get in! Here's Ryan explaining to my mom where we're going:This float was one of the first ones we saw, and was definitely our favorite. It's kind of dark, but it's Oscar the Grouch made of some sort of shrubbery. All the floats had to be made of flowers, leaves, and the like. I guess most people know this about the Rose Parade, but it was news to me.So, we passed the stroke of midnight with my parents and a crowd full of friendly Pasadena strangers. It was a lot of fun, we'll definitely do it again next year. I think we'd go earlier in the evening, though, since the kids were pretty wasted by midnight!

Outside Play

It must be time for the New Year's pictures, right? The answer is yes. But I still haven't uploaded them. Our internet connection is sick or something, so it's taking me even longer than usual to put things on here.

Anyway, here are the kids playing outside the day after Christmas. Connor is demonstrating how nearly ready our oranges are (they still taste more like lemons - we'll give them a couple more weeks.)

Here is Connor with his Christmas scooter, and the kids playing in the trees. Connor has adopted this (we think) banana tree as his hideout. He loves to crawl in there and just sit, collecting who knows how many spiders in his pants. I try not to think about that.

This was after playing outside, but I included it just because I love her pose. I'm dying to know what she was dreaming about. Probably food.

Strong Man Connor

Since I'm too lazy to upload all the pictures from my family's New Year's visit just yet, I'll post a video my mom took with her new camera over Thanksgiving. Connor's genetics may be against him, but he thinks he's training to beat Magnus ver Magnusson.