Exercise Ogle Family Style

Here is Einar's new bicycle. It fits his long legs a whole lot better than his little bikes. However when we bought it from the neighbors it didn't have training wheels. I was super excited when I found a pair of training wheels at a garage sale (pink even!) and put them on when I got home. He then sat down to ride it and said "Mom, I'm not going anywhere." We tried a whole bunch of different things to make them work, but the training wheels are just for a bigger bike. Now he rides it while watching his television show and his favorite place to ride his new exercise bike is out on the patio looking out over the ocean.

Einar and Reeder astride "Joan" and "Bugsy" at Stepp Stables at Camp Pendleton.

"Joan" wasn't really a pony, she was a pretty big horse for a little guy to ride. She also didn't want to go around the trail so much and I had to put my whole body into tugging her forward on occasion.

Here come the cowboys. We totally dressed for the pony rides last week. We all wore our jeans and cowboy boots and hats. It was fun to actually wear my cowboy boots around a horse!

This is Joan the horse. I got to lead her and Einar around the Pony trails down at the stables on base last week. "Giddy-up, Joan!"

Soren has been getting around the playground like a pro lately. He really likes slides and I managed to catch this shot as he was coming down. I think I surprised him. He also has taken 3 steps now and has 11 teeth!

Last Dance Class, Medieval Times, and Walks along the Ocean

On Mondays we've been going to a store called Reptropolis on the way home from Einar's Dance class. They have turtles, snakes, lizards, birds, a rabbit, and a big iguana named Joker. The boys really like seeing all of the creatures and we don't have to have them as pets, we can just visit them.

This is a cool picture, but it's really not what it looks like. Although Einar has been learning ballet, tap and jazz, he hasn't been practicing picking up the girls in his routines. This is just an illusion. He does look like he's having a good time though!

Ballet is what he likes the best. On Monday he had his last class and all of the parents were able to stay and watch. Usually we just have to drop him off and pick him up 45 minutes later. Definitely world class entertainment for parents. They jumped, boogied, slithered like snakes, walked, twirled, and shook out their sillies.

This is their first position in ballet.

Stretching out and "eating peanut butter sandwiches."

ON Saturday we went to Medieval Times in Buena Park for dinner with our friends the Fenells. Jared had put this destination down on our "things to do before moving" list and we thought it would be fun to do with another family. We all had a great time! By the end of the show Soren was really getting into the cheering. We were each given flags to wave to support our Blue Knight and after he sucked on it for awhile, he started to wave it around. He kept his eyes on the arena for most of the show. I think he liked the horses a lot.


Here is Maddox, Einar and Zachary at the table rooting for the Blue Knight. We each were given one napkin and one napkin only and no silverware. For dinner we had Tomato soup, garlic bread, chicken, ribs, half a potato, and an apple turnover. Einar is still talking about drinking soup.

"Go Blue Knight!"

Nobleman Jared looked dashing in his crown.

Daggers, swords, shields, and other medieval weapons all available in this shop in the "castle."

The boys were keen on checking out all of the swords and daggers in this little store.

Young sire Soren was the fairest of the land. He kept his crown on for most of the evening!

When we got our tickets for the Medieval Times they recommended that we show up early for the pre-show "activities." I'm pretty sure that the "activities" that she was talking about were the numerous gift shops with all sorts of neat things for the kids to look at!

Last Saturday we went to South Coast Farms and picked some strawberries. Kathleen, Nathan and Hailey joined the boys and I on our picking adventure. Between Einar and I we plucked about 1 and half pounds of berries. It was enough for an experience and for some yummy berries after lunch. On the way out, we saw a red Tesla in the parking lot that we had to take a picture of. We don't see this kind of car everyday. Kathleen is outside of the car snapping a photo with her cell phone too. I wonder how many pounds of strawberries you can fit in the trunk of a Tesla? Do Tesla's have trunks?

Hi Mom! Have you seen me drive my car? Can you pick me up too? Then I've gotta get back to the car.

Here I come!

I can't believe how fast Soren is growing (or crawling towards me). Although he's taken about a step and a half on his own, Soren still is not in any hurry to start walking since he has mastered this crawling thing.

In and out, in and out....Soren's favorite part about driving the Fred Flinstone car.

This is a picture of our garbage truck as it picked up our recycling last Thursday. We still stalk the garbage truck when it's in the neighborhood and now Soren is in on the action as seen in the following photo. Einar now has a chore that helps "Team Ogle" function smoothly. He is responsible for making sure that the recycling is taken out to the bin when it gets full. In our house that needs to be done about every other day. Sometimes he asks for help with the lid on the big bin in the garage, but he's been known to take it out all by himself even when it might take him 2 or 3 trips to get it all emptied out. It's a great help!


"Einar, Nice tie! You look great today!" We heard a lot of comments like that when I dropped him off at preschool last Thursday. I guess he is now tall enough to not only get his socks and underwear out of the top dresser drawer, but also to root around in his "accessories." I didn't see the outfit I chose until he ran out to the car to go to school.

Although it is usually cloudy during the morning due to May Grey, it is perfect for walks along the ocean. Last Thursday after I took Einar to school, Soren and I walked along the San Clemente coast on the beach trail. I walked the whole thing and the Pier with him in the stroller which is about 5 miles. He fell asleep after about the first 2 miles and had a good snooze. From the Pier you can look back at San Clemente and if you are lucky you can see one of the Metrolink or Amtrak trains zoom along the coast.

This is definitely used to people and paparazzi. There were about 4 of us taking pictures of it on the San Clemente Pier last Thursday morning. I didn't have to use my zoom much to catch this shot. Soren was asleep in the stroller by this stage on our walk.

National Train Day and a trip to Point Loma

Thanks to Our Savior's Lutheran Church, we have a new family picture. As those of you who just got our 2008 Christmas card in the mail, the kids are growing like crazy and my hair is getting longer. Last Sunday they snapped this photo of us for their new directory and surprised us with a copy of it in an email.

Today was National Train Day and although we didn't go to Los Angeles for our "local" celebration, we did go to San Juan Capistrano and eat a yummy breakfast in a train car at the Vintage restaurant. This place is right next to the train tracks/station and is a steak house that is also open for breakfast and lunch and part of the restaurant is two train cars that have been turned into dining rooms. Einar ordered pancakes and a scrambled egg. I had eggs benedict the traditional way and Jared had his with ham, gruyere cheese and sauted mushrooms. Soren had a piece of toast with butter and jam and some of Einar's eggs. It was all really good and lots of fun to eat a fancy meal in a train car.

After breakfast we walked around the building to see the trains and visit with a horse named Popcorn. Then it was off to Point Loma for a family adventure day.

"Hey, do you hear the ocean?" Here we are at Sunset Cliffs Natural park over looking the Pacific Ocean in Point Loma. Point Loma is the northern point of San Diego Bay. There were lots of surfers enjoying the waves down at the bottom of the cliffs. There is a National cemetery there as well as a National Monument to Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the Portuguese explorer who sailed under the Spanish flag and was the first European on the shores of California. He only made it to the Channel Islands off of Santa Barbara before he injured himself, contracted gangrene and died, but he did claim this part of the world for Spain in the process.

This is looking out over San Diego. We saw a couple of Navy jets fly over and lots of sailboats today from the point. There was a marine layer that kept threatening to limit the view, but it didn't block the sunshine too much and we had a lovely day.

Heading down to the water (we didn't make it that far since it was high tide and we don't surf yet). Don't jump Einar!


Visiting with a 17 year-old horse named Popcorn at the San Juan Capistrano train depot.

"When will I be big enough for my parents to order me my own meal and not just a piece of toast?"

Here are the guys just after the breakfast came. Check out the size of the pancakes! He ate all but a few bites of them.

Soren can now open the many doors that we have in our house with French doorknobs. Here he is reaching for the handle and letting himself in from the deck. The picture is kind of cloudy since our door is so dirty. It's kind of hard to keep glass clean with a toddler and a preschooler going in and out all of the time with their sticky, grimy hands.

"Watch out, here I come!"

Fun With Chalk Festival in Mission Viejo

This weekend we went to the 11th Annual Fun with Chalk festival in Mission Viejo two times. On Saturday morning I took the boys there after I had read a short notice about the festival in the Weekender newspaper. Jared had been wanting to spend the whole day scrapbooking so the rest of us left him with his photos and need to document. (He created a scrapbook with all of the highlights of his 20 year Marine Corps career and it looks great!)

On our first visit, the artists were just starting their creations. The whole parking lot at the community center was sectioned off into various sized rectangles and folks were busy planning out the drawings. You could see those that were quick and others who took a slower pace at the project. Einar had fun watching and checking it out, but he really liked the kettle corn that we shared and the fantastic playground that is behind the playground. On our walk back to the car he mentioned that he wanted to bring Jared back there on Sunday to see the chalk and the big slides.

I'm so glad that we managed to get back there this evening after we finished our yummy dinner (thanks Jared!). The festival was over and cleared out, but the drawings were all intact and spectacular. I've posted lots of pictures because they photographed quite well. Enjoy!