A visit to the Fire Fighters at Camp Pendleton

This is as close as we got to a group picture from our great morning on base. Hailey and Nathan Cobb are playing with us today and on Monday since their mom, Kathleen is in San Francisco this weekend walking the AVON walk for breast cancer. I wanted to plan something fun for the day so we made cookies after breakfast, met Marianne and the kids at the base library for story time, and then took the cookies to the fire station in area 52. The guys there were super appreciative as they whisked all those cookies into their kitchen and then they pulled one of the engines out of the garage so that we could get a better look. The ambulance was opened up and became a mini classroom for the kids and no one wanted to leave. We ended up eating our picnic lunch behind the station on their picnic table. It was a great day!

Here is Soren in the back of the ambulance looking more like a patient perhaps with foot trouble than anything else. I think he was missing his morning nap.

Get Ready Camp Pendleton, there is a newly trained and highly enthusiastic group of paramedics that is ready for their first shift at Firehouse #7. (Their moms are enthusiastic too when we heard that shifts are 72 hours long--"We'll pick you up on Tuesday morning!") They all were figuring out what all of the equipment in the back of the ambulance is for and they got to hear their own hearts beating as well.

Where is the next emergency? Firefighter Einar is ready for duty!

Here Reeder, Nathan, and Hailey are checking out the ambulance cab.

Looking more awake here, Soren looks around for someone to reach the pedals for him while he drives the engine to the fire. A dalmation would come in handy for this job and would also appreciate the crumbs that can always be found under Soren.


Nathan and Einar in the fire engine.

Happy 4th of July Weekend!

Fireworks are hard to take pictures of, but Einar never tires of taking pictures of his rock collection. He keeps it by the front door and deposits the cool rocks that he brings home from his walks there upon his return. He even brought the neighbor over on Saturday to see his collection. I'm sure she recognized some of the specimens from her own front yard.

Here are the boys all dressed up to see the fireworks. Jared and I got the pajamas on them and then Einar added the neckties and cowboy boots. Adding a necktie spiffies up any outfit. I think it's kind of like when little girls add those frilly petticoats to any outfit.

We are fortunate to have the best place ever to see fireworks from just by going to the top of the neighborhood. Once you are there you have a panoramic view of San Clemente and Dana Point so you can see not only those municipal firework shows, but you can also see the ones that the Ritz shoots off from their resort at the north end of Dana Point. It's not crowded, the people who live up there blast patriotic music during the show, and it takes only 30 seconds to drive back home afterwards. Since the sun sets early here in Southern California, the fireworks start at 9pm.
To get to the top of the hill, the Cobb Family picks us up in their Ola Truck a.k.a. big gray Suburban that could fit a family of 15. Einar loves riding in the Ola Truck with Nathan and Hailey!

Jared and Soren going back home after a great fireworks show. Soren was really into the whole thing this year. Last year he was asleep in his sling the whole night. This time he sat on our laps and ooohed and aaahed just like the rest of us.

Camp Outs and the San Diego County Fair

Yesterday afternoon we went with our friends Marianne, Reeder, and Hayes to the Del Mar Fair a.k.a. The San Diego County Fair. It is at the same place that they have the horse races the rest of the year (have never been to those, though). It was a blast! Einar and Reeder got to ride an elephant. In the pictures they are the two on the very back with the big grins. There were of course tons of other rides to choose from, but the elephants were the ones that really got the kids interested. Who wouldn't want to ride on an elephant?

The elephants are from an elephant ranch in Perris, CA (who knew there were elephants out there with the train museum and all of the houses with extra cars on their front yards?).

We also saw a turkey stampede, a camel being milked by the only camel dairy owners in North America, and a bunch of San Diego police vehicles. They had even built a pirate ship to climb on and take your picture on to get the word out about anti-piracy of music and movies laws.


Soren loves animals. Here he is in the petting farm in the Agri-barn. We saw goats, pigs, sheep, cows, baby chickens and turkeys at the fair. We missed the worm races by a couple of hours, which I regret. I wish I knew what that was like. I might just have to host some worm races of our own here at home with my red wigglers....

Hello goat!
Einar participated in a squash throwing competition and got a ribbon and a round of applause. He and I also got ribbons from our participation in a hula hoop contest. You might have guessed that all particpants got ribbons and you would be correct. They certainly didn't hand them out based on our mastery of the hula hoop.

This fair is also known for its crazy food--everything deep-fried from avacados, twinkies, frog legs, white castle burgers, smores, to the newest addition this year: a hollowed out zuchini stuffed with a hot dog, battered, and deep-fried called the zuchini wiennie. We didn't try those but we did try the chocolate covered bacon and that was pretty tasty.


Last Saturday was national camp out day so we set up the two person tent out on our upstairs balcony. Einar and I slept out there under the stars and had a really nice camp out. Soren played around in there while we were setting it up, but he slept in his own crib. The blow up mattress made it extra comfy.