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.

Clean Teeth, Mission visits and Jane Wayne Day

Soren had his first visit to the dentist last Wednesday and here he is afterwards in his car seat playing with the bracelet that he chose from the prize drawer. Sorry, no pictures of him getting his teeth cleaned because he was on my lap leaning backwards onto the lap of the hygienist and then the dentist for his check-up. No crying for him. Einar's visit was first so we watched big brother hop up into the chair and open wide and Soren just went right along.

Bright lights for the little guy, but he didn't even notice since he was riveted to The Incredibles that was playing on the screen over his head and coming through on his headphones. Things are looking good in there, we just need to brush for the full 2 minutes 2X/day.

Einar posing in a doorway at the San Juan Capistrano Mission on Friday last week. I don't know of many people who wear cowboy boots with athletic shorts, but Einar is always out to set new fashion trends. The device hanging around his neck is my audio tour for the mission that he high-jacked right from the get-go. He found most of the numbered signs that let you know which button to push for the information and he kept up with the tour. His biggest learning was that 40 people died in the earthquake that brought down the big stone church. He's been curious about death lately and the cemetery also brought some questions at the mission.

Lots of big koi live in this pond at the mission.

The gardens are beautiful here. In the background is the ruins of the big stone church that was destroyed in an earthquake on Easter Sunday not long after it was constructed.

The three of us in the big stone church. Paula took our picture for us.

Paula and Einar off on a little exploring adventure at the mission. She came down to visit us one more time before we move and we sure kept her busy the whole weekend. We went to the Mission on Friday, did Jane Wayne Day on Saturday, Disneyland after church on Sunday, and wine tasting in Temecula on Monday.

Reeder and Einar welcoming home the "Mommy Troops" after our live fire exercise during Jane Wayne day at the School of Infantry at Camp Pendleton. They are climbing around on a light armored vehicle (LAV) that they insisted was a tank. Marianne's husband Clint invited Paula and I to join in the Jane Wayne day for wives and family members to get a taste of what it's like to be a marine. Thanks Clint!

This isn't us during the live fire exercise, but we went next shooting off the M-16's. They outfitted us in Flak jackets and helmets that we wore around all morning. Being a Marine is pretty dirty and not so comfortable with all of the heavy equipment and tight places to ride around in. We definitely gained a new appreciation for Jared's career these past 20 years!

Practicing in my simulation rounds. I got some pretty good marks during this practice.

Here is the LAV that we rode around in after our obstacle course.

I did make it over the wall after using a loose board as a stair on the other side. Most of the rest of the obstacle course was too much of an obstacle to take very seriously.
Should we be smiling while practicing our punches?

Paula made it over the wall too. There was a lot more smiling and giggles while we were doing these things than when real marines go through the activities.

You are actually supposed to be on top of the bars not just hanging from them like you see me doing.

One leg over, hey, is that a marine pushing me up on the other side? Maybe you can't see him since he's wearing camouflage.

Painting our faces and preparing for the day. We used a slightly different color palette than our typical daily compact holds.

Running the Combat Fitness Test (CFT). Push-ups, grenade throwing, sprinting, crawling (Soren would have aced that part!) and ammo can lifts. Our course was modified and it still kicked our butts. I didn't mind the ammo can lifts though since I've been lifting up Soren like that a lot.

Riding off in the LAVs.

Marianne, Paula and I in our marine duds with big grins on our faces.

More Bellingham Adventures

Last week we flew up to Washington to get serious about our house hunt in Bellingham. Our move is scheduled for the third week of August and we wanted to have something secured by the time we got there so that we wouldn't have to live out of suitcases in a motel room for a few weeks.

Einar was very excited about the trip up because we got to fly on a little Horizon plane instead of the usual Alaska plane. That was the first thing he told Grandpa when we arrived atSeaTac. I thought Horizon was pretty nice because they offered free wine and beer.

On our way up to Bellingham the following morning, we dropped Einar off at Poppa and Farmor's house where he stayed for two nights. He played with the electric train, outside in the dirt, and had an especially good time chasingFarmor with the hose and getting her really wet. Thankfully Seattle was having a heat wave last week and it was in the 80's while we were there. He also went down toAlki to play with his cousins Matty and Sammy.

Soren, however, got to stay with Mom and Dad and go house hunting in Bellingham. We saw 19 houses that day between 10am and 4pm! He is quite adept now at testing out a place. There were only a couple places where he didn't get to try out the floor. It seems like a lot of places to keep straight, but since we'd already spent so much time on theInternet checking things out and looking at whatever pictures had been posted about the places, it was easier than you might think. We were pretty quick in making our first impressions and really didn't want to have to do too much work to the place before we moved in, eliminating many of the properties in our price range.

Long story short, we bought our first home in the Columbia neighborhood of Bellingham. Being close to Western, downtown, the waterfront, parks, the grocery store and 4 blocks from a great elementary school are the biggest perks to our new place. It also has a fenced in back yard for the kids to go crazy outside. It has three bedrooms and one bathroom and is just about 1000 sq ft. Smaller than we were hoping for, but location won out over square footage and amenities this time around. Now it's time to start planning what to get rid of around here before we make the big move so we can fit into our new home.

Our new bathroom on Kulshan street.

Our kitchen. The appliances are on the other side.

Einar went up on Saturday with Jared and Poppa for the house inspection to check it all out and choose his bedroom. Here he is showing where the washer and dryer will go in the kitchen.

In front of our new home!

Here Soren is rearranging the pine cone decorations in the hotel lobby while we were doing more house stuff online. He was such a good house hunting kid!

Our new kitchen sink.

Brand new appliances.

Soren roaming around and checking things out.

Fenced in back yard with a nice 10 by 10 shed out back. I hear that you can chickens in Bellingham too.

A cute little bush that is in the front. It might be a smaller relative of Tor and Jess' fry-guy tree that they have at their place.