Camping Hygiene

There was no time (or desire) for showering on our camping trip. Here is Axel after we just arrived.

And here he is in the afternoon on the second day, having taken on a Dickensian street child like appearance:

By the camp fire

No camping is complete without making S'mores.

Luna waiting patiently for any dropped marshmallows. 

Enjoying the end result.

Chovy had bought glow-sticks for the boys. Big success. 

With the kids in bed, the adults could finally relax under the starry sky with the camp ground lit by the supermoon (biggest full moon of the year).

Hiking

We went for a hike in the Palomar Mountain State Park. 

The boys practiced their creek jumping skills. 

Luna preferred to use the water for other purposes. 

Snack time

Camping

This weekend we went camping at a camp ground on Palomar Mountain (about 90 minute drive from San Diego). This was Axel's first camping experience and after a rocky start (including multiple complaints about flies and other bugs etc.) he had a great time.

As usual we had air mattress problems. We ended up having to inflate it old-style (and it still was horrible to sleep on).

I decided to try an old recipe from my youth (I had an illustrious 6-month boy scout career as a 7 year old). "Sno-brød" (literal translation is "twirled bread") is made by twirling dough onto sharpened sticks and then cooked over the camp fire. You can put stuff like hot-dogs or ham and cheese inside. It came out ok but I need to work a little on the execution.  

Our friends Christian and Kelly joined us along with their two boys Miles and Ryland. The boys quickly formed a scooter gang.

Real life angry bird

Our new house sits on a canyon. There is a hawk couple that has settled in the same canyon along with their gang of three baby hawks (btw - a baby hawk is apparently called an eyas - thank you Google). There is always lots of hawk activity near our house. For example, this week papa hawk dive bombed straight into our dining room window while I was eating breakfast. He was a bit wobbly for a couple of minutes afterwards but then took off like nothing had happened. Then this morning one of the baby hawks decided to chill on his belly on the balcony off my office. Apart from giving me the hawk stink eye, he didn't seem to mind me taking his portrait (photo above). Chovy and Axel joined in the fun until Luna decided that enough is enough with this bird stuff and chased him (or her - we have no idea) away.

Breakfast with Far on Father's Day

These are my guys: 

a little bedhead and sleepy eyes in the morning, but they are still pretty beautiful to me.    

Making breakfast just like any other day - coffee, oatmeal, raisins, milk, 

all while sitting on top of the counter

Dancing Footloose

Another random Tuesday afternoon dance fest . . . 

Touch a Truck

Last weekend we were at an event called Touch a Truck, where little kids get to sit inside real trucks and touch all the buttons and play with the steering wheel.

There were all sorts of vehicles, including the UPS truck

Probably the worst part of the event was that kids were allowed to honk the horns . . . though some would say that was the best part. 

The climax was a show with Robosaurus breathing fire and demolishing a real car - yikes!  The crowd and the violence was a little too intense for Axel, which is just fine with me.  

Marathon Thirst Quenched

We kidnapped Mason to play with us while we waited for Karsten to finish the Rock N Roll Marathon.

When the race ended, Mason was VERY thirsty (gotta love those sugar drinks)

After both boys had their fill, there really wasn't anything left for Karsten, oh well.  

June Gloom

After hearing the weatherman warn all week about an upcoming heat wave, I decided to take Axel to the pool.

He and Marisol played "rescue the shark" for about 15 minutes . . .

 . . . then it got cloudy and too cold to swim - darn you, June Gloom!

Next time we'll just stick to our normal Saturday morning plans: the Zoo

Squirt Gun Attack!

Not So Brave

The other night, our plans with friends were unexpectedly cancelled, so we decided to have a family movie night to entertain ourselves on the Memorial Day holiday.  All three of us cozied up to the TV together to watch the Disney movie Brave. . .

As soon as the movie ended, Axel burst into tears and cried repeatedly "I dont like that movie. It was too scary".  Karsten and I felt so bad as we comforted him, we had no idea that a movie made for kids could be so traumatic.  Then I realized the plot was about a girl accidentally turning her mother into a grizzly bear whom her father tried to kill - and nearly succeeded.  I suppose that could be stressful if you hadn't developed the adult ability to suspend reality.  Uh, so yeah, we learned our lesson.