Summer Vacation #1

Guess it is time to write about our summer vacations. We took two separate trips to Utah; one in July and one in August. This post will be about our first trip and then I'll do another one about our second trip.

We decided to make a trip to Utah in July for a family reunion on Tracy's side. One of his cousins who lives outside of the U.S. was going to be there so it was an opportunity to see her and her family.

This time out we took Highway 50 across Nevada. A little less boring, with fun little towns and more scenery, but still very long drive. Charles doesn't do long car rides very well. So I tried to have some fun new and old things to play with in the car. He cycled through his stuff every 5 minutes. James barely touch his things. He just loves to watch out the window and see the world.

James did really love this chalk board I got. 

 Once in Utah we stayed at Joe's parents' house for a few days. We covered our Jeep to get it ready for our Moab trip in August. And just relaxed enjoying Tracy's official start of summer since he had been working up to our trip.

All ready for Moab!

The day of the family reunion we met some of my family in Salt Lake for lunch at Blue Lemon. We played a bit at City Creek and then went to the reunion. It was a lot of fun spending so much time with family. It was especially fun to see a lot of Tracy's cousins many of whom we hadn't seen for a couple of years. I didn't take any pictures at the reunion, but there was family group pictures taken. So I'm sure someday we'll get copies.

After the reunion we spent the rest of the trip in St. George. Tracy did some work at Zion NP. We just love Zion. Such a beautiful place!

Playing with chalk at our favorite place to stay in St. George.

James sat and looked at this map in the museum for hours.
Pretty much the entire 2-3 hours Tracy was doing his work in the museum collections.

Having snacks outside the museum.
The only time I was able to pull James away from the map.

James asked to have his picture taken with the tall mountains.

We help James earn a Jr. ranger badge.
This was us taking a short hike to the place
where they had one of the ranger activities required to earn the badge.

 On the way home we took a two day trip so we could see Death Valley and Yosemite and the research center Tracy worked at prior to our trip.
It was sooo hot in Death Valley, we only left the car to see the visitor center and immediately regretted it.

The thermometer says it all. Misery with a capital M.

Can't even look at the camera it was sooo hot. 

Yosemite was very much more enjoyable than Death Valley. We'll just have to go back in the fall/winter when not so hot. 

In Yosemite we also because of the distance and time to get home we just mostly drove through. Stopped by the river to play and have lunch. Another beautiful place on earth. We're considering a winter trip there over Christmas break. 

School is out!

Time is getting away from me. School has been out for a month now.

Tracy ended his 2 year by passing his qualifying exam with flying colors. For his qualifying exam he had to write a paper about what his PhD project will be on and what he hopes to find. (I may not be entirely accurate but pretty close.) Then he had a to give a 15 min. presentation to his committee which was followed by about 2 1/2 hours of question/answer/discussion. The month of May was intense for him as he prepared for his exam while also taking classes and doing his TA job. Well, April was also pretty stressful too with writing his paper for the exam. 

With it that said and done, he now has advance to candidacy. One big jump towards getting a PhD. Now he gets to do all the research and writing needed for his dissertation.

Tracy took a day in April and taught the James' class
and the morning kindergarten class about fossils and Paleontology.

James also ended his school year on a high note. He's such a hard worker. I'm so very proud of him and of all his accomplishments. He has grown so much and has gained some new skills. 

James received mostly high marks. He struggles with math a bit and with the help of OT he's getting better at gross and fine motor skills. His IEP reports showed great improvements in speech and OT. It will be interesting to see how much longer he'll need speech. I know he'll be receiving OT for probably a long time. He just had an all round good year of growth. 

For his last day of school, they had a moving on ceremony. It was a short sweet little ceremony. Started with a few remarks from James' teacher, then the parents took turns reading from "Oh, The Places You'll Go," then each kid stood up and said what they had persevered at through the school year and gave thanks to someone who helped them that year. A video of what James said is below. After that there was a potluck reception with all the other kindergarten classes. A great way to end his Kindergarten year.

Both boys wanted to sit on my lap the whole time.
And surprisingly they did well.

James playing/showing off his basketball skills during the reception.

The empty classroom.

Goodbye Kindergarten

James and his teacher Mrs. Arvin
He had a hard time saying good-bye to her.

Spring Break!

This year spring break was March 21-25 for both Tracy and James. Tracy used that time off to do a museum visit, so not really time off since he worked. However we decided all of us would go with him which made it possible for us all have some fun.

About two weeks prior to spring break the flu bug hit our house. First Tracy got sick, then James, then Charles and last me. It was the flu that lasts for 5 days. Yuck. Luckily we all were well by the day we left on the Monday, the 21st.

Early Monday morning we piled into the car and headed south to Claramont, CA. It wasn't too bad of a drive just took all day. We arrived at our destination around dinner time and enjoyed a nice meal at Olive Garden.

Tuesday Tracy went off to do his work at the Alf Museum. James, Charles and I enjoyed ourselves that morning exploring the museum.

James loved putting together this Allosaurus and taking it apart.

He also loved the dig site. 

The Alf museum is on a boarding school campus, Webb Schools. We were able to join Tracy and some of the museum's staff for lunch on the campus. The cafeteria looks a bit like Hogwarts only with smaller tables instead of house/head tables. After lunch Tracy went back to work and the rest of us went to the hotel for Charles' nap. When Charles woke up I treated to boys to ice cream and then went to a park till it was time to pick up Tracy. 

We wanted to go to the Griffith observatory that night, but once arriving we saw how busy it was and decided to come back another day so we went and had dinner at Outback Steakhouse.

Wednesday, after dropping Tracy off at the museum I took the boys to the mall. We walked around the mall for a bit and explored some of the stores. James really loved the Disney Store. I was feeling generous and bought the boys a toy. We went back to the hotel to play with their new toys, eat lunch and Charles to take a nap. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon at a park.

Taking a break from paying for snacks.

He really wanted to eat the sand
so I made him sit in the stroller and eat his snacks.

Before picking up Tracy, I treated them to ice cream once again. :) The rest of the evening we hung out at the hotel.

Thursday our last full day in Claramont. We decided to try going to the Griffith observatory again. We had an early lunch at The Old Speghetti Factory on the way. Arriving at the observatory in the early afternoon wasn't too bad. It is almost always busy but evenings it gets insane because everyone wants to watch the sunset.

James loved seeing how much he weighs on each planet.

And learning more about each one.

Spinning the gasses in this hands on exhibit was a ton of fun.

Learning about Titan, One of Saturn's moons.

Here we were learning about how the tilt of Uranus affects its days and seasons.

James and a moon rock.

He was in planet heaven. Enjoyed every minute and everything.

Us and the Hollywood sign

Us and the observatory.

After the observatory we made our way down to Newport Beach for beach fun, dinner and to watch the sunset. 

Charles was captivated by the seagulls.

He also loved watching the waves.

Love the beach sunsets. 

For the geologist Tracy took a picture of Charles' crawling trace.
Wonder what kind of confusion and discovering it will cause in a million years. ;)

Love and miss this place. Such a great beach.

Like all trips the end arrives and we made our way back home. 

James with his souvenir from the observatory.

Charles as crazy as can be.