As promised my recap of our holiday trip to visit Uncle Bump in Orange County.
Sorry for the long entry, but we took a lot of pictures, and the kids were at their cutest, so it's hard to leave things out.
At this point I should recognize that a number of the readers of this blog have asked to see/hear/read more about the rest of the family. The Uncle Bump's and the Grandpa Gene's in particular.
There's a good reason that we don't see as much of those guys: Jake and Lily are far cuter than they are. Honestly, I can't remember the last time (if ever) somebody saw a picture of Coley and said "Awwww. That's adorable".
And when I tell stories about Gene if they say "Wow. He's at a great age" it's probably referring to quantity not quality.
Uncle Bump's (aka Coley, aka Hermano) kids on the other hand, Riley Logan and Katie Chase, ages 3 and 1 respectively - definitely cuter AND are at greater (quality) ages then their dad and grandpa.
But give the people what they want I say. I'll throw in a few pictures and words of the oldsters.
Uncle Bump and Auntie Amanda hosted us for more than two weeks while we did little day trips and lounged in their ginormous house. Good thing it was big since they were hosting 14 for breakfast lunch and dinner everynight.
We arrived at John Wayne direct from Honolulu (highly recommended) Xmas eve afternoon, so the kids didn't have long to wait till that BEST OF ALL MORNINGS.
Grandpa Gene's early present this year was retiring after fourty bazillion years of listening to people kvetch about their goddamn problems, how their wife/husband/kids/boss/dog doesn't appreciate them and yadayadayada and on and on and on....criminy. SHUT UP ALREADY ! Now he can finally do what he's always wanted.
Birdhouses:
Orange County has great public parks. Period. It's nice that the kids are still at the ages where a trip to the park is (almost) as good a one to a theme park. Fast slides, high swings, zip cords, soft places to fall, plenty of fun physical activity things to move/push/pull/climb and all.
Of course, maximum capacity still means something.
The kids got their first taste (literally natch) of snow:
Also their first trip to a themepark - Legoland:
Our second trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific, where ironically we probably had the most fun in the lorikeet aviary:
Jake, Coley, Riley and I wen tup to Chino to the Planes of Fame Aviation Museum.
Awesome. It was P-40 day and we got to see them start up a genuine Sharkmouth and then taxi and take off. Way cool. Jake wants to be there for P-38 day, and I want a returm visit when a Spitfire flies.
I threw in a picture of a P-38 that I made for Uncle Jim as a Christmas present. Compared with the real thing I did a pretty good job IMHO.
Another return visit for us was a little petting zoo just down the road from Uncle Bump's in San Juan Capistrano. And afterwards, just like two three years ago, we went to the Ruby's and had MASSIVE burgers in a cool train themed restaurant.
Speaking of food, Kim and I managed to sneak in two trips to In-and-Out Burger. Heaven.
And Lily and Jake got to have their best New Year's Eve evar when we took them out to the movies. Saw "Enchanted" which really was great. Good, clean, silly, wholesome fun (I'll rave later about "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" - also quite good, though not as wholesome).
Couple more fun/cute pics to round it out:
Just a great vacation. U. Bump, A. Bandit, Riley Logan and Katie Chase were great hosts and forgave us (I hope) for all the chaotic craziness that upset and challenged their family's balance/sleep schedules/eating habits/sharing abilities and other things I'm too obtuse not to apologize for.
In front of a Legoland version of my birthplace
Orange County has great public parks. Period. It's nice that the kids are still at the ages where a trip to the park is (almost) as good a one to a theme park. Fast slides, high swings, zip cords, soft places to fall, plenty of fun physical activity things to move/push/pull/climb and all.
In front of a Legoland version of my birthplace
Lily's kept on doing keiki hula, and while Kim occasionally has to drag her to practice, when she performs she has a great time. I'll be getting a dose of that myself soon. 
- we went to two different parties before that and I'm sure she was dying to bust them out, but she held on till the big day. They're still on three days after and don't seem to be worse for wear.
. While the kids costumes weren;t the most original or creative ever, they loved them, so thanks Grampa for the supplies.
Jake reconsiders - after he hears that his friends Keola and Alika are hitting the pitch.
Jake is totally excited that he's gotten out of the baby seat and into a booster. Over the last few months the only way to keep him happy was to tell him that baby seats had 5 way restraints like race cars....
We went to Kmart and he picked out a Diego booster seat. While we don't catch much of the adventures of Diego (he's not on PBS - don't tell my kids) Jacob still has a soft spot for him since they share a name Jacob/Diego = Enlgish/Spanish in case you didn't know. Every once in a while Jake even tells us to call him Diego (which was my plan before he was born anyway...at last ! My plan is coming to fruition! BUWAHAHAHAHA!)
