Christmas cheer all round

Hi Everyone - Merry Christmas!

Wow, I can't believe its been nearly two weeks since I've written. We've done so much! We went to a fantastic science museum which had a living roof, and an albino crocodile. The kids had a ball, and so did I. There were two huge domes built into the architecture, one which was an indoor rainforest, it was clear and the roof was clear, so it was more of a glass house, and the other one was a planetarium. We went to see the show at the planetarium, but unfortunately Ainsley freaked out with the dark and the creepy space music, so we had to leave. Tallis and Ellery stayed though, and we met them afterwards. They said it was the best show ever. They were a bit hazy on the details though. We also saw a 3d bug movie which was really well done. It was the life pf a butterfly and a preying mantis, where eventually the preying mantis ate the butterfly. Quite amazing to watch in 3d. Somehow Ainsley sat through it no worries. Never could predict a 2 year old. This is her with her 3D glasses...

This isside the rainforest dome...
And this is the living roof...

Ainsleys been going through an independent phase. One where she can't quite do everything for herself, but desperately wants to. Which is nice, because she getting dressed by herself, at 2, while Lindsay still quite happily wants me dress to dress him - at nearly 6! But its also difficult, because she really shouldn't be making her own toast, no matter how well she could do it on her own.

We've been to a few really nice restaurants. They're all over the place here! We staying in an area called north beach, which is the italian zone, chocked full with italian restaurants and little cafes. The stand out restaurant experience for me was called the 'Stinking Rose' - a restaurant dedicated to garlic! I think between us we ate about 100 cloves of garlic. After that I was walking around in an aura of garlic stench for days. It was leaching out of every pore of my body. But thankfully I love the smell of garlic, so it really wasn't an issue for me. Too bad about those around me.

We've been getting on really well with the neighbours upstairs. They've got a 5year old and a 6 year old. Lindsay has been loving their train track. A lot of the time the other kids will all be down in our house, and Lindsay will be up at their house by himself with the train track. He really is like Paul - totally oblivious to ther people. So they went away for christmas and brought down the track for Lindsay to play with while they were gone. They've also offered to babysit if we need it, which is great, there seems to be great night life going on around here.

We built a gingerbread house for christmas, which I was expected to be fairly simple. I was soooo wrong. I had no idea how long it takes for the icing to set, and just though it would just glue together nicely. Instead I ended up with everything sliding off, and then bits broke, and the the whole thing kept collapsing. It started off all beautiful and neat and symmetrical, but after many rescue attempts, it looked like there had been a blizzard of lollies. Even poor santa out the front got snow in his eyes. Eventually I got it to stand by itself after bracing it over night with all sorts of tinned food and boxes etc.

So we ended up having a really nice christmas. It was just a simple one, we didn't go anywhere. But Santa was particularly creative with a hunt for little chocolate santas around the house. Even Tallis commented on how well santa did this year. I told her it was because of the good behaviour, and that if they behave even better next year, Santa might get even more creative! The presents were all a hit, a few board games for entertainment and we bought the kids an electronics kit, which is a great one, with hundreds of easy to make projects. The kids have been really keen so far. Paul bought me a kit which teaches me how micro controllers work, so that one day I may be able to build a robot (a big dream of mine). Mum bought the kids some presents when she was here, which was nice to add a bit of flavour - everything else was from us and Santa - she gave ainsley some playdough which has been a huge hit. She calls it her volcano, and just sits at the table for hours with it. And shes so clean too, which really helps with how often shes allowed to play with it. We had a nice roast lunch, and were so full that we didn't end up eating any of the desert, and then we had the roof of the ginger bread house for dinner. Very nutritious, but thats christmas for you.

Yesterday we went on a tour in a ww2 submarine and on a liberty ship. The sub was pretty cool, but I don't think I could spend more than a day on one. The guys that did it in the war were out there for months. Like a prison. In fact, if I had to choose I'd probably prefer alcatraz. Heres a photo of us in the dining room...

On the ship was a bit scary. They engine room was the one used in the movie titanic. I felt so famous by association. But there were all these narrow high little walkways and very steep stairs. And with Ainsley being little miss independent, she wanted to go up and down the stairs by herself. It really freaked me out. The posters about danger and enter at own risk didn't help either. So I jumped ship with the girls and left Paul and Lindsay to it. We found an antique parlour game museum which was really fun. Everything was still operating too. There were races where two people had to wind their wheels to get their horses to the end first and a great little excavator which you could pick up gum balls with and drop them down the shoot for yourself. This provided the most entertainment as we filled our pockets for only a few quarters.

Then Today we went ice skating. It was great fun, but soo tiring. It didn't take too long to get the hang of, and even Lindsay ended up being able to go around without holding the edge. Tallis could spin in a circle too. Heres some photos of the kids...

We had a great day. Hope you have all been having a good christmas, and that everyone has a really good new year, and that you all have a drink for me on new years eve.

Cheers, from Nic

Yosemite

Hi everyone,

Finally got off my bum, and am updating my blog. The last week in LA we didn't really get up to much. I had to do a bit of advertising stuff for Paul, and that took a lot of time. We said farewell to our homeschool friends which was a bit sad. I really started to like everyone there. On the last weekend we went to a really cool science museum. Forgot the camera so no pics, but some of the hands on exhibits were great. They even had a little set up for making time lapse animations, with plastic animals. Very cool. We watched a 4D movie(3D with smoke machines, smells and special lighting effects) about dinosaurs which also very cool, even if a little bit scary for the kids. The dinosaurs really seemed to come out.

Getting out of the house in Hintington beach was painful. As usual I totally underestimated the amount of time that everything would take. By a factor of 5 I reckon. So I was totally frantic by the end, rushing around trying to extract all of our stuff that had gotten mixed up with their stuff. Then, as I got into the car to drive away a message on the dashboard said that the boot door wasn't closed properly. So I got out, and reopened it to close it right, and all of my groceries fell out. Two bottles of dressing broke on the floor, with glass everywhere, honey mustard all splashed over my leg. So we didn't end up leaving until about 11:00, after I'd really commited myself to leaving early. So off we went to Yosemite. I was very excited.

And I should have been because Yosemite was just amazing. Massive granite oucrops, and vast pine forests. There was a huge valley with the towering granite on either side, and waterfalls dropping over the sides. Heres a couple of the hundreds of pics that I took.

We saw heaps of wild life too, heres a coyote and some deer that we saw.

Luckily we didn't see any bears. There were heaps of warnings about how they could bend back your car door just to get at a chocolate bar wrapper. I did kind of freak out a little bit, but I decided that they must be hibernating, being winter. On the first day when I was unloading the car, by myself, in the dark, in the middle of a pine forest, my heart was beating so hard I swear I could hear it. But then on the last day, we were all inside eating breakfast, and the car alarm went off. I went out, and it looked like there were bear pawprints on the car. Very freaky. This is the house that we stayed in.

We also saw some of the largest trees in the world. Giant sequoias. WOW! It was through one of these trees that they made the car tunnel. But that tree fell over in the 60's and they haven't done it again, because they're trying to look after the trees. Apparently a lot of them are falling over because they have very shallow roots, and all the tourists damage them by walking around the trees. They have set paths now that you're not meant to go off, although heaps of idiots were. Grrrr. Also, they really need wild fires to help keep the other trees down so that can get the right amount of sunshine, and because people have been putting out any fires for the last 100 years, the popluation of these trees have been dwindling. So they're just starting doing controlled burns to help with this. You can see the burnt bit at the bottom. Those little specks, also at the bottom, are the kids (you might need to enlarge it). Thats how huge these trees were. This one was over 3000 years old.

Its also a very popular place for rock climbing. Theres a famous climb that people do here, that take 3 days, and they sleep on the rock face. Eeeek. This is Lindsay ahving a go.

Good Luck!

So now we're in San Francisco. I think I'll really like it here. We're very much in the thick of it here. In a nice little apartment with in walking distance to everything. We went to Alcatraz yesterday. It was really interesting, but kind of in a state of disrepair. I don't think they get so much money from the government for toursim in the same way that Australia does. There was a bit of a drive to get money from visitors to save the rock. It was still really good though. We did an audio tour that told/showed us where those guys dug around the side of an airvent with their spoons to escape. Nobody knows what happened to them. Mostly they think they drowned in the trecherous seas around the island. Yet again, I forgot the camera.

The other day Ellery was telling me that she'd rather go to Jail than pay a fine, because that way she gets to keep her money. After our visit to Alcatraz yesterday, shes changed her mind.

Well, I need to go and buy some food, we've got next to nothing here right now, and I really need to find a supermarket. I'm a bit scared to drive to one, because I don't think there will be parking. Not around here anyway. But I've got to buy too much to be able walk to one. I need a wheel barrow or something.

Anyway, hope all is well back in Aus, cheers

from Nic

Thanksgiving

Hi Everyone and happy Thanksgiving.

I'm a true American now and I went all out for thanksgiving. Thought I'd let the kids have a taste of America. I was a bit scared of pre packaged things, after many bad experiences and ended up quite enjoying making stuffing, pumpkin pie (even the pastry), cranberry sauce and other things from scratch. I'm very proud of myself! The turkey was massive. The drumsticks were nearly the size of a whole chicken - check it out...

And in the forground is our veritable mountain of turkey. Turns out thanksgiving is about the help that the Indians gave the pilgrims with food, because they were all dying of starvation. Which is lovely, but I can't help thinking about how the pilgrims then went and stole all their land and waged war on the Indians. I wonder what the Indians think of thanksgiving day. Anyway, we enjoyed it.

We went to Knotts Berry Farm on Monday, which is another HUGE amusement park. There were some killer rollercoasters there. One of them left a massive bruise on my arm where I had braced myself against the side of the wagon. This is a photo I pulled of the internet because none of mine worked out.

It was totally rough, and bumped around all over the place and went at 55 miles per hour in some places, which is 88 km per hour. It was so shocking to the system that my brain froze and I couldn't even think to be scared. We went on a bunch of other rides, paid $70 US for a very dodgy lunch and that was about it.

The Le Brea tar pits were something totally different, however. Smack bang in the middle of LA are these tar pits. Huge black masses of ashphalt , suplhur bubbling up to the top like wind in the bath. It was in this ashphalt that wooly mammoths, sabre tooth cats, dire wolfs, bears and American lions found themselves stuck more than 40,000 years ago. The tar preserved the bones, and there was a huge museum stocked with the rebuilt animals. Very fascinating. The most amazing thing was all this tar seeping out of the ground. I forgot to bring my camera, I got these photos off the net aswell (I'm beginning to think I don't need my camera, I'll just get all my photo keepsakes of the net).
There was a huge lake of tar, and then there were places where it just bubbled up from the ground...
A homeschool family told me that theres quite a lot of it in LA, and that sometimes after going to the beach they would come home with tar stuck to the bottom of their feet.

Anyway, we're out of here (Hunting Beach in LA) on Saturday the 6th and then we're off to San Francisco. Paul has to go to Texas in between, so I though I'd take the kids for a trip to Yosemite national PArk.

Cheers, From Nicole

Pirates and Indians

Hello everyone,

We've haven't really done much lately. The kids and me are a bit tired. I'm going to start taking my iron supplements again. Hopefully then I'll wake feeling like I want to wake up.

We went to an Indian Museum last week. It had a small indoor area with relics from when Indians were living in the area, and explantions about what things were. There was stuff going back as far as 1500BC! We read about their diet, (laregly animals and acorns) and I really wondered how it was they weren't all suffering from nutrient deficiencies! Why am I? Anyway, there was some fantastic basket work including a tight fighting basket cap that a lady indian mannequin was wearing. I thought it looked pretty cool, I'd wear it.

Then there was a huge outdoor area with indian huts, massive old oak tree groves, a games arena, caves with Indian Paintings (we didn't make it to these, but plan to go again), and huge flat rocks where the Indian ladies had left holes from where they'd been grounding acorns for flour. So the kids had ball pretending to be Indians. They ground acorns, had taste aswell - very bitter - ground face paint, painted themselves, and then we decided that we'd like to live this way. Well, I decided that a long time ago, but haven't really done anything about it, and then I had to explain to the kids why we couldn't live like that. Though I'm not sure I really convinced myself or them! Dreams of living self sufficiently rose to the surface.

It was on this day that I needed to pick Mum up from her tour to the grand canyon. I passed the pickup point on my way to the Indian Museum, and timed that it was only 40 minutes away. However, on my return, at only 3:15 in the afternoon the traffic had picked up remarkably! So I thought I'd be smart and take a shortcut. I passed a sign saying Mullholland Drive, it clearly wasn't the famous part, we'd been on that, but I did remember reading somewhere that it extended all the way to the coast, so I thought it would pop out way further up the freeway, where I'd been on it before. So off I went. Next thing I'm on a dirt road - still Mullholland - and then there was a gate into a state park blocking my way! So I dug out my map, which was extremely low on detail, and found that without the gate, it would indeed have been quite a short cut. But there was no helping now. I was meant to be meeting Mum at this point! I'd already made a major detour from my original route, so I ended up taking a cross mountain route that then led me through Santa Monica, Mailbu, and Venice Beach. I ended up being a dramatic 2 1/2 hours late to get Mum. My Mobile was out of batteries too, so I couldn't let her know or anything. It was all extremely stressful. Poor Mum.

Anway, she stayed the next day and then had to go out to the airport to fly away to Hawaii. It was a bit sad saying goodbye, sort of like the last vestige of my life in Australia for a long time. When we drove out to the airport there was smoke everywhere! There were huge fires on this day, and the sun was totally red from all the smoke. Many houses were burnt down, but we were a long way from the danger. It did, however, make the comparisons between fires in Ferny Creek and fires in California seem very overstretched. These fires were each larger than 600 acres, and apparently fires such as these rage every year, often more. It was very eerie with all that smoke.

On Sunday we took the kids sailing. They had a great time learning about steering with the rudder and which heading you need to take into the wind to make the boat go at its fastest. We saw a huge big old wooden ship, which was firing cannons. THe guy at the boat hire place told us that there a few of them around, and that sometimes the go out together and hold mock battles. There must be quite a few rich eccentrics around here. We decided that it was a pirate ship though - more fun for the kids.

We also saw some dolphins, which was quite surprising. I've never seen dolphins in the wild before. The kids had a great time nad there wasn't a sign of sea sickness, and thats fantastic because it means a long sailing trip really is a possibility, as we've been dreaming for a while.

Anyway, thats about it. Tomorrow we're going to the la brea tar pits, where prehistoric animals were preserved for thousands of years. So that'll be in my next post. Also, if people would email more that'd be so nice, I'm starting to feel a little home sick.

Cheers, from Nic

Huntington Gardens

Hello.

Very aggravating day today. Because of this gated community, we can't get mail delivered to this address - theres some complicated mail system happening here, and we're not part of it. Anyway, to register our car I need a mailing address in california. So I went to get a post office box, but I can't because I need a physical mailing address in the US to be able to get one. Grrrrr. So we can't get mail here. At all. I'll have to really get friendly with some of the Mums at home school group and see if I can get them to help me get a mailbox. Anyway...

Mum has gone now, shes on a tour of the Grand Canyon. We had a really quiet day and I decided I'd get the vacuum cleaner out for the first time. (The place was tsartinf to look really grotty with out Ptuni to clean up after us and with carpet under the dining table). It was a big heavy beast of thing (like many things here in the US), one of those upright vacuums. I struggled with it, but the place looks way better. I realised that just because I'm away doesn't mean I don't have to do any housework.

On Friday we went to some really beautiful botanical gardens. They were so well designed and they went by themes. The photos explain it all -

This was inside a huge conservatory where there were plant science exhibits set up...

This was another area inside the conservatory where you could learn about sub tropical rainforests...

There was a childrens garden that had this misting area, the kids loved it!

Then there was a Japanese garden that was just exquisite - there was a zen area with a huge sand raking area, a bonsai gallery - with heaps of HUGE ones, and this really pretty bridge...
And heres just a cute shot of the kids...

On Sunday we went to the aquarium, we were really tired so it was a bit of a mistake, because I don't think we appreciated it properly. Although I've never really appreciated fish... and Paul definately doesn't (he's allergic).

Heres a couple of photos of us at the aquarium - just for good measure.

This was at a touch pool, with sharks! Yep they could touch sharks. Very slimy by the way.

And this was in a cool fish tank.

Anyway, everyone else is leaving for the pool, and I want to go too!

So bye, from Nic

Hello, finally got around to another blog. We have been hardcore tourists in the last week, with having Mum here. Sooo tired, but we've seen heaps.

I guess it starts with halloween. I've never seen so many lollies (caindee) in my life! Neither have the kids, not in their wildest dreams. Check out all those lollies...

And these were just Ellerys - mulitply this by 4! I was kind of hoping that if I let them have free riegn over how many they ate, maybe they would learn that lollies are not so great as what they imagine. Unfortunatley it just didn't work - this is what I woke to the next morning - at least they ate breakfast first.

They managed to demolish all these lollies injust two days - every single one - and nobody threw or complained of sore tummies or anything. They never cease to amaze me. Anyway, for weeks I'll have a great excuse not to give them anything sweet.

So we went to the nice ladies house for halloween and the trick or treating was just amazing. People go to such a bit effort. One house had a garage set up as a scary maze, with all this black plastic and strobe lights going, and people that stuck bloodied hands out through the plastic at you. The scariest house had dressed up people lying on the lawn and really scary friday the 13th type music going. There was someone in the wheelie bin bumping the lid up and down, a guy on the roof dressed up like a zombie and bloody finger prints all around the windows. When we walked down the drive the people on the lawn slowly got up like living dead and wandered towards us. THe kids absoluely freaked! The people realised and took of their face masks and apolgised, and brought more lollies which salved all wounds. This was just one of the houses we saw, there were many that were equally if not more impressive.

The kids wore these costumes.

The next day Mum minded the kids while Paul and I went out for the day. We went for a sailing trip and then went into Hollywood and Beverly Hills for dinner. We had a good squizz at the houses there (felt very corny), they were huge! Made our house look like a little cottage. Must cost an absolute fortune. WE saw a celebrity tour bus going around which we followed for a bit, so I'm sure we were seeing famous peoples houses, just not sure who.

Then we went for a cruise down Mullholland drive. THe views were just amazing. As you drove along you got views of LA in all directions. Talk about urban sprawl, the lights seriously went as far as the eye could see (mind you that could have more to do with the smog than the sprawl). Anyways heres the best photo I took. My camera really struggles with out the flash on, and with the flash I could only get the fore ground.

The next day Mum and I went to the Getty Centre with Ainsley. Its a massive art centre which was a collection belonging to John Paul Getty (or something) and he left it as a trust. Its completely free and amazingly well kept. The were works by monet, van gogh and the well known artists (whose names escape me at this moment). Great viewing, but you can only walk so far (the place really was huge) before it all starts to look a bit the same.

There were also these amazing gardens. Really artistic stuff.

Election day on Tuesday - Obama won! Yay, I'm sure the whole world is breathing a collective sigh of relief. I sure am. Had to pick Paul up from the airport late this night, he'd had a trip to boston. Got there too early and decided I'd go get some petrol. Drove down the wrong side of a very busy main road to get to the petrol station, had heaps of cars honking me. Everyone stared at me at the petrol station. Then my card didn't work in the pump (you have to pre pay here), so I went and pre paid my petrol, but did it for the wrong pump. Then I'm standing at my car with the nozzle wondering why nothing was coming out. Took a while before I realised and had to drive round to the correct pump. Der! Just can't make it past about 9:00 at night here with out suffering from severe brain fade.

Then yesterday we went to San Diego Zoo. We had a really good day. They had much the smae animals that Melbourne Zoo has, but the viewing was so much better. It wasn't because of small enclosures (unlike Sydney Zoo), must have just been really well designed. Also the gardens were absolutely immaculate. Most beautiful tropical jungle type stuff. I took this photo from the chair lift -
When we were looking at the reptiles, Tallis was looking at a snake, and I was holding my head above hers looking at the same snake, then she tossed her head up and gave me a massive fat lip, blood and all. Ouch is the polite way to explain how it felt.

Afterwards we went into Sand Diego city and had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. They had these plastic cups for the kids, that were quite good quality. Ainsley wanted to take hers with her because she hadn't finshed her drink when we were ready to go. I wasn't quite sure whether the cups were given out with that in mind, so I asked the waitress if they reused the cups or not. She said no. Which was kind of shocking because they were definately way better quality than any disposable cup I've seen, and because the whole kids pack thing with coloring and mazes and that they give out to the kids had a theme of save the planet. It wasn't until I got home and had a proper look at this cup that I realised it had re-use and recycle slogans plastered all over it. Grrrr, it really riles me. Overall the meal was really nice though.

Then we went through the mall back to where the car was parked, and we stopped to look at a childrens wear shop, and Ainsley pooed all over the floor. She had no undies or nappy, because all ready on the way back to the car she'd ripped of her nappy, and we binned it thinking we would soon be back at the car. It was extremely embarassing. I cleaned it all up with paper towel that the lady gave me in the shop. I really just can't wait until Ainsley is fully toilet trained. After changing nappies for 8 years straight, I've really had enough of this poo thing.

I just realised how whingy this whole blog has gotten, and its past 9:00. I'm way too tired to keep doing this, I really must go to bed...

Hope everything is going well back in Australia, cheers from Nic

Bigger is better

Hi everyone,

Things are going really well here now. I went through a small adjustment period, but now it all feels normal. We've done heaps in the last week, its hard to write it all.

I guess I should start with the rock pools, that we saw at a state park, and there was so much wild life! It was quite amazing for somewhere that has such a huge population. How does life manage to thrive like that in all the pollution? And there would have been even more if there weren't a bunch of idiots with their buckets making their own personal collections - despite all the signs explaining the fines they would get if caught. I started trying to tell one lady that it was illegal, but then I noticed a massive biker dude doing the same thing, so I promptly shut my mouth. Even so, the rock pools were great, heaps of hermit crabs and anenomes (wish this blog writer had a spell check) and urchins.

Then we went to Disney Land again to use up our second day. Went on a week day which was vastly better. Minimal waits for rides made all the difference - and really it was all about the rides for us, the kids had sub zero interest for parades and cartoon character autographs. Paul managed to put his back out on a huge rollercoaster there. He said that when it went upside down his neck jerked and he just felt daggers in his shoulders. Luckily we found one of the only places in Disney that served alcohol so he could dull the pain enough to last out the day. It tooks days to return to normal. Poor Boy.

The next day I picked up Mum at the airport. Shes with us for two weeks, which will is nice. Went to the LA Museum of Natural history which was gerat. They had a spier pavillion going, which was like a butterfly house, but with spiders. They were all pretty harmless, but some were quite impressive. The visitor spider from Malaysia was huge! Saw a few live tarantulas (not on loose - phew), theres something just so creepy about those spiders, must be all that hair. They also had the most vast gem and mineral collection I've ever seen! I'm always so amazed that these rocks are created in and by nature - some of them just look so man made and glitzy. Very very impressive.
Went to the homeschool group again aswell. The ladies there are so nice, we've been invited to one of their houses to do trick or treating on halloween with them and to borrow some of their costumes. This crazy little gated 'community' forbids it here. We're also not allowed to recieve mail. You have to organise with the people that run this place to have a special little mail box, the post man can't deliver to the houses here. So the costumes I bought from ebay won't be coming. Who knows what'll happen to them. Waste of $22 (read $40AUD).
Then today we went to a colonial spanish mission. I really loved it. It was nice to go somewhere that was real, not all this artificial entertainment that seems to be the skeleton of LA. The buildings were more than 230 years old and they had great little exhibit rooms in them full of the type of furniture and clothes that they wore.

Clearly we were all very happy here.

I've also come to the conclusion that America is very similar to Australia, except that everything is just bigger. A lot of LA actually looks like Dandenong. With big buildings for shops and take away food etc. Anyway, I took this great picture of an onion. When I saw it in the store, I just had to buy it. Such a novelty. Its sitting on a piece of A4 paper, with a $2 coin. And believe it or not - its organic! Try sitting on anormal onion on a piece of A4 paper and see the difference.

Also got this great pic of the sandwich I had at the museum. Note the 10 layers of ham, and the toothpick they needed to hold it all together. (Click it to see life size). Its just so American!

The other massive American thing that we bought was this beast of a car. I feel a bit ashamed of myself, after all my whinging about the Landcruiser to have gone and bought something equally bad, if not worse. I'm consoling myself with the fact that its only very short term. Functionally though, its great. We can have all the seats down and still fit all our luggage in the back. We also got a bargain! 2001 and one luxury model (leather etc.) for $6500 Australian! After selling our 1993 equivalent for $10000! We may even make a profit when we got to sell it at the end, because the dealers had this model for about $12000 Australian.


Which brings me to our plummeting dollar. Its all very depressing, I've taken to doubling everything to work out the exchange rate, which really makes me cringe when I pay $9 for a 200g block of cheese, or $7.50 for a coffee. Some things are quite a bit cheaper, but its not really the everyday stuff. Theres not a lot I can do though. Maybe we can get the Brits in our house to pay rent in American dollars.

Anyway, I'll try to blog again sooner, cheers, from Nic

Pumpkins

Yesterday we went to a Fall Festival at an environmental centre. The centre had plantings representing the 8 different ecosystems of california. It was really well done and beautiful. Strange to look at plants that I'd normally consider as introduced and know that they are native to where I am. The kids did a whole bunch of crafts which were set up picnic tables around the forests, and plants (i'd call it a garden, but it wasn't quite). The crafts were managed by girl scouts who all had tanned freckled skin, were skinny and had blonde hair. It was disquieting. There was a really cool 'pumpkin patch' where you could choose your pumpkins for halloween carving. Anyway heres some photos.

I found a really great organic store here. Its just huge, with nearly everything you could think of in organic. The prices were reasonable as well. We've been feasting on organic sweet potato chips, they're so yum! The birds at the beach agree too, we were there the other day and they pecked through a pack of unopened chips and ate them all! At this store, there was a dispenser near the trolleys, of disinefectant wipes, so you could wipe the germs of the handle of the trolley. They really are paranoid here. About half of the TV advertising is for cleaning products. The other half is for prescription medicine.

The beach here is fantastic, the sand is perfect for building castles, we built a canal city the other day, the waves are perfect for boogie boarding and the weather is perfect too. Its in farenheit, but I'd guess about 25-28 everyday. (Slightly too hot for me, but great for swimming and the beach).

We're mostly over jet lag now, which is great. I'm getting used to the driving too. I don't think I'll ever get used to the bread though. Theres so much sugar in that it's putting me off toast and sandwiches, which is a bit sad, because that was more than half my diet in Aus. Its also a waste of the six tube of vegemite that I brought. Its like trying to have vegemite on a scone.

Anyways, I shouold be educating the kids right now, so I'd better be off. Cheers, Nic

Yesterday I forgot to explain why its boobooadventure.com, it was because all the reasonable names were taken and this was a last resort. At least it is memorable.

I also wanted to put in some photos of disneyland... it was hard to take great photos, with out getting someone esles bum in the picture, it was that crowded, but this is the best of what I managed.

Had a shopping day today. Went to walmart. WOW! It was vast. It was the size of about 3 bunnings, but still I struggled to find the stuff I wanted (like a some proper coloring pencils such as derwent). Everything was dirt cheap! I picked up a 24pack of crayola textas for $2! A mobile phone with 300 minutes phone credit including intenational for $30! Bargain city. I almost became a shop lover again, but I managed to stay restrained and only bought what I needed. When I paid I used credit, I swiped my card and then waited for the lady to give me the docket to sign. I stood there stupidly for about a minute before asking the lady if I needed to sign. She kindly pointed out that I had to sign using the elctronic pen on the little eftpos screen. It was such a novelty which made me laugh, and she just looked at me like I was a fuitcake.

I also went to a supermarket which was also huge. It was tough going, because I didn't recognise any of the brands, and had no idea what anything was. I basically had to read all the labels and healthy options were few and far between. There were a few wierd and wonderful oddities like grapple... the grape flavoured apple. There was also a starbucks store with in the supermarket. You really need that caffeine kick just to make it from one end of the store to the other.

Anyway, I'm keeling over with tirednesss, even though its only lunch time. This morning I decided to set the alarm and get up early (at 8:30 instead of 11:00) but because I didn't really get to sleep until about 2:00. The idea is that if I wake up early, I'll get to sleep earlier and it will all work out. Same goes for the kids. Yesterday Paul asked Tallis (an hour after she woke up) why she hadn't bounced out of bed. She replied 'I did bounce out of bed, but now I want to bounce back in again'.

So I'm going to have a read on the couch. Cheers, Nic