The Adventures of WHAW

A day or three at the Lake...

>> Saturday, July 3, 2010

In this episode of the Adventures of WHAW we packed our bags with sun screen, towels, flip flops, and swim suits. We boarded our flight and headed north, landed and headed south and drove to Yuba Lake. We met up with the rest of the lake dwellers and pitched our tents and set up camp. We unloaded the boats and wave runners and hit the lake.

Alea got up the courage to put on the water skis. After 2 attempts at getting up, she decided that she had enough. It was fun to see her trying to water ski.

The flag responsibilites kept Weston tremendously busy. A couple of dudes didn't seem to know how to ride the wave runners and did more swimming then wave running!

The kids parked the boat and spent time playing at the sandy beach.

We had a great time and need to say THANK YOU to everyone who helped put together our fun time at the lake!

Cabin Fever...

>> Wednesday, June 9, 2010

It hasn't even been three full weeks since school got out and the kids have a bad case of cabin fever! So we decided to go hiking in the forest and see what we could find. After a short 120 mile drive east we came across a mountain range that looked intriguing to hike up to. Alea and Weston got out of the car and hiked to the top.

Upon getting to the top they yelled down at us....Hey we see a cabin! Curious, they decided to wander over to it to see if anyone was home. They knocked on the door but nobody answered. They could smell the aroma of hot porridge sprinkled with powdered sugar lurching through the air. Weston decided to knock again and this time the door fell open a few inches. Alea pushed him aside and opened the door wide. Is anyone home? She yelled again. Nobody was home. So we went in and helped ourselves to four hot bowls of porridge sprinkled with sugar.

After eating all the food set out on the table, we looked out the window and realized there was a zip line hanging from one of the trees. Alea rushed over and climbed the ladder to the top of the zip line perch.

After riding the zip line a few hundred times, we heard voices coming from inside. Somebody has been eating my porridge. Somebody has been eating my porridge. Somebody has been eating my porridge and its all gone! You know how the rest of the story goes...

Aliens had landed their colorful space ship and out popped 12 more kids. They brought along with them their 6 parents and Grandma and Grandpa.

We were no longer alone in this cabin. When it came time to eat, the aliens pulled out their alien probes, and stood around a fire they built and roasted their long skinny alien steaks. I hope they washed the probes before cooking their food with them. You never know where these alien probes may have been before.

Alea didn't seem to mind the alien dinner even though we couldn't find the alien mustard.

Weston enjoyed the alien dessert the best. The only way to describe it.....STICKY!

These aliens were really fun to hang out with and spend 4 days observing their strange rituals even if they were a bit loud and obnoxious.

We had a great time and want to say THANK YOU to the aliens that invited us to stay with them in their cabin for the weekend. Hopefully they will invite us again since we have very fond memories from staying at the cabin with these aliens. We might even bring our own probes next time....after we wash them of course!

The Luckiest Dude on the Planet...

>> Sunday, May 30, 2010

This is me. The luckiest dude on the planet!

Why am I the luckiest dude on the planet? Well you see, just minutes earlier we had turned the car back in to the rental place, headed straight to the bathrooms, and then proceeded to pass through the security screening. Weston had packed his Gatorade bottle full of sand at the beach so he could bring some sand home. I told him to put it in the bin with my keys and phone so that they could see that it was sand and not a hazardous bottle of water they don't allow through. The TSA lady doing the screening flagged the sand and had to call for back up. The back up guy arrived fast since he was only standing 3 feet away observing the whole situation. He grabbed the bottle of sand, shoved it against the wall, handcuffed it ,and then escorted it over to the chemical analyzer machine and began to process it. Weston asked me what he was doing. I told him that the guy was testing the sand to make sure it was really from the beach and that it wasn't some kind of counterfeit sand made in China. The TSA backup guy got a laugh out of that one and eventually let it through once the machine told him it wasn't fake sand. We then headed to the gate where I sat down and came to the realization that I am the "LUCKIEST DUDE ON THE PLANET!"

Why am I the luckiest dude on the planet?

Well you see, we had just spent the day at the beach and here I was thinking back about how much fun we had just had.

Here is how the day went...

We woke up early and headed to the airport. It was 6:30 a.m. We were going to the beach for the day. We got there in plenty of time to get our seat assignments. Either Heidi has reserved seats or some other cosmo universal alignment is trying to tell her something cause this is the 3rd time she has been assigned 6C as her seat. If you remember from one of my prior posts, I was assigned 6C once and it turned out to be hilarious.

Once we boarded the plane we flew for about 45 minutes and then landed in Southern California. Upon getting off the plane, I peeked into the cockpit and was a bit surprised. The pilot looked pretty young but apparently knew how to fly the plane since he got us there safe and on time.

Upon arrival we proceeded to the rental car counter, picked up the car, and headed to the beach. The weather was nice with 78 degrees and sunny as the forecast. We got to the beach and within minutes the kids were out in the water. Pretty soon they realized the water was COLD! So they opted for playing in the sand and pretty soon the shovels were out and the digging began.

I asked them what they were building and Weston said in a matter of fact tone, "we are building a hot tub to warm up in." They kept digging, and digging, and digging until they were done.

Once they had their hot tub built to spec, they were determined to fill it with water.

Even though the hot tub was a brilliant idea, the logistics of the water supply prevented the tub from filling with actual hot water. But none the less, they had fun playing in it until tropical storm Alvin came along and created really big waves that wiped out the hot tub. After that, Alea came up with a great idea and decided to switch to geothermal conduction heating as her source of warmth. She hired a few local unemployed engineers to help build her geothermal plant.

Her idea really worked out until the local surfers came along. Apparently she had unknowingly built her geothermal warming apparatus right in the middle of their favorite local surfing hot spot. Fortunately she didn't prevent the local surfers from missing any waves.

After a few hours at the beach we were all pretty hungry and decided to venture out to find some local cuisine. On the way we found a great place to go climbing and spent a few minutes scaling the web of no fear or what ever it was called.

We finally found a great place to eat pizza by the slice and enjoy the fine art in the establishment.

With food in our bellies and more sights to see we ventured along to find the Balboa Bakery and get Balboa Bars! What are Balboa Bars you ask? Only the best ice cream bars dipped in hot melting chocolate and then dipped again in your favorite topping of choice. Heidi and Weston chose Oreo cookie as their topping.

Alea chose to go the healthy route and picked a chocolate covered banana dipped in sprinkles.

After experiencing the bliss of a Balboa Bar, we proceeded to walk along the board walk and see the sights.

We found the carousel and hopped on for a spin to catch the view from the top.

Pretty soon our time at the beach was about up and we headed back to the airport. Alea sat quietly in the back of the car reflecting on her day at the beach as she stared out the window. We were speechless that she was speechless. After all, she's probably going to be a talk show personality some day!

Upon arrival at the airport, we turned the car back in, headed straight to the bathrooms....

Not exactly the Sistine Chapel...

>> Monday, May 17, 2010

A few weeks ago we decided it was time to paint. So we called around and got a few bids over the phone and a couple of quotes from contractors who insisted they come by for a personal bid. We were not really impressed with the work of the contractors after browsing their portfolios. However we did come across one particular contractor we knew well and claimed to have helped paint the Sistine Chapel. We were very impressed with his attention to detail and work ethic.

Concentration often brings the tongue out

A job well done!

Are you 6C?

>> Thursday, May 13, 2010

So last week we headed north to visit the family and upon getting our seat assignments, I was separated from Alea and Weston. They were assigned seats 6A and 6B. I was given 7D which is behind and across the isle from Alea and Weston.

After getting on the plane, the flight attendant suggested I sit next to them and ask the person if they mind moving back and over one seat. So there I am sitting there waiting and wondering each time someone walks by if this is their seat? Finally an older lady stops and looks at me like I was in her seat while her husband stands behind her.

So I politely ask, "Are you 6C?"

Remember her husband standing behind her? Well, apparently he thought I said "Are you sexy?" and just started to laugh as if I had said the funniest thing on earth. She smiled politely back, and said, no and moved along on her way to her assigned seat. Alea and Weston caught on to the humor of the situation and couldn't stop laughing each time someone would walk by. Finally a man walked up, said I was in his seat, saw the kids, and said he wouldn't mind moving.

No, I didn't ask him if he was 6C!

Airline travel complaints

>> Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Air travel used to be a luxury where people would dress up to fly, be pampered by beautiful flight attendants who traveled the world with a sense of adventure and a huge smile. Now it seems a commodity brokered by the internet search engines with the lowest fares offset by baggage fees and ever tighter security screenings. Regardless of all the pat downs and x-ray scans, we love to fly the friendly skies, especially on days like this where the horizon fades from cloudy skies to clear deep blue brilliance.

There's nothing worse than a passenger bringing their own food on a plane that leaves the cabin smelling of food you don't want to eat let alone smell. But who could be mad at this passenger?

Who bought these kids Doritos?

And the last complaint...over loaded ground transportation. You know the kind where passengers are hanging off the sides of a moving vehicle. These vehicles are dangerous unless you have a skilled driver behind the wheel!

B is for Bowling...

In this episode of the Adventures of WHAW...

We went bowling while up in Utah. After all, there's not much to do when the ski slopes are closed, the swimming pools aren't open, and the fact that we were only there for about 36 hours.

Alea preparing to throw her 2 finger split ball!

Weston keeping score!

Heidi in windup ready for take off!

Wynn with the double fingered 6 hole green ball!

Alea claimed she was the winner while Weston declared himself the winner. I just knew I had to be the winner after 10 strikes in a row, but Heidi was quick to explain the difference between a gutter ball and a strike. The final scores were tallied and a winner was declared, but before the winner was announced and the trophy presented, the guy in the lane next to us (see him above in the dark shirt) pontificated the meaning of life without bean-o and we all scattered before becoming engulfed in his toxic cloud of grief. Of course he blamed it on his 2 year old, but I think we all knew better!

Spring Snow Storm

>> Sunday, May 2, 2010

Heidi spent the later half of the week in Utah on a woman's trip. The kids and I flew up Friday and met her at Grandma and Granddad's house. While there, mother nature decided spring needed to cool off a bit and dumped a drizzle of snow on the new flowers.

Desert Hike

>> Sunday, April 25, 2010

We decided to enjoy the nice weather and take a hike out in the desert by our house. The desert is in bloom this time of year so we grabbed the camera, put on our hiking gear, and hit the trail.