Watching the sea lions





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First leg of our trip

The kids and I made it down Highway 1 to Cambria today. What a beautiful drive!! We stopped in Moss Landing and ate at the Sea Harvest Restaurant which overlooks the marina. We watched kayakers paddle by, sea lions play in the water, and birds dive bomb for fish!! There was a 2 day old sea lion that the kids fell in love with. He got separated from his mom, and I could barely get them back in the car because they didn't know if she had come back for him. If it was up to them we would have stayed and launched a full-blown rescue for the little guy. :)

Anyway, the kids have played on the beach, swam in the indoor pool at the hotel, and eaten a yummy dinner, so they now have full bellies and are drifting off to sleep getting ready for the second leg of our trip tomorrow.

I wanted to include a picture, but I'm not sure how to do that from my phone. You'll have to wait until we get back I guess. I've already taken a couple hundred pictures so there will be plenty to choose from!!!!! :)

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First All Star Game

Briana has her first All Star softball tournament this week.  She plays on Saturday (6/12) at 2:00 and again at 5:00.  (Nothing like playing in the heat of the day!!!)  The games will be held at Livermore Park in Folsom (park 1 - lower field).  The address is 6004 Riley Street.  It's located between Oak and Blue Ravine.  If you come, be sure to bring water and a hat -- it's going to be a hot one!!! :)

Adam's Kindergarten Graduation

Adam made it through his first year of school!! Today was his graduation from kindergarten!! Here is the graduating class... They sang lots of songs and put on a wonderful ceremony. Adam's favorite song was the "Thank You Song" (which we've heard repeatedly the past few weeks!!!).

Here is the principal, Mrs. Westsmith, giving her speech to the graduates and families.
Then the three kindergarten teachers got to do the same. Adam's teacher is on the left -- Mrs. Woodall.

Receiving his diploma...

And then getting to shake the hands of our school board president, principal, and superintendent. Very official!!!!

Happy boy!

And even happier boy celebrating with Dad after the ceremony.

All of the families were asked to bring something for the reception afterwards, and Adam wasted no time loading up his plate!!

Here's the whole gang that came. Adam had quite a group to share his special day. It was great of everyone to come!!!

And finally Adam and his best buddy Logan. They were even dressed the same (and I swear his mom and I did not even plan that!!).

Another friend -- Sophia. This is just the cutest picture. I can imagine them in 10 years or so heading off to prom after having just taken pictures just like this one. : ) And I'm sure it will be here in the blink of an eye!

It was a fabulous day. He's so excited for 1st grade and was even hoping he got to go to his first grade class tomorrow. I told him he had to wait until August!! Bummer!!! ; ) Can't believe this is our last kindergarten graduation -- they are just growing up so fast!

MI

Guess who learned to ride the quad this weekend all by himself -- Adam!!!
Guess who's having a heart attack -- me!!!

Game changes

A few more ball game changes.....
  • Adam's game Thursday has been moved to Tuesday (tomorrow) at Northside at 6:00 due to Open House being on Thursday.
  • We thought Brie's season was over, but she has a make-up game this Wednesday at Northside at 6:00.

I think that's all the changes for now, but I'll keep you up to date as this seems to be the season of changes!!!


Fun at the zoo

We could not have asked for better weather for Adam's field trip to the Sacramento Zoo yesterday -- sunny but not hot. Perfect!! Here's the gang meeting up before we cross the street and enter the zoo. Those three boys standing in the front looking like trouble-makers were my group!!!

One of the first stops was the flamingoes. I'm pretty sure one of them is not flying away, so I don't know what Logan is pointing at!! :) The best part of the day for me though was getting to play with my camera some more. I love the way this picture came out (even better on the big screen at its original size). I've done a little messing around with action shots, but here I got to play with the manual focus and aperture settings. I'm slowly learning!!

I hadn't been to the zoo since they changed the giraffe exhibit. Now you get to stand up on a platform and look at them more eye-to-eye. Pretty cool.


The orangutans were hilarious. We got there and saw them like this....
Then they all of a sudden started wrestling, rolled down the hill, and landed down in the empty moat at the bottom. The boys of course thought that was awesome!! In fact, they are probably trying it today at school!
Here are all the monkeys!!!
The first time we went by the zebra enclosure, there were no zebras. Here we are making our second round.......and success!
King of the Jungle.
Finally, a picnic lunch before we boarded the bus and headed back to school.
Being as this was his first time to the zoo, he had a great time -- even though he still wasn't quite 100%.

Wrapping up the season

It looks like Brie's last game will be at Caroline Wenzel School in the Pocket area. The address is 6870 Greenhaven Drive in Sacramento (right off Florin) if you want to Google it. Games are at 10:00 and 12:00. Hope to see you there (although if you're looking to see us win a game - don't come!).

Game updates

Briana's game tomorrow is at 10:00 am at Highlands High School. There are a couple of Highlands H.S., so be sure to go to the one at 6601 Guthrie St. in North Highlands or you may be watching a team that is not Brie's!!! After this, she has only one more game before the season ends.

Adam, on the other hand, has four more games. No changes to note there, and hopefully rain won't be an issue anymore!!!!

Hope to see you at a game or two!

Playing with my new camera

Brie played her first season of basketball and every picture I have of her is blurry. I love my little camera I have, but I've been wanting to upgrade to a DSLR for a while. And.....I finally got it!!!


I took it to Brie's practice this week to see how it worked, and here are some of the shots I got.


Practice started off with a "team meeting".

And closer......

Zoom worked pretty well!


Here is an action series. If you scroll through all of them, you can see the play by play. I love it!!!



Oops....missed that one, but I got a great shot of her and the ball (eyes closed, dust flying) -- none of which are blurry!!!

Finally, here she is up to bat. You can see each part of her swing. Fun!!!


Yay -- I'm having so much fun. Can't wait to take a photography class this summer, so I can get even better shots!!