Jacob's Birthday

Happy Birthday Jacob. For Jacob's 6th birthday (which was yesterday) we had a quiet dinner with some adopted grandparents from church. After dinner we did presents and had pound cake and strawberries. For presents he got money to buy himself some fish to put in an old aquarium that we had been storing. Sounds awfully fishy doesn't it. A couple of months ago I made a video to celebrate his adoption anniversary. Here it is



Now on Sunday we are having his official birthday party consisting of having two of Jacob's friends and their respective families.

The Tulip Fields

On this gorgeous, partly cloudy day we went to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm with Aunt Debbie and with a friend from church. It was absolutely beautiful. We chose a perfect day to go. Not too cloudy and not too sunny However it was sunny enough to give me a sunburn. Afterwords we went to the friend's house and she made an impromptu dinner for us. It was good. She took pastrami, heated it up in a frying pan, and then serves it on a bread with mustard, no mayo, mind you. After that we came home to put away groceries and clean up a bit.

They had really neat tractors there.

Andrew was having trouble starting it.

So he applyed the choke.

God Bless

To quote a friend *SNORK*

Ahh, the wonderful melodies of *SNORK*. There are 4 people in our household that *SNORK* every once in a while. Some of them have colds and some of them have allergies.

New Subject:
In our orchard today we noticed that there were 2 Canadian Geese. It was rather interesting. Picture for proof:

New Subject:
Yesterday as part of a home school activity Andrew, Daniel, Jacob, and I went on a canoe ride on the Willamette River. It was on a replica of an Indian war canoe that the captain built. During it we saw about eight different sea lions. I didn't bring my camera with me becuase I was scared that it would get wet. However Mother stayed because she didn't want to get sea sick and she took this photo.

Back to old subject:

Part of this virus is a sleeping virus. Daniel has taken a nap the past couple of days (amazing) and I took a 3 1/2 hour nap on Sunday (Even more amazing)(Part of it might be that I slept horrible that night).

God Bless

Spring is here :-)

Spring is the time of year when a young man's thought turn towards... chickens. Yep 750 chickens came today and are currently occupying our barn. Over the course of the next 8 weeks they will grow to about 6 lbs. a bird and eat more then 20 lbs of feed. We will raise a total of 2,250 chickens over the summer ending in August. If you would like to purchase some please visit our website at http://www.deovolentefarm.com/.

Photos Below:






*New Subject*
Spring is the time of year when a young man's thought turn towards taking beautiful photos of flowers.

Pictures Below:







Darling Sister and Older Brother.





To quote a friend. "God is good, all the time."

The Aftermath

Let me see, the aftermath 2+2=5, 2-1=3. Yup, it's that bad. After a vacation we tend to take a while to recuperate. Mother says it takes about half as long as a vacation was to get over it. We all sort of feel like this.

Anyways, no more math. It's giving me a headache. Know what I mean?

*New subject*
A while ago Darling Sister found this video on Youtube. It was produced by a christian commedian


I hope that all of you have a good day or good night or whenever you read this.
God Bless:

April 5th. - The Mission and The End

The last day on our vacation dawned cloudy and humid. We went to the San Diego Mission with Uncle Rick and Tia Vero (Spanish for Aunt Veronica). It was interesting. Most of it had been taken apart to build different buildings and was rebuilt. They had flowers there and I enjoyed taking pictures of them. Our flight home was uneventful. We flew to home with one stop at Sacramento. It was really nice because we didn't even have to get off the plane. After we found our car at 8:00 PM we drove to a Red Robin for dinner then home to arrive at 10:00. Pictures below:

The Mission.

The Chapel.

Granddad (our benafactor) and Daniel.

Cousin Olivia.

God Bless and have a good day

April 4th - The U.S.S. Midway

The big thing that Dad wanted to do this trip was visit the aircraft carrier, The U.S.S. Midway. Named after the Battle of Midway it was commissioned about two weeks after WWII ended. It was really neat. You get these audio tours that you get to listen to. It talks about a lot of planes but for the most part I skipped over those. We had lunch on the peir looking over the ocean. That was really nice. Then Granddad wanted to have the WHOLE family for dinner (on him) and he took us to the La Jolla (la HOI-la) hotel for dinner at Clam's restaurant. It was really nice and Granddad was very generous and took the bill. Another fun story. On our way to the hotel some one spotted a Bentley/Rolls Royce dealership. Now Panda and Raccoon have been going crazy over sweet cars and they wanted to look at them after dinner. After dinner Dad accidentally took a wrong turn and sitting in front of us was a Maserati and Ferrari dealership! Panda, Raccoon, and even Darling Sister was in seventh heaven. Then we went to the other car dealership and then we came back to our hotel. Pictures Below:
I like the perspective on this one.


The enlisted men sleeping area.


Propeller number 2 engine room. On an
average day it would be 120* in here.


Older Brother likes this spot.


There she is in all her glory.


This table was in the Chief Petty Officers (CPO) mess hall. It is called the POW/MIA table and each item is symbolic.

• The table is small to symbolize the frailty of one prisoner against his oppressors.


• The table cloth is white to symbolize the purity of intention to heed their country's call to arms.


• The single rose in the vase reminds us of the families and loved ones who keep the faith awaiting our comrades-in-arms' return.


• The red ribbon attests to the unyielding determination of the thousands who demand a proper accounting for our missing.


• The lemon slice upon the bread plate reminds us of their bitter fate.


• The salt upon the bread plate is symbolic of their families' tears as they wait.


• The glass is inverted as they cannot toast with us tonight.


• The seat is empty for those who are not here.

Outside of the car dealership.

God Bless.

April 3rd. - Lego Land

I thought Lego Land was sort of disappointing. The first part of the day was uninteresting. We pretty much did three attraction and two of them were really at the five year old level. The second part was better. Darling Sister, Older Brother, and I went and rode all of the roller coasters. They were pretty mild, but they were OK. 6 Year Old and 11 Year Old loved it. 14 Year Old just isn't a roller coaster guy. I feel sorry for him. Then Older Brother and I went and played mini-golf and I beat him by 3 points! :-) They had some fun water rides which involed either splasing in water or squirting water at other people. Overall I thought that it was over-priced ($60 an adult), and If you are older then 13 its too mild. Pictures Below:





Cousins son. Isn't he cute.

God Bless.

April 2nd - Balboa Park

The main attraction today was Balboa Park one of the largest city park in the US. Even larger then Central Park in New York it has about 15 different museums. We got there at about 12:30, had a picnic with the rest of the family, and walked through a conservatory. I got some sweet photos of different flowers (look below). One group went to the San Diego (SD) Automotive Museum. The group that I was with went to the SD Natural History Museum. It cost $9 a person and it was a complete ripoff!!! The only real exhibit was on dinosaurs. Then there were pictures (for sale) of the Arctic and pictures of the top ten dangerous volcanoes. After 15 min we left in disgust. We rode the free trolley till we go to the SD Automotive Museum. It was really interesting because the trolley driver also told us about the park. At the SD Automotive Museum Mother found the exact model of a Fiat that she drove for a couple of years and Dad found the motorcycle that he drove for several years. We also saw a car designed to drive anywhere with out having to stop. On back there was a trailer with water, gas, and an outside dining area. The sides of the car had bumpers on it so you could get out and walk out to the trailer while moving 40 mph. For showering there was a shower head on the front right of the hood (You take a shower in a bathing suit). Then to change a tire a hydraulic leg comes down so the car can keep moving. Then a platform is inserted into slots on each side of the tire and then you can change a tire while moving down the street!!! :-) After the SD Automotive Museum our Darling Sister bought ice cream for all of us. :-). Here are some pictures:











No...that isn't a giant caterpillar.




Cousins Daughter.



Six year old and I on the free trolley.


God Bless.

April 1st - Sea World

Today a group went to Sea World. One of the first activities that I did was go on the Pirate Rapids ride. I did get rather wet. Age 11 and Age 6 liked it so much that we went on it two times. Next we went to Shamu, which personally I thought was rather overrated. The tricks were neat but the "message" that it tried to convey was really wishy-washy "Just believe and you can do anything" was the jist of it. Let me see, what else is there? The other ride there was a roller coaster with water. 6 year old loved it. This was a mild adult ride and when we were done he wanted to do it again:-). After Sea World we had dinner at Phil's BBQ. It was really good. Some of the best ribs I had had in a long time. I hope that all of you are having a good day and not getting incredibly envious of us. Here are some more pictures:


Shipwreck rapids. That's me in the blue sweater.






I really like the lighting in this one.




On the Bay Ride




Look at high this guy can jump.

God Bless,