loving this traveling..

Hermosa Beach, Ventura, Carlsbad, Arcadia, Boulder.. I am loving this .. after 7 weeks in LA, so much fun with friends at the parks and beaches, several visits with Grandma Dorothy, helping her get packed to move to her beautiful new 2 bedroom mobile home in Thousand Oaks, moving away from LA has made me REALLY appreciate the wealth I have here! We headed back to Colorado and busied ourselves with a fun history class one of the homeschool moms is teaching, Reese played in his first GO tournament, we attended Homeschool Day at the Denver Botanical Gardens, fun afternoons with our homeschool tween group, and a field trip to an Alpaca farm (that also had a camel and several Llamas -who act as guard dogs for the Alpacas). We got to watch the babies nurse!
We squeezed in some sleepovers and played in beautiful sunshine as well as several snow days and then mommy drove to Santa Fe for a long weekend of satsang with Neelam to renew and rejuvenate and come back centered, present and smiling!!

Then I got an email invitation to go camping with 20 or so homeschool families in Joshua Tree and I quickly ditched my ideas of home the RV had spoiled me on tent camping.. and off we went for some outdoor adventure.
All of our camping gear was packed away in a garage in Hermosa Beach, so we bought a $20 tent from Walmart and a $20 air mattress, borrowed a few sleeping bags and were just fine thank you very much! Tons of rock climbing, awesome community meals and relaxation and hiking and the highlight was one of the dads organized a Magic cards tournament (got decks for all the kids) and Reese has a new passion..

Legoland rocks!!

Thanks to the awesome Homeschooler Discount we got to spend a day playing at Legoland which was Luc's greatest wish after missing out on the Reese and daddy day at Disneyland on his bday. It cost us $50 and the normal cost was about $150, so already I was in a good mood. Being almost 6 Luc got to drive a car in the big kid driving school, that was fun to watch. It was empty so we rode every ride several times without even getting off to get back in line, you just can't beat that. We are so spoiled always going to amusement parks mid week off season, that waiting in a 5 minute line seems like forever!
One of the real treats was waiting for us in miniland, they had a lego creation of the Obama Inauguration at the Capital Building, Reese loved seeing that. We watched the event just a few days prior at Judy and Sierra's house and the kids were really impressed with all of the emotion with seeing Obama sworn in. We saw a very cool 4D Lego movie and of course stayed until the park closed and we were all worn out.

Reese turns 9!!!

Before we headed back to Colorado, we spent a few days visiting Grandma Dorothy helping her pack to move to her beautiful new mobile home and also visiting Judy, Sierra & Canyon in Ventura. The downtown area of Ventura is so cute and we had a great time playing at the beach there watching the surfers and building forts out of giant sticks. Sierra invited Reese to attend her homeschoolers art class and he came home with some beautiful watercolors. When we arrived Sierra had made a cake for Reese to celebrate his 9th birthday, such a warm welcome and we can't wait to visit again. Our big adventure was a day trip to Ojai and a relaxing soak in the woodsy hotsprings.
My big score was picking as many tangerines as I could carry on one of our walks and I ate them for the next 2 weeks.
OH I miss picking fruit off a tree in the middle of winter.

One big party here..

The 6 week trip we had in Hermosa Beach was one endless celebration! My sister Keyanna turned 18 in December! Then Christmas of course, we had Christmas eve with mom's family and Christmas day with my stepmom Lynne and a huge dinner for 30 that she prepared on Christmas night, oh and we also celebrated Hanukkah since my other sister Myev had converted to Judaism (she cooked Ladkas and said all the prayers and we lit candles every night), Then in January... Myev's birthday, Lynne's birthday, Reese's birthday and on the same day my 17yr AA birthday! We had 3 different parties for Reese's birthday, two with family and one with friends and then he played lazer tag and also went to DisneyLand on his actual birthday.. for free of course! How cool is that. All of this occurred in just one month, I am exhausted just writing about it.
We also planned a memorial for my Grandpa Bill who died the day after Christmas, it was moving and lovely and it was very good to gather with my Grandma, her sister and all their kids and the kids kids, my sister Myev sang Amazing Grace, I read a poem that I wrote, we told stories and ate of course. My grandpa was ready and I was glad that he was able to move on to the next big adventure, whatever that is.

Luc is in the game!

Sure enough, Luc is playing Go with the big kids at the library on Sundays.. my baby.. it's wild, this is a sophisticated game..
I finally played a few games with Reese and as of yet I have not really grasped it. These kids are really open to so much, mostly I am blown away about how they grasp "being" in the world, they are so open when I talk about Unity - Oneness - the interconnectedness of all of life. Sensing that God is everything, the divinity of all of life, how everything is as it should be, yeah, they get it, they are open little beings constantly amazing me, delighting me, inspiring me and mostly entertaining me, the greatest show on earth!

Hanging with the family in Hermosa..

So great, my Mom, Bryan and Melinda came down and we spent the late afternoon at the beach, the lighting, the ocean breeze, the relaxing vibe at the beach.. loving being with my family.. we laughed and goofed and played like kids.. good times..

It's snowing in Las Vegas..

Once again I am reminded that buying my timeshare 11 years ago was such a gift! We booked a gorgeous condo in Las Vegas and invited my girlfriend Colleen and her brood to join us. I had checked the weather and knew that that December in the high desert was expected to be cold, but we were in for a surprise when it started snowing, apparently it has not snowed in Vegas for 2-3 years, it was quite a sight, palm trees covered with snow. they got 11 inches in Henderson which is just North of Vegas. Since my boys were still recovering from Chicken Pox we were still laying low, playing lots of games and making daily ventures to the jacuzzi. It is always awesome to hang out the the Krueger family, I pretend i am in a large family (since I grew up an only child) and I love it until it gets too loud and overwhelming and I run to my room and take a break.

After a few days of quiet, I piled 5 of the kids in the car and we headed out to the strip to explore the free kid shows and activities. We saw the tigers at the MGM hotel, visited the M&M store - 4 floors of M&M branded products and a 3D movie that we are enjoyed on their theater, We walked and walked, saw the Eifel Tower at Paris and a great show at Caesers Palace, played in the Apple store in the forum shops and the amazing FAO Schwartz store with a 2 story Trojan Horse that you can walk through! We wore ourselves out walking and the kids were tired and our car was some 2 miles down the road. When i tried to hire a taxi I was told one taxi could not fit all 6 of us, we'd have to get 2 taxies, I did not want to split up our group as I was the only parent. I remembered the train that runs down the strip and we walked a long was to access the train only to find out it would cost us $30 to take the train, more than the cost of 2 taxies. What to do??
I approached a big van and asked a guy to give us a ride, but he said no! Reese was really not feeling well and complaining, I was stressing.. I walked out a side entrance to the hotel we were in and a man approached me, can I help you? .. I desperately
tried to gather myself, i was panicking a bit.. we need a ride, just a mile down the road, to the MGM hotel..
I'll give you a ride he said.. he was standing nearby a massive Limo I realized.. it looked like a truck from the front, it was a Ford, i'd never seen anything like it. I'll take you .. for $20. ok, lets go.. the kids went crazy.. he opened the door and we piles in.. wow.. it could hold at least 15 -20 people, it had disco lazer lighting throughout, amazing music from every direction.. and get this.. a pole to dance around. The kids could stand up in it, they could not believe it.. none of the kids had ever been in a limo and for the next 20 minutes (there was a lot of traffic) we were pop stars! Janina Colleen's 9 yr old daughter kept saying "I'm a pop star!" All the kids took turns dancing on the pole, we sang to the music and I took lots of pictures. It was the highlight of our trip.
Yes I spent a week in Vegas, did not gamble or see a show, but lots of deep relaxation .. very nice after our 12 hour drive from Colorado.. after 6 days there, we headed to Pasadena to see my mom, sister, cousin & niece & nephew. It's been 6 mos since seeing our family, can't wait.

Thanksgiving 2008 at Martha's house

Yes, it is officially a tradition for have Thanksgiving at Martha's house, we've done it for 2 years in a row now. We celebrated in her brand new house, that she bought just a few months ago and Timothy and his boys are all moved in now and it's one big happy Brady Bunch family. We also had some friends from CA in town and both the food and fellowship was grand! I ate my first homemade cranberry sauce, yummy.. I had been on a no sugar no flour diet for 45 days and set it aside for the day and enjoyed it very much. As much as I love and appreciate my family, it is so nice also to create new traditions with friends in new places just to affirm that the love is alive and well where ever you are and I so appreciate the liberation of knowing that "it" can be Anywhere, anytime, and can look anyway.. such a gift just to be Present.

Gotta love the Apple Store!

Our local homeschool group descended on the Apple Store for an awesome field trip to learn to play Garage Band. There is so many things I don't know how to do on my Mac, this was one of them. We had 30 or so kids and they had at least 5 "geeks" there to teach the kids how to make their own music, it is a virtual composer game and really fun. What's more is that they gave us free online training for a year just for setting up the field trip, what service. Luc played the games on the new iphones, he is amazing, just logs on by himself and can entertain himself for ever.