The Grunion run

A fun activity we learned about here in Southern California is something called the Grunion run. Grunion are a kind of small fish that come up out of the water to breed on the sandy beach. The eggs are left buried in the sand until ready to hatch. It was fascinating to learn about and see happen. Each of those lines of silver light in the photo below is a Grunion.

The Cabrillo Marine Aquarium had a great program for the run. As we were exploring the Aquarium we found a photo that looked a lot like Levi!

During the program we got to see some of the eggs hatching. Here is one of the eggs on Matt's finger.

It was open season for the Grunion, so Levi got to have fun catching some for us to bring home and eat. He did a great job, especially for having to catch them with his bare hands!

He learned how to clean the fish and we all enjoyed eating them.

The run happens at night, so during the day we enjoyed exploring tide pools in the area and playing on the beach.

It was a beautiful area and absolutely perfect weather.

Camping and dinosaurs

We had a great time at Levi's cub scout camp. It was at camp Emerson in Idyllwild and was a nice cool temperature during the day. At night it was a bit too cold for Ember, so we opted to stay in one of the small cabins there.

Ronan had a wonderful time exploring nature and Levi had a blast enjoying all of the fun cub scout activities. Towards the end of the camp out Levi did take a nasty fall on the bridge and skinned up his knees rather bad.

The main event of this camp out was the bridging ceremony. Levi went from Bear to Webelos. Only a year and half left for him in cub scouts. Crazy how time flies, it seems like only yesterday he was a brand new Tiger cub scout.

On the way back home from camping we stopped by the large dinosaur statues in Cabazon.

Ronan just had a dinosaur themed birthday party not too long before this trip, so the stop seemed like an extension of his birthday celebrations.

There was a gift shop inside the  Brontosaurus. You can climb up into the mouth of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. That one you have to pay for, but included with that is a cool little indoor set of animatronic dinosaurs and an outdoor dinosaur statue park.

Ronan was torn between fear of the large moving dinosaurs, and elation of being surrounded by his favorite things.

A family trip

Almost last minute we realized that a conference for Matt's work was just a few hours away from my family in Texas, most of whom have never met Ronan or Ember. We quickly worked out the details and found ourselves taking a family road trip.

On our way out we stopped by an impressive meteor crater in Arizona. 

Before heading down to Texas, we stopped in Oklahoma to spend some time with my dad. The kids had fun playing in the yard and trying to get our small kite up in the air.

 During that stop we all went to an air museum that was nicely set up for children to enjoy along with the adults.

On our way to Texas Matt tried to do some work while on the road. We had to stop a few times to try and get reception.

The conference was right before Easter, so we got to enjoy the holiday with my older brother and his family. I realized a little too late that we forgot to get a photo with everyone, but here is one of my adorable kids with their Easter baskets.

The boys loved getting to play with their cousins and had fun coloring eggs.

It was a wonderful trip and I am so glad we were able to make it work. Amazingly, the kids were very well behaved on the long drives. By the end of it though, we were all completely worn out.

Pinewood derby 2019

Once again it is time for the boy scout pinewood derby. Levi is in the Bear den this year and he did a great job making his car!

Those are some fast cars! Levi's car is the blue one on the far right hand track.

Levi placed 2nd in his den and 3rd in the pack at the pinewood derby! This is the third year in a row that he will be going on to the district races.

After a long break

I can't believe it's been two years since my last post! Sorry for the long wait. So much has happened I doubt that I can effectively cover all of it. I'll will try to at least cover the highlights.

About one month after my last post, way back in the beginning of 2017, I got gallstones and had to have my gallbladder removed. The gallstone pain was the absolute worst!










Levi Joined the Boy Scouts and did an amazing job at his first pinewood derby!

At the end of 2017 I started doing some freelance graphic design, and in March of 2018 I created Stralative Designs. 

Another great thing that happened in March last year was seeing Levi get baptized  a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Then came the joyous news that I was pregnant! We were expecting to have a new little girl sometime in December.

At the end of 2018 everything seemed to happen all at once right in the thick of the holiday season. First Ronan had surgery to address his sleep apnea at the beginning of November. Then at the end of that same month Levi had an extra tooth cut out that was causing problems.

On December 15th 2018 Ember Jewel Tandy was born. She weighed 6 lbs 12 oz, and was 18.5 in long.

I will try and keep her monthly bear photos up to date on the "Watching Ember grow" page. I will also try to do a better job at keeping this family blog up to date.

Boys and Painting

It's hard to believe that Ronan is already 8 months old. He loves to climb and is even pulling himself up to standing now. The painful first tooth is also starting to cut it's way through. This has lead to lots of grumpy times and sleepless nights.

Levi has been having fun working with his dad on different projects. Here he is working on a bird house for the back yard.

I have been having fun playing around with some paint. This rose took me the better part of a week to finish. I forgot to take any pictures as I went along, but here is the finished piece. I must say that I am rather proud of it.

I also painted an ocean side scene for my dad's birthday. This one I'm not quite as happy with, but I did remember to take a few pictures as I was painting it.

Ronan at 6 months

Ronan is happily crawling now. He does an army crawl similar to what his brother did. 

He has also started eating solids. My baby is growing up!

Ronan now weighs 14 lbs 6.5 oz and is 26 inches long.