Spring Break

We decided to go to California to spend time with family this year for spring break.  It just happened that Shauna's brother's kids had the same spring break so we were sold and made plans to head to Tahoe and stay the night and then head to San Jose the next day.  The weather was perfect for driving and we made it without any problems at all.

We arrived to find some typical California traffic at the I-80 and I-5 interchange near Sacramento that added about one hour to our drive time.  We thought that there must be an accident, but it was just a merge.  After that we made good time and arrived at Shauna's parent's house ready for some R&R.

Sisters

Siblings

Orange as big as your head

The weather was beautiful the entire time we were there and the kids were able to swim a couple of days in the pool although the water was only about 70 degrees.  They still soldiered on and jumped or fell in on a regular basis.  I even got in one day for a half hour or so--I have experienced much colder swims in my life (thanks Gunlock Reservour).

Watching Home Alone.  Joaquin's favorite.

Ruby getting ready for a swim.

Playing stick ball at Dan and Sarah's.

We chose an great day to go to Santa Cruz and play at the beach.  It turned out to be around 80 degrees and we stayed the better part of the day there and all of got some sun.  It is a lot more fun to go the beach in the Spring than in the winter, which is usually when we are there.  The boardwalk was in full swing and the kids played in the 60 degree water for most of the day.  They also found a friend and they all started collecting shells and selling them to people on the beach.  We bought a few from the young entrepreneurs.  As we were leaving Natalie mentioned that the friend they had made had left with all of the money.  Well, maybe there was a lesson learned there about business partners.

At the beach.

Grandpa enjoying the scene.

Planning the seashell business.

When we did not have any crawdads we ate sand.  You ate sand?

Not that cold I guess.

On a mission somewhere.

The boardwalk

We also went to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium on the coldest day when it felt like 40 degrees.  Good news that almost the entire aquarium is inside.  It was more crowded than when we had been there in the past, but it was still fun and the kids loved it.  We also got to see what happens when you take photos of the octopus with a flash.  Some woman was using her flash in the octopus area, which activity is strictly verboten, because it may harm the octopus.  Well, the woman got into an argument with the employees and the employees had to babysit her while she walked around the octopus exhibit.  She was all pissed off and making a scene.  That was kind of exciting.

At the aquarium.

Shauna and I also took a couple of runs around her old stomping grounds and it was great.  We did a few long runs and took the kids on a long uphill hike during a pretty warm day.  They did awesome and all made it without too much complaining.  They started to drag a bit at the end, but they did great and I was surprised to see our kids growing up so much.  It made the hike much more enjoyable.  I think our older kids are hitting the sweet spot--not teenagers yet, but not babies anymore.  Middle childhood is pretty fine.

At grandma's and grandpa's

Good times

There is money in them thar eggs.

A few good runs with this view.  

Another good trip with the family.  Well worth the time and money.

Education - Think Again?

This week we had difficult night getting our oldest to do his homework--he just could not get it done.  This was supremely aggravating to both of Shauna and me.  After much bribing, cajoling, harping and otherwise, he began his homework.  After a while of observing this play out, I came to the conclusion that he literally could not do it.  And here is why.

He does the same homework each week but with different words.  So he has been doing this same homework for 30 weeks!  He is bored!  I can't blame him.  We as humans are all about change.  We live on it and we thrive on it--if we don't get it then we start to get bored and naughty.  Just by chance I stumbled upon this TED talk by Ken Robinson regarding education and I found it enlightening and has opened up my mind about my children's education.  Is doing the same homework for 30 weeks an education?  Sure a child my learn some reading skill and what not, but is this an education?  Is he or she really developing their brain and bodily potential?  Not from where I sit.

Mr. Robinson also makes the point that we make mistakes the worst things in the entire world in our education system.  We mark questions wrong, give poor marks for wrong answers, etc.  Does this help our kids learn?  Yeah, learn to do whatever it takes to get the right answer rather than be wrong.  I have embedded the TED talk from Mr. Robinson here so when I look at this blog I will be reminded how to help my kids obtain a worthwhile education.

 

Happy Birthday Dear Ruby!

It has been a wonderful couple of years with our youngest.  Here's wishing you a wonderful and happy birthday.  Your family loves you deeply and you are a joy to have in our family.  Enjoy this and many birthdays to come.  I know we will.

Great picture of Ruby afraid she may end up in Goofy's paws

Recent Reads

I have always been a book first person (read the book first, rather than go to the movie) and now that we have three kids and less free time, I basically can only read books in lieu of seeing the movie.  Also, I generally prefer nonfiction to fiction, but recently I read two pieces of fiction that I enjoyed.  The first was World War Z by Max Brooks (son of comic genius Mel Brooks) and Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton.

You might think both of these are about zombie hordes, but really both stories are derived from oral histories.  World War Z of course is about humanities war against a terrible disease that turns exposed people to almost indestructible corpses.  A government official interviews survivors of the war and compiles their stories into a roughly chronological history of the war.  This is a good entertaining novel and has all of the elements of a thriller.  This includes Mr. Brooks' omission of really any information about how the disease came into being and the pathology of the disease.  I assume this omission was purposeful and does add an element of fear and suspense--sending the reader down a road of unknowns even as the book closes.

Eaters of the Dead is based on the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf.  For anyone who has read the poem it is a slog partly because most of us are not used to this type of prose and because it was written sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries.  Mr. Crichton does a great job of telling the story of Beowulf all while entertaining the reader, which generally does not happen while reading the original poem.

In Eaters of the Dead an Arab emissary is sent to the court of faraway ally.  During his travels he encounters some Northmen on the river Volga.  He is eventually conscripted by the Northmen and taken against his will as part of a party of warriors who are returning to the north country to rid it of an ancient evil.  This Arab recounts all of his adventures during a three-year period.  There was a movie made from this book called the 13th Warrior staring Antonio Banderas.  I have not seen it and probably won't see it because it is rated R.  Books are generally better than the movies anyway so not a big loss there.

These are good entertaining reads for someone who likes a little suspense and scare in his or her life.  Both books have substantial violence as well as language and sexuality so they are probably not suitable for young readers.