San Diego with Padre and Madre

A day at the aquarium

The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is one of my favorite places to hang out. It's also the first field trip that I ever suggested myself--when I was still 3, I saw an ad for it on TV, and asked to go. My parents had never heard of it, but it turns out to be pretty great.

Of course, the main attraction for the masses is the big tanks with sharks, and we got to see them being fed today:

The lorikeets, which you can feed, are also a big hit:

However, I have now become a bit of an aquarium connoisseur, and so I have favorites off the beaten path, such as the leafy sea dragon:


But my favorite fish of all is the purple queen. This is one of the females:


I dragged dad through the place until we found it again...

--Maddie

Soccer season

I'm going to be on a soccer team in the fall, and Dad's going to be our coach.

We got blue uniforms because Dad got the last pick in the uniform lottery...


As you can see, I'm super-fast -- almost too fast for Dad's new camera

Concert at the Getty

We had a wonderful day seeing Elizabeth Mitchell at the Getty -- Thanks to Sara Koenig for the tipoff!

Diving to new depths

Maddie's First Dance Recital

Tickling the Ivories

I seem to have my great-grandmother's affection for the organ...

We love you, GG!

Praise the Lord and pass the remote

Maddie likes to pray before dinner, which for her means that someone else prays and she repeats what they say. So this was the scene from last night:

Yvonne: Lord, we pray for healing for our colds...

Maddie: Lord, we pray for healing for our colds...

Y: ...and we thank you for each other's fellowship....

M: ...and we thank you for each other's televisions....

New Year's Week 2010 at Vail

It was good times in the snowy tundra of Colorado. I started ski school in the newbie group, and by the start of the second day I had moved up so fast that my instructor had to instruct me not to tell anyone I'm three. Here's a sample:





And some other varieties of fun:










I also had a great time with family, including Bella the dog, who is as patient as she is large...



We even saw our old friends the Fergs:


Good times.

A Lion Dance

Christmas presents

Gram bought me the best baby carriage ever.



And cousins Ellen and Jeff got me the best baby ever to put in it.

Halloween

Sugimaru is a neighborhood friend. Every year we go trick-or-treating together through the neighborhood. Last year we were both princesses. This year we went different directions. We must be growing up.

Beginning my education in earnest

You will want to click on the photo to enlarge it, so you can see what I'm reading.

And it wasn't even Halloween yet

Yvonne to Fiona (Chinese exchange student): "Do you want to get your hair cut?"

Fiona: "No, I want to grow it out long."

Maddie: "Then you'll look like a hobo!"

There's some backstory here, but it's funnier without it.

Fire and Water

Another belated post...

We went to the Channel Islands recently, which you get to by a shuttle boat. Practically no civilization on the islands at all (that lighthouse is no longer in use). They call them America's Galapagos...



Here's a shot of the boat we took the first day:


We saw these:


Really, though, this was the highlight:



Don't worry -- those dolphins are not about to become oceangoing roadkill -- they're surfing!

Seriously.

Oh, right... then we came home to this:


That photo was taken from our front yard. While we were gone, they had evacuated our neighborhood. We actually missed the worst of the scare; what you see there is a controlled burn on the hill above us, intended to rob the fire of fuel so it couldn't spread to the houses.

So we came back and had to breathe smoky air for a few days, and brush the ash off everything outdoors. Inside, though, things were fine. And now it's mostly back to normal. Well, as normal as Southern California gets...

In other news, I'm back to school again, and settling in a little more quickly this time.

--Maddie