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Gloomy skies have arrived, so it must be summer here in San Diego. It is always interesting to hear about how hot is in the rest of the country, when is grey and cool here. Well, we get our summer in September/October, in time for fire season.

Anyway, when the marine layer finally burns off, we do get to enjoy summer and with it a lot of fun activities. Summer, of course, for Keegan meanly means WATER FUN. There are so many opportunities to get wet in San Diego.

We went to Seaworld, and for the first time, we actually skipped the animals and shows and went straight to the rides and games, the wetter the better. We met with two of Keegan’s friends from school, Julia and Kenzie, and since Julia wanted to try the big Atlantis roller coaster, Keegan went along too. He barely met the height requirement. Well, it was an experience: it is an actual, adult roller coaster, starting with a big drop, landing in water (and getting totally soaked). Then the car is lifted up by an elevator, and down you go through very fast turns and twists. Granted, we were in the first car, the scarier one, but Keegan was not too happy during the ride. He did not cry but he did not want to try it again, even though he kept on saying how fun it was. It reminded me of the log roller coaster we did in Italy.

watching Julia come down the big jump

We were soaked, on a chilly, grey morning. I did not planned for this, but fortunately I had a change of clothes for Keegan. I even splurged on the $5 drier not to have to walk all day with wet pants. Then we headed for the kids area for some rope climbing.

We finished the day with another big soaker: the shipwreck rapids. It was really fun. This was the first time I went to Seaworld and  I really went on the rides.

More traditional methods to get wet abounds, of course. It is amazing how rarely we go down to the beach, even if we are 10 minutes away. Between the crowds, no parking, and all the stuff we have to lug, we often get discouraged. Plus, it is not all that fun when it is overcast and chilly, a common weather by the coast in early summer. The rare days the stars align just right, we do have a great time.

father and sun watching the waves (or checking out the babes?)

Of course it is a lot easier to bring the water at home, and Keegan had plenty of fun splashing around in various water vessels.

dinosaurs pool with dad. Who is having more fun?

Hannah’s and Natalie’s pool

slip and slide at Kenzie’s house

Unfortunately Kenzie, one of his best friend, left school in May. It was very sad, and we have been trying to get the kids together as much as possible. They get along so well, and even if they are not at school together, they still consider each other as the future spouse.

Seeing how much Keegan liked the slip and slide, we got our own, and invited Hannah and Mila over to try it out. It was a great success, even if the meaning of “slip and slide” got lost somehow. It was more of run and jump in the pooling water at the end.

Oh well, the important thing is that they had fun. And fun they had: no fights, and almost no injuries.

Even Father’s Day celebration involved water: the dads are paired up and they have to throw a water balloon to each other, in many outrageously difficult ways, and try not to drop it. Poor Matt got drenched.

Of course summer is not only splashing around. There are many other fun activities going on. Usually Torin’s birthday party kicks off the season. It is always a fun event. This year the theme was Lego and there were many, many Lego styled items: Lego pizza, Lego cheese and crackers, Lego flavors and decorations.

And of course, Lego cake.

Another fun, annual summer event is the San Diego County Fair, better known to us as Rides Galore, since we really don’t do much fair-related activities, and go straight to the rides.

This year is the theme was Out Of This World, which is great theme for us, since Keegan is really interested in anything space related.

 

In fact, we even went to the airspace museum once and got to listen to a real shuttle astronaut, who kindly posed with Keegan.

Colonel Sherwood “Woody” C. Spring

We went to the fair on Father’s Day, and we explored some of the animals pens, the famed piglets race and swim, and the space exhibit. It was pretty interesting: they even had an “alien” spaceship.

All of this, of course, was just a “side dish” to the main event: the rides. This year we planned better, and bought a wristband, valid for unlimited rides. This was a good idea, since we made up the price of the wristband with the first ride, that Keegan rode 10 times! 10 times, at 4 tickets per ride, at 75 cent per ticket…you do the math.

Another great thing, this year, was that he was tall enough for almost all the rides, so we did not have to go with. When all was said and done he probably went on 50 rides, at least!

He went down the Goliah slide, the only ride I would have not minded riding.

… and many, many car, trucks, and assorted vehicle rides…

Despite our fears he would not ride as much since he did not have a friend with him, Mr. Social Butterfly did not lose any time making new friends while waiting in line to find riding partners.

He went on dragon spinning rides, roller coaster rides, canoes rides…

…they even had the Bruco roller coaster he liked so much from Italy.

…and he rode on any other rides imaginable. The only ride I had to accompany him in, was the ferris wheel, which for some weird reason really fascinated him. I find it pretty boring, but it did offer a nice view of the fair.

We left exhausted past 2pm. It was fun, but I am glad the fair comes only once a year.

Summer or not summer, there is always time to spend quality time with mom and dad. Dad is usually great for wrestling matches, climbing and building.

engineers at work

Mom, on the other hand, is great for book reading and cuddles. In fact, Keegan reprimanded me before because I did not pick him up from school in my PJs, since, according to him, I look better in those, because they re a lot softer and better for cuddles.

Well, summer has just began, and I am looking forward to more fun adventures in the months to come.

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In June, Matt and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary (Las Vegas wedding, obviously). Lucky for us, it happened on a Friday, so we could celebrate without rush. Matt came home with a huge bunch of flowers: Asian lilies, calla lilies and gladiolas. Keegan was a little sad he could not celebrate with us, and he really wanted to take a picture of us: this is his best attempt.

After he went to bed, Matt prepared an amazing dinner, as always, and we exchanged our gifts and cards.

The 10th anniversary is traditionally the tin anniversary: how came up with that? I mean, 1o years is a big achievement, so you would expect something stronger and more valuable than tin, especially considering that the 6th is iron. I am excited about next one, though, because is steel, and stainless still is one of my favorite materials.

Anyway, we both had steel boxes: mine contained candies and clothes, and Matt’s contained a mix CD he made for me with all the popular songs of 2002, and a couple of extra ones. (-:  As for gifts, Matt asked for a keyboard/mouse (yes, not very romantic), and I got a beautiful titanium ring (yes, not very spontaneous, since I chose it myself). We have been using the same jewelry store for years, so we now actually get coupons in the mail. That was convenient, and we got a great deal. Matt got the ring engraved for me: what a womnderful gift.

We had a nice dinner and talked and reminisced, helped by the cool 2002 soundtrack Matt created. It was a great trip down memory lane, and I am looking forward to many, many, many more years together. I am very lucky to have found Matt, and could not ask for a better partner.

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In the past 6 months we have been lucky to observe three exceptional celestial events. And thanks to good timing, Keegan was able to witness all three (even if he may not remember them).

We started off with a spectacular Lunar Eclipse on December 10, 2011. We were lucky the eclipse happened early in the morning, around 5.30 am and Keegan woke up earlier than usual that day (did he feel the special event happening?). We were all treated to a spectacular, blood red, over-sized moon. (of course none of the great pictures in these post are mine…thank you Google images)

The view from San Diego…

… and from Turret Arch at Arches National Park located near Moab, Utah

Then, on May 20, 2012 we had a partial solar eclipse. It does not seem like we will ever be able to see a total eclipse in our lifetime, so this was probably the closest we would ever get. Once again, the timing could not have been more perfect: Sunday, mid-afternoon. Of course we mobilized at the last minute, so all the eclipse glasses were gone, but I have found one old pair I have gotten many years ago. See, being a pack rat sometime has its benefits.

We drove east, since there were forecasts of thick marine layer on the coast, and luckily we only had to go as far as Lake Murray, a nice reservoir/park close to La Mesa. There is a nice walking trail, and ducks and other aquatic animals to entertain a 4 years old.

We took turns with the glasses and got a glimpse of a really remarkable event. It may have not been as amazing as it was in Japan (a full annular eclipse), but still it was a spectacular sight.

We watched most of the eclipse at the park, and as the sun set at home, we caught a last glimpse.

the whole eclipse somewhere in California (or so it seems)

the view from the OB pier: you probably did not even need glasses

close to the maximum eclipse phase

The final event happened on June 5, 2012 when Venus could be seen in transit in front of the sun. While definitely less spectacular than the other events, it was also pretty interesting…once you could actually see it, that is. Again, perfect timing: Tuesday afternoon, after the marine layer lifted off. With my trusty eclipse glasses I could actually track a small, tiny black dot over the face of the sun. Keegan was not too impressed, but he did enjoy watching: lately he has been really interested in everything space-related.

Thank you to Google Images, though, I can show some spectacular images. The real thing looked nothing like that, but who cares?

this was more like what we saw, but 1000 smaller

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