Special Treats

Ben & Jerry's free ice cream day gave us a reason for a midweek family excursion to Santa Monica. Cherry Garcia for Bill, Chunky Monkey for Laura, and strawberry (plus some of the first two) for Carson.


Grandma and Grampa arrived on friday and were immediately the toast of the town.


Carson was all smiles to have his Grandma back on the west coast.


Especially since it led to more baking...


And more importantly, more batter licking.


Over the weekend there was time for some hide and seek.


As well as some relaxing time fishing with Grampa. We continued Bill J's string of not catching, but the lack of a hook on the line might have had something to do with that.

Beach Week

Temperatures jumped back into the 70's, making a perfect opportunity to go the the beach.


The combination of Bill home early from jury duty, an extra hour of sunlight from the time change and warm weather made for a fun Tuesday afternoon.


Carson enjoyed a special St. Patrick's day shamrock cookie from Beckers.


The beach wasn't the only place Carson got wet this week. After a solid effort at roof cleaning by Laura the water table was ready to make its first appearance of the year.


Carson ended the week with an invite to brunch at his friend Nikhil's new house in Glendale.


Despite his best efforts, Carson's cheering alone wasn't enough to push either the Hoyas or the Terps into the Sweet 16.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Before we get to the true excitement of the week, it should be noted that Carson made his first foray into baking this week.


More importantly he got to enjoy the fruits of his labor afterward.


Before starting our journey we got a little sustenance courtesy of Minnie. Carson seems to appreciate her hard work at the waffle iron.


Chip and Dale make like their namesakes and show off their backsides. And I thought this was going to be a family trip.


Here the family rides the world famous Jungle Cruise. This picture is taken during one of the 3 seconds Laura wasn't laughing at the skipper's jokes.


It's been a while since Laura and I were on Small World together. How long?


About this long.


Or perhaps this long.


Carson and I follow the Sandy Jordan school of theme park attendance attire. That's right, if one of us goes missing, Laura will have no problem tell authorities exactly what he is wearing (unless of course both of us get lost).


I obviously enjoyed Dumbo. Carson did as well, as it began the first of many rides where we exited and he immediately shouted "More More More". Unfortunately he didn't understand that the 20 minute wait was mandatory before riding.


The rarest of Disneyworld scenes, a character out in the wild not mobbed by children. Carson got multiple chances to slap paws with Pluto.


Walking through Mickey's house we notice he has a load of laundry going. However, the line between Mickey's gloves and Mickey's whole hands is kind of gray, so I'm fairly certain Carson is looking for the rest of Mickey in the washer.


The big mouse himself. Is it just me, or is he putting the moves on Laura.


A Sandy Jordan, and now Carson Jordan favorite, the Enchanted Tiki Room. Even nearing the end of the day, Carson loved the enchanted birds & tiki drummers.


And now, the most dangerous part of our journey- the return to civilization and those California freeways. Talk about a jungle!

Let's Go Fly a Kite

We tried our best to look cool for Oscar week.


This would fall into the category of pictures my physical therapist doesn't want to see.


We did a lot of swimming over the past two weeks, both in Santa Barbara and LA.


It was a truly special treat at Lenny K this week, as instructor Josh busted out the water slide.


As those of you in the rest of the country realized when you saw all the frazzled hair on various starlets, Sunday was very windy in LA. Since we had no stylist visit scheduled, we spent the afternoon flying a kite.


Of course it was so windy we ended up breaking the string, but it was fun while it lasted.


We took an important breakfast meeting or two over the past couple of weeks.


Carson was treated to his first ice cream cone while visiting Santa Barbara.





Also on the dessert firsts theme, we're ready to join Ging-Ging at the echo any day now, because we had our first tapioca, and it was quite warmly received.