8-4-2011 Thursday - Mary Poppins Musical

We took Noel, Luke, Shera, and her friend, Jane went to see Mary Poppins the Musical at the Segerstrom Performing Arts Center. We had orchestra seats. It was great!!!

8-1-2011 Monday - The River with Friends...

Luke and Shera got to each bring a friend to the river at last. They had been begging forever to do it, and finally we got it all arranged. Luke brought his friend, Drew Christensen from church. The boys have blue zinc cream all over their faces here. What a mess that was to clean up!

They went hunting for snakes and scorpions. They found this kangaroo mouse instead. It was so hot, they could only keep it for about an hour, and then let it go.

Shera brought her best friend in the whole world, Sloane Werner. They have been friends since they were three years old! She's a really cute girl and they have a blast together whatever they do.

Even when they are getting flipped into the air on the raft!

Of course all the kids loved doing that this trip!

7-30-2011 Saturday - Lyle Pedida Gets Baptized!

Jeff had the wonderful opportunity to baptize one of his seminary students this Saturday. His name is and he is from the ward. His friends introduced him into the church. He had to wait until he turned 18 because his family didn't want him to join the church. But now he his up at BYU-Idaho and loving it!

7-28-2011 Thursday - Santa Barbara Victorian Homes... Who Knew???

Who knew that Santa Barbara had gorgeous old Victorian homes?

These homes were built primarily after the Civil War when there were an influx of Easterners that moved to the west.

They wanted to bring their own style with them to the west coast so they'd feel more comfortable in a new area. Soon, there were more Victorian style homes than Spanish Colonial homes.

Many of these lovely homes have remained private residences, but some have become doctor offices, shops, and bed and breakfasts. The Simpson Inn is a 5 Star B&B.

It is such a pretty sight to come upon a beautiful Victorian home while driving through the neighborhoods of Santa Barbara.

8-28-2011 Thursday - All The Parks In A Row...

We went to several parks while we were in S.B. This is the S.B. Botanical Gardens. It is very natural with lots of trees, very wild looking. The Indians used to get their water here and it became the water source for the mission. The Indians built the aqueduct that ran to the mission from this stream.

These perfectly sized and shaped holes were made from woodpeckers!!!
Pretty cool, huh?

Shera is counting how many years old this tree is... Ha! Ha!

We loved seeing this field of wild clover! Do you see the four-leafed one?
Neither do we...

Alameda Park is one of the oldest parks in Santa Barbara and takes up 2 city blocks. It has an 8,000 square foot wooden playground that includes a castle, swings, and slides - totally great for the kids!

Holly's friend from BYU, Pace, lives in Ventura and came up for the day to visit us. We went to the turtle pond, a place where his grandmother used to take him.

There were literally hundreds of turtles all over in this huge pond!

Ducks and fish were there too. They all lived very harmoniously together. Luke and Shera had a great time catching the turtles!

We went to Santa Barbara's famous Crushcakes for lunch and cupcakes too. This is one of Rachel Ray's favorite cupcakerys in the country!

7-27-2011 Wednesday - Fish & Chips & ...

This Fish 'n Chips Dive was soooo good!!!

The girls and I got the traditional meal served on English newspapers.

Luke chose the Clam Chowder...

I also wanted to try something different, so we ordered a small serving of Haggis. I had never eaten it before. It's a traditional Scottish dish that consists of Sheep's Pluck (heart, liver, lungs) minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, and spices simmered in the Sheep's stomach for 3 Hours. Uhhh...
I won't be trying that one again! I could only eat it for the gravy...

And then, just to top it all off and make sure we felt really good and sick afterward, we had deep fried Cadbury and Mars Bars with "Love" (Chantilly Cream)!
Now those were delicious!