February 2010

We had a great snow day with the Flores family. It was a fantastic sunny day in the mountains, but there was tons of snow thanks to the all the extra rain we got this year. Benjamin enjoyed sledding this year. Finally! Everyone was beaming with smiles all day.

Juan took Caleb & Sam with him for a press outing on the R/V Sea Explorer with the Ocean Institute in Dana Point. Thanks for taking the boys Juan! They spotted a fin whale. It is the second largest whale. The Ocean Institute took a sample of the sea floor and needed two cute small volunteers. Our boys fit the bill and got to dig in to examine the sludgy sea floor sediment and the animals that live there. They also got to watch a plankton dredge. Then the researcher used a microscope to examine the water sample and showed what they could see under the microscope on a larger viewing screen. The boys got to try to identify types of plankton they could see from the water sample. Caleb and Sam even got interviewed by KOCE. It was aired on television on February 24th on "Real Orange," a KOCE program. It was a very short segment and they didn’t use much of the footage they took, but their 15 seconds of fame was adorable. It is not available online yet, but I’ve been assured it will be soon. Once it is available, I plan to post the clip so you don’t have to watch the whole program. If you prefer, you can check it out at http://video.koce.org/program/1310579128 once it is available. While the boys were busy with all that, Tracy and I took the little ones to the Santa Ana Zoo. It is a very small zoo, but it is just right for a 2 and a 3 year old. Ben was anxious to find all the birds, which really surprised me. I thought he would like all the little busy monkeys that the zoo is known for. He was finally satisfied when we found the bald eagle. It had been injured and rescued. Ben was captivated and didn’t want to move on to the next animal. He also enjoyed the birds hanging out at the pond in the aviary.