Check Engine Soon

Twice on our drive to California, we bought gas of a certain brand. I don't want to name names, but it rhymes with "Schmillips 66." Both times, the check engine light came on.

The owner's manual for our van was reassuring, and suggested that we burn through one tank of gas before flying into a panic. We did just that, and the warning light went out in each case. We resolved never to fill up on Schmillips gas again.

Alas, while on the Kansas Turnpike between Wichita and Topeka, the tank was getting low. We had two choices: get off of the turnpike, drive who-knows-how-far, and pay a double toll, or buy more Schmillips gas. We chose the latter. Sure enough, the warning light lit up again, and stayed on all the way to South Dakota, where at the Vermillion exit on I-29 I filled up at a Conoco station.

Drive

We just returned from California. To misquote The Pretenders, 4,000 miles is very far through the snow. Actually, only a tiny portion of that was through the snow. We hit a pretty good snowstorm in Utah on our way west. We had the good luck to drive through Colorado between the two big storms they've had. Not wanting to risk more snow, we took a southern route through Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma on our way back home. Here we are at the Grand Canyon:

We had a terrific time staying with Joel, Patricia, Andrew, Eric, and Paul, and also spent a day at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach with both them and Jim, Rebecca, Ben, Michael, Ingrid, Allison, and Emma. We also visited the Los Angeles Zoo, the Kidspace Children's Museum, and the Huntington Library and Gardens.

A week in Brainerd, MN

[Click on any photo to see a bigger version]

We spent last week on a lake near Brainerd, MN.

The water was very shallow for as far out as we cared to go. Thomas probably would have liked it a little deeper, but he had fun anyway. Here he's sitting on the bottom.

For Ava, on the other hand, it was just perfect. She really loves the water, and is teaching herself to swim.

We often had the beach to ourselves.

Johanna spent a lot of time on the monkey bars.

Mini golf. A hole-in-one for Joseph; two for Tami.

Wearing Daddy's hat.

Around the campfire.

The Picture-takingest Place on Earth

We spent the day at Disneyland with cousins Andrew, Eric, and Paul, and Uncle Joel & Aunt Patricia, too. It was a long day, but the kids had tons of fun.

We were there for around nine hours, and saw a small fraction of the park. That place just goes on and on and on. I can see why they offer multi-day passes.






It was a big advantage having the locals along with us, since they knew all of the good stuff.


We were a little worried that our little kids and their older cousins wouldn't find things to do that would please them all, but Andrew, Eric, and Paul were very patient with us.

Mission Beach pics

Our hotel in San Diego is about one mile from Mission Beach. We walked there this morning, and spent most of our time just playing at the edge of the water. There were several surfers taking turns videotaping one another.

Johanna slipped and fell into the water and was drenched. She seemed pretty pleased about it!

Ava was covered in sand from head to toe. Is there anything little kids like more than sand?

After supper, we walked back over towards Mission Beach, and played in a park for a while.

It's a Small World (no, wait -- that's Disneyland on Sunday)

We missed the shuttle van back to the hotel from Sea World yesterday. (We later found out we weren't two minutes late; we were 58 minutes early.) It wasn't a long walk, but with three little ones, no stroller, one really busy street to cross, and the cool, dark night closing in fast, we took a cab.

We struck up a conversation with the cab driver, and it turns out he was originally from Yankton, SD.