Family Games - Get a Clue!

Sarah had been playing with our edition of Clue most of the afternoon so we played it as our activity for family night. Jonathan was not in a good mood so we had a hard time convincing him to play, but he grudgingly agreed finally. He loves Xbox and computer games, so of course a boardgame is much more tedious for him and he rarely has the patience though he does have good gaming skills. So we began and most of us were into it except for Jonathan but he made a few notes. We went around on the first turn and some got to make some accusations to narrow it down, but on my turn (going last) I only rolled enough to move but not enter a room to make a guess. Jonathan was still not into the game, but on his second turn he put in a guess for the room, suspect and weapon. And he nailed it! HE WON BEFORE I GOT MY SECOND TURN OR WAS EVEN ABLE TO ENTER A ROOM! Hannah was stunned with mouth open as Jonathan just got up and walked away. I think he gleefully enjoyed that, but was even more happy that he didn't havce to play that long.
(As a side note, that is probably a reason why I don't like that game as much, but will still play it. I prefer and recommend Mystery Express for a murder mystery deduction game.)

Rockets Red Glare

Our family has always enjoyed doing our own fireworks show. It reminds me of when I was young and we did them in front of our house. We have made it a tradition since we moved back to California to do a family fireworks show in my work parking lot in Costa Mesa. We did it mainly because fireworks have been illegal in HB/FV, but even though they are legal in HB this year, we like our traditions. A few families join us for our small celebration, and as our kids get older they have taken the reigns from dad in lighting up the event. So I got to sit back and take a few pictures:

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Memorial Day '12

My wife Michelle organized us to go to the Fountain Valley veteran memorial by the civic center this evening for Family Night/Memorial Day. It was neat as our kids saw the memorials for the various wars (they shared what they have learned in school about the history of those wars), with the current plaque for the Afganistan conflict covered with flags and pictures of those who sacrificed their lives. Humbling to say the least. We also saw the 9/11 memorial for the city, made out of a piece of gorder from the WTC attacks. Michelle shared stories about Grandpa Stagg and the time he served in WW II away from his family. My father was in the airforce at the time of the Korean war, but never went to battle. We ended the evening by watching the movie "Saints and Soldiers", an emotional movie about sacrifice in war.

My dad in gear.

My dad in the Air Force.

Dizzyland

Good times at Disneyland with the family. We miss Brittany, but we can still have a good time with the rest of the family in Cali!

 BEFORE . . . .

. . . . AFTER

BEFORE . . . .

. . . . AFTER

LaJolla Nature Pics

Here are some of the nature pics from our trip down to LaJolla as a family. It was such a beautiful picturesque day and there was was plenty of sea life to view.

This dude was crowd-surfing over his buddies.

You should've seen the sea lion who got caught in this trying to climb the rock!

These pudgy guys are like torpedoes.

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LaJolla Family Trip

With Brittany in town, we took a family ride down to San Diego county, specifically to see the temple. As she weighs the pros and cons of getting married in either the San Diego or Newport Beach temple, we got to have a day of play for the family. Here we are at the SD temple:

Shell then took us to some cool sights on the shore by LaJolla. We explored a tunnel to a sea cave, saw flocks of birds & sea lions, watched crashing waves against the rocks, and even mingled with seals on the beach. Quite the fun day with absolutely beautiful weather.

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