So I Was Shocked into Reality

Is what my friend Shawn called to tell me. She had been shopping at the Disney Store and found boys sweat pants on sale for next to nothing. However she realized that Austin going to MIDDLE SCHOOL with Grumpy on his sweats might not be the coolest thing.
Yep. Middle school. What is up with that?!

The Gymnast

Austin decided he wanted to try guitar and Melissa decided she wanted to be in gymnastics. She started just in time to participate in the Summer Spectacular. And while she only had taken about 4 classes she did very well. The gym rented out the gym at a local high school and made developed all the routines to a disco theme. They had the coaches out there to make sure the kids were safe. Anyway, she had a blast!

Mother's Day

Taking advantage of having the zoo membership we headed down into San Diego for Mother's Day. (Poor Greg was still a little jet lagged from the Japan trip he had just gotten home from 2 days before.) We had a great time! My favorite polar bears were showing off for us as they swam and played in the water. The kids had a great time posing with all the metal statues they have around the zoo. And again. This place is so big you can't see it all in one day!

Greg's First Trip to Japan

Work called and Greg answered. Greg had to go to Tokyo for work, something he has always wanted to do. He had a blast! First of all they had a limo come to the house to pick him up to take him up to LA to catch his flight. Then of course because they are in business class they get slippers to wear on the flight and pretty decent food.

While there wasn't time for site seeing he did have a few adventures. The Grand Hyatt is the best hotel he has ever stayed at. The beds had tempurpedic mattresses and the toilet was heated and had a tushie washer! Ha ha.

He said the food was phenomenal! The first night out they went to a small little restaurant and they ended up meeting Sylvester Stalone. Go figure! Who would think you have to travel halfway around the world to meet a celebrity.

Greg said it was probably one of the safest and cleanest cities he's ever seen. He says that the kids that would be Austins age ride the subways by themselves and he never felt unsafe.

The last night he was there the hotel got to do the hula. Yes. That's right. The hotel did the hula. He happened to be there when Japan got hit with about 8 really good size earthquakes within an hour or so of one another in the middle of the night. Not always fun to hear back in the States.

He is back safe and sound. Thank goodness! And ready to go back again I'm sure.

Off to the Wild Animal Park

We thought it would be a good idea to get a membership to the Wild Animal Park and the Zoo. We should be able to make a couple trips this year since they are both so close to us.

We had a blast! We discovered the train that runs around the Savannah. Very informative! And while you wait in line, you can wait under misters. Always a plus. There is so much to this Park. We saw things on this trip that we had no idea were there when we visited in June of 2007. This place is big!

As you can see from the pictures they have a few lions at the Park. Must be a proud Daddy. One of the females had 4 and the other had 3. The park also adopted another cub that was a month older whose mother wouldn't or couldn't care for him. So there are 8 cubs in all. Apparently the adopted cub cannot be let out with the adults. But he goes and hangs out with the other cubs to learn how to be a lion. This particular day Dad was not to be messed with. Those cubs would go over to him and he would yell, in a loud voice that they were to sit down and be quite. I guess he was busy watching all of us on the other side and couldn't hear.

Hmmmm....

Our CPA wanted to know why he cringes everytime he hears, "Hi Bill. It's Christy"

It's Still Warm Out...

So we went to go explore the San Diego Natural History Museum. That was really neat. They had a Pompeii exhibit that was facinating! Note to self...when doing self guided audio tours that have both adult and child versions; always listen the the kid one! It is always so much more interesting! Greg managed to take a bunch of really cool pictures while we were there. The Museum is located in Balboa Park, parts of which are very old and really cool architectuarally speaking. And then there's the fact that Greg takes excellent pictures....