Leo Carrillo

A few weeks ago Tara took a trip back east to spend some time with her sisters. She took Melina and left me with the other three. Outnumbered three to one, I had to come up with some pretty good activities. Fortunately, Super Dad came through. I took the kids down to Leo Carrillo State Beach at the low tide and the sea life didn't disappoint. We held all sorts of weird stuff - star fish, urchins, crabs, mussels and snails. Ian in particular got a real kick out of poking every single anemone and watching them close.

BTW...no one got hurt or went hungry. Thanks to help from Callie and our friend Melissa, I was even able to get some work done while the boys were at school! All in all, a great opportunity to spend quality time with my kids.

Cool snail we found, just chilling on an exposed rock. He probably wanted to climb back towards the water.

The boys pose with some star fish.

The boys were pretty quick to ask Lani to crawl into that little cave first.

Purple and gold...who knew that King Triton was a Lakers fan?

This was when we first arrived...everyone's still dry!

Ian smiled but was a little busy keeping balance. The waves kept rolling in at our feet and the rocks we were standing on were pretty slippery. The starfish and anemones stuck on the rocks were pretty cool and added a lot of neat colors.

Fathers & Sons

So about a month ago (yes, I'm that far behind in just about everything I'm doing, even work) I FINALLY got to attend my first Fathers & Sons camp out as a dad. Last year, I was here and the boys were in UT. Year before, we were selling our house. Year before, I was graduating from University of Utah with a masters degree. So this year, I took the boys to Coriganville Park in Simi Valley, near where I grew up. We got pizza on the way, stayed up late, woke up early and had a great time. All those kids running around...it was absolute chaos! Best part of the trip was the morning hike. Another dad and I took a few boys to the top of the hills we camped against. We were just south of the 118 at the Santa Susana Pass, looking out over Simi. Reminded me a lot of catching a few sunrises at Rocky Peak back in high school.

"See this rock I'm standing on? It's big like my arm muscles!"

Nice shot of Aaron as we start the morning hike.


Here's all the local hood-rats looking for trouble.


Apparently "make a funny face" translates to "look like a sissy" when you're eight years old.