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.

Easter

Before I get to the pictures, it's confession time. (As a side note, blogs seem to be a GREAT place to confess your parenting shortcomings without your kids ever actually become aware. Until they learn to read. Then you transition to Facebook, I guess.)

Anyway, Easter Eve, Tara and I were watching a movie. She was writing clues for the kids to find their Easter baskets but never got around to finishing them by the end of the movie. Instead of staying up late to finish, we *MAY* have told our kids that Peter Cottontail was busy placing Easter baskets around the world and couldn't get to our house until a little later, say 10AM, so they should sleep in. And surprisingly, NO ONE SAID A WORD! As a parent all I can say is: Best. Easter. Ever. With that out of the way, onto the pictures.

Hear No Evil, See No Evil, and...wait, what was my line again? Still trying to get this whole reading thing down.

Gratuitous Candy Shot ahead!

My name is Inigo Montoya...

Catch Up Time

So I had a fun experience this week: I inadvertently crashed my laptop. While fixing it, I couldn't get any of the MS Office programs to behave correctly (serious problem for work), so I switched over to Linux. It's been a steep learning curve, but I'm typing this from Xubuntu now. And the best part, certain parts of my laptop, such as Bluetooth, now work better than before! So I can get my pics off the camera and onto the blog MUCH easier. Here's a Melina post:

Hide and Seek

Melina likes to play hide and seek and peek-a-boo. Not a very popular hiding place amongst my more odor-discerning children (though I'm surprised she's the first to start hiding there).

When A Sweet Tooth Goes Wrong

Tara had stashed some jellybeans in my office prior to Easter (I may have opened the bag and sneaked just a few). Melina saw Tara take a few and decided to follow suit while Tara wasn't looking. I came home to find a recreation of that scene in Sixth Sense (couldn't find a good Youtube link) where the little dead girl goes into Cole's tent and barfs all over the place. There was no barf and I laughed pretty hard.

Quintessential Kid Shot

So I was in my office working the other day and was a little hungry so I went out to the kitchen to grab something to eat. Tara had bought some flour to bake with a little earlier in the day, which must have caught Melina's eye. Don't ask me how she go into Ian's robe.

On Thursday I was driving through Redding, CA to visit a client. I missed the turnoff and found myself on the way to Shasta, a small historic site a few miles away. As I looked for a place to turn around, I came face to face with a familiar family name!

It's spelled the right way so I knew it was from the same family. After spending some time on both Google and LDS Familysearch, I was able to make the connection. The street is named for Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff, MD, who lived in Shasta and later moved to Napa in the 1800s. He originated from Massachusetts and sailed to San Francisco during the gold rush. He settled in Shasta and had a storied political career in addition to his medical career.

From what I could find, Benjamin is 4th cousins to Luman Andros Shurtleff and they lived about the same time. They both come from the William Shurtleff line - William Shurtleff was one of the first Shurtleffs from England during the colonial period, back in the 1600s. Luman Andros was descended through William Shurtleff's first son, William, while Benjamin was descended through William Shurtleff's third son, Richard or Abiel.

Miscellaneous Pictures

Here are a few pictures floating around on my phone that I've been meaning to put up on the blog:

Here's Melina learning to be a Jedi Baby form her siblings. I think's it's fair to say Star Wars was a great movie, but I don't know where my kids are getting this whole Star Wars kick from.

This is a picture of Kailani getting a fairy package from Grandma. She absolutely loved it. The only problem? So did Ian. We had to convince him that fairy wings don't belong on boys.

This is a picture of Melina on a recent drive back from Salt Lake. We stopped at the McDonald's in Victorville for lunch and Tara thought it would be a good idea to lure the children back into their seats with ice cream cones. Apparently, so did Melina.

Sock Hop

For Valentine's Day, someone came up with the idea of doing a sock hop at Church. It actually worked out really well for me, as I was traveling for work on Valentine's Day. None of the pictures turned out great, but here's the best one we got.

Saturday Hiking

Since I've been relieved of my blogging responsibilities, I haven't been overwhelmed by the content published (sorry honey). So I figured I'd go all old-timey and throw one up just to show what I've been up to.

Last Saturday, Tara was busy with a Church function, leaving me with an unprecedented amount of responsibility - the livelihood and well-being of all four children...simultaneously. So we hopped in the van, packed bikes and a stroller, and went exploring. There's a great hike here locally that I've been meaning to check out with my family, the Sycamore Canyon hike through Mugu State Park and down to Sycamore Cove on the PCH. I hiked it *many* years ago, growing up in Simi, and figured it would be a great way to spend the morning with the kids.

Here's some pictures, all taken from my phone (can't remember the last time I actually brought a camera). We went in about a mile, most of which was paved. The kids had a blast, and with all the rain we've had, everything was very green.

This is us at the trail head, which was surprisingly dry. There were puddles, and each of the kids on bikes came home (to my utter dismay) with "butt-stripes", but at least they had a good time.

About a half mile into the hike, there's a Native American hut and fire pit. My kids thought it was fun to walk around the fire pit on the log seats.

Here's a picture of the five of us sitting on the trail with the Dos Vientos neighborhood in the background. The trailhead to this hike is literally a five minute drive from our house.

Here's my little angel posing for me in front of Mt. Boney. I told her to smile, and this is what I get. Still cute, though.

Four kids

I have four kids. Aaron is so smart that he often rattles off random facts about space that I had never heard before. He is so sensitive to my feelings that when I start yelling a little too much about why nobody ever picks up their clothes he gives me a hug and picks up everybody's clothes. Ian has the most awesome, winning, handsome smile. His laugh is contagious even to his siblings and, usually, he says he is sorry. Kailani can color in a coloring book for hours, but she also loves "school time," painting nails with mommy, and her favorite thing is to curl up and read books together. Melina is a little pixie. She points a lot at the rabbit that lives in our bushes and says Mommy, and cookie, and ball. In the morning when I get her out of her crib (that's right, her crib-not my bed) she gives me the tightest hug around my neck. I have four beautiful, adorable kids.

Christmas

Christmas was spent at home this year. We skyped Brad's family Christmas Eve morning and had pancakes with Callie, then that night had dinner with my parents and some friends of theirs. I was glad the kids still got to act out the Nativity story. Christmas morning was exciting, but quick because then we headed to San Diego to visit (and meet) more cousins. I met some cousins I'd never met before and they welcomed us in and even had a present for each of my children. We came home and ran over to Callie's for some pizza dinner. Did I mention I love having Callie close by?

The kids loved everything they got and the boys can't wait to get back to the ocean to try out their wetsuits and boogie board.

My Girls

I just can't help myself. I love this video. Melina already wants to do everything her big sister does. She steals her blankie, she follows her around. If Lani has a friend over, Melina is more likely to let me put her down because she wants to do whatever Lani and Seamus are doing.

Christmas dresses-Kristen long ago made Melina's dress. I made Lani's out of the same material.

Twinkle toes

I may a little bit want to live out my dreams through my children. Maybe that's why I put Lani in ballet. But...she really learned to like it. Lani has some social anxiety so about half the time she went to the class, and the other half we sat outside while she cried for me to not leave her there. This is the same girl who I would drop off at the gym daycare to cry for 20 min so I could go work out. Maybe the social anxiety is a result of that. I don't know. Anyway, I discovered if she had a nap the day of the class, she was more likely to stay in the class (and stay awake until 10 that night). So, the day they let the parents visit I was sure to make her take a nap and whala...Lani danced for us.

I love my Lani girl! After the last class Lani begged me to sign her up again so hopefully we will enjoy more footage like this.

I am Back

So, I've decided it's time to take back the reins of the blog posting responsibility. Brad did an excellent job, but I just noticed his last post which was on our daughter's birthday was about an interesting article he had read with no mention of our daughter. Thank you honey, I'll take it from here.

Melina turned 1 on Nov 5. She had chocolate cupcakes (hence the face) two days in a row because I believe you should always get cake on your birthday even if you actually celebrate it at the beach the day before (see Callie's blog for a great Melina photo at the beach).

We took Melina for her one year checkup in December. We headed to Utah and visited my brother and went in to see my kids' pediatrician who I love. Melina weighs about 18 lbs and some change. 48%! This is pretty unheard of for one of my kids. I mean, look at those cheeks. But she really is a skinny minny. Of all my kids Melina has suffered through the most change-Daddy leaves for two months when she's barely 4 months old, then we move to completely new surroundings. Forget regular naptimes, we have no time for those. Maybe that is why she still clings to me. Or maybe I let her a little bit more because she's my baby. My mom says it takes a lot to get Melina to smile, but when she does it's so worth it. It's true.

Interesting Article

It seems I've taken over as the family blogger...not quite sure how I feel about that. But I read an interesting article on Yahoo that popped up on their homepage. It's all about habits of happy moms. Good reading for all you moms, good reading for your husbands. Just don't expect him to help you accomplish all those things without giving him an explicit list of how...anyone who's ever been married knows that mind-reading is not a gift, it's a complete hoax.

Piano Lessons

So I guess it's just ageless DNA at work, but my kids LOVE music. Aaron has really shown a desire and knack for playing the piano so I found an AC adapter for our old keyboard and pulled out the old Alfred Piano Method. Below is a video of my newest little Mozart:


Aaron continues to fly through the book. Last week, his "lesson" consisted of him playing me the songs I had assigned, followed by the next three songs, which he decided to learn because I had been out of town on work and he didn't want to wait until I got home. Next up: learning to read the staff.

General Update

For all you "How I Met Your Mother" fans who read this blog (which is probably just Tara and I), you should be saluting each other by the title of "General Update." For the rest of you, if you receive said salute, just know you're missing out on a really funny show.

So big news in the Jones household...it's almost Halloween and there's still no snow!!! I talked to my parents today and was notified that there was snow with 50 mph wind gusts in the weather forecast for Rexburg. Not sure about the rest of you, but I have a pretty good idea of what my own personal Purgatory would look like were I to opt out of the whole Plan of Salvation deal. Sorry, Rexburg.

In other news, we had parent/teacher conference two weeks ago. Turns out that both Ian and Aaron know how to read and write. The real shocker is that Ian is extremely well behaved, except for when he's talking too much. (No, I did not mix up the names of my boys.) Aaron is also well-behaved, he just likes to lolly-gag (which, I believe, is the technical and scientific term for "too much like your father"). They're both doing well and have enjoyed the first few months of school. Plenty of new friends, teachers are nice and boys even get to see each other at recess sometimes.

Everything is pretty quiet at the moment. I'm still working (and surfing), though I wish I were doing more of each (that darned learning curve). Tara has found a fun group of mommies here in Newbury Park, most of whom are in our ward. Most days are spent watching extra kids or dropping ours off. Melina's even starting to adjust to it a little. Slowly but surely we're nudging her towards that big 1-year jump-off point where we start to retain our personal space a little more. (Not much, mind you, but every little bit seems like a county mile at this point.)

Below are some pictures I took of Melina being herself, which is to say, just as crazy as the rest of my kids.

Here's a quick summary of how our summer looked. Lots of fun. Best part is the boys can now practice YEAR ROUND!!!! (I think Tara's pretty excited at the prospect of sending them outside year round without worry of Child Services. *KIDDING*) Also, this video was on my phone (which started a 48-hour death march yesterday - we now have limited time together, necessitating getting all the videos and pics off of it). So I can't vouch for the quality. But the videos go up, none the less. And I think they're missing audio because of the conversion.

As a side note, they have both started taking my skateboard out, luging down the hill skeleton-style, so they can practice their pop-ups on the move. I'd grab a vid of that, but it would probably TKO my phone.

And for those keeping score, that's Brad - 2, picture-taking-devices - 0. I'm doing my best Ray Bradbury impression on digital media for the good of humanity. (Bragging rights to the first one to get the literary reference.)

First Day Of School

So today was kind of momentous: first day at the new school, and Ian started kindergarten. We're a little anxious about Ian and how he'll handle sitting in class all day without hitting anyone. We're also dreading the call home about an "accident" and a change of clothes. We'll see how it goes. But Tara's pretty excited to be home all morning long with just the girls.

The other kids in the picture are a family in our ward that we've become friends with. They walked out of their house as we were walking past and their little girl Patricia is in Ian's class. He seemed pretty excited to already know someone on the first day of school. We saw several other

families from church that live in the area (not all in our ward), which was kind of fun. California isn't considered one of those conservative-values states, so it's nice walking into a new school seeing people of similar values there. While I'm sure there are families of other faiths with similar values (NP is pretty conservative itself), I just haven't met any of them yet - good thing we've got Boosters (PTA) as a chance to get to know them! (Yes, Tara's already signed "us" up for some class activities and "fun"-draisers.)

California Cars

We were driving to Callie's a few weeks back and we pulled up behind one of the local cruisers in our neighborhood...a bright yellow Lotus Elise. Not sure why you would adorn such a nice car with such a horrible spoiler, but I guess money's not an issue if you own a Lotus.

And in case any of you are wondering, I'm WAAAAAAAAY out of my tax bracket here. This picture was taken while driving either my 2000 Toyota Sienna minivan or my 1996 Civic, both of which are paid off and still run. Seriously, I was pretty happy in my previous post about how excited I was to get a used surfboard on craigslist. But at least I can take my kids on a surfboard, right?

(BTW...Aaron stood up the other day on the Anderson at Mondos. He's pretty excited to get out and try it again. Pretty soon he'll be joining us on those family dawn patrols when everyone's in town. Maybe he can join Brayden and Owen on the Jr Jones Pro Circuit.)

My new board!

So I wasn't planning on buying a new surfboard AT ALL this year. Yeah, I had hoped, but it was more wishful thinking. And then, this nice girl named Kirsten down in West Hollywood decided to deliver me Christmas early at a PHENOMENAL price. Gotta love Craigslist.

For those interested, it's a 9' 6" pintail, knifey rails and a nice little rocker in the nose allowing for late take-offs. The board turns super smooth and is pretty fast. The color is a lot prettier than the picture - it's a really light green, almost a mint cream color. And Dad, yes you can try it out but you'll buy me a new one if you ding it.

BTW...this picture was taken with my camera phone. Until Tara picks a new camera, that's all we'll be posting for the next little bit.