Ladd Photos

My two boys, little brother and little sister had a blast in Grandma’s inflatable pool.

We took the boys to the San Diego Botanic Garden to check out the Insect Festival. There were big lizards, tiny bugs and beautiful plants all around.

The boys love going to Westfield UTC, a local mall close by in La Jolla. The shopping center has a great playground for little kids.

We voyaged way up into the mountains east of San Diego to the little historic town of Julian. We showed the boys all the old stuff in the pioneer museum (they weren’t that impressed) and then wandered around the town. The family and I finished off our day with some BBQ at Bailey’s for dinner.

The boys love seeing animals. This time we went on a safari tour of African animals at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

I loved playing with Legos as a kid (and honestly still do when I get the chance) so it wasn’t hard for the boys to talk me into going to Legoland.

Connor’s mind was blown; his favorite thing to do currently is build robots out of Duplo Legos. Everywhere he looked there were “Lego robots”, as he says. He could have spent all day just looking at all the Lego models and playing with the room full of Duplo Legos, even if there wasn’t any rides.

Gavin also enjoyed Legoland but he was most interested in the rides. He got to drive a bumper car around a race track and went on his first (little) roller coaster.

We also went to the Sea Life Aquarium, because it was part of the package deal we got, but that can be safely skipped. There are much better aquariums around, such as the Birch Aquarium at UCSD.

The boys had so much fun we ended up “upgrading” our entrance tickets to annual passes. SO, now we get to go see the “Lego robots” any time we want.

The first day of kindergarten at Turtleback Elementary School seems to have been just as hard on the parents as the kids. Every parent was struggling with the anxiety of letting their baby go and the chaos of trying to get their little one to line up for class.

It was tough for me to believe that my little guy was embarking on 17+ years of education. Gavin was excited; we were nervous if he would make it through the day. But, it was time to push him out of the nest to see if he could fly.

When we came back 4 hours later to pick him up he tried to put on a strong face but then lost it. He was beyond exhausted and was in his “wandering lost” mode. But, he made it though the day and was excited to go back. There is lots of routine for Gavin to get use too, when he is so use to doing his own thing, but each day will get easier.

Most of the local Ladd clan made it to Grandma’s 92nd birthday dinner and party. I heard that the final count was 27 family members! My sister Courtney and her daughter made it down from Portland and our family came up from San Diego. Hopefully we will get to celebrate many more birthdays for our family’s matriarch.

We were hoping to see our favorite Dodger players crush the Padres. Unfortunately for us, the Dodgers clenched their postseason spot the game before the one we attended. So, instead of seeing our Dodgers we saw the 4th string guys trying to remember how to play baseball. At least there was a nice fireworks show at the end of the game.

We took the boys to explore the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier. It was impressively large. Luckily, we didn’t loose any of them inside of it.

The boys liked sitting inside of the various aircraft the best. I loved seeing the old UNIVAC computer and core memory… because I’m a geek.

Most of all, the trip made me think of my Grandpa Ladd, who was a Seabee in World War II and would have loved to see the Midway.

If Connor practices enough maybe I’ll sit him out at Balboa Park with a tip jar.