Ladd Photos

Connor and some of his buddies celebrating the 100th day of school with some crazy shirts. Connor had 100 robots stamped on his shirt… which took him and Aliciana quite some time to create.

The Little League season has begun. Connor has moved up to the single A level this year. He is on the Padres again, with the same coaches as his t-ball team, and with many of the players from last season.

Gavin is in AA again this season. This season, all the AA teams are named after Minor League teams. Gavin is on the Scrappers, with a cool bulldog logo. Even though the season just started, he already had a scrimmage versus another team.

Looking for sea life and pestering hermit crabs at the tide pools in Cabrillo National Monument.

I was on hand to help out at Connor’s Valentine’s Day party in Mrs Dastrup’s class. I also stopped in to say hi to Gavin, who was in the classroom across the hall.

Connor and the rest of the Single-A Padres had a scrimmage verses the Mets. He had a good game, getting 3 hits!

The boys had the day off of school (actually, the get off all week), so I took the day off too. We ended up going to the Zoo, and hung out most of the time in the Africa Rocks section.

The boys and I had never been to Universal Studios, so when I saw that AAA had a good deal on season passes, I decided it was time to check it out. We ended up going for today and staying the night to go again tomorrow.

We hit most the rides during a long and exhausting day. We also went on the studio tour, where you took a tram around various movie sets.

Hogsmeade, which is the Harry Potter portion of the park, was our favorite area. I started reading to books to the boys a few months ago, so it was awesome seeing the books come to life around us.

We spent most the day catching shows we didn’t see yesterday: The Waterworld, Movie Effects, and Animal Actors shows. We also ate our lunch in Hogsmeade, which is where I took all the photos for the day.

The rain managed to hold off long enough for the Little League opening day ceremonies to take place in the morning. Tony Gwynn Jr. gave the opening day remarks and all the teams got to parade around the field.

Connor was supposed to have his first game, but the rain started in the afternoon and didn’t stop. So, his game was rained out.

Connor had fun during his first game, playing the Dodgers. The Single A level is tough on all the boys who moved up from tee-ball, because they have to get use to hitting off of a pitching machine.

Gavin’s game wasn’t until the evening, so I didn’t get any photos. He had a great game, crushing a double and getting 3 strike-outs during 1 and 2/3rds innings pitched.

Connor got to play catcher today in his game. He was excited to put on the battle armor.

Gavin had a game as well, but it was too late to get good photos. Plus, I was busy being score keeper for the game.

During Connor’s game, he ended up running to home even though he was supposed to stop at third (Single A rules). He said he was Jackie Robinson because he stole home. The coaches let him have it.

Gavin’s team finally one their first game, which was against the Tin Caps. The team is starting to learn how to play together.

Aliciana was on-hand most the day to help at the Fun Run and take photos. The boys looked exhausted running all those laps.

Connor ran 56 laps (3.5 miles) and Gavin ran 73 laps (4.56 miles)!

All the kids had fun coloring eggs, hunting for plastic ones filled with candy, and playing at their Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

Having driven to Bakersfield the day before, we spent the morning visiting with my Grandma. Then we drove up to Sequoia in the afternoon, checked into the Waksachi Lodge, and at dinner there after unloading our stuff.

After dinner, we went to the Giant Forest to visit General Sherman, the largest living tree by volume. We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. Once the sun went down, we headed a little further up the mountain to Wolverton, to look at the stars.