The boys got a lot of books this year, as well as a few games and Legos.
Santa was a little more fun. Connor got a cool R2D2 robot to construct, build the circuits to bring it to life, and then program using his tablet! Gavin got a radar gun so he can monitor his progress to being a fast enough pitcher to draft.
After our morning presents, we headed down south to the traditional Loera Family gathering, for dinner and more presents.
All the PNW Ladds gathered at my sister Courtney’s house to eat dinner, open presents, and watch the Seahawks lose. The camera loves my little niece Braelyn!
We walked around downtown Portland, seeing the giant Christmas tree by the old courthouse, and the Portlandia statue. In the evening, we saw the impressive holiday light displays at the Portland Zoo.
My Dad and Connor got to spend as much time at they wanted reading about every rock in the museum. I’m not sure which of them enjoyed the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks & Minerals more.
The kids had a blast playing in the snow and sledding at the White River Sno-Park near Mt Hood. I even gave sledding a try, and managed not to hurt myself.
We spent our first day on the Central Coast at Pismo’s Monarch Grove, before heading to San Luis Obispo to walk around downtown. There weren’t many butterflies left; most had moved on. The best time to see the monarchs is in November and December. Still, it was a beautiful day.
I also caught a great picture of a Great Blue Heron looking for lunch.
Luck wasn’t on our side today. We spent the afternoon fishing off of the Cayucos Pier, but the fish weren’t biting. In the evening, we watched the Cal Poly baseball home opener, which they unfortunately lost to Pepperdine.
The world was all laid out before us when we made it to the top of Murray Hill, where we could see all of San Luis Obispo, Edna Valley, and even the Pismo dunes.
The entire 5.3 mile Reservoir Canyon Loop took us about 5 hours to complete, but the view along the ridge was totally worth it.
My boys got to experience Hearst Castle for the first time, when we took them on the Grand Rooms tour.
There was a good movie we watched about Hearst before catching the bus up the mountain for our tour. The views from on top of the mountain were amazing. The boys liked the outside grounds and pools more than the inside of the main house.
The animals don’t seem to notice the human world melting down around them, due to Covid-19. I escaped from sheltering at home for a brief walk among them.
We couldn’t have our traditional Easter gathering with family this year, due to the pandemic. But, we still managed to put baskets together for the boys and let them color Easter eggs. We also put together a scavenger Easter egg hunt, where they had to solve a clue to find the next egg.
My “Bub” turned 12, and although we are stuck inside we tried to make it a special day. Aliciana made him a cool baseball themed banner, and his little brother made him a cool green bear out of clay. There were presents, pizza, and a cake for dessert.
Another Covid-19 shelter-at-home birthday, this time for Connor. Aliciana made a cool Pokemon themed banner, and he received lots of Legos.
For his special birthday dinner, he requested Spaghetti Factory, his favorite. And for dessert, him and mom made homemade dairy-free ice cream sandwiches.
Aliciana and I went for an afternoon hike in the Black Mountain Open Space. It isn’t the prettiest land to hike in, but there were some nice views.
We got some much needed outdoors time, rare in these times of pandemic. The boys had fun figuring out how to skip rocks into the lake.
There were quite a few animals out: pelicans diving for fish, lizards, rabbits, and birds of all sorts.
