Ladd Photos

It feels like just yesterday that we were dropping off our little “Bub” Gavin at kindergarten. But he’s not so little anymore and is ready to go conquer Oak Valley Middle School.

We couldn’t be more proud of Gavin. He got a Presidential Outstanding Academics award, a Reading Olympics Silver award (for reading 5000 pages and running 75 miles), and was discharged from Safety Patrol as a Staff Sergeant.

Most importantly, Gavin is a good kid with a big heart, who is trying his hardest everyday to grow into an amazing human.

We love you Gavin! Congratulations!

Connor’s performance took us all around the globe this year. The kids dressed up in the cultural attire of their ancestors and sang songs from around the world.

Gavin wrapped up his clarinet career with his final performance of the year. I think the band really improved since their first concert.

Another beautiful day at the Safari Park, hanging with wallabies, goats, and gorillas.

The boys had fun at Tia Kristel’s house celebrating Mother’s Day and Connor’s birthday.

Celebrating Connor’s birthday with some sugar.

Gavin had a great game, getting several hits and looking amazing out in the field while playing 3rd and LF. The Bandits won the game when it was called due to a mercy rule: 17 to 2.

Connor had a little graduation program for his Life Lessons classes he participated in though the school. He showed off his karate skills and the instructors demonstrated the different character lessons they taught.

I took the boys to see Butterfly Jungle at the Safari Park, which is an aviary where they have different species of butterflies flying around inside with you.

While waiting in line, one of the zoo keepers was offering samples of mealworms and crickets to taste. Gavin went for the mealworm, and said it tasted like popcorn. Connor was disgusted.

Big brother Gavin helped Connor warm up before the game.

We gathered at my sister-in-law Kristel’s house to celebrate Easter with the Loera clan and some of her husband’s family. We even got cupcakes and sang to Gavin for his 11th birthday.

Easter egg hunting chaos:

The boys wanted to see an Angels game to celebrate their birthdays, so we headed up to Anaheim for an evening game verses the Mariners. After the game, we also got to see an awesome fireworks show.

Unfortunately, the Angels lost 5 to 6, but we got to see some baseball history. Albert Pujols got his 1,993rd career RBI, passing up Babe Ruth, and placing him at 5th in the all-time RBI leaders.

It was time to head back to San Diego, so we spent the afternoon in Solvang on the way back down south.

The boys had fun wandering around some of the Danish gift shops, including the House of Amber, which had a little museum about amber and Vikings. Then we walked down the the Elverhøj Museum where we learned about Solvang’s founding by Danish pioneers and the heritage of Denmark.

We spent the afternoon at Morro Bay, exploring the embarcadero, watching the local wildlife, and visiting the Rock and its beaches. The otters, seals, birds, and squirrels we out in force.

In the evening, we walked around the Farmer’s Market in downtown SLO. We even stopped by Bubblegum Alley so the boys could make a contribution to the walls, which they thought was cool and disgusting.

We spent the morning in the pool, the afternoon at beautiful Avila Beach, and dinner at Firestones in SLO.

So, with the last hour of sunlight we had left, we decided to wrap up the day at Dinosaur Caves Park in Shell Beach. I got some good photos of my family, and Connor playing on the park toys, before throwing around the baseball.