Maya Joins a Band

Maya joined a band led by one of the music instructors from school. He worked with them for about 6 weeks and then they performed on a real stage at the Sweetwater.

Maya playing bass.

Keyboard queen.

Maya singing.

The band: Dark May.

LA Memorial Day

We decided to head South to see friends for Memorial Day weekend. 

Sunset en route to our first stop...

 Sam and Jess's house for an overnight visit. Sam made eggs. We had fun.

The next evening we were off to see Jake, Sophie and Melodie in their new digs. Dinner included salad from the garden.

Jake shows Dexter how to use a machete 😬.

Dexter at work.

Off to the skate park.

Jake and Maya.

Todd and Sophie.

Having fun.

That evening we got a babysitter and got to see improv and get dinner at a funky spot in Hollywood.

Solo!!!

We got to go to the crew screening of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Todd worked hard on the show and it was fun to see it on the big screen. This was Dexter's first time coming to one of these screenings.  He was very excited to be part of the fun.

Here we are!

Costumes from the film.

Scary.

Next career...acting.

We aren't too worried that Dad is under arrest.

Movie time!

Lovable

Who can't love these two?

 A classic Dexter pose.

Brother and sis.

Reading buddies.

Love these two.

Field Trip to Cedars Textile Center

Dexter's class had a field trip to Cedars Textile Center where they got to see the process of weaving after they finished their weaving projects in class.

 First all the kids learned about the source of some of the weaving, the sheep and alpacas.

Feeding the alpacas.

Then we all took a tour of their gardens.

Then a demo of how wool is woven into thread.

Other textile sources.

Don't forget about the down from Angora as another source.

Dexter's class after a fun day of textile excitement.

Why We Do This

It's fun to have the blog to share our adventures with friends and relatives, but mostly, we do it for moments like this...

One morning we took a trip down memory lane and found this favorite video Maya making raspberries. Older Maya is trying to imitate her younger self.

The blog is totally worth it!

Passport Day

At school, they celebrate different cultures each year. This year, the focus was on the First People of North America (aka Native Americans). Momma helped out with the abalone necklace making group. There were so many interesting activities and performances.

 Maya's class comes for the necklace making.

Maya makes her necklace.

 So does Dexter.

Another project involved each kid making a feather and then parent volunteers attached them all to create this this amazing piece before the end of the day. Maya stands in front.

Maya's feather is somewhere in here.

Dexter's is the orange one.

Fly!!!

"Golden Gate Bridge" video

A little video of the fun...

Tower Tour

We have a cool friend who happens to work for the Golden Gate Bridge Authority. One day she mentioned that if we were interested, she might be able to get us a tour of one of the Golden Gate Bridge towers. We were immediately intrigued and we finally found a day that worked. There are no public tours for this and we felt very special (and kids under 16 are not allowed). We took about a zillion pictures of the experience. To see all our favorites, including tons of panorama photos, click here.

 On our way.

 Walking to the South Tower for our tour.

Looking up at the tower. We then entered a secret door. 

 Inside we got in the tiniest elevator that you could imagine. Todd, our wonderful tour guide, and I were squished extra close together for four minutes. We didn't get a picture of the elevator (the video shows it a little more clearly), but I promise it was very, very, tight.

We got out of the elevator (still in the interior of the tower) and then climbed up a couple ladders.

 

Here we are waiting to go up the last ladder.

We came out that little hatch with the yellow at the top.

This was our view! Looking toward Marin.

 Looking toward the city.

  It was absolutely amazing. We are standing on the top crossbar of the tower. You can see the North Tower in the distance and the top part of the tower that spans the roadway matches where we are. In fact, at the same time another private tour was going up the other tower and we could see them (not in this picture).

Even though you are so far up, it feels surprisingly safe.

This one shows you the moat around the base of the tower.

Can't stop taking pictures.

Us with our tour guide, Daniel.

Queen of the world.

Cool dude.

  

What a truly amazing experience!