Nor Cal Pirate Festival 2013

Every year, on Father's Day weekend, there is a large Pirate Festival in Vallejo.  It is a blast!  More than half of the people that attend are dressed up and ready to party.  It has become a yearly tradition for us since moving here, and we love it!
 

This was our first year to actually dress up.  I made our costumes, and got most of them done.  I still have to add buttons and buttonholes to Aaron's vest and make Samuel a shirt.

We always give the boys a budget and they get to choose what activities, rides or souvenirs they want to buy.  This year, Samuel decided he wanted to do the trampoline, and buy a sword and a treasure chest.  So, we split up and I took Samuel to do the trampoline.  He loooovvveeeddd it!  That is one happy boy in that picture!

Adam, at first didn't want to do the trampoline, so Aaron took him to a fencing lesson instead.  He did great!

Well, Adam saw how much fun Samuel was having on the trampoline, and decided he wanted to do it too.  So, after lunch, I took Adam to do that while Aaron took Samuel shopping.  Adam's first bounce produced that look of surprised terror.  I started laughing because he was laughing and screaming at the same time.  He quickly relaxed and enjoyed the experience.

After the trampoline, Adam decided he wanted a sword, too.  After he got that, he then taught Samuel what he had learned at his fencing lesson :)

One of the highlights of the festival is the ship-to-shore cannon battle!  We saw Captain Jack Sparrow on the ship directing the battle from that side.  The "Army" was busy firing back at him and there were several sword fights that broke out on shore.  There was a 3-man fight that was very exciting!  I didn't get a decent photo of it though :(

There were lots of performers, people in costumes, and fun things to look at.  We stayed for most of the day and then made our hot, happy, and tired way home.

June

We were very busy in June.  The last couple weeks of school were packed with school plays, potlucks and field trips.  Both boys did great and really, they are a couple of hams :)  Samuel's play was about the Revolutionary War and the westward migration.

Adam's play was called, "We Come from Everywhere".  It finished up a long project his class had been doing about genealogy.  His class was very diverse and they had a giant map with stars showing where some of their ancestors originated.

 Samuel's fifth grade graduation was a bigger deal than I thought it would be - quite a bit more pomp and ceremony than I was expecting.  Lots of kids dressed up, but he didn't want to that morning, and I wasn't going to fight it.  I think these "graduations" are cute, but totally unnecessary.

 

One weekend, we went to a mirror maze at Fisherman's Wharf.  We had gotten free passes from a friend and the boys had a blast!  We spent a couple of hours doing it and looking around at the shops.  We then headed north to Point Bonita Lighthouse.

It was a beautiful, warm day at the wharf, but it was very foggy just those few miles north!  It was so foggy, that you could hardly see the Golden Gate Bridge and it's only a couple of miles from the lighthouse.

The lighthouse is only open for a few hours on the weekends and you have to go through a small, hand-carved tunnel to get to it.  It's awesome and it feels like you're walking through an old mine, it's so dark and small.  Aaron tried to scare the boys by making growling noises, and they screamed and then laughed.


The day before Father's Day was the annual Nor Cal Pirate Festival.  It's becoming a yearly tradition with us and I think it deserves it's own post.

Adam's Birthday and Baptism

Well, we had a busy weekend!  The partying started on Friday afternoon, when the Brewster parents, brother Ben and his son arrived.  The rest of Ben's family stayed behind for school, work and baby obligations.  The boys immediately got busy playing Legos and sword fighting.  That night, the adults went and saw Iron Man 3.  It was fantastic!

Saturday, our good friends, the Demings arrived. The boys played all afternoon.  The only bad part of the day was when during a wrestling match, Samuel accidentally scratched Adam's face badly.  You can see in most of the pictures that it's a wide scratch that goes from the top of his cheek all the way down to his jaw.  We went to the doctor's yesterday and got some prescription strength antibiotic cream.  It is healing very nicely and hopefully won't scar.
 

Anyway, Saturday evening, after a yummy BBQ dinner, we had Adam's birthday party.  He got some great presents: a pirate kite, books, and a couple of Lego sets he  really wanted.  We had giant ice cream sundaes instead of cake, since Adam doesn't like cake much.

 

  Afterwards, all the little boys helped to build the new Lego sets.

The adults stayed up and played games for awhile.

Sunday morning was church.  Afterwards, we went home and did the last of the food preparations, and headed out for the baptism.  Our local building doesn't have a baptismal font, so we have to travel to the Stake building near the temple, about a 30 minute drive on a good day.  Sunday was not a good day for driving the freeway.  Thankfully, we had taken the back roads and got there in plenty of time to fill the font (with mostly warm water) and get everything else set up.

It was a beautiful baptism, Susan/Mom gave a talk about baptism, Ben Brewster gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and was our IT guy for the video presentation, and the Primary kids sang a song.  Adam had to be dunked twice in the chilly water because his knee came up the first time. We had a decent turnout for our ward - about 40 people besides family, and we had a nice reception afterwards.

When I asked Adam how he felt about getting baptized, he responded, "Good!  I like having the Holy Ghost with me and I like being like Jesus (by following His example and being baptized)."  He also said, "I felt cold and wet!"

Adam-ism: A Really Good Mammal

Here's the latest funny bit from Adam.  This boy makes us laugh a lot!

The Latest Adam-ism:

Adam didn't want bathe one night and asked why we have to take showers.  I said, "Because we're mammals and we would stink horribly if we didn't wash regularly."

Adam looked confused and asked, "Wait.  What's a mammal again?"

Aaron answered, "We're mammals.  Mammals are animals that have hair and give milk."

Adam lit up and exclaimed, "Oh!  Then Mommy's a really good mammal!"

December - Christmas

Christmas Eve started out with the boys getting their new pajamas - Mario and Star Wars themed.  We then read Luke Chapter 2 and then watched the movie, "Joy to the World" that was put out by our church a couple of years ago.  It's a wonderful depiction of the Savior's birth.  We then sang a couple of Christmas songs, checked on NORAD where Santa was, and then put the boys to bed.  They went down pretty easily, convinced Santa wouldn't come until they're asleep.

Adam was told by kids at school that Santa doesn't exist, but he's insists Santa is real.  Samuel tried to convince him that Santa is just us, but Adam said, "NO, Samuel!  If you don't believe he won't come!"  That shut Samuel up and they very much enjoyed preparing for Santa.

 

 Oh!  The joy of having children old enough to read a clock!  For the last couple of years, we've had a rule that you don't wake Mom and Dad up before the appointed time.  This year it was 8am.  They woke up around 7:30, so Aaron and I woke up to excited laughter and "Shhhh!  It's not 8am yet!" being whispered loudly in the next room.  We all finally made our way to the living room to get down to business.

 We open our gifts one or two at a time, so everybody can see what everyone else got.  Samuel opened his "big" gift fairly early.  He got our old digital camera this year.  He loves taking pictures and would frequently use mine without permission. I got tired of trying to find my camera, only to discover the battery is dead.  He had loved it and my eyes might be going blind from all the camera flashes :)

 

They boys got remote controlled cars that do 360 degree turns and flips.

Aaron got some Magic the Gathering cards, a box to hold them, a board game, and a video game.  I got some new pans, sheets, a game, and some movies.  Jenny gave all the family awesome calendars with everyone's birthdays and pictures in them.

Samuel got a table top air-hockey table, and Adam got a Beyblade Destroyer dome.

 

 As you can see, he was pretty thrilled about that!

Video games, Pikmin 2 and a racing game, were also big hits.

And what is Christmas without at least one box of Legos?  This is a Star Wars set that Adam had a great time putting together.  We had a great day, a delicious dinner and lots of fun playing.  We feel blessed this year and hope you all were able to enjoy the holidays, too!