General Patton Museum

As part of our fun in Palm Springs we drove about 45 minutes away to the General Patton Museum- it is literally in the middle of no where, but while touring found out it was where they trained soldiers for WWII. I know this vacation is sounding very much like a history lesson, but I happen to have a 9 yr. old son that is enthralled with WWII. He loves to read about it, watch movies about it, ask his mother who has no clue, dozens of questions about it. You have to take advantage of opportunities to feed the mind at this age- they sometimes are hard to find.

I really enjoyed this museum- it is so interesting to see all the WWII memorabilia- the place was packed with info and artifacts. You can learn so much interesting stuff.

Statue of General Patton and his Dog ( don't recall his name- sorry -Alex probably does).

This map is printed on silk to help withstand the weather. The green item on it is a clicker- the Army Airborne used this device when being dropped into enemy territory. They would click once and if a friendly was near they would click twice.

This is a wall left from a chapel that was at the Desert Training Base here, with

Grandma and Kate posing for me.

Here are the boys in front of one of many awesome tanks they had there on display.

Kate's favorite way to visit a museum.

The USS Midway

The last part of our trip we went to San Diego for the day and spent around 4 hours on the USS Midway- it was an Air Craft Carrier, now it is a museum. My boys thought it was really cool. They had a ton of planes on deck you could check out up close and you could go through the entire carrier and see where the crew slept, ate, got medical care, the mail room, etc. It was awesome. I would highly recommend it to anyone- well worth the time. We could

have easily spent another hour or two there if we had the time.

Above are Nick and Alex getting briefed in the briefing room (remember Top Gun).

Here are the kids listening to the prerecorded tour- you would enter the number for the area you were at and get a detailed tour about it.

Above is a jet all the kids got a chance to sit in.

This is a photo up by the control tower with the plane deck below. Kate was not tall enough to go on this tour and she was very ticked about it. (Luckily for us - my parents had gone before so they entertained Kate while Bryan and I took the boys).

Alex got to demonstrate steering the boat while the tour guide explained all the men that worked in this area of the control tower.

This was a really fun day and it is incredible to see - it makes you very grateful for the men and women that serve in our military and live on these aircraft carriers for up to 3 months at a time.

San Diego Fun!

While in San Diego we took the kids to a San Diego Padres Baseball Game... It was pretty fun-those huge stadiums are so cool. If our kids could have made it to the ninth inning the Padres even won- on a grand slam at that- Bryan and I were way sad we left at the end of the eighth to say the least. We had a great visit with our niece Whitney and her husband Garrett and it was a fun part of the trip.

Nick and Alex watching the game.

Myself and our niece Whitney who lives in Oceanside now!

Whitney and Kate at Breakfast at this restaurant at the end of the Pier- it was a great
view of the ocean- very pretty!




Whitney's husband Garrett and Alex ( you can see the ocean behind them).

Here is a picture of us on the pier. The smudge mark is on every single photo we took

there. I am very sad about it.

Cute Kate!!

Adventures with Kate #4

While we were saying prayers a few nights ago this is what transpired:

Kate was saying the prayer and I was helping her with what to say.

Kate: Dear Heavenly Father.

Mom: Thank you for our many blessings.

Kate: Thanks for our blessings.

Mom: Bless us we will sleep well.

Kate: Bless we will sleep well.

Mom: Bless me(Meaning Kate) I will stay in my bed.

Kate: Bless mommy and daddy they will stay in their bed.

Very funny- huh! She is just too smart for her own good. She looked at me and knew exactly what I meant and yet she had to be a smarty pants and change it around.. This girl is going to cause me much grief--- I can already tell. Thank heavens for all the laughs she provides as well.

Baseball !!

Nick's baseball season just ended also. He loved playing coach pitch this year- much more exciting than t-ball. He never wanted to miss a game or a practice- unlike last year. He is not a bad player when he is paying attention. He can hit the ball rather good and had a few really nice catches and throws to try to get a player out.

He is so cute to watch- I think he could really get to be a good player- he has a really good throw and seems to take it serious enough. Guess we will see if he is still interested come next year. I hope he is.

Soccer!!

So it has been another fun season of soccer. To start off Alex made his first goal, followed by a few more. He has become quite a good little player ( I know I am his mom and so that's not saying much). He gets in there with the much bigger kids and fights for that ball, and his passing and ball handling has gotten much better. He really enjoyed himself and played as hard as I have ever seen him play any sport. I am very proud of him and glad he had such a great time.