Farewell

January 2, 2026

On Friday morning we fed everyone a pancake breakfast and they all hit the road. It was suddenly very quiet in the house and we started to undecorate. We got most of the place cleaned up on that day but it took a couple weeks to get the place back in order. What a fun time it was. We sure missed Sarah and Brandon and their families.

New Years Eve

December 31, 2025

Wednesday was New Years Eve and we decided to head for Legoland. As it turned out, this was the day that the rain decided to show up. For the most part it was just a drizzle off and on all day long and we were able to have a good time. They did shut down the roller coasters which made no sense to me but we had fun. The good thing is that we got rain day passes so we can come again. I’m sure either Alex or Alycia will be back within the year so I’m sure we will use them.

They had two sets of cars, small ones for the little kids and bigger ones for the bigger kids. June and James were having a ball on these cars.

Adelaide however wasn’t quite getting the hang of it. Somehow she managed to get around the first curve but then she got stuck in a corner and that is where she remained for th remainder of the ride. You can see her there in the back in this picture.

Ella, Sawyer and Holden were in the big cars. They took the driving very seriously.

Mom and I and Alex’s family headed home and Alycia and Trevor spent the night at the Legoland Hotel and did the park again the next day on New Years day. It turned out to be a beautiful day. When they were done at the park they came home and spent the evening with us.

The most exciting thing that we saw that day was a bobcat on our deck in the backyard.

That was exciting because earlier in the week we had a coyote walking on our wall.

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In a cave system that spans over 106 square kilometers spanning over greece and Albania is a spider web crawling with over one hundred thousand spiders. 

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A Day to Unwind

December 30, 2025

Tuesday was a day to unwind. Since Alycia and Bens families missed out on rockets we headed up to Black Mountain park and fired some more rockets off and then both Kira and her kids and Ben and his kids all left us. It was just Alex and Alycia and their families.

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As you get older you sneeze louder
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Beach Day

December 29, 2025

Monday we went to the beach. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. The water was freezing but because the day was so nice we didn’t mind.

It was a normal beach but instead of building a sand castle Alex brought a hot wheels track and cars. It looks like no one got a picture of it, but we basically built a large hill, constructed a castle on top of the hill, and ran the track out the castle gate and down the hill. It actually worked pretty good but the least bit of sand on the track messed up the cars. With all those kids it was impossible to keep the track clean.

We went boogie boarding, threw the frisbee, ate junk food and then went home.

There was another beautiful sunset so mom dragged the kids out onto the deck and took some more pictures. 

Every time the grandkids visit they love to play the piano. This time it was a special treat because Trevor was actually playing some real music and he was helping Zanee make some decent music as well. At one point they called me in and Z and I played a simple little duet that I always played with the kids. It was fun.

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Nine days after Star Wars opened in 1977, Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi) wrote in his diary: ‘Am pinning my hopes on Star Wars percentage which could bring me £100K or more if it does Jaws business, as predicted.’ He ended up earning an estimated $95 million for what amounted to 20 minutes of screen time.

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Hotel Del

December 28, 2026

On Sunday Justin and Evan had to head out. Evan has a new car and he has almost completed the requirements to get a drivers license that will let him drive it. All he has left is some driving time with an instructer in the vehicle he will be driving. He wants to complete that before he heads back to Auburn. So they headed back to Chandler and the rest of us headed to Seal Beach (Childrens Beach) and then to Hotel Dell.

I’m kind of torn on Seal Beach. It was constructed so that the children could have a sheltered beach to play on and then it was gifted to the city with that condition but now that the seals decided they like the place they won’t allow anyone to use it. That used to annoy me but then one time Alycia said to me, “but dad, there are a lot of nice beaches for the kids. How many places can we come and watch the seals this close?” She is right and it is especially cool during pupping season. We checked out seal beach and agreed that it was cool and then we headed on to the Hotel Dell.

We got to the Hotel Dell an hour or two before sunset. After checking out the big Christmas tree and the hotel itself we headed to the beach. That is what the grandkids all wanted to see and our timing was perfect for a beautiful sunset.

I think we all decided that it was a good time to take a bunch of pictures. I also decided to take a picture of each of my four kids who were there.

And of course, they always have their sandcastles. They had several this time and they were all pretty good.

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The fastest animal in the world is the Brazilian free tailed bat if you only count speeds made under your own power. The perigren falcon is basically falling. 

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Sea World

December 27, 2025

Saturday we all went to Sea World. With twenty four of us wandering around the park I was surprised at how well we managed to stay together for most of the day.

It was very crowded however and some of the rides were closed. As usual, mom was able to get us all some very cheap tickets.

One of my favorite shows at Sea World is the dolphin show. Unfortunately it is being renovated right now so the show was held at another pool that has no seating. The pool is also much smaller so the show was mostly dolphins jumping and I couldn’t see much anyway. It will be nice once they have the main pool renovated though. I can’t wait to see what it is going to be like.

It wasn’t exactly a warm day so I didn’t want to get wet but I had to go on the Atlantis ride. If a big guy like me sits in the front of these cars you push the nose of the car down and a wave of water washes over you. That is great on a hot summer day but on a day in December I sat in the back with Z. I only got a little bit wet. I could tell that Z was a little disappointed sitting in the back but she was quite glad when she saw how wet she got even sitting in the back.

Mom is a magnet for little kids. They follow her everywhere and they fight over who gets to hold her hand or sit on her lap. It was no different today. Everyone loves Grandma.

At the end of a long day there was still time for cuddling.

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Killer whales and dolphins often team up to hunt. Killer whales are normally very vocal but they go silent and allow the dolphins to use echo location to find the prey and then the whales go in for the kill. Prey that dolphins can't take down by themselves.

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Boxing Day

December 26, 2026

Boxing day was when everyone else who was coming arrived. Justin and his kids got here around 1:00. Kira drove Landon back to his home and then hit some traffic so she got here about an hour after Justin.

Ben and his gang got here around 3:00 and then Alycia finally pulled in around 5:00. They were delayed quite a bit by traffic. The road between Vegas and LA can be crazy.

Since we had plenty of time to get dinner ready, we sat down and ate pretty much as soon as Alycia got here.

Friday was a rather eventful day however. I guess Adelaide was down for a nap but at some point she climbed out of her crib and got into Princess Lisa’s makeup. They found her asleep in the corner of the room with makeup all over the walls and the carpet around her. 

She was laying in the middle of tubes and bottles of make up. Alex and Lisa did what they could at the time but after everyone was gone Lisa and I spent a good hour or more trying to get it all clean. I think we did an OK job.

While dinner was cooking we took another trip back up to Black Mountain park and fired some more rockets with Ben and Kira’s kids. 

Ben got this amazing shot of Freddie and me shooting a rocket off. Freddies expression is one of pure joy.

After the kids were all in bed, the adults sat down and played the game Alex had prepared for us. I don’t even know how to explain it. Basically, you had to spin a dial and you were assigned various challenges and restrictions. For example, some of the restrictions were that if you spoke, you had to speak in a sing song voice. Every once in a while, a timer went off and you had to go look at yourself in a mirror. It was fun, but I am not very good at that kind of thing so I was definitely the loser.

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J K Rowlings origional title for "Goblet of Fire" was "Doomspell"

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