A Fall Hike

We went for a hike with our havurah and enjoyed the great weather.

These are some of the boys from our group.

Jacob took the tri-pod/walking stick so we could take this picture.  

After our hike we met at a park and had a picnic lunch.  It was a great fall hike.

La Brea Tar Pits

Jacob was very cooperative with pictures today.


The turtles were a big hit.

Log of turtles.

Atrium

It was a beautiful day.

Jacob enjoyed taking pictures with all the prehistoric animals.

Our movie of the day was Ice Age of course. For some reason I seem to sleep through the movies after our adventures:)

California Science Center

Trying to catch clouds.

Rose garden.

Looking at the Rose garden from the science center.

Pedaling...

...for power

Arctic zone in the ecosystems exhibit.

Aquarium of the Pacific

Welcome to our spring break. We have many activities planned for this week. Stay tuned for more pictures.

Jacob consented to a picture, too bad I couldn't take a good one. We had good timing as the octopus was out and moving today.
Red and white sea anemone.

White sea anemone. It is more impressive in person, looked like marshmallows.

Chocolate chip sea star, who knew?

Cool fish.

Jacob had fun embossing at all the stations. We finished the day out by watching Finding Nemo.

The Ant Farm

Jacob received this Uncle Milton ant farm for his birthday and I finally had the courage to order the ants. I thought I was going to receive ant eggs or something but a tube of angry ants in an envelope arrived on Friday.

What we have here are Western Harvester worker ants also know as bearded ants.

The tube of ants came with a caution to "never handle or touch ants directly as they bite or sting to defend themselves". As soon as Jacob heard this he did not want anything to do with the project. But luckily additional instructions said to refrigerate the ants for 15 minutes to "calm them down". We successfully got the ants into the habitat without any trouble. Additional reading revealed that my ants would be very hungry and thirsty and I should drop a little food and water into the habitat. You mean I have to feed these things! Considering what I usually do to an ant, feeding and watering it is not on the top of my list. Luckily Jacob has volunteered for this job.

Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head

Venice Beach apparently can only handle sunny weather because the last two times it has rained the power has gone out. Not wanting to figure out how to use the emergency release in my electric garage, Jacob and I headed out for lunch by walking. Armed with umbrellas, jackets and gloves we walked to Subway. The rain wasn't so bad but the wind was a problem. We had a nice lunch and made friends with someone who was stuck without her car for 3 hours. After lunch we went to Albertsons to buy graham crackers, I figured a day like this needed smores. I found a recipe for making them in the oven:) Jacob complained the whole way home but he was laughing and smiling while doing it. The power outage lasted three and a half hours, just long enough to be a novelty. It felt good to be a kid again if only for a day.

http://savorysweetlife.com/2009/05/would-you-like-smore-smores-recipe/

Hiking in the Fall

We recently went hiking in the Santa Monica mountains and Jacob had a great time. He colleccted sticks of every shape and size. We all enjoyed ourselves and the change of scenery.