I can cut my own banana!

Father's Day train trip

We took a fabulous Father's Day train trip!

 We took the Surfliner down to San Juan Capistrano.

Rye had no interest in the café car until he learned they have juice and snacks.

 Right at the station in San Juan Capistrano is an incredible petting zoo.

 We petted and fed the animals, including goats, sheep, guinea pigs, bunnies and two zedonks.

 Now that's a sensory bin! It's all corn!

We had a fantastic lunch before coming home. Rye was ecstatic and so was Greg!

Yosemite 2012

We love Yosemite! We always are sorry to leave this beautiful place.

More photos from some new friends here and here.

Throwing rocks into "Rabbit River" (the rapid river)

 Getting firewood

 Playing cars with the big kids

 With pal Hannah

 Still playing cars

 Stamping his journal at Yosemite Village Visitor's Center

 With pal Noah, Hannah's brother

 We saw several deer, but no bears

 With pal Hannah at Yosemite Falls

When you can't nap in the car, you have to resort to other means.

Aquarium with Nana and Granddad

Nana and Granddad came for a visit before Uncle Bill's wedding next weekend. We spent an afternoon at the Long Beach Aquarium!

After the aquarium, we had a really terrible meal at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. The food was not only mediocre, it made Nana sick! Avoid this place! It was a really unpleasant experience!

Trash truck festival

 Forklift driver

 Every year, the Bureau of Sanitation holds a series of local open houses for the public to check out the garbage trucks and other hauling gear. It's genius. The whole thing is free, the kids get a plastic construction hat, they hand out free burgers/dogs, chips and a drink and you can ride in the trucks and climb in some to work the automatic can-dumping arm. Radio Disney takes a spin, there's live music, a game of chance to win a mini trash can, it goes on and on.

Rye thought the whole thing was loud and overwhelming—but exhilarating. We saw lots of neighborhood friends there.

 Riding in a trash truck.

Counting lug nuts

It's not a festival without mariachis.