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Updated: 2004.12.31
December
Zachary working on this year's Pinewood Derby car.
The race is coming up on Jan 8, so we are working on the car over the holiday break. Here Zachary is making sure the wheels are round and smooth.
Off to the left, you can see the car body for this year's car, which looks a lot like last year's car. (see bottom of this page) He decided to go with it again since it did well last year.
Zachary was asking all year to go fishing. We finally got out there in November, and got skunked. At least it was a nice day. Zachary got a fishing pole for Christmas, so we'll be back.
She came up with the idea to do the "Make like a banana and split" car - it looks good enough to eat! And the "toppings" come off for racing to lower wind resistance.
We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and especially enjoyed the jellyfish exhibit. We also got to see the Great White shark they rescued. Of course, the sea otters are always a hit!
We were watching "Garfield", and there was a scene where he visits the dog pound. Peanut got very interested when he saw a dog that looked like him. He is a very sympathetic guy!
Peanut's first trip to the beach. We went to Fitzgerald State Beach, which is a few miles North of Half Moon Bay. It was a cool beach with lots of tide-pools, but it was pretty over-cast, so we drove about 10 miles South and found a sunny beach to hang out for the rest of the afternoon.
The kids rode the dragon coaster a bunch of times, and then they tried the Giant Dipper, and rode that quite a few times. It is a vintage wooden roller coaster from 1924 reaching top speeds of 55 mph. They loved it!
She and her friends performed a dance routine for the talent show at school.
Michigan Trip
This summer, we had our 4th annual Leon Family Reunion. This year, we tried a camping trip, but the weather convinced us to go to Plan B after about half the week. We still had a great time being together.
The cousins hanging out before we headed for the campground.
Playing on the beach of Lake Michigan.
Playing "keep away" back at Aunt Rachel's house after the weather chased us out of the camp ground.
Diane's Dad lives about an hour away so we got to visit with them for an evening.
We never got a group photo, but here is what was left of the group after Rachel & Steve's family left.
His Pack got a special tour, and then we spent the night on it. We even managed to get a few hours of sleep. For more information on the sub, check out the official Pampanito web site.
After the Pampanito, we decided to find some adventures in San Francisco. Zachary got inspired to walk all the way across the bridge and back - almost a four mile round trip.
Jessica & Dad participated in the "Future Scientists and Engineers of America" club before school each Friday. The project above was to build a tower out of straws and masking tape. The goal was to have the lightest tower which could hold at least 20 pounds. Jessica's tower got up to over 30 lbs, but it was a few straws heavier than the other one that held 20, so she cut a few straws out, it still held 20 lbs, and she took home the blue ribbon!
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Diane tackled a fireplace project this spring, which kinda' evolved into a living room project. The old, large, white bricks (which used to go from floor to ceiling) went away. New tile and a mantle went in, along with carpet, sheetrock, crown molding, and a new ceiling texture.
Jessica celebrated her 11th birthday at
Petroglyph where the gang got to pick out a piece of pottery, paint it, and then they fire it in the kiln for you. Jessica made a nice replica of our Peanut. :-)
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Zachary sporting his new Mustache at Jessica's Birthday party.
We happened to come across the AKC Dog Show. Peanut jumped up, and ran over to watch it. He seemed really disappointed that the Cavalier didn't make it into the finals.