Rachel came to help Mike with removing the dishwasher. Here they are working on the cabinet under the sink for cleaning and prep for the new dishwasher being installed Wednesday 4/2.

 

Our dishwasher has been leaking. Mike has had a pan under it to catch water since Thanksgiving. He is wonderfully diligent to always empty the pan, but... This is not a very good long term solution, so the dishwasher has got to go.

Have you heard of or used Husky Movers? These little disks were put under the corners of the dishwasher and then the machine could slide easily on the floor (thanks Uncle Matt--these things have come in VERY handy!).

It's out!

Ewwww, look what it was covering up. We knew there was going to be a mold issue. We were not sure how long the dishwasher had been leaking. We had a little mouse making a home under the dishwasher until we poisoned it. Now we have to clean up the mess.

Before

 

After

Leslie did a lot of scrubbing and cleaning to make this look all pretty.

 

Elijah & Rebekah have been taking swim lessons at the Y all this week. On Friday, they allowed the parents to come out on the deck & take pictures. Since Mike had the day off, he came to watch, and got these great pictures!

Rebekah was a "polliwog", and grinned almost the whole time she was in the pool

Elijah was a "guppy", and after he got over his "swim lessons are for babies" attitude, he had a great time!

 

Their home for about a week. Time to say goodbye.

Joanna took a ton of pictures. She snapped pictures of herself and Rachel.

 

We went to a neighborhood church's sunrise service, and not only did they have a FREE breakfast after the service (which was really good!), but they had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids!

After the church, we walked back to Leslie's parents' house, and had our own egg hunt.

Then the Easter Bunny came while the kids were in the back bedroom...amazing!!

Joanna was mad because we wouldn't let her go in the house & get a drink of water. What cruel parents we are.

HAPPY EASTER!!

 

Video removed
 

We took the Ody off-roading on Saturday. It got just A LITTLE BIT dirty!

Joanna didn't like it being dirty, and took it upon herself to clean the back window

The first thing Rachel did when she got out of the van was to point to the nearest hill & say "UP!" So up Mike went, with Rachel blazing the trail (and surprisingly, Joanna in tow!)

Look closely at this pic, or click on itto see it larger. Notice Mike (blue shirt) and Rachel (pink shirt) about half way to the top of the left peak?

There they are zoomed in a bit

The view from the top

Rebekah ran up the hill, and was pretty pooped when she got there!

Our "peak baggers"

Rachel wanted to climb to the second peak.

The wildflowers are amazing this year. These are blooms on a prickly pear cactus

Brittlebush


creosote

our picnic site, with 2 sets of Leslie's aunts & uncles, and some family friends

Rebekah finally talked Uncle Matt into taking her for a ride on the quad

Leslie & Elijah did some target practice

We had a great time in the desert!!

 

Everyone except Leslie made it up the tree. She had to take pictures.

Mike had to keep a hold of Rachel the entire time. She has no fear and just wanted to climb through the entire tree

Mike "fell" down.

 

There is a chocolate bunny waiting for you at Mike's cooking blog MADCookie.net

 

I have setup a FeedBurner account for this website and for the cooking website. This doesn't really mean a lot to most of you, but I want to use this as an opportunity for you to subscribe to the sites and stay up-to-date when it changes. I know most of you only look at the sites when we email you. Leslie is our automatic email system and she is the most beautiful looking automatic email system around!!

Here is what you can do, if you are interested.

1. Go to http://reader.google.com and create an account with Google (if you don't already have one).
2. On the left side, click "Add Subscription". This section might have a green background.
   
3. Type in or copy & paste this text inside the quotes. Don't copy the qoutes. "http://feeds.feedburner.com/AdamsFamilyAdventures"
   
4. Click the add button.
5. Done. You just subscribed to the Adams Family Adventures RSS feed. Don't you feel cool? Don't you feel powerful? You did one the most hip things on the Internet

Want to try one more? GREAT! Do steps 2 - 4, but this time enter "http://feeds.feedburner.com/MADCookie". Now you are subscribed to my cooking website.

What did this really do for you? Well, Google Reader (reader.google.com) is a web site that will look at our two web sites and show you changes that it thinks you have not seen yet. As you read items in Google Reader, it will mark those items as read and therefore, you can be empowered to know what changes on the site. You could wait a whole month between accessing Google Reader and it will tell you everything you missed.

-- Mike (MADCookie)

 

Nearly all of our butterflies have emerged! We got 10 caterpillars, and they started becoming chrysalids on Sat March 8th. They were all chrysalids by the 9th. Yesterday, day 11 of that stage, 2 butterflies emerged. This morning when we got up, there were 5 butterflies, and now there are 8!! We're expectantly waiting one more (unfortunately, I think one of them won't make it). Check them out!

Leslie cut up a tangerine for them to drink

Forgive the flashback, but isn't it cool the way it lit up the interior of the chrysalid so that you can see the wings of the butterfly that has yet to emerge?! Directly beneath it is a butterfly that has just emerged; its wings are still partially furled up.

With our caterpillars, we bought this "Butterfly Bungalow" from Insect Lore, which is a mesh-sided tent so that we can get inside & interact with the butterflies. I'm really glad that we got it--it's been really neat to get inside & up close with the butterflies!

Elijah is inside with a butterfly on the side of the tent (and the tangerines on the bottom of the tent)

Rebekah REALLY likes getting in the tent & playing with the butterflies; I think she'd stay in the there all day if I'd let her!

This is the disk from the top of the cup, to which the caterpillars attached when they started pupating. The shells are the empty chrysalids from which the butterflies emerged, and the red fluid is called "meconium" (a word that should be familiar to moms who've had babies in the past decade). It's the excess fluid & tissue that the butterfly doesn't need, and is excreted when she emerges from the chrysalid.

 

Last night was a huge storm. There was a ton of wind and it got cold (cold for San Diego). We didn't get a temperature reading, but it was cold enough and windy enough to produce hail.

Around 5:30 am we were woken by a clap of thunder (thunder & lightning is very unusual in our area), and then suddenly pea-sized hail began pouring down. By the time it stopped, everything was covered with at least an inch of hailstones. We couldn't take pix in the dark (at least that's what Mike said, but Leslie thinks he was just avoiding getting out of his warm bed in the dark!), but the following pix show what was still left several hours later when we were leaving for church!

 

One of Rebekah's friends had a birthday party at an indoor rock-climbing gym today, and Leslie went with her to serve as her "belayer" (fancy name for the person who keeps the climber from falling to the ground!).

Rebekah did great!

Well, most of the time anyway.

Belayer extraordinaire

Rebekah was a little irritated that she couldn't make it up this particular pitch


We had a great time; happy birthday Alyssa! :)

 

Our homeschool group went on a field trip to Indian Hills Camp. Mike took the day off so that he could join the fun.

Speaking of homeschooling, we've gotten a lot of phone calls & emails with concern about the recent ruling regarding homeschooling in California. It is still legal, and while we are concerned about this court decision, we are trusting that common sense will prevail, and that the authorities will hold this ruling just for the family that was in court and not for all homeschoolers in California. If you'd like to read more about the ruling & the subsequent outcry, go here and please sign the petition if you're so led. Thank you all for your support!

Rachel is pointing out from where we came. We are at Indian Hills Camp. (map)

With all the rain we've had, the grass & flowers were abundant!

The little girls entertained themselves while the older ones were in class

There was a huge playground that all of the kids loved

Even the biggest kids!

Most of the pictures are of the kids playing, but there were two classes that Elijah & Rebekah took.

Volcano class...

...and Orienteering (finding your way in the wilderness)

The kids made their own compasses. Fascinating!

There was even a farmyard, with a very hungry tortoise,

bunnies we could pet,

a fish pond to check out,

and a rock stage for divas-in-training!! :)

 

After our fun night on the town, we headed to a nearby cafe for breakfast. The food was SCRUMPTIOUS, and we had a great time!

For more go to MADCookie.net

http://blog.madcookie.net/DasBlog/2008/03/09/Cafe222.aspx

 

Mike & Leslie got to spend a night alone, away from the kids, thanks to the generous help of friends who kept our little darlings, Priceline (who accepted a ridiculously low bid for a 4-star hotel!), and Mike's company which had the annual awards banquet on the USS Midway this year.

Here's the room with a view on the 29th floor of the Manchester Grand Hyatt (and Leslie's legs, as she's kicking back & enjoying the fabulous bed!)

The views to the east and southwest (with the Coronado Bridge in the background)

The view to the northeast; the lower building in the center, with a white dome-ish looking thing, is Mike's company, American Specialty Health (ASH)

We were close enough to walk to the pier where the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier that's been turned into a museum, is moored

The hangar bay was turned into a party room!

Looking down a bomb elevator

A mannequin representing the Marine who guarded the nuclear weapons

Mess decks

Look waaaaaayyyyyyyy down that corridor; this was one HUGE ship!

Dentist's office

A bomb

Chica in the machinery room

Engineering command room

Engine room

The tour of the ship was just amazing! We had a really good time, and it was nice to walk back to our hotel in cool evening air, sink down into the luxurious bed, and not have to worry about being woken at 6am by little people with feet like ice cubes!

 

 

Another cooking post by Mike at http://blog.madcookie.net


 

This year Mike wanted a pie instead of a cake. Since we have an "uncle" at Costco -- Uncle Kirkland, we got this beautiful apple pie from Costco. Notice the candles arranged to show his age? Leslie is very clever.

Don't run away! It wasn't a huge fire.

But it was kind of hard for Mike to blow it all out.

 

Swing by http://blog.madcookie.net to see the posting about Mike's new discovery: tri-tip steaks

Oriental Tri-Tip

 

Land of Enchantment by Norman Rockwell