Ladd Photos

Some photos of the cute new baby giraffe at the San Diego Zoo. I believe she is 8 weeks old in these photos.

Aliciana took some photos of the first graders (and special guest Connor) enjoying the “beach” party they had at school to celebrate the end of 1st grade.

My brother and his wife were in San Diego for the National Homebrewers Conference. My brother’s Bock ended up getting a silver medal, which is quite an accomplishment for a national competition.

Our buddies Brock and Ryan decided to drive down and join in some craft brew drinking festivities. Shawn and Tom, friends of ours from Seattle, were also were in town for the home brewers conference, so it was quite a group.

We all put a cap to the weekend by catching the Dodgers beat the Padres at Petco park. Connor wasn’t in the mood to watch baseball, so I ended up taking him around the Kidsfest activities that were going on at the game. Luckily, I could still catch the few innings I missed on a giant screen being projected for the parents stuck entertaining kids. Petco is a really nice park for families and beer lovers alike.

For our first trip of the summer we spent a few days in the San Luis Obispo area before meeting up with my parents in Bakersfield.

It was nice to let the boys run wild at Cal Poly and to hang out in downtown SLO. Of course we had to eat at some of our favorite places, like Firestone Grill. If I lived anywhere besides San Diego, I would still want it to be San Luis Obispo.

We heard some whales had ventured into the bay off of Avila Beach to feed so we spent part of the day there.

It turned out to be good timing because the next day the pier got closed indefinitely due to instability. Some sea worms have been munching on the pier, causing structural stability problems, which became apparent when everyone heard about the whales and flooded the pier to get a look.

It was tough to get a good photo of the whales, because they were on the other side of the bay, but it was still cool to see them occasionally stick their heads out of the water.

Gavin and I checked out the elephant seas sunning themselves near San Simeon. Connor fell asleep in the car so Aliciana had to stay behind and keep him company. Gavin enjoyed watching the seals flip sand onto themselves and occasionally fight.

My parents and my little brother and sister drove down from Portland to visit in Bakersfield for a few days. Then they headed over to the coast to spend a week at Avila in their camper trailer.

We got to meet my cousin Kayla and her husband’s new baby boy, Levi. He is a cute little baby and yet another little cutie for my grandma to enjoy. Levi is her first great-great-grandchild.

The kids had a blast playing together. My boys cherished their time playing with their Grandpa Rick, Grandma Toni, and Great-Grandma.

The kids all have their own tablets and had a blast playing Minecraft together. It was too hot to be running outside anyways, so technology served as a good babysitter.