Museum of Natural History in Santa Barbara

"Smile, Deer"

Bethie digging for bones

Dryden digging for bones

We went to the Museum of Natural History and had such fun digging for dinosaur bones! We saw the bones of a wooly mammoth!

Castle park and the Pier at Santa Barbara

A burned out mansion, the result of the Tea fire

Dryden at the pier

Bethie and Daddy at the pier.

Dryden playing at his castle park.

The castle park was so AWESOME!

After mommy left to return to the cold and snow, we went to the pier at Santa Barbara, and played at a park that looked like a castle. We also took a drive to look at the devastation the "Tea Fire" caused the Santa Barbara hills.

Santa Barbara Zoo

Giraffe

Bethie had a blast at the zoo!

Dryden and Daddy on the train tour of the zoo

The train that took us on a tour of the zoo

Flamingos, mommy's favorite

Mommy and Dryden with the elephant.

"We found Zaboomafoo, Mommy"

We had such fun at the Santa Barbara zoo. It was a little cold and dreary (in the upper 50's), but who can complain about weather when we are seeing all of these fabulous animals!

Santa Barbara

Dryden digging in the sand
Raise your hand if your name is Bethie!
The kid's new bathing suits.
Dryden and Grandma Carolyn
What a life (or we're hot in these long sleeves!)

While Spokane was still enjoying the record snow fall, we were in Santa Barbara living it up! We stayed with Grandma Carolyn and Grandpa Robert in Montecito, near Santa Barbara. It was a beautiful house with a short walk to the beach.

Christmas in Spokane and Santa Barbara

Mommy and Bethie opening presents Christmas morning.
Serving Auntie Nana in my McDonalds drive through
My new train set
Handing presents to Uncle Andy

We were lucky enough to get TWO Christmas's this year! One was at Grandma Suzanne and Grandpa Hal's house here in Spokane. We opened presents around the tree.
Our second was in Santa Barbara, California. We took a jet airplane to Grandma Carolyn and Grandpa Robert's house there. We opened presents around the rosemary tree that Bethie kept eating!

It snowed and snowed and snowed in Spokane!!

Dryden looking at the fence-- now that's a lot of snow!!

Shoveling the driveway is an all day job!!

Optimism

A HUGE system parked itself directly over the Inland Northwest and left us with many feet of snow on the ground. At last count, we had almost fifty inches!