Orange county fair

I love county/state fairs more than many things in this world. I try to make it to the orange county fair multiple times a summer. I've even been to the Alaskan State fair (where I rode a mechanical salmon, by the way).

My favorite things about the fair are the knitting, quilting and crochet, the wood working, centennial farms... oh man, all of it.

This year was a little different with baby in tow. Lots of finding a good place to feed him. But I did get a chance to go through the textile exhibits twice and got all inspired. Next year I will submit a piece or two, just have to decide what!

Museum of art

One of my goals when we moved here to Los Angeles was to explore it. I've always been nervous driving into LA by myself, but now that I live right here in good old downtown Hollywood.. it's time to say YES to exploring ALL THE THINGS!

Today's photos brought to you by LACMA! I registered online for their NextGen membership, so Wyatt and I both got in free!

Urban carnivores

One of the great things about living in this great big park are the lectures that the Friends of Griffith Park host periodically.

Tonight a researcher from UCLA discussed her research about rodenticides and their impact on bobcats. We have a bunch of bobcats here in gp, which was one of the areas she studied. It's a pretty clear correlation now between when these poisons are introduced into the environment and the fatalities of the urban carnivores,  with enough of an increase in deaths due to mange that that became a focal point of her study. Recently, Griffith Park's famous mountain lion P22 was found to have mange, most likely due to the correlation between the rodenticides he is exposed to amd the inflammation to the immune system it causes.

Interesting information,  and there's a lot more at urbancarnivores.com and on the facebook page of the same name.

#200happydays day 17

Baby wearing

Makes me feel like such an in tune mother.

Nothing makes me happier than spending the day in a sunshiney park with unschooling moms while cuddling my baby close in a sling.

Trip to Sequoia

The one good thing about Fresno is that it's an easy drive up to Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park and National Forest. Our friends loaded up their toddler, while we loaded up the baby, and we drove a beautiful hour to get there.

We checked out Grant's tree, we went to the Chicago Stump, and on our way back stopped at a beautiful meadow. My husband has a remote control drone that he attaches his Go Pro camera to, and so a lot of our stops are based off of where he thinks he can get the best video.

#200happydays Day 14

I can feed him anywhere!

entertaining babies

we found a field!

Grizzly Falls

Mini family vacation

#200happydays Day 13, in photographic form...

Visiting our friends who just moved to Fresno, we had all sorts of fun...

Torturing our son on our car trip to Fresno...

Little family portrait

Baby absolutely enthralled by the ceiling fans

Baby BFFs hanging out

Wyatt's dog, friend, and protector

Time to swim... and totally unsure about this wet stuff

Trying on hats!

Munchkin

One of my greatest pleasures in the whole world is playing tabletop games. I like party games (like taboo, scattegories), and classics (like scrabble or Risk), but my favorite type are tabletop games like Dominion, Seven Wonders, Castle Panic, and Ticket to Ride. It's always nice to find other people who like to play too, as few people outside of my family seem to have the desire to play quite as much as we do.

This weekend we visited friends who have Munchkin - an easy to learn tabletop game that pays tongue-in-cheek homage to D&D. Of course, I have the added dilemma of how to be a nursing mother while getting in my game fix. This weekend, I was very pleased to have a baby perfectly happy cuddling and sleeping in a wrap so I could be hands-free to play!

#200happydays Day 12

England baby

My sister recently went to England for a few weeks, and when she came back she brought Wyatt this Padington. Too adorable not to be my happy days post.

#200happydays day 11

Neighbors

Today a neighbor took me on a tour of their backyard, so that I can come swim whenever I want. They've rescued dogs, rabbits, and a goat from the park (my husband actually rescued the goat and gave it to the neighbor). All the houses in our neighborhood are built into the hills, so their Jacuzzi is up some beautiful mosaic toled steps and has a great view. Pictures will come, I am sure.

The happiness here...a husband who talked up how much I love to swim, a neighbor who offered.

#200happydays day 10

Park day

Wednesdays are park days, the staple of any good homeschooling week. Today was a small group. We sat in the shade, and I sang to the baby while he laid looking at the trees and squawking.

#100happydays #200happydays day 9

Griffith J Griffith

It's been a while since I've posted anything about this fantastic park I live in. It's been so hot the last few days that I have either hidden myself and baby away behind dark shades, or gone down to my family's houses for swimming pools. So, time to revisit!

This popped up on my facebook feed today -- Griffith J Griffith, well known as being the man who donated the money to build Griffith Park... is also known for Shooting His Wife In The Head (through an eye, actually). It is HIS statue I drive by every day to get home!

So, he makes her get on bended knee, shoots her in the eye, she *survives*, and jumps off a balcony to escape.

That's not why I am choosing this as one of my #200happydays posts. The happiness for me comes by way of the fact that we have a diagram of this event, and that we have the right combination of archiving and technology that I can share it with you now.

#200happydays day 8

Chlorine and remote control helicopters

First, my happy days post was going to be about loading the car up with baby and husband, swimsuits and go pro, and heading to my sister's to swim the day away. But then I got home and discovered a new and fun photo editing app on my phone.

Today really was a sweet, simple day. We outlasted three different servers at a restaurant for lunch, swam for hours watching little kids learning how to swim, had frozen yogurt, and flew my husband's drone with his new first person goggles. And of course, all this with Wyatt oeering out of his carseat and over shoulders, taking it all in. He makes every little experience sweeter.

#200happydays day 7

Say cheeeeeese

It sounds cheesy to say that my best friends are my family, but it is very, very true. There is no one I would rather spend time with than my sisters, no one I think is smarter than my mom and no one I find as delightful as my dad.

One sister lives in San Francisco now, and came down on the bus this week. My mom picked her up in the early morning at Union Station, and since I was awake feeding the baby, they brought breakfast to my house. We sat on the front lawn eating pancakes and talking baby talk to Wyatt.

Of course,  I forgot to take pictures of that.

But here are some of Wyatt with my family.

#200happydays,  day 6

Wonder

I remember before we were married taking my husband to Disneyland.  "That was fun," he said, "it'll be more fun when we take our kids." Same thing at the apple orchards. We both looked forward to seeing all these places through the eyes of little children.

Every day my baby is a little more alert. Every day his field of vision seems to expand, and he expresses more. Today we were walking through The Lab ( used to be called the anti-mall), in Costa Mesa, when we parked his stroller underneath trees that had been yarn bombed. It was sunny, there was a lot of light playing in the branches, and he was delighted.

We were lucky to get photos of some of his experience. Everything is brand new for him. And I'm so lucky, as I watch what he's watching, that it is all brand new to me all over again, too.

#200happydays day 5