December Part 2

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  Our decorations are up, but feeling more rushed than ever.  It seems the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas gets shorter each year.  Of course we didn't help that by doing our Disneyland trip with Nate AFTER Thanksgiving this year.

Maria playing with her 50MM lens, getting a shot of Nate hanging ornaments on the tree.

the Monte Carlo sandwich.  Heaven to eat.  First had this a few years ago with the Harris family when we dined at the Blue Bayou, the restaurant inside Pirates of the Caribbean.  You can also get it in New Orleans square, which is where we sat down to eat and watch the Fantasmic, the boat and light show that goes on in the water around Tom Sawyer Island.

Got a chance to watch the Pixar parade down Main Street at California Adventure.  Lots of Nate's favorite characters, I think he's watched much more Pixar movies than the traditional Disney films.

I still think California Screaming is Nate's second favorite ride.  Tower of Terror is his first choice, then a close second between Space Mountain and California Screaming.

Nate and I on the boat ride over to Tom Sawyer's Island.  Nate's first time to the Island, usually when we've gone it's been closed, too wet.  Had fun exploring the pirate's lair.  Maria still teases me, because before I went with her, it was one of the areas I didn't know, or didn't remember existed.  The other was Mr. Toad's wild ride.  I don't think that was a popular one when I went with my cousin's and dad back in the late 70's or early 80's.  

The weather was warm enough that Nate and I hopped on Splash Mountain.  We got soaked, but had enough time to dry off before night came.

Only in Disneyland does the snow smell like cinnamon.  After the fireworks show, they cover main street in artificial snow to make it a wintery delight.

The "It's a Small World Ride" all lit up for Christmas.  Of course they also change the lyrics and decorations in side, so you get to hear Merry Christmas from around the world.

Lilia offered to buy Nate a birthday present at Disneyland.  He chose the Indiana Jones package, with the Fedora and cap gun.

Natalie and Nate in the front, with Maria and I in the back.  Natalie trying to teach Nate about keeping your hands up through the entire ride.

Here we are on the new Cars ride at Disneyland CA Adventure.  While the ride was fun, the 2 hour wait in line was a bit much.  Might have to wait for this popular ride to die down before we go at it again.

After two days at Disneyland, we took Nate to his first full theater performance.  We felt the Lion King would be a blast, so Maria and I returned to the same stage where we saw it years ago, but brought Nate and Natalie.  Nate was mesmerized for most of the show, although at three hours it got to be a little long for him.  

And Christmas has arrived, the calm before the storm.  Nate got his new bike from Santa and we had a wonderful Christmas morning.

To Nasa and beyond!

As part of my newly expanded role at HP, I had yet another travel opportunity.  This time, I traveled to Houston where I could meet with Jaff, who was flying from Scotland for a business review with the manufacturing team. Since I would be taking over Jaff's work, this was a chance for me to meet the manufacturing team and get quickly up to speed on the strategies and programs for 2014.  After whirlwind week of meetings, I stayed an extra day to attend a Christmas party hosted by Suzanne.  With a day free before the party, it was suggested that I head out to NASA for a tour.

My coworkers Suzanne and James

In the parking lot, they have a model of the space shuttle.  The Houston site was very upset that they did not get an actual Space Shuttle after they were retired. 

This building houses a Saturn 5 rocket.  This was used in the early NASA missions.  This thing is huge, no picture can do it justice.

I tried to do a panorama of the Saturn 5 rocket, but you just can't see how big it is and how small the module is at the very tip for holding the astronauts.  

Here are several prototype modules for possible travel on another planet.  These will be built up to allow astronauts to live within them for weeks if necessary.

Prototypes of different rover modules for exploring planets & moons unmanned.

As part of the tour, they have a working model of the international space station.  This includes modules made by all the other countries.  This is a place for training on how the living conditions will feel like, practicing for any condition that they may experience in space.

A better view of the different modules as they reside on the floor of building 9. 

This is a model of the current Mars Rover.

As the sign says, they have one of only 8 lunar rocks that can be touched by the public.  Lots on deisplay to look at, but only the one below can be touched.

The little triangle piece is moon rock.  It's rather well protected.  You have to reach your hand up at an awkward angle to reach it.  Felt smooth, nothing really special, but glad I can say I touched the moon.

If you've ever watched Apollo 13, there's a scene where the oxygen scrubbers aren't working, not designed for three people in the LEM.  The engineers back in Houston are tasked with getting the square scrubber in the round hole with only the articles on-board.  This is what was used to help save the Apollo 13 mission.

This podium was at Rice University when President Kennedy gave his famous speach where he says "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

Meanwhile back in Roseville, Nate was ringing the Salvation Army bell for the Cub Scouts.

He started making his Gingerbread house.

Charlie, Nate's Elf On The Shelf came for his annual visit, things got a little messy when Charlie dove into the chocolate. 

Here's Charlie checking out Nate's new snowboard (more on that in the next post).

November Fun

Another November has come and gone.  This has become a milestone month for us as we celebrate Nate's birthday and see how quickly he is growing.  Lots to celebrate this month.

We enjoyed another fabulous Friendsgiving.  It was great to have everyone over to celebrate with us.

We made two turkey's this year.  I smoked this one, after wrapping it in bacon.  Maria made her traditional oven baked turkey.  They were both very good.  Overall, hers was a little more moist, but mine made the much better gravy.

All the beautiful ladies gathered for a photo op.  Barry was busy taking lots of different group photos.

The kids had their own table, I believe that's a requirement.  We did allow Cutter to sit at the grown up table, although we though about just letting him sit with the kids, but allowing him to drink at the kid table.

The kids get a little crazy after eating the turkey.  Seems to have a real impact on their behavior.

Nate and one of his birthday presents.  We've been gathering the gear, as we know he will be doing the Snowboard team at Northstar starting in Jan.  

Nate got boots, bindings and a board.  Couldn't wait to try them on.  Now we just need to wait for snow.

Nate took a stab at carving the tri-tip for dinner. He's getting better.  More practice at cutting his own meat.

Nate was watching a You Tube video on making Despicable Me Minion Cup Cakes.  He asked if he could bring them into his class room for his birthday celebration.  We decided to attempt to make them and then we'd see about bringing them in.

Nate got some help decorating from Charlie and Alyssa.  For me, the cupcake part was rather easy, but the cake ball that you put on top was something new.  Talk about a lot of sugar.  The premise is to grind up a cooked cake, add a tub of frosting and then shape into balls.  Then paint those balls in more frosting.  It's like twice the frosting and half the cake.

After much work, the final product.

This is what You Tube showed us as what they are "supposed" to look like.  Yep, we nailed it!