Sarah and I had a great time at the zoo today with her Kindergarten class. It was a beautifully sunny day, and felt far more like summer than spring, which is great for being outside, but not so great for seeing lively animals. Still, we saw our share of God's creatures, and the entire field trip was without any unfortunate incidents. I think everyone there had a good time.

Special thanks to those good kids, great parents, an outstanding Kindergarten teacher, and my boss, who, though I have yet to speak with him in person about my absence today, will, as I know from past experience, be generously understanding about this last-minute vacation day.

A trip to the zoo isn't complete without lots of pictures – here's a picture of Sarah taking a picture of a big python...

In a last-minute change of plans, I'm taking the day off work to go with my daughter Sarah and the rest of her Kindergarten class to the Woodland Park Zoo! Sarah has been expressing concern all week that neither of her parents would be tagging along, and she was quite distraught last night, so I caved. Mom's a lot happier, too, and I know Sarah and I will have a great time.

I would like to extend my deepest apologies to my many avid blog readers – things have been very busy around here the last couple of weeks, and I simply haven't made the time to blog.

I could write a long entry about all of the things that have been keeping us so busy lately, but that would require remembering them, so I'll just focus on what I remember best, which is Sarah's 6th birthday! She's been showered with parties, gifts, and love from friends and family for the past few days, and has had a great time. Six doesn't seem all that old, but it's more than half way to ten, and that's way too old, so I'm just not going to go there...

Anyway, to reward your patience, here's a picture of my pretty girls sitting among the tulips. Hopefully my next post will be sooner than another two weeks from now...

We're home! We had a nice drive to Modesto on Thursday and enjoyed dinner and fellowship with Rob and Nell that evening. The drive on Friday was long – from Modesto to Portland – but we managed. Today we took it a little easier; we swam a bit in the hotel swimming pool this morning, and spent a few hours at the Portland Children's Museum. What a cool place! Anyway, another four hours of driving and we made it home. It's great to be back. We won't be able to get everything unpacked tonight before bed, and we'll be celebrating Easter tomorrow, so I'm afraid Julie will still be unpacking on Monday...

We really had a great trip, and I can't wait to do it again someday. For now, it's time for bed. Good night!

In a few hours, we start our journey north. The last couple of days were nice and relaxing. Visited some more family, played at Mile Square Park (where Julie and I had our first date!), checked out my old church (where Julie and I had our first kiss!!), did a little swimming, watched Toy Story, hung out with my brother and sister-in-law, walked a pier in Ventura, checked out my step-dad's job site, had sushi and fish tacos, and hung out with my mom and step-dad. We've said all our goodbyes, and we're off to Modesto. Special thanks to all of our family that made this such a great trip for us! We had a great time, and I'm already looking forward to our next visit back to sunny Southern California. Bye!

Our California vacation continues... It's been a good trip so far. We've been seeing lots of family -- brother and sister-in-law and new niece and grandmas and mom and dads and aunts and uncles and cousins and cousins once removed and brother-in-law and future-sister-in-law-in-law. :-)

Anyway, it's been really good to see them all. The girls have been great with all of the driving, though Rebecca is getting pretty tired of it. We're looking forward to a relaxing day tomorrow, and more good times in Southern California. Here's hoping the Big One waits until we're out of here...

We had a great day today! Spent some quality time with Rob and Nell this morning, had a nice drive to Ventura this afternoon, and made it to Mom and Erik's place in good time. We even stopped at In-N-Out for lunch, which has become something of an Californian icon since I was a kid. We just had a great dinner at Mimi's with Mom and Erik, gave the kids a bath, and now we're settling down for the night in our hotel. A nice, relaxing day, really. We're looking forward to spending tomorrow with my brother, his wife, and their new baby tomorrow (and Mom and Erik, too!). We did have a near miss today in the car -- it wasn't my fault; the guy wasn't watching where he was going and almost plowed right into us -- so we're praying for continued travelling mercies as our big California trip continues...

This blog post is my official reminder that 17 hours of driving is too long. We left just before 4 a.m. and got to Modesto just before 9 p.m. That's a long day of driving. Fortunately, we made it here safely, but the trip was not uneventful.

The most unfortunate thing that happened was... well... I fell asleep at the wheel. Or something like it. One of those things that only other people do, and I went and did it. In fact, only an hour before we had seen someone fall asleep at the wheel and spin out of control, fortunately into the median without hitting anything or hurting anyone. There I was, driving along, minding my own business, not a care in the world, listening to music, thinking about something or another, occasionally glancing at my happily sleeping family, and then -- rumble strip. Thank God (literally!) for the rumble strip, which startled me out of my light slumber, at which point I made a safe maneuver back into my lane and counted my blessings (primarily the four that were still safe in the van). We switched drivers at the next rest stop. I'm just thankful that this lesson learned was not a hard one.

Fortunately, I was able to prove my driving skills later that evening, where I successfully managed to eat Nachos Supreme while driving at 70-some mph, mostly thanks to my Mom, who taught me from an early age (by example, in our old Volkswagen bug) how to drive with my knee. :-) Don't worry, I was very careful...

Anyway, we've had a very nice time with our good friends Rob and Nell, who graciously allowed us to sleep in their comfortable bed last night. The weather is beautiful, I feel great, and I'm ready for the trip down to Ventura, which should be a lot more pleasant than yesterday, if only because I can count the hours of driving on two hands.