The new Pauley

Thanks to Great Work Perks, Jon and I were able to go to a UCLA basketball game this year. I got to see the newly remodeled Pauley Pavilion and it is super cool. They have made it very contemporary but have preserved the old center court in a sort of museum-style exhibit on the east side of the building. I hope to get back there again soon. I would love to take Avery to watch gymnastics there too. When I was 8, my mom took me to the Olympic gymnastics exhibition at the old Pauley and I can still remember my first exposure to UCLA. I loved watching Mary Lou Retton and Bart Conner perform.  I digress. UCLA beat Arizona State 79-74 in overtime. They went on to be a terrible disappointment in the Tournament, but I did enjoy watching them win on the new home court. I love this place.

Road Trip

The public schools in our city are part of their own school district. We have been very happy with our little (less than 370 K-5 students) neighborhood school so far. The principal, teachers, and support staff have been great. Due to budget cuts, this year we have 6 furlough days. At least they were kind enough to add the furlough days onto 3 day weekends to make them 4 days or at the beginning of spring break to make it 12 days instead of 11 days. That I appreciate, although I obviously wish there were no furlough days. Mid-February for President's Day weekend we took a little getaway to Palm Springs to stay at my friend's condo. It was great fun. We got to swim, go to the zoo and eat lots of frozen yogurt, the best of which was at Eddie's Frozen yogurt, so yummy. We brought Quincy too and he was in heaven. Landon figured out how to climb out of the pack and play this trip which was not so much fun. He was up very early each morning roaming around trying to find some trouble to get into, the worst of which was to drink the remnants from my wine glass from the previous night, surely not more than a drop or two.

 Sweet, cuddly, sleepy guy

 view from the balcony

 Cool train exhibit at the zoo

 Sooo hot

 Carousel at the zoo

Lots of fun swimming time with our little tadpole

We love kindergarten

Watching Avery progress in Kindergarten this year has been so much fun. She went from knowing her letters and loving to be read to, to now trying to write sentences of her own. Her teacher insists that we not help with spelling, that she spell as she hears the word and I guess eventually she will learn how the words are really spelled. She also has done great with her sight word lists. She got to go to a father/daughter dance with Daddy and she had so much fun with him and all her friends. They did a little girl conga line and had shaved ice.

Avery's shrinky dink Valentine for her beloved teacher, aka chycher.