A Different Perspective...

From Jake, Beth's husband and Maci and Jacob's dad -

Top Ten Signs You're Having a Great Vacation in Southern California:

1. Your first flight is late and several people on the connecting flight are annoyed that they have to wait for you
2. Your 1-year old son screams at the top of his lungs for 45 minutes on the already-delayed flight from San Jose to Ontario because his ears won't pop
3. You borrow your father-in-law's truck and one of the belts breaks, cracking the radiator and causing the engine to overheat while you're driving it
4. It's 97 degrees outside at 10:00 AM
5. Your 1 year old son climbs on top of your in-laws' television, pulls it onto the floor, and it shatters into many, many, many pieces
6. Your new, $300 camera gets stolen at the San Diego Zoo
7. You break the mirror in your mother-in-law's van
8. Your camping mattress has a hole and you end up sleeping on the rocks
9. After you feed your last two tokens to the token-operated shower, you find out that the shower is out of order
10. Your 1-year old son screams at the top of his lungs for 30 minutes on the flight from Ontario to Portland because his ears won't pop

And though it may not sound like it, he had a great time!

San Diego in Pictures

The Knight family, as most of you know, has the coolest tradition of going camping at the beach in San Diego every year. We really look forward to this trip, and had so much fun! It was fun to be with all the Knight family for the first time in a couple of years. The kids kept things lively, and the ocean was so warm (over 70 degrees!), we spent hours out playing in it. So, here are some of the highlights:

We celebrated Maci's third birthday. She's at the perfect age to be totally into...you got it. Princesses.

Tyler had fun playing with his cousins.

Audrey and Justin are veterans at beach camping. These two are the best little Boogie boarders I've ever seen! They could've spent every hour of every day in the ocean.

Maci is adorable, and she definitely knows it.

Everyone says Jacob looks like Jesse, and I think I finally saw that. In this picture, he's saying "Cheese!"

We didn't do any formal picture-taking, but I couldn't resist getting a shot of all four Knight siblings hanging out together. (That's Bill looking out at the ocean.)

We went to Seaport Village in downtown San Diego one afternoon, and Dennis rented a sailboat and took us for rides around the harbor.

And of course, all the Knight boys (Dennis, Jesse, and Bill) got their fill of surfing!

There are only four main concerns when you're camping at the beach: Is the sun out? Is the surf up? Are you hungry? Are you tired? When Audrey asked, "What time is it?" Susan replied, "Doesn't matter. That's not one of the four main questions."

I think, next year, we should get an extra campsite, and some of the Sloans should come along. You'd love it!

You Sing!

I had dinner with Grandma tonight. We had the usual exchange of, "Who is your mother?" and "Are you in school?" kind of conversation, complete with Grandma saying she'd like to make me a key to her place so I would feel comfortable enough to come over anytime, even if she wasn't there. So cute. But the funniest moment was when she started talking about Mr. Rogers, then started singing the theme song. Suddenly she stopped, looked at me, and commanded, "You sing!" So, after a moment of trying to decide if she was serious, where she just watched me intently, I started singing. When I was done, she started laughing and clapping her hands, then said, "Good! 100 percent!"

I guess the funniest thing was...I did know every word to that theme song...without even thinking.