Happy Easter

I've been hoping to see a few pictures of grandkids dressed up for Easter, but since I haven't seen any I'll just have to share a few oldies but goodies.

Easter pictures were a tradition in my family, but I didn't seem to keep it up.

Easter 1956 Lewiston, Idaho with our dog Choo Choo

Easter 1958 Caldwell Idaho

Easter 1983 in Tucson

 And I believe these are the last Easter pictures taken of the Smith kids in Easter outfits 1987

Some traditions just don't last.

James Martin Wright on his blessing day

Just one more Wright family post.  The purpose of our last visit to Santa Barbara was to participate in Jimmy's blessing day.  It was a beautiful day and Jimmy performed admirably for the crowds that came to celebrate. Jimmy wore a gown that his great grandfather wore when he was blessed.

He joined this club of handsome men as the most recent to wear the gown.

Three generations.

Cute toes

Rosie and Jimmy

Jay and Jimmy

Just Jimmy

Rosie and Jimmy 2

A Rosie Jay and Jimmy

The full Wright Family

It is hard to keep smiling after all of those pictures.

Black light adventures in Santa Barbara

What do you do on a rainy day in Santa Barbara? Go to the aquarium.  There is a fairly small aquarium on Stern's wharf that is just the place for fairly small people.

They were featuring an exhibit of jellies that were best viewed with black light. Amazingly the phone pics were pretty good.

After the aquarium we headed to the Santa Barbara Natural History museum.  It was a really fascinating place but most interesting to me were these rocks.

Which are interesting enough by themselves, but add a little black light...

Makes you think you should always carry a little black light with you to see what else you have overlooked in this world.

And while we were enjoying being inside, Alice was out playing in the rain.

The road to Santa Barbara

Thirteen years ago when Rosie and I made our first trip to Santa Barbara we used a map to plot our route.  On the map this road looked like a good short cut, but after driving for a while I decided it looked like a good bike path not necessarily a good car road. I thought Calvin might like it.  A few years ago I talked him in to trying it out and he did like it.  Last weekend we had time on our trip to Santa Barbara for him to try it out again.

He was riding the Solvang Century on Saturday, so he decided a few more training miles would be a good idea.

When we arrived in Santa Barbara we met up with Rosie, Alice and Jimmy and spent some time at Goleta Beach or the airplane beach according to Alice.  We had time to play at the playground and stroll along the pier before we met up with Jay for dinner. I dragged my camera along to try and capture the afternoon. 
Alice is always in motion, so it is hard to get her in focus, but I love the way she rushes headlong into life.

Jimmy is handicapped by not being able to run yet, so he is easier to get a picture that is in focus. Or two or three.

By the time Alice had run to the end of the pier she was starting to slow down a little.

But she still had enough energy for a group hug picture.

A great way to spend an afternoon.