To the Zoo by Train

Another fun outing by train to Santa Barbara. In addition to the zoo, we breakfasted at Eladio's, visited Teavana, and had dinner and peanut butter pie with Jon at the Brewhouse.

More pics are here.

Went right to sleep at dinner...

Easter Weekend

We started Easter a little early this year. Trevor's family and David Regusci's family joined us for a braised rib dinner Saturday evening followed by a - wait for it - glow-in-the-dark Easter egg hunt! Oh my. All the pics are here.

Jamie and Lynn Visit Robob

Jamie and Lynn did a little weekend trip to Sonora to visit Robob and enjoy a quiet weekend. Mission accomplished on both fronts. We stayed at Bradford Place Inn, a delightful B&B just a block off the main drag in Sonora. Over the couple days we managed to visit Emberz, Bourbon Barrel, Jamestown Hotel, Sierra Repertory Theatre (saw a wonderful production of My Fair Lady), and Diamonback Grill. Enjoyed them all. The food places are pretty "foodie" for a small town. On the way back we stopped in Paso Robles for a little hike around the square, an appetizer at the Pappy McGregors, and dinner at Artisan. Great little trip. All the photos are here.

Wisteria Hysteria

We experienced a bit of Wisteria Hysteria about a week ago. And now the white tree wisteria are blooming in the garden area. Oh, and in the midst of all this rain (yeah!), we're painting the house.

On the Cover, Again

So, guess who showed up on the cover of Central Coast Family magazine again?...

Abby's Birthday Party

Wow, what a party! It was about a 15-way tie, but we'd probably have to give the nod for "Best Time Ever" to William. All the pics are here.

Rock It

Every other year, SLO Classical Academy has a Math Mania night. Each student creates a math game and the entire night is spent playing each others games. Matteo called his game Rock It. Roll the three dice and solve the equation. If you're right, you put down the value of your answer on the score sheet and you get to pick a rock. Now you might think that whoever's answers added up to the highest score would be the winner. Not in Matteo's world. The winner in Matteo's world is the player with the most rocks at the end. The grilled cheese sandwiches were a hit, too!

D..I..S..N..E..Y..L..A..N..D ! ! !

The Reguscis and the Gibsons headed off last Saturday for a 4-day trip to Disneyland. You'd have thought the roof blew off the house when they told the kids Friday night what was about to go down! Oh too have been a Mickey Mouse in the corner. Here are some pics snagged from Facebook.

At Church

Caught in the corner, under the loft...

Chinese New Year at the Railroad Museum

The boys visited the SLO Railroad Museum today for the Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration. The littles mostly did the train table while the biggers checked out the HO layout and the La Cuesta as well. We all went outside for the Lion Dance. More pics here.

Set Construction for Legally Blonde

Set design, construction, painting, etc. has been under way for at least a month now (or does it just seem like a month). And what? Only 2 months to go!?

Valentines Day Cookies and Party

It was quite the event. Laurie and Hailey (and friend) were in town from KC and Cyndy, Nicola, Danny, Gavin, and Noah were in town, too. Trev and the girls came up from Nipomo, and Karen joined in the festivities, too! Even Josie was there for a while with Serafina. Decorating cookies, Matt's ribs, and playing everything everywhere made for quite the afternoon and evening!

All the pics are here.

A Valentines Day Getaway

Lynn and Jamie had a little Valentine getaway to Santa Barbara. And we made some fun discoveries. Tre Lune is quite the breakfast spot in Montecito, so much so that we first met the wedding party of the century there. We would run into them a few more times by the time the wedding occurred at the Biltmore. After breakfast we tried to visit the Casa de Herrero, but they were booked. We stumbled onto the Mount Carmel Church instead and had fun exploring that a little while, then on to the Butterfly Beach. Nice walk in the fog. Our next stop was the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden (Lotusland was not open). From there it was back to Montecito to enjoy a mid-afternoon "lite menu" at Bella Vista, a restaurant in the Four Seasons Biltmore - which is where we once again caught sightings of the wedding party. We had a little time to kill before the play off State Street, so we cruised the Paseo Nuevo area. The play, "I Am My Own Wife," is a unique piece of theater, a one-man show playing 30 characters, telling the story of a man who survived Nazi Germany by looking like a woman. Lynn thought the title "Between Two Lions" (Russia and German) would also be appropriate. The Ensemble Theatre Company facility is very nice. Sunday morning we took a stroll on the pier and cruised about half of the Art Show along Cabrillo. We capped off this Santa Barbara cruise with lunch at the Lure Fish House - OMG! Very fun place, excellent food, can't say enough about it. Get there early, they don't take reservations. There was a significant line at 11:30am on a Sunday when they open. Fortunately, it's a fairly good size restaurant. After lunch we headed home to join in the Valentine festivities at the Compound.

All the pics are here.

Matteo and "Pops" Take Santa Barbara

Matteo and "Pops" took the train to Santa Barbara and enjoyed a day of: Sambo's for breakfast, some time at the aquarium on the pier, a Land Shark tour, more time at the aquarium, lunch at Moby Dick's (on the pier), ice cream, and the duck pond behind the merry-go-round! Jon joined us, too, for most of the mid-day stuff!

All the pics.

Montana de Oro

Fun boy-trip to Montana de Oro today.

Pics: http://www.jamie-foster-photography.com/160123-Montana-de-Oro/

Sonora/Robob

Lynn, Jamie, Sam, and Serafina ventured forth to Sonora for a quick visit with Papa Robob and Candace. Pics: http://www.jamie-foster-photography.com/160116-Sonora/

Sandy and "Wimpy"

Does she think she's hiding? Or just snuggled up to her bestest pal. Jamie had a similar stuffed dog when he was a kid, named Wimpy.

Music Man Portrait

A few months ago, Lynn and Jamie attended a French Hospital fundraiser and won an original portrait in the silent auction. The artist uses a photo you give her to get started. Danielle and Lacey have just started a music studio (Mini Melodies) and were looking for artwork to hang on the walls. Well, how about a painting of Marian (Lacey) and Amaryllis (Serafina), real-life piano teacher and student, to grace the halls of the new digs?! Ta da. If you'd like to contact the artist: sandra2paint@gmail.com

Here's the photo, which Danielle took!

New Year's Day 2016: Surfliner to the SB Zoo

All the Compound dwellers (except Sandy) hopped on the early morning Surfliner to Santa Barbara for a visit to the Zoo! We've done this trip many a time, but never with eleven people! Nothing like an AmDog on the way, some breakfast (we tried East Beach Grill this time, which at a busy time didn't work so well for a large family and was pretty expensive for mediocre food), the zoo, and Enterprise Fish.

The day's photos.

That's about how Jamie looks on a train, too.

Playing "Red Light Green Light" waiting for the shuttle.