A little trip with my Eli

Eli and I took a little adventure of a trip this weekend.  First, we went to the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in LA.

Statue of Yoda

It just opened a few weeks ago and also has a Star Wars inspired restaurant.  I bought tickets for the museum before it was even open and the restaurant already had a waitlist for months.  All that to say, we weren't able to eat at the restaurant, but Eli found us some delicious sushi nearby.

It took us a bit to find the Star Wars exhibit, but they had several other sections that were right up Eli's alley.

There was a comic and Manga section that were pretty interesting.

And then we found it...

We spent the night in Thousand Oaks and the next morning, we went to downtown Ventura.

We thrifted for Legos and had lunch at Lure.  Eli loves seafood the most in our family, so he was excited to eat at a fish house.

Then we went to Brickfest!

Unfortunately, there was a bit of false advertising.  We've been following this event for years and they make it seem like a HUGE event, but the reality was not that big.  Still fun, but not big.

There were several vendors but everything was extremely overpriced.  It seems like Eli's thrifting for sets is a way better strategy to this whole thing, yet it's possible that others are catching on because we didn't find any Legos in all the stores from Ventura to Camarillo.

I'm learning a lot about this Lego world.  For example, the green mini-fig in this case, Lloyd, sells for $1,000!  Somehow Eli has an eye for these little details.

We were disappointed to leave without any Legos, but we still had a really fun time exploring.

Life Lately

September is always hot in San Diego, but this year took the cake.  We discovered a pool close by and spent many afternoons there cooling off.

Alison gave Maya her cooling blanket :)

And Eli built Legos in our bedroom, the one room with air conditioning.

Speaking of Legos, Eli has basically built his own Lego store/company.  I'm excited to see where it goes.  He finds Legos in bulk online, will zoom in to see pieces of sets, knows the real value of mini figs and rare sets and buys the bulk for cheap.  Then he re-assembles the sets and sells them to Lego collectors.  I've been super impressed with his ability to spot high value pieces that people are just tossing away.  I've also been surprised what people will pay for mini figs!

This sums up life right now: sorting Legos, while listening to a book for school and getting ready for a science lab (it's hard to see the microscope also on the table)...and of course, his trusty homeschool dog right there with him.

Fridays are full of labs around here.

And when work is done, these boys know how to have fun.  

The best part of having a senior dog are the hugs that she gives.

First Day of School!

Can you believe it?!?!  Both boys are in high school!!!

They both did an amazing job jumping back into work.  They get extra points for school right now because it's hot and humid and our house is sticky and not the most comfortable to be sitting and writing...and that's an example of a poor run on sentence, but they are doing great!

 

Alison's 19th birthday

Ben made Alison this hilarious portrait of Maya for her some-day apartment. 

I got her a cute butter dish :)

And big news, Alison is switching jobs this week and begins work at Target.  Ben got her this sweater for her new job.

We had a family, plus Aaliyah, dinner of hawaiian kabobs and then funfetti cake.

Happy Birthday Alison!  We love you!

 

Maya at the dog beach

We have been talking about taking Maya back to the dog beach for years and somehow haven't made it happen.  We even had to rearrange some plans just to make this evening happen, but it was all worth it.  It was a perfect evening and so great to have some time with all of us together.

And we quickly remembered why we don't take Maya to things like this.  She might be an old lady now, but she is still so awkward.  She has a certain cry that she only does when her pack is in water.  She made this sound the entire time we were there!