To Santa Barbara on a Mission!

For spring break we packed up the car and headed south to Santa Barbara where Harv's Mom and her husband Allen flew over from Texas to meet up with us. We spent time getting caught up, playing games and doing some sightseeing.



One of the main things we wanted to do while "down south" was visit the San Buenaventura Mission. Both of the kids did their 4th grade report on that mission and we've been planning to visit, but never got around to it. Harv's Uncle Paul and his wife Carrie met up with us for a tour of the mission and it's grounds.
Buenaventura is famous for being the only mission with wooden bells.













Since we were actually staying in Santa Barbara, we couldn't pass up visiting the Santa Barbara Mission while we were there.

The next day we wandered through Solvang .
We had lunch,
did some shopping,



and met some interesting people... And yes, we found yet another mission! Solvang is home to the Santa Ines Mission.


The next day we decided to go across the park from our hotel to visit the Santa Barbara Zoo. It's a much smaller zoo than say L.A or San Diego, but they have over 500 animals and you only have to trek across 30 acres as opposed to 100 like the others.

We did spend some time actually on the beach, but it was very cold and windy so it was not nearly as much time as the kids would of liked.

On our drive home we followed the "El Camino Real" (highway) and watched the bells go by every mile or so to mark the path of the missions. So we decided to stop at one more mission on the way home. This one was the San Luis Obispo Mission.

We had a fabulous time!

Sierra's School Concert

It was a bittersweet night as Sierra had her last band concert.

2 months ago Sierra's teacher introduced them to the Bass Clarinet. It has the same fingerings as a Clarinet and it has a reed, but that is where the similarities end. It's actually considered a Brass instrument not a woodwind and it's about 3 times the size of the Clarinet (it has it's own kickstand to hold it up).
The kids who were interested took it home and tried it and brought it back the next week. Sierra, however, took it home and has been playing it ever since.
When I went to return her Clarinet (since she wasn't using it) the guy at the music store was highly impressed and said that they don't generally offer a Bass Clarinet until high school because it's such a hard instrument to play. The younger kids just don't have the increased lung capacity and mouth control that it takes to pull it off until they've been playing for a few years. So when I told him that she hadn't played anything until 6 months ago he was amazed. That's my girl! Sweet!

Now for the bitter...
Due to California's financial crisis, education is being hit hard and any "extras" are the 1st to go. As we were at the band concert a few miles away the school board was informing everyone of all the cuts that were to be made, including the music program, class size reduction program, sports, 12 teachers, and that the only middle school in the county(where Deven attends) will be shut down entirely. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, the list goes on and on. What now???

Snow!

We have had a few big storms come through in the past 3 months and have even had a couple of days off from school to enjoy them.















I mean what could be better than having a sledding run right in your own back yard!


Except maybe one...








With fewer trees!