The Days of Our lives: San Gabriel Visit

Mr. D had to work all day so we were forced to entertain ourselves. I always wanted to visit the Reagan Museum and now we were close enough to make the drive. It is about an hour north of the LA area. So from San Diego that can be quite a drive but not so bad from where we were staying. I will definitely go back and enjoy the renovations that are taking place in 2010.

As you first walk in they have letters and statues of soldiers during the revolutionary days. Currently we are studying the Declaration of Independence and this whole time period so it was pretty fascinating to see. We had an outfit worn by John Hancock and many letters that were written by his own hands.

This was a cool statue of Ronald Reagan.. Don't ask what Elly is doing. For some reason she really llikes to show her belly...maybe she was full from lunch hmm...

Some things were just too funny to pass up...Haven't seen a voting booth like this in awhile.

They even had pictures from the 1982 Olympics. Which I happened to be there, honored and privileged to Dance at Dodgers Stadium and be near Reagan when he threw the first pitch to start the games.

The very best part of the museum was Air Force One.

and the many miles it had flew from one country to another....simply amazing...

We got to tour Air Force one and we saw where the President was during his flights when his need to work never stopped.

The president always had a police escort.

We learned that President Reagan LOVED jelly beans and so it was fitting that they had a photo of him made out of jelly beans.

The view was spectacular:

and we ended the tour with a visit to his grave site...

I loved it for many reasons and I am so glad that my children where with me to experience this adventure. As they grow into their leadership skills the one thing I want to stand out is that wherever they end up it is exactly where they need to be. As a parent all we can do is give them the skills needed to pursue their leadership roles and allow them to grow in a home that believes statesman are our future and one day you will need to step up. If those skills are not in place it will be a more difficult task. I strive daily to create and inspire the desire in my home to become the greatest leader you can be. This museum really helped to inspire them almost as much as it inspired me.

Mr. D was called out of town to work for ten day. At first I was very excited to be able to make all the decisions and really have noone to answer to. It's sad because for a brief minute it was a similar feeling to the strong desire to be 18. Free...and rule free...but then reality set in very fast. Truly one never realized how much one person does until that one person is gone. For example our Trash never went out. We all forgot because Mr. D comes home and usually does it. I never realized how much of a break I get from the bickering kids when he is home. In reality I was on duty 24-7 with no one to turn to for relief. Then the tears from the daddy's little girls just broke my heart. So what does one do in this situation? Well for me it was a realization that the true reason we homeschool is for family unity and strength and so we picked up and drove to visit Mr. D.... Company paying for a sweet hotel = FREE hotel really who could resist...NOT me!

Mr. D was working long shifts so we were unable to visit with him till 8 pm. Now we know that is a very late dinner for my family but we were going to hold out. We started out our day by leaving the house here in San Diego after lunch and driving up to Los Angeles. Along the way we stopped at a Halloween store and as soon and Elly saw this:

All she wanted to do was to get the heck out of there as fast as possible. I even went down the Disney aisle to relieve some of her fear but she was only focused on leaving the building. As we left she still held onto me until we got to the car. She would NOT let me put her down. Oh man! this Halloween will be fun with her.

Then we were off to Griffith Park. It was soo much fun... They had pony rides but none of my kids would have anything to do with them. I asked Elly if she wanted to pet the pony because she seemed somewhat interested but her response was " I no want pet pony." She was very willing to watch from a distance.

The train ride though was absolutely LOVED. It was so much fun.

(Elly fell on the bricks in our back yard while chasing the dogs causing the marks you see)
This park is huge though...from the train ride we headed to the carousel ride.

This was Elly's first time on one and she was delighted for the experience because the horses were not real. It was a total blast and I enjoyed watching them. They also had a pretty cool playground where we burned a few minutes running around. As we were leaving to head over to the observatory we encountered a wolf. I think he was waiting for some food but he just watched us very closely.

The best part I believe was the observatory. I have never seen such a wonderful site. The views were stunning but the educational benefit was by far the best. They had so much to do and learn about the stars and the sun. It was all soo much fun.

Then it was time to go have dinner with Rodd except we couldn't wait so we ate something on the way to the Hotel and Rodd took us out to have crepes for dessert. They are so Yummy!!! We had one with Nutella, Ice cream, mango, strawberries and don't even tell me how many calories we just took in. They package it up in this funnel and then you just eat on the go. My new favorite place...