Falloween Trippin' Boo

If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, then this post is worth 26,000 words... plus some real words.

Since Nat and I love the Fall and since we love Halloween, we took a trip to celebrate... Falloween. We spent 7 days exploring Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

Our timing was perfect...


Newport, Rhode Island... home of the worlds largest tennis museum... and what might you expect to see at the worlds largest tennis museum???....

... the world's largest tennis balls.

Naturally Beck found the one place within the museum's property that is hazardous.

The cliff walk... one glorious mansion after another.

... If I had to live in Rhode Island, this would be my house.

... and Nat picks this one.

The boy.

Daddy teaching beck how to do a backflip off a picnic table.

Knuckles... for a backflip well done.

An apple picking farm.

Baa.

"Hay. Hay. He's a monkey..."

"Welcome to the Pumpkin Festival, please follow the pumpkin on rollerskates to your parking spot."

Ridiculous amounts of carved pumpkins... and this wasn't even a fraction of them.

Thank you Liddles for coming to hang out with us. It was so fun to see you guys.

Cambridge, MA. CES Institute Bldg. Mom and Dad's (Nelson) home away from home while they are serving their mission.

Harvard. About 200 steps from the Institute Bldg.

Salem, MA... spooky. If you don't know why it's spooky... google it.

VOTE!

Today is the LAST DAY to register to vote!!!! Go to this link to register and tell your friends!

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm

PLEASE READ TODAY!

I just sent this out as an email to a lot of you, but I'd thought I'd blog it so more people will have a chance to act upon this. Please copy this and email it to every mother and every teacher that is for proposition 8 TODAY!
As most of you probably already heard, the CTA (california teacher's association) has donated 1.25 million for the NO on prop 8 campaign. Here's a little overview on why this is of such great concern for us. In 28 states a teacher is practically forced to join a union in order to teach. So a teacher will pay $900 or so a year to their local union, which in turn sends two thirds of that money to the CTA. Millions of this then goes to political causes, whether a teacher agrees with it or not (the majority being democratic causes). In the case of Prop 8, the CTA (which represents over 300,000 teachers!) has donated 1.25 million to defeat the measure, without seeking input from its memebers. Of course many members are indeed against the measure, but there are still many many members who are in favor of it! Please refer to this Los Angeles Times article for more information:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-sand18-2008oct18,0,7329834.story
WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT:
Many parents are choosing to fight back against CTA by taking their kids out of school tomorrow (October 21st). I know that is a tough thing to do for a lot of parents, but please consider it heavily. The campaign asks that if you feel it is appropriate, tell the school administrator that you will spend the day teaching your child about the political process, democracy and how citizens standing up together can make a substantial difference in our State's governance against organizations like the CTA. I think an even more important thing we can do is to tell EVERY teacher that you know who is for Proposition 8 to get a refund for their portion of the union dues. Here is the website which tells them how to do it:
http://www.nrtw.org/special-legal-notice-california-teachers-how-get-least-300-refund-cta-nonbargaining-expenses
All we need is 3,333 teachers to do this and the donation will be completely null and void!

So please try to think of every teacher in california that is for Prop 8 and get them to get their refund. It will send a clear message to the CTA!

Yes on Prop 8

Pass it on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkv6miGIcTU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmZaHbGgXH8

September Madness

The Boy Gets Older

The 4th.

A few weeks ago Clark and I decided to go eco chic and buy some bikes! We are loving riding around town on them, doing all our errands via 2 wheels. On the 4th we seriously rode our bikes from dawn until dusk. Right when Beck woke up we put him in his bike seat, gave him a waffle and headed on down to Balboa for breakfast.

Do you see all those people on the sidewalks? That is the line for the ferry to go over to Balboa. We definately waited in it too~ They close off the island and the ferry is the only way on.

An hour later... Beck loved the boat ride! And a nice guy gave him a red balloon (balloons are his newest obsession.)

Loving the American spirit.

We ate breakfast at Charlie's Chili on the boardwalk. Its a bit of a dive, but I'm obsessed with their french toast.

Riding around Balboa.

Taking the Back Bay route home.

After Beck's nap we did some barbeque hopping at friend's and families houses, and then jumped on the bikes again to catch some fireworks. My entire family rode from my aunt's house down to the beach. They close off PCH on the 4th so its really fun to ride in the middle of the street with hundreds of other bike riders.

Love this picture of Beck... the first firework scared him just a bit. But he loved them once he was used to the noise.

After the festivites we came home, Beck and I went to bed, and Clark played Settlers with my brother and cousins. It was daylight when he finally rolled into bed.

Not a bad 4th huh?