Robot on the lake and a cow on the wall

7/4/20 We are in Solvang for a month, just north of Santa Barbara, at a house with a pool. Desperate times call for desperate measures. So we rented out our house and we're here for another few weeks. Then we'll go to another house with a pool, because this one isn't available any longer. The kids' camp was cancelled, as was our trip to Mexico, and the kids were very forlorn about everything. The pool here is great and we're there many hours every day. They're learning how to swim  and Noah can now go from one side of the pool to the other, much of it underwater. Aviva can also, with floaties and her head up. We're also picking fruit often and biking around the town.

Blueberries

Doing a puzzle, thanks to Aunt Shira

Ollaliberries

Puzzle #3 - we're doing a lot of puzzles

Funny bikes we rode through town - notice the Danish flag
The whole town is Danish, in food and shops and street names

The kids are singing a lot, particularly one song called "Griselda" which is only slightly inappropriate. It's just a song I like a lot and when the kids heard me playing it once, they liked it and wanted to learn the words. Some of the words are: Come won't you walk with me Griselda, wearing the dress that moonlight shines through, I am a sad and lonely boy since your mother said I couldn't see you... Do you recall last night Griselda learning the lesson as nature taught us, I've got a rowboat on the lake, stars are out and all the fish are jumping...  Well it's a nice song. Aviva has changed some of it so that it's a "robot on the lake." 

The house we're staying in is nice enough with lots of space and it's 100 feet to the pool and funny art about wine, because we're in wine country and I'm guessing a lot of visitors here are here for the wine. There's also a huge painting of a cow on the wall and three big screen tv's. We brought lots of toys and maybe because of that, Noah would rather not leave the house. He does, with some bribing, and Josh has made a whole system of points and rewards: 

But this is better than it was in Berkeley when he didn't want to get out of bed in the morning. And he loves the pool. And when we go to the beach or bike around town, he has fun despite his not wanting to.

Emu and Ostrich Farm 

     



     

Picking plums near our house