“Hey Dad! That’s the plant that we use when we have an owie!”
“Really? What do you do with it?”
“You break it off and then you squeeze it up and then you put it on a cut.”
“Who told you that?”
“Nobody… I just know.”
“What kind of plant is it?”
“It’s an Aloe Beara plant. (laughs) Silly Dad!”
— Jacob, pointing at an Aloe Vera growing on a hillside while we are hiking through the woods.
…Jacob was this little?
I was getting ready to put up a new post on the blog when I ran across some pictures off my old camera phone from mid 2006. Here are a couple of fun ones…
OK, so I am finally getting around to it! 
We had an awesome Halloween. It was really fun to have the old-fashioned neighborhood Halloween experience again. With all of the “Trunk-or-Treat” events that people are using lately instead of traditional “Trick-or-Treating” I have really missed seeing kids running around en-masse with friends and family, socializing and making a neighborhood a neighborhood. Avalon is one of those all too rare communities where urban fear has not yet gotten a foothold.
We started out of course by getting and carving our pumpkins. Jacob’s school sponsored a “Pumpkin Patch” where the kids could pick out their own pumpkins instead of going to the super market. Jacob chose a trio of good ones and we set to work making them look great. Jacob designed and helped cut his into a “Silly face.”
Jacob took a while and had several different ideas on what to be for Halloween before settling on cowboy. On Halloween evening, the city had a costume parade down Crescent street with all of the school kids participating. The community TV station filmed the parade and Jacob made the broadcast.
Jacob was a little unnerved by Dad’s costume and realistic looking scars and asked him to take the wig off. After the parade, we went over to Luau Larry’s for the traditional Wednesday $2 cheeseburgers and then hit the streets to gather loot.
By the end of the evening Jacob had filled his pumpkin basket to beyond capacity and Mom & Dad had met several new neighbors. Jacob did not want to stop but eventually we had to call it quits and head back home in time for bed.
Jacob with his friend Cory
WOW!! We now have two Television Superstars in our family!
Last night was the Catalina Island Museum’s annual fundraising telethon. It was a thrilling evening of Small-Town Americana filled with great highlights on Catalina and its history.
As manager of the store at the muesum, Suzanne was on hand to tell people about the wonderful things going on in the store and the new products they have there. She has been an incredible addition to the museum and the directors are overjoyed with the work she does there.
The highlight of the telethon was the segment on the Children’s Halloween Parade. We were sitting at home watching the telethon hoping to be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Jacob in the parade, when suddenly he appeared, front and center for what seemed like a full minute! (Actually about 2-3 seconds, but in Mom & Dad time that is a full minute 
) Jacob went bonkers and we were all shouting with excitement!
After dinner, Sue left to go down to the Museum for her segment and Jakey and I went upstairs to get ready for bed and played “Bad Guys,” shooting each other with Nerf guns and dramatically falling on the floor or across the pillows, while occasionally pausing to watch some of the telethon segments. Finally, near the end of the evening it was Suzanne’s turn to be on. Jacob shouted out “There she is!! Hi Mommy! Hi Mommy! Mommy is on TV!” Then he sat in my lap and giggled while Sue talked about the museum store.
After that it was off to bed, a little late but with a big smile.
If you want to see Jacob and Sue on TV, or watch any of the other neat specials that were on during the telethon, Click on this link. The Halloween Parade starts at minute mark 8:50 and Sue’s segment starts at 189:30.
You can also help support the Museum by visiting their website and clicking on the “Donate” button.
As some of you may already know, Jacob is a Miniature-Golf fanatic! On any given day, if you were to ask him what he wanted to do, the odds are high that he would reply: “Lets go play mini golf!”
Another Hole-In-One
Back in Salt Lake, his favorite place to play was Dottie’s on 33rd south. Many people will remember this as the old Arnold Palmer Mini Golf Course. Every week or two, we would make the short journey down the hill for a nice $6 round of golf. (That was $6 for all three of us!) After we moved here it didn’t take long before Jacob discovered the Golf Gardens, Avalon’s incredible mini-golf course. Within a few days Jacob became a regular at the course and mastered several of the holes. He knows exactly which tunnel holes to hit for the best result, but still insists on getting his ball into each and every tunnel on the multi-level holes. Jacob is very serious about his game but doesn’t mind sharing the green with other kids on the course on occasion. Unfortunately, however, he takes particular pleasure in blocking Dad’s attempts to score by standing on top of the cup.
