C.A.L.M.

C.A.L.M. stands for California Living Museum. Our first weekend in California, we visited the Wilstead cousins in Bakersfield, after a morning at farmer's market...always a favorite with me. Californians are so spoiled with their delicious (and cheap) produce. It's always fun to see what things the local growers bring to market. The kids loved seeing their cousins, and hitting Mama Tess up for souvenirs first thing at C.A.L.M. They got some pretty stylin' glasses and bracelets. Josh loves the animals. It was pretty hot that day, so not all the animals were out, but we had a great picnic at the park there.

Here we all are, minus Mama Tess taking the picture...Kaela, Damon, Clarissa, Ava, Carly, Me, Jack, and Josh.

Here's Mama Tess showing Carly and Josh how to "fish" with sticks. They loved it.
Of course, the kids were still getting used to being away from home, and accidents will happen. Carly wet her pants and so we spent a while in the bathroom washing them out, and drying her panties and jeans under the hand dryer. While we were in doing that, Josh came in, and he'd had an accident through his pants, as well. Ah the joys of child rearing. We didn't let that stop us though. Carly just went around in her panties all day. I know...you're all in disbelief that I let my child walk around like that in public. Luckily, the park was pretty empty. I think the favorite animal of the day was the Bald Eagle. Now the kids go around talking about eagles. It's great to hear Josh's vocabulary expanding. He can pretty much name any animal. He's quite the animal lover.