So a couple days later, we tried again to find this elusive state park. Because we Tsais are not quitters! We never give up! We never surrender! And also! We need to work on our reading comprehension. Because state parks were not hard to find once we stopped confusing it with national forests. To-may-to, to-mah-to. We found ourselves at King Gillette Ranch. And lo and behold, there was a ranger behind the desk who knew EXACTLY what we were talking about and gave each of the kids booklets to fill out like she does this kind of thing everyday. She probably does. We were still awed by the fact we…

Phil’s mom and brother came to visit us for a few days during winter break while Phil had a few days off from work. A perfect reason to go out and see what we would see. Actually, Mikey had a field trip that he was supposed to get done for science by the time he returned to school. It specifically said NOT to wait until winter break to do it because they might not have the pins at the ranger station and would take a few weeks to get it mailed to us. He had to take the pin to school to prove he did the assignment. Oops. What can…