Another Caltech Visit

I had to upload this real quick to get it on the blog in case Holden becomes a famous scientist someday. Riley is on her way to being a scientist, too, but I only have this pic of Holden.

This is a picture of Holden sitting in Baxter Lecture Hall at Caltech playing an iPad game that quizzes him on the Periodic Table of Elements. We were there for a Skeptics Society lecture on magic (nearly all magicians are skeptics). Holden has been playing this game for a while now and discovered it on his own.

Bringing the kids to Caltech for this lecture gives me the opportunity to talk up college a bit and explain how it works.

Family Trip to Plano TX

We just got back from a trip to Plano, Texas. My company sent me and a guest there to get a feel for the place because my job is moving there in 2017 with or without me. Holden and I flew American Airlines and Riley, DJ and Huong flew on Spirit Airlines.

 
The houses in the suburbs North of Dallas like Plano and Frisco are beautiful. The garages are in the back, the master bedroom is on the first floor. They are made of brick instead of stucco. The only problem is they all look like this. I prefer a little more variety but since all the neighborhoods are new, this is what you get if you want to live in Plano. We could actually afford this house which seems strange.

In an average Orange County neighborhood, this house would really stand out, but in Plano it's par for the course.

We did visit Highland Park which had one unusual house. This house isn't for sale but there is something about it that I really like. If I had to move to Texas, I might look for something really unusual like this.

We found Kenny's BBQ and tried their one dollar brisket tacos. We ended up eating 19 of them. They also had a smoked Makers Mark which was really good. The kids were amazed by the food, especially Riley.

Holden and DJ found a climbing tree. DJ lost Holden's sandal inside the tree and it took a while to fish it out.

The shops in Plano are very nice with lots of places to walk around and discover new food. It is extremely clean and safe. It's like another world when compared to Southern California.

Riley's Face

Even up close this looks so weird.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Riley Borklund" <riley@borklund.net>
Date: Oct 31, 2014 9:39 AM
Subject:
To: <dustin@borklund.net>
Cc:











Sent from my iPhone

Game 6

These young time wasters wouldn't let me watch Game 6 in peace with their incessant questions so I turned it off and took them for ice cream.

Riley Plays With High School Band

Riley has been looking forward to playing trombone with the BOHS band at their homecoming game. She got a new hairstyle and check out those trombone earrings!

Holden Challenges Riley to Lift Him

Holden has been getting stronger thanks to time and a chin up bar I installed. He can lift Riley up but can't carry her. He gave the same challenge to Riley and she easily picked up his 74 lbs. I was on the couch (surprise) and saw a photo opportunity. Huong did too and photo bombed Riley and Holden. I like the picture because it shows how happy everyone is.

Miramar MCAS Air Show

We attended the Miramar Marine Corp Air Station Air Show on Sunday. This was my first air show. My total exposure to air shows was the bloopers on Youtube and the news when things go wrong. I wasn't expecting anything to go wrong and nothing did. The Navy and Marines put on a good show and many maneuvers looked dangerous but that's the idea.

For being so close to the beach, the weather was very hot - in the high nineties the whole time. Full sun, of course, since you can't see anything from the shade. Luckily, we took the RV which got us preferential free parking and a place to retreat to when the sun got too hot. Just before the last show, which was the Blue Angels, we went to the RV in the parking lot and turned the air conditioner on.

Everyone got on the roof just in the time for the Blue Angels show. It was an amazing show and we were in the perfect spot because they came directly overhead several times.