Click on any photo to see it full-size. All photos copyright John or Ondine Kuraoka, Roy Kuraoka, Barbara Brooks, Bill Nutter, or Frances Kuraoka, or as noted.
12-31-11 New Year's Eve!
First up is Frances basting the teriyaki chicken. Then, Roy and Leo make makizushi The last photo shows Roy "staying up until midnight." The time, as noted by the camera, was 11:32 pm.
12-25-11 Christmas dinner at the Barnharts'!
Frances, John, and Ondine enjoy a yummy dinner.
12-24-11 More presents!
Here Leo, Roy, and Grammy examine the Natural Parks edition of Monopoly.
12-18-11 Old Town!
Ondine and Leo went to Old Town,. and Leo took his brand new Christmas camera. Here are some photos he took!
12-17-11 At-Home Christmas!
We combined a slightly early Fourth Advent with a very early Christmas Day! Leo's gifts were wrapped in blue, Roy's
in silver, and note the careful two-paper wrapping job indicating the two shared gifts. Everyone (but Buddy, who got chews)
got slippers!
12-17-11 North and South Fortuna Mountains.
John and Roy went on a pleasant dayhike with Ernesto, Alex, Nichael, Tim, and David. The first photo shows
them at the summit of North Fortuna mountain: John, Roy, Michael, Tim, David, Alex, and Ernesto. The next photo,
also at the summit, shows the kids: Michael, Alex, Roy, and David. Then there's the gang misbehavin'. Then the
boys (Roy, Alex, Michael, and David) on South Fortuna summit. Afterwards, there was pizza!
12-11-11 Third Advent.
Here is Roy assembling the Christmas tree, Leo hanging ornaments on it, and Leo, Roy, Barbara, and Ondine around
the table at our Third Advent gathering – our first without Bill.
12-06-11 St. Nicholas' Day!
The previous evening the boys set out kuchen for St. Nick, and in the morning the stockings were filled with goodies! Buddy is certain
at least some of those goodies are eatables. Just time for a quick treat, and then off to school.
11-24-11 Happy Thanksgiving!
Here we are gathered round the table, an intimate group this time. In the first photo, that's Leo, Ondine, Roy, Barbara, and Bill.
In the next photo, Roy, Barbara, Bill, John, and Leo. Our dinner was yummy! Afterwards we went next door for pies.
That's Leo looking happy behind the bowl of freshly whipped cream, Roy making bunny ears behind a turkey, and
Bill enjoying some pie!
11-19-11 Grammy's visit, John's run.
Here is a photo John's Mom took as she played with our Canon A1200. Not sure which shooting mode she was testing, but
the subject is John, puffing around the corner in the ninth mile of a 10-mile run. Doesn't he run like an old man?
Next is a self-timer test shot that came out rather decently, once it was cropped, of John and his Mom.
11-18-11 Grammy comes to visit!
Here are John's Mom Frances and Ondine, two snapshots taken as John shows his Mom our Canon A1200 digital point-and-shoot
(in "Kids & Pets" mode). Before she left, she ordered the same camera for herself.
11-14-11 John's new APAP!
Here are a couple quickie snaps to show his old dead CPAP (on the left) and his new APAP (on the right). A CPAP delivers
constant pressure; an APAP automatically adjusts pressure within a pre-set range so it can blast through as-needed. The
first photo shows just the device; although the unit is smaller, the separate power supply makes it nearly as bulky and
a bit more unwieldy. The second photo shows the device plus the snap-on heated humidifier.
11-06-11 Leo and Roy's first judo tournament as competitors!
Here they mug around just prior to the tournament. There were about 100 competitors in several age/weight divisions.
Leo and Roy both managed a third-place finish in their respective divisions! Then, on the drive home, we were
treated to a special sight: the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile!
10-31-11 Happy Halloween!
Here’s Roy looking too cool in his “Nan Cout’s Cottage Daycamp Counselor” costume, front and back.
Then, Leo and Roy with Jack in Barbara and Bill’s front yard. There’s Barbara, Ondine, and
Bill. And, Bill and Barbara. This was Roy’s first Halloween going out on his own, with his buddies.
10-30-11 Jack O’Lantern, Roy O’Lantern, Jack O’Lantern, Leo
O’Lantern.
It’s a whole patch o’ punkins! And one with Tiger.
10-29-11 Leo carves his pumpkin.
Here he assesses how to best execute his design.
10-26-11 Leo checks his stock portfolio.
Don’t be fooled by the business section; that’s where the U-T puts the comics.
10-16-11 A rare photo.
We went to Balboa Park to watch the Czech and Slovakian stage show, and Leo and Roy rested their sweet heads on Mama. Awww.
See that glow? It’s love. Or, a dirty lens.
10-08-11 The gang on Stonewall Peak.
That’s Michael, Roy, John, Ernesto, and Alex at the summit.
10-01-11 Ondine and Leo at Indian Hills!
Here they are spending an adventurous day at Indian Hills with Pack 951. That’s
“gold” panning, the petting zoo, a very tall slide, the BMX track, and Mom and son.
09-22-11 Roy and Leo and Bertie Botts and polished rocks.
Grammy gave Roy and Leo some “Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans” from the Jelly Belly factory,
a wooden wagon kit from Sutter’s Fort, and a sack of polished
minerals from Old Sacramento. Like the hats? Leo sure did – he wore his to bed
as a nightcap!
09-06-11 Back to School! First up are Roy and Leo with
their Schultueten! Oh boy! Roy met up with Alex for the walk to school.
Note the rain! Leo, meanwhile, had
carefully cultivated his look, right down to the hat. Here he is in his new fourth-grade classroom.
09-03-11 Buddy’s new toy! Grammy gave him a soft boomerang.
After we threw it a few times, Buddy started tossing it for himself!
09-02-11 Sour lemons! Michael, Roy, and Alex sample
their just-squeezed lemonade. Think it needs more sugar?
08-22-11 First day of the new job. Here’s Ondine leaving
Monday morning for her first day at Silverado Hospice.
08-06-11 to 08-21-11 Sand Pond, Santa Cruz, and New Job! Click on the photo for our travel journal
and then some.
07-24-11 Roy leaves for Boy Scout camp. Of course
Roy didn’t
want his picture taken, but here he is anyway, a snap grab shot of the back seat as
Troop 950 heads to Camp Emerson.
07-20-11 Leo’s birthday! Here’s Leo with the ice cream cake
from Baskin-Robbins (his
favorite, mint chocolate chip ice cream over chocolate cake), then opening presents with
Roy, Barbara, Bill, and Buddy looking on, some more closely than others.
07-17-11 3-D and haircuts! Grammy and Leo look at some amazing
3-D images. Then, it’s high time for haircuts! These are the “before” photos.
07-16-11 Leo’s birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza! This is
the first time we’ve ever hosted one of these pizza place parties. His guests were
Charlie, Kieran, and John Carlos (Aden, Sami, and Ben couldn’t make it). You can see Roy there too, and Grammy came down for the
occasion.
07-15-11 Grammy came for a visit! She and Leo picked a
bountiful harvest of tomatoes – yum!
07-11-11 Leo’s self-portrait. He painted this
last week in
art camp. He went to the beach with Carmen and Breeana and rode the waves, made
sand castles, and got buried. And, here he is in the evening after swim class.
07-10-11 Leo at home. Here’s Leo with his udda brudda,
Buddy. And some new Lego sets. The last photo shows his reaction to a fortune cookie
fortune that said, “Someone is secretly in love with you.”
07-09 to 7-10-11 San Jacinto backpack. Roy and John and
Alex, Ernesto, and Lucy
went on a weekend backpacking trip up the Devil’s Slide trail to Skunk Cabbage Meadow, coming back via
Tahquitz Peak (elev. 8,846).
07-04-11 Independence Day! The first photo shows Barbara, Roy, Bill, and Leo
enjoying lunch at the villa. Then, we went to the Del Mar Fair, and saw the demolition derby,
pig races, kid's collections, and fireworks from the Ferris wheel! Also, Roy enjoyed a last taste
of cotton candy before his new braces go on.
07-03-11 A Weekend Off! Thanks to Barbara and Bill, who took
Roy and Leo for the weekend, we had time to ourselves. So, we took a nice bike ride around
Mission Bay, enjoying the cool breezes and savoring the scent of many, many barbeques.
07-01-11 Ah, summer! To celebrate the end of this
session of swim class, the boys got Slurpees! Later, we went to Sea World, where Ondine and
the boys got so totally soaked on Shipwreck Rapids that they had to dry off in the heated
blow drying chamber!
06-28-11 Auf Wiedersehen to Ulli. Here
are Leo, Roy, and Auntie Ulli as she prepares to head home.
06-27-11 Dinner with Ulli and Barbara and Bill! Here’s Leo
sharing a moment with Bill.
06-26-11 Lemonade Stand Part III! This time we had the
whole crew in: Alex, Carmen, Stephen, Michael, Christina, and Nina. Afterward,
they all cooled off with a water balloon fight!
06-25-11 Auntie Ulli brings a gift box from Auntie Liz!! Lots
of cool things to study: tide-tumbled stones, graceful driftwood, feathers, seashells, and even a fossil!
06-20-11 Lemonade Stand Part II! Here Roy, Stephen,
and Michael squeeze the lemons and blood oranges for the stand. then, Michael,
Stephen, and Roy man the stand.
06-17-11 to 06-19-11 Big Bear with Barbara and Bill! Ondine,
Roy, and Leo went to Big Bear and rode the chair lift with Barbara and Bill! They also
fed the birds, flew paper airplanes, and spotted a very plump coyote and (perhaps a related
development) only one squirrel.
06-16-11 Lemonade Stand! Here Michael and Roy give
the lemonade stand concept a trial run before ramping it up for the summer.
Set-your-own-price fresh-squeezed lemonade and blood orange-ade from home-grown
lemons and blood oranges! In a few hours, they made over $48.
06-13-11 Gage Gator Graduates! Here is Roy at the Gage
fifth-grade culmination ceremony, shot from way far away. But, here he is receiving
his certificate of completion from his fifth-grade teacher, Ms. Skaar, then posing with
Ms. Skaar and the principal, Ms. Burns. The fifth photo shows Roy with his
Promotion Certificate and Presidential Gold Award for Outstanding Academic
Excellence. Here, too, is Leo with his teacher at Hearst
Elementary, Mr. Guadarrama. We all convened at Denny’s for a celebratory lunch.
The last photo is (at last) our new family portrait.
06-12-11 Sunrise Buffet with Grammy!
Here we are celebrating a judo promotion for Roy and Leo with lunch at
Sunrise Buffet, the boys’ favorite place to eat. Then we have a “portrait
mode” shoot-out between Roy’s Fuji Finepix AX250 (taken the day before and unfortunately
set at 640x480 hence the tiny size and low resolution), our old Canon A590IS, and
Grammy’s old Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS70, all taken using each camera’s
automatic portrait mode.
06-10-11 Gage Running Club assembly!
The Top Runners (150+ miles) at Gage Elementary are honored at this recognition
assembly. Together, the kids ran 30,889.25 miles! Roy ran 162 miles of those.
Here is Roy with friends and fellow Top Runners Cory, Stephen, and Phoebe. Later they had a fifth-grade
picnic – here are Cory, Roy, Michael, and Alex in a tug-of-war match.
06-04-11 Leo’s school award assembly!
Leo received a perfect attendance certificate, his 50-mile Running Club ribbon, and his 100-mile Running Club
T-shirt, making him one of the few students at Hearst Elementary to run 100 miles in a single school year!
You can see he collected a whole plateful of refreshments.
06-03-11 to 06-05-11 Camping at Cibbett’s Flat with the Fernandez family!
That’s Alex, Roy, and Leo taking turns on the rope swing. Later, Alex and
Carmen took the plunge! Leo and Carmen share a quiet moment with cards. You can
see almost all of us in the middle photo: Ernesto, Carmen, John, Alex, Lucy, Roy,
and Leo. Buddy is at the left. Ondine is taking the picture. Then you see Leo,
Buddy, and the last two shots are of Ondine, Carmen,
and Lucy. And again with the bunny ears!
06-02-11 Bill and Roy celebrate their birthdays!
That’s a lot of candles to blow out! You can see Alex back there playing “Happy Birthday” on the keyboard.
05-31-11 Roy, self-portrait.
Roy is an avid back-seat photographer.
05-27-11 Roy’s birthday slumber party!
First up, is Ondine, constructing the birthday “cake” – Twinkies and Ding Dongs
drizzled with chocolate syrup! Only one of the kids had ever eaten a Twinkie
before, and none had eaten a Ding Dong, so it was a culinary adventure
for them! Next up are two shots of Michael, Stephen,
Alex, and Leo watching Roy open cards and presents (that’s Alex’s hand-made flip
book they’re enjoying in the third photo). Last up is the evening’s game
of Toddler Wars.
05-14-11 Science Field Day! Here are Roy and friends
competing in the district-wide Elementary School Science Field Day! That's Alex, Stephen,
Michael, and Roy in the first photo, and Alex, Roy, Ms. Skaar, Michael, and Stephen in
the second photo.
05-07-11 KidSpace with Grammy! Here are Roy and Leo on the climbing wall,
then working on reports to trade in for nature stuff.
05-03-11 Leo’s music recital! Leo has been taking a piano/keyboard class,
which culminated in a recital. Here he is playing “The Imperial March” from Star Wars. Afterwards,
the kids in the class traded “music dollars” for prizes. Leo chose these noisy
chattering teeth and a cunning disguise.
04-24-11 Easter! For the first time, our at-home Easter was actually
on Easter Sunday. Here you see Leo and Roy scrambling for eggs, jelly beans, and other treats.
The fifth photo shows
Roy, Barbara, Bill, John, and Leo at the table gorging. Then Leo, Ondine, and
Roy showing off their favorite eggs. Then, a wild-eyed Leo and Roy making chocolate
bunny ears on each other. Afterwards, John took them up the mountain to burn off some of the sugar that
was coursing through their brains.
04-17-11 Busker Festival! Leo and Ondine went to the Busker Festival
in Seaport Village. Leo just lapped up the acrobatic acts!
04-16-11 Troop 950 backpacking trip. Roy’s first backpacking trip
with the Boy Scouts was a real adventure! They rode the tram up from Palm Springs to Long Valley, then backpacked
two miles through the snow to Round Valley to camp for the night. The weather was perfect, the trail conditions
were deep snow and ice, and the scenery was absolutely spectacular! Unfortunately, and despite ample reports,
most of the troop was woefully unequipped and undertrained for snow conditions. John, being rusty but apparently
far more experienced, had prepared properly and had a blast, as did Roy, who wished the trip could’ve been
longer! The first photo shows Michael, Roy, and Alex as the troop prepared to cross a stream. The second shows the
troop traipsing across the meadow in Round Valley. The third shows John’s new Sierra Designs Lightning XT1 tent.
The last two photos were taken Sunday morning.
04-10-11 Cowles Mountain. Here are Leo and Roy
at the top, some spectacular blooming Spanish Bayonet (or chaparral yucca), and Buddy
cooling his paws in a trailside rivulet.
03-30-11 Leo shooting (and hitting) a piece of red licorice with
the bow he made with Den 2.
03-29-11 Roy received his promotion to Scout. Here he is
with Scoutmaster Eglin, getting his Scout rank patch.
03-27-11 Cowles Mountain. Here are Roy, Leo, and Buddy perched on
a boulder (not much point to doing “bunny ears” on a dog, is there?). Next is Leo
at the top, and Leo, Ondine, Roy, and Buddy at the top.
03-20-11 Leo has a lemonade/cookie/yard sale! Here he is
cozied in with Buddy, awaiting customers.
03-19-11 Troop 950 Wind Caves campout. Here
you see the campsite, looking toward the wash. That’s John’s Walrus Warp 2+2
Rapeede tent there. Then, the wind caves – photos don’t quite do justice to the
surreal, wind-carved landscape. In the third photo, Roy is at the far right; in
the fifth photo John is at the far left. Last is a view of the bluff by our campsite. That’s
probably Skyler at the top, and you can make our Roy at the base (in the hat).
03-16-11 Leo has lunch with the principal! Leo was
recognized for his outstanding achievements in class. Yay Leo!
03-13-11 Cemetery and Big Boy. We visited Frances and
on our way home stopped at the cemetery to visit John’s dad. Here’s Leo
and the forebear for which he’s partly named. Then, John surprised the boys
with dinner at Bob’s Big Boy in Norco. Note the three spoons headed toward
the banana split! Yum! Afterwards, we all posed with the Big Boy.
03-06-11 Soap Box Derby! Troop 950 handled the flag
ceremony - check out the white gloves and berets! Then, Roy got to race! For real! He learned
to get low in the car. Out of 21 cars and 22 drivers, he placed fourth in single elimination
and third in double elimination! Check out the trophies ... and the race face.
02-27-11 Cowles Mountain. Once again, the mountain was
awash in water and life. Two wonderfully rare Mountain Events: both waterfalls
were running, and the snow level in the local mountains made for a wintry
backdrop to a gorgeous San Diego day. Polliwog Pond was abuzz with croaks of
frogs, like being surrounded by ripping canvas. That’s Alex and Roy at the top.
Afterwards, Roy, Leo, and Alex settled in for a game of Toddler Wars.
02-26-11 Rainy day game time. Note how Buddy likes to
get right into the middle of the pack when there are any family activities.
02-20-11 Cowles Mountain. After two days of rain,
the mountain was freshly and abundantly alive. Who could resist an afternoon
stroll? Not us! Here are Leo
and Roy at the top.
02-18-11 The front garden after hard work by
Frances and Ondine weeding and clearing, and Ondine organizing, getting in rocks,
creating sections, and planting seeds.
02-08-11 Happy Valentine’s Day! Here we are
enjoying Ondine’s baking, including homemade cookies with homemade frosting, gluten-free cookies, and more!
02-12-11 Centennial of Naval Aviation Air Show at NAS North Island! The boys
were Michael, Alex, Roy, and Leo, and the dads were Ernesto, Vlado, and John. The aircraft carrier is the nuclear-powered,
Nimitz-class John C. Stennis. The air show was spectacular, and we got front-row seats on a sandy beach.
You also can see Roy, Alex, Michael, and Ernesto interviewed by KUSI, and Michael interviewed by ABC Channel 10.
We archived the journal that included this event, so you can go back in time to February 20 2011.
02-08-11 Grammy and Scouts! Here are Roy (Scout, Troop 950), Leo (Bear,
Pack 951), John (Eagle Scout, Troop 345 Verdugo Hills), and a proud Grammy!
02-07-11 Grammy visits! As you can see, we put
her straight to work! Here she helps Ondine put up some new blinds in the
kitchen. (Not shown: massive amounts of weeding and clearing in the front
garden.) That evening, Pack 951 had its Blue & Gold Dinner and Crossover
Ceremony, in which Roy and the rest of his Webelos den crossed over into Boy
Scouts! All the grandparents joined in the festivities! You can see Barbara with
Leo and, later, Leo saluting the flag. In the middle, Roy receives his Arrow of Light, the highest award in Cub
Scouts. The fifth photo shows Roy post-crossover in his new Boy Scout Troop 950
neckerchief, with Grammy and Ondine checking raffle tickets for winners. Grammy
bought 20, of which five won! Here’s Leo and Bill with the cake Leo chose
(donated to Troop 950), and us with the scratch-built, hand-ground wheat cake we
chose. Yum! Roy gave one winning ticket to Michael, who split his cake with
Alex. The remaining two winning numbers we let slide.
01-29-11 Medieval Times! The King was off at a Knighting Ceremony,
but we met the Princess. As you can tell from our crowns, this time we were rooting for the Black & White Knight.
01-09-11 Snow! We went to the Laguna Mountains
and enjoyed an afternoon playing in the snow! Here you see Roy, Leo, and Ondine
with Buddy.
12-19-10 to 12-26-10: We take a 7-day cruise to Mexico with Barbara and Bill! Here
we are ready to embark on a wonderful trip! To see more, including about 200 photos,
visit our Family Cruise to Mexico pages! Buddy, meanwhile, stayed with Grammy!
Archived Photos from 2010
Archived Photos from 2009
Archived Photos from 2008
Archived Photos from 2007
Archived Photos from 2006
Archived Photos from 2005
Archived Photos from 2004
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