Cousins visit us from Hawaii

My sister Ellen and her family came from Hawaii to visit a few weeks ago. First they went to Arizona for Jason's sister's wedding, and then they drove to Utah to visit all our family there. It was a mini reunion (i.e. all of my family was there except me and Kristen), and I really wanted to go too. The problem was that it was the busiest end-of-the-year week for us, and I couldn't get away. Luckily, Ellen and Jason came here to see us too! We all had dinner at my parents' house. 

We got to meet sweet little Rachel. Isn't she a doll?! I was her nursery teacher at church, and she totally attached herself to me. Maybe she can see the family resemblance. It was actually her first official week attending nursery, so she was exactly 18 months old. 

I had a hard time getting pictures of Brian (who is 1 month older than Chloe). He was always moving and roaring and turning his hand into a claw or gun.

I made Texas sheet cakes for dessert (one of my faves), and you would not believe how fast they disappeared! I made a big pan with nuts and a smaller pan without nuts. 

Well, maybe you can believe it with this crowd. It was quite the feeding frenzy! One cool thing I recently discovered: dehydrated sour cream. I can mix it up whenever I want to bake something that calls for sour cream, which I don't usually have on hand.

After mostly boy cousins came into our family, we are starting to get a few girls! They knew they needed to stick together!

They were only here for a few days, and we tagged along with them one day. I got Brennan and Levi out of school early and met them in Morro Bay for fish and chips. Not much happens the last week of school anyway!

What a great family!! I wished they lived closer!

Kristen and Kate went too. I'm glad no kids fell in the bay while we were preoccupied getting our picture taken.

I can't remember what kind of animal this was (sea lion? harbor seal?), but anyway, it put on a show for us. 

Then we drove over to the beach. It was a little chilly, especially compared to Hawaiian beaches. They had to buy sweatshirts for the trip. 

 Cute pictures of Jason and Rachel!

Good job, Levi! Ellen's family went to the Elfin Forest after this, but we had to get back home. I invited everyone over for dinner than night.

Alec set up his slack line in our backyard. Look at our poor, dead grass!

 After dinner (I grilled pork steaks), we had shave ice for dessert.

The slack line also provided extra seating ;) 

Last Christmas, when Levi saw Ellen's Christmas card, he asked me, "Who are these people?" Yikes! I'm so glad they came to visit us so they can get to know each other!!

Valencia Peak Hike

We went on a family hike at Valencia Peak a few Saturdays ago. The last time we did this hike was Thanksgiving, and it was rather chilly. In fact it's usually pretty cold there, since it's right next to the coast. But alas, this was not a cool day. It was downright HOT. We kept apologizing to Kristen's family; most of them had never done this hike before. 

We love this hike because it has great ocean views the whole way up and down.  

 And lots of fun little lizards.

It's steep, but not too bad. Although it felt a lot steeper than usual, being a hot day and all.

We made it to the top! Here's the welcoming committee. This was actually supposed to be a Boy Scout shake-down hike for their backpacking trip this summer (which is why they were wearing their big backpacks), but only the boys in our 2 families were able to go. So we made it a family hike instead.

It was a pretty clear day. There's Morro Bay in the distance.

Spooner's Cove on the right. 

The whole group! I used the tripod and timer for this. It only took two tries - not bad!

Levi did great, but he told me after, "The next time I hear we're hiking more than two miles, I'm not going."  

Time to head back down. We were going to eat lunch at the top, but we all felt just a tad too hot and queasy from the hike. Plus we ate trail mix the whole way up. So we ate our sandwiches when we got back to our cars instead. 

About halfway down, Levi got a sharp side cramp. So Dave put him on his shoulders and carried both kids for awhile. Super dad!

We love our pool

We got a membership to our gym 1 year ago, and we still love it. We thought about cancelling it after summer was over, because we didn't know how much we'd actually use it during the winter; we used it all year! The therapy pool is really heated, and of course we love the hot tub. Dave and I often go there at the end of our date. Plus I started doing Pilates and weightlifting while Chloe was in preschool. 

Chloe wanted me to stay right next to her the whole time she was in the pool last summer, and then she'd get cold quick and want to go home. This year is much better - she wears her life jacket and just swims all over by herself. She especially loves it when Spencer throws her high up in the air. 

Levi has gotten really good at swimming this year. I think just being in the water as much as he is helps a ton. 

Tyler just joined Jacob on the high school water polo team. He said it's hard, but he enjoys it. Unfortunately neither of the pools at our gym get very deep, so he can't practice his egg beaters.

One of my absolute favorite things about our pool is the hours. It's open almost every day of the year, while most of the other pools in town are only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. I think that's silly, because it gets plenty hot here beyond that. The gym is open until 9:00 p.m., so we often go there in the evening. It's the perfect FHE activity. Plus it's covered, so we don't need to worry about sunscreen.

 A friendly game of chicken...

We usually had the place to ourselves in the winter, although it is more crowded in the summer. But still, it isn't nearly as bad as the other pools we've been to.

The therapy pool is so warm that even Dave gets in occasionally. He doesn't like cold water. I'm so glad we discovered this place! 

Field trips

Levi and Brennan had field trips the 2nd to last week of school. They both wanted me to go with them, but they were on the same day! It was a bit of driving, but Chloe and I managed to make it to both.

First we went to Avila Beach for Levi's field trip. They broke into groups and played on the beach, got a tour of the little aquarium, and played at the pirate park. We stayed for the first 2 activities.

Levi's class started out playing on the beach. The rule was that they couldn't get into the water, but they had buckets and shovels for everyone. Even Chloe.

Next we went to the aquarium; they had just finished their ocean unit in school. I went there years ago with Dallin's kindergarten class - field trips are a great time to visit, but otherwise I don't think it's worth the price of admission. It's a pretty small place. 

 The tour guides did a great job! They had lots of hands on sea animals. 

They especially loved touching the shark.

Then we went into a classroom to learn about sea mammals. 

Afterwards we said goodbye to Levi and drove to join Brennan's class.

The third graders went to the zoo. We met them at the park, just as they were finishing lunch. So we didn't make it to the zoo, but that's okay. It's a small zoo and we've been there before. It's really just about having them see us and saying "hi" to them and their friends. 

It was a lot hotter there! Like over 100 degrees! Chloe's under a bridge for shade. We were pretty wiped out by this point, so we went home. It was a fun day!