Doowylloh

I've always wanted to hike to the Hollywood sign

 I told the kids we were going on a hike

But I didn't tell them how long it was

 I just promised them slurpees when it was done.

 They were so awesome.

Round trip (with an extra mile tacked on at the end) they went almost 5 miles! 

 Don't get me wrong, it took us a long time.

And let's be honest, I didn't even want to try to make our youngest.

We called her "Giant Baby." (that could have a double meaning in this case-she hates walking very far:)) But we'll cut her slack since she's only three.

 The hike lead us up to the top of the mountain and to the back of the Hollywood Sign, spelling "doowylloh."

 Seeing the view at the top Mackayla kept saying she could see a rainbow which turned out to be the awesome colorful SMOG. bleh.

 Since we were basically there I really wanted to go see the Griffith Observatory too.

It ended up being a half of mile hike to see it...but once again the kids were troopers and giant baby even walked.

The building kind of looks like the great and spacious building to me. There were even people in the balconies looking out and pointing.

 Inside we weighed ourselves to see how much we would weigh on each planet and learned a few facts about each one.

 At night they open the roof to see out in this enormous telescope.

 We didn't stay that long, but just long enough to run into rush hour. yikes.
Ben was missing us!

 I went on a stair run the next morning that made my legs even more sore,

but we had fun running through these arches:

We had a mourning dove nest in our rafters on our balcony

 our diligent doves spent a month gathering supplies and making their nest

and another month sitting on their nest

until a HAWK swooped down and attacked one of the birds.

We heard a crazy scuffle

and then I saw my neighbor sprinting across the lawn trying to save the bird

but it was too late.

I was sad for our birds-the parents and the eggs :(

Their mourning dove cries sound especially sad now (they kind of sound likes owls).

We've loved all our bird friends this year, especially our squeaky flying doves.

A Couple Summer Days

CANNONBALL

The kids are taking swim lessons this month.

They have all improved a ton

I'm so impressed with Mackayla, who had the most to learn,

she just took off with everything and is swimming like a champ now.

Cody and Macey are really learning the strokes and how to breathe better, and doing great too!

 They all love it and we love their teacher!

 We actually took these pictures of Mackayla so that Ben would be sure to see her in her cute outfit.

They have dance in the mornings and she either wanted to wear this all day so he could see or send him a picture~

My life is now complete

I went to a yoga on the beach RS activity

and it's maybe the coolest thing I've done since I've lived here.

I made these again the other day - this is the best chocolate on earth.

cacao, peanut butter, and pure maple syrup. No added sugar. Any excuse to eat chocolate.

 Macy took a cooking class and LOVED it! 

 We went to a little place called Adventure Playground in Huntington Beach.

It's just $3 per kid to get in. So, you get $3 fun. That water they were in had a thin film of duck poop and for only being a 1/2 foot it was the murkiest water I've ever seen. We didn't die and the kids loved it!

 They also had an area to build anything you want out of wood.

We made a bench and a frame. But you can probably tell from the picture. Right?!

We have 12 lbs. of strawberries...

Right after Adventure Playground we headed to Costco.

I always envisioned shopping would be so much easier once my kids were older because I wouldn't be juggling nap times and breakdowns...hahahaha

It's just different now. A different set of patience muscles that haven't been worked out before.

We finally made it through Costco 1 1/2 hrs. later without running anyone over, anyone running, etc. The samples help. It's so hard to move anywhere with three people constantly in your way!!

Checkout, lines are 5 people deep. They are checking my groceries, I realize I don't have my debit card. AAAHHH! I was willing it to appear; they were really uninterested in changing their credit card policy for me. My debit card had been missing for days (but I found it doing laundry today!)

I wanted to cry, not for the embarrassment or loss of my card, but because I had just successfully maneuvered my way through an entire shopping trip with my kids and failed!

Ben came to the rescue and went and picked them up on his way home. I love him.

They had my cart pulled off to the side and for some reason random people kept adding strawberries to the basket.

And we already had strawberries.

Good thing we love jam.

Scout Camp

Scout camp is pretty much boy heaven.

Cody's favorite part was archery. 

If you look close you can see his bull's eye and where he shot his animal :) 

 They made toolboxes

 sour skittle eating champion :) 

 Left every morning at 6:45 sharp - here's the schedule. 

 Baked apples

  not enough sugar. life is rough.

  skit

 He still likes to hold my hand :)

 These two cuties went to the sibling day camp the day I had got to volunteer (it was fun though)

 They loved it!