Surprise Visitors

We had two visitors come for a few hours one day.

The kids love their Uncle Kevin and haven't seen him in a while, and they were so excited to see Papa Jeff and him.

Mackayla did her grandpa's hair for him.

  Mackayla sat by papa at lunch, and this was her fortune.

Perfect:)

It was a short visit, but so fun!

And occasionally I go to the park with a princess--

Boogie Boarding

Summer is so short and busy this year!

We finally went to a ward beach day last week and one this week.

Last week's was jam packed with friends for everyone. This week there was just three of us. Maybe it was the 10 foot shark sighting at a beach in a neighboring city. Or maybe it was 4th of July recovery. Either way, I loved getting to know two amazing and admirable women in our ward who had just the right combination of kids to keep mine entertained. win-win:)

Boogie boarding is the real entertainer though.

Cody and Macey go for hours at a time. I'm pretty sure if I let them they would do it all day.

 This was the week of tons of ward friends and I really had to search for the blue board and the pink board to check up!

 Seaweed problems. ha

 They also like finding little sand crabs. This little guy was the biggest one of the day, if you really look he is on the far right in her hand.

We went as a family to Strands on the Saturday before July 4th. I have to admit I don't get in the water a ton. Unless you count feet. It's the cold water aversion. But Ben and I decided to jump in and swim for a while. I even boogie boarded (while Mackayla paced on the sand since she didn't want to get in!) It was so fun to be a kid for just a minute!!

We like boogie boarding at Strands, Salt Creek, Riviera, and Califia. There are bathrooms at Califia and Salt Creek. Parking is free at Riviera and Strands. Strands and Salt Creek have long walks, but sometimes the "funicular" elevator thing is working at Strands.

There's a little low down on a couple of beaches...for when I forget!

La Jolla Seals

I love blogging about all our adventures we have living here.

These are the fun things to blog about. 

Sometimes I keep it real and delve into personal struggles, but I haven't in a while. 

Sometimes it's better that way. 

Let's just suffice it to say life is so good, but it's not perfect. for anyone.

And sometimes we go on little adventures to get away from it all...

On to fun things!

We went to La Jolla to visit the seals.

Man do they stink, but they're so fun to watch.

A couple of them swam and played and dove in and around each other all over the place.

When we first got there we went through an underground tunnel to get to a sea cave.

Lots of stairs down

Then we made our way over to the seals.

[overexposed] Super cool little arch through the rock.

The beach we watched the seals at was fairly small and full of seals laying out, playing and barking.

This beach must be great for snorkeling since there were tons of snorkelers out. It would be fun to come with Ben some time!

The kids loved watching all the sea birds. The pelicans were especially fun when they stretched their long necks out. But the seagulls just like to steal food. They stole an entire sandwich of ours. Arg.

(Mackayla was just happy he ate it and she didn't have to.)

Fun day and worth the drive to San Diego area! If I were to do it again I might make it a long full day and do this and the Mormon Battalion.

These guys are so fun to hang out with!

Scout Camp

Scout camp is a week my kids have started to look forward to in the summer.

Archery was Cody and Macey's favorite.

(Macey was in the sibling camp and I wasn't able to see her shoot!)

Here was their schedule. I came on W/Th

Cody was on fire at soccer and scored two of his teams goals:)

 The hike was hot but got us up high enough to have a view. 

 The only catch this year is that Macey was so disappointed that I didn't sign her up as an actual camper and not as a sibling in the sibling camp, because they don't do all the activities that everyone else does. Next year I'll have to for sure. And they only come the days I volunteer, so two days. 

She really wants to do girl scouts but I don't have it in me to do boy scouts and girl scouts every week. Scouting is kind of intense. I keep reassuring her that activity days will be so fun when she turns 8. I sure hope it is!!

I did get them the second day at lunch time so they could get ice cream and it solved any problems in the world. 

Bottle rockets entertained them the entire hour they had them! 

The favorite day is Friday when they have a huge mud/water fight and do archery for the final time.

Scouters are serious about their business, and serious about their fun!