Annual Summer Roadtrip

First stop, Las Vegas. Not for a hotel this time. 

 For Tacos El Gordo. This restaurant has really good, authentic tacos and Gordon gives it a thumbs up. 

 Yum. 

We stayed at a very nice La Quinta in Ely, Nevada that night. It had a good breakfast spread and swimming pool. Then we got stuck in road construction the next day and I led an impromptu stretching session while we waited. 

 We made it to Idaho in time for Ev's ninth birthday where we at eclair torte. 

And she got MORE legos. Because you can never have enough Legos (although I'm beginning to think they have plenty).

 She also wanted to visit the Boise Zoo, so we did. And it was super hot, but the Boise Zoo is pretty awesome. We even saw the elusive snow leopard. 

 And the Benjamin Bat. 

 We bought a ticket to the butterfly house, which was my personal favorite. All kinds of butterflies were out due to the heat, and landing everywhere. We had to be very careful not to step on them there were so many. I had 3 or 4 on me at one point.  

We also rode the paddle boats at the park next door and chased the ducks around. 

 Ben and Nate went into downtown Boise one night to see a criterium race. 

Ben brought his bike and rode it on some of the canals around the area. 

 Gordon with his favorite activity at Grandma Chickens' house. The poor birds are probably so relieved when we leave. 

 Found some little toads while cleaning off the porch. 

Living in swimsuits for part of every day, playing in the pool and with the hose.  

Don't you know what happens when you get muddy? 

Muahahahaha! 

Grandma hosted a fiesta for Primary Teacher Appreciation, and even got a mariachi band to perform. 

 Out at other Grandma's house in Washington, the kids enjoyed their cousins and a tire swing. 

 How many can fit on there before someone gets hurt?

 Trampoline forts!

Finding whatever dirt they can to dig in. 

 The boy cousins brought their bikes, and Ben and Tyler took the older kids down the ditch road on a long ride. They all did really well. 

Ben and Tyler rode bikes down to the Columbia River. 

Going target shooting with the mens.  

 Girls like to shoot too. 

Evelyn hit four targets, and Jilly hit three targets. 

We walked the canal road in the cool of the evening, watching combines cut the wheat. 

Playing with second cousins on Sunday. 

Back to Idaho for a quick stop before heading back to California.  

 Grandma Chickens had a seemingly endless supply of ice cream sandwiches, to the children's delight.

Driving back through Nevada to Irvine in one day, enjoying the occasional break in sunshine a thunderstorm would give us. 

Palomar Mountain Camping Trip

To celebrate the end of the school year, we booked a camping trip to some mountains southeast of us, the Palomar Mountain area. It gets snow in the winter (5000-6000 ft in elevation), although with the drought, it seemed the area had not seen significant moisture in quite some time. 

There were a lot of big rocks near our campsite, and our kids found a few other kids to play with on this "playground." This was also the area the mosquitoes hung out in. 

Excited for tinfoil dinners! They were super tasty. It got dark not too long after this, so we read from "The Chronicles of Narnia," and then went to bed.  

The next day Ben figured out where some of the hiking trails were near our campground, and we took the kids on a 1.5 mile hike. It was nearing noon though, and the sun was hot, so there was quite a bit of whining on this hike. 

There were some good views of the valley below us though. We could see clear into the bottom of the valley we had driven through to get up to Palomar. 

Me perusing a Sunset magazine article about camping in California. Ben thought it was funny.

Palomar Mountain is home to a large observatory. They have a museum and gift shop there open to the public. 

The highway leading up to the observatory is quite windy, and Jilly felt motion sick upon arrival. 

Looking into the big telescope room. 

This observatory continues to function and is still one of the largest in the world. 

We found this big tree, I think it was a sequoia. 

 There were some young redwoods here too, this one full of holes, drilled by woodpeckers, and then filled in with acorns by the squirrels. It was a funny sight. 

More big rocks to stand and pose on. 

This is a huge coastal live oak tree. Live oaks make up much of the treescape in the higher elevations of coastal Southern California. 

 We took another hike later in the day, what we thought would be three miles, but ended up being more like five miles. It was a hike that took you to the top of the ridge where "Scott's cabin" was at. This cabin was an old homestead in the area. 

It was a pretty hike, and we walked along the ridge for quite a while, not finding this cabin. Once we realized we were heading for the small general store by the highway, we figured we'd gone too far and needed to head back before the kids got hangry. 

On the way down, with more careful observation, we found some logs outlining the place were Scott's cabin used to be. The signpost marking the site had been knocked down and that's why we didn't see it the first time through. We hiked roughly a mile beyond this point. This kids were troopers, and are still talking about the crazy hike to find Scott's cabin. 

The kids enjoying Ben's fire-building skills. They were pretty tired, and the canned Progresso soup we had for dinner tasted awesome after that long hike. 

We had a great time and the kids want to go camping up here again. 

Other June highlights: I gave my third successful piano recital, Ben went on a green smoothie diet for two weeks and found out he's not very tolerant of milk, and Ben and the kids spent some time at Disneyland. I had a lot of work training this month as part of my contract renewal and that was not fun, but oh well. 

May

Enjoying Disneyland before the summer blackout dates. 

 Just chilling while eating. 

We got to take a ride on the Lilly Belle train car one afternoon. Apparently it was Walt Disney's wife's favorite car, and she decorated it. This chair we were sitting in has had a lot of celebrities and dignitaries sit in it over the years. (It still felt like a normal chair). 

 I work for our apartment complex and we hosted an emergency preparedness event and got the Quake Cottage to come out. You sit inside and it rocks you like you're experiencing an 8.0 earthquake while viewing a video of a house that is unprepared for an earthquake (lots of destruction in the video). It was difficult to sit in the chair while the rocking was happening, and let's just say we don't need to experience this in real life. 

We had some super hot spring days, this one was 100 degrees. 

 Ben helped out on a ride a member of our ward organizes each year called "The Breathless Agony." It's a ride designed to make you feel like you may die, and finishing it is a major accomplishment in Southern California cycling. Ben took his turn dressed as the grim reaper, running alongside cyclists as they were climbing through a big valley, giving pushes and encouragement. He was sore from the running the next day. 

At the summit of the ride. It's a total of 114 miles and 12,000 feet of climbing. 

 I keep my cycling ambitions modest and local. Gordon was in preschool for a couple hours twice a week in the spring, so Ben and I had some cycling dates. 

Bringing Ben lunch on campus. 

 Adventures in masking tape. They were having a foot war, and their feet wouldn't stay together, so they taped them together instead. 

 Then Gordon taped them to a chair, like all little brothers aspire to. 

Beading one Saturday afternoon when I was on call. 

 Ben went to lengths to make sure I had an extra special birthday this year. I felt really spoiled! 

Dinner at the Blue Bayou in Disneyland. Dessert was my favorite. There was a cycling date and I went out with some friends for an evening a few days later as well.

 Ben took this very nice shot of the Newport Beach Temple. 

 In June, the kids decided to start having afternoon picnics with friends out in the backyard. 

The boy heading into Target with me. He loves to climb on top of the red balls (even though I don't love how close to the cars he is). He was my good buddy for the last year he spent home with me, but was so ready to head to kindergarten.