We had only a few days between trips, and the 4th of July landed during that window. We were ready to just be home for a bit, so after our annual BBQ with friends, we watched fireworks on TV with a special treat made by Jacob. Honestly it was wonderful to just relax and not deal with crowds. Plus it worked out well because of all the fire bans around there weren't any local shows anyhow.
Between catching up with laundry, we spent one day at the local lake with friends. I love that these kids enjoy hanging out together. The adults enjoyed talking and playing as well. This was an especially entertaining trip, as there was a few ladies that decided to go topless, and then the cops showed up. Luckily they were pretty discreet about it, so none of the kids noticed, but man was it funny to watch them try to evade the police.
And after packing back up again, we were off for our second road trip of the summer. This time heading to sunny southern California. Amanda joined us for the drive, and I think she survived, mostly. We stopped for the night in Vegas and enjoyed showing the kids a few of the highlights along the strip.
Once we got to California, we dropped off Amanda in the small town of Idyllwild for a music summer camp for two weeks. She was so excited to be there. It took forever to check her in, so the kids and I explored the property while Dave stood in line with her. We discovered a fun place to climb around and this beautiful amphitheatre. I could have laid there all day.
And then we finished our drive to the coast to enjoy some beach and sunshine!
After checking into our hotel we decided to spend the evening at the beach watching the sunset and building sandcastles. It was a beautiful evening and we even got to see a pod of dolphins jumping waves out in the distance as the sun was setting.
The next morning we ventured to Legoland! The boys have wanted to go for many years. It was a hit in so many ways. But mostly they just loved being surrounded by all things Lego all day.
The rides were perfect for this crew. We don't do a lot of amusement parks, so the lower key rides were right up our alley, and in the end the kids tried avery ride that was open.
But what they really liked were all the Lego displays, everywhere. We arrived early and closed the park down. The boys could have spent another day here, just inspecting the creations, but the rest of us had had our fill.
We took our time the next morning packing up from our hotel and drove down to San Diego for the rest of the week. We stopped and visited the Scripps Aquarium for a couple hours, then headed to La Jolla beach for an afternoon of sea kayaking and beach play.
We kayaked out to these sea caves, and had fun playing on the beach the rest of the evening. We rented a couple boogie boards and the kids had such fun playing on them. It took me back to our days living in NC. The boys were too little to remember, so it was fun to share the simple joy of a boogie board in the waves. They played for hours. Luckily long summer days lend perfect to this, so we opted to find a pizza for dinner and just stay and play until traffic cleared up some and we could finish our drive into the city to find our VRBO.
A sea lion that was quite vocal on the rocks
After this fun day, I am pretty sure the kids would have been happy to just hang out on the beach all day everyday for the rest of the week.
But the lure of Sea World won out. This was Maren's favorite. She has such a love for sea life and was in heaven all day. We watched every show, and saw every animal possible.
The rides were a hit as well, and the boys surprised me with their bravery. They loved the Manta Ray and rode it 6 times. I had to talk them into trying the log fume, but they loved it in the end.
Maren was super brave and rode the crazy new ride, the Electric Eel with me. Yikes!
Day 4 we went to an aircraft carrier. Spencer was in heaven. He is obsessed with all things military.
But a final beach day was calling, so after a quick boat tour of the bay, we took the bridge over to Coronado Island and spend the afternoon and evening at the beach enjoying more boogie boarding.
And a beautiful sunset, one last night. It was magical.
And not to disappoint a boy too much we saw plenty more aircraft as the beaches were right next to the navy base. He was so excited to see a chinook (not pictured) fly right over us as we were packing up to head out for the evening.
Our last day we spent at the San Diego Zoo. Again it was totally magical. We were lucky to see the Panda's and that was a treat. We got there first thing, so we got to see them eating, and climbing around.
We stopped back at Idyllwild to listen to one of Amanda's concerts. It was really neat, these kids were fantastic. And Amanda played well. She was selected to participate in a mid week concert to play a solo, that she totally rocked.
Notice the Piano built into the bench.
Meet Max, the town mayor of Idyllwild...really.
The concert was sadly not in the outdoor theatre...much to my disappointment. But it was a beautiful hall. Amanda stayed for another week after we drove back home. She made great friends, and learned a lot about the competitive nature of pursuing music. But she also felt like she was among some of the best to learn from. The week after she returned from this trip we found out that the entire camp had been evacuated due to a wildfire in the neighboring town. We were all on pins and needles to hear if the camp would survive. It did and we are glad, it is a beautiful place for arts to thrive in the mountians of California.
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