Swim Lessons

The last two weeks Kelly has been taking swim lessons at the base pool. Just two years ago she wouldn't put her head under the water. Now she loves to jump in the pool, go down the slide and jump off the diving board.


Here she is practicing her freestyle.


Kelly jumped off the diving board more times than I could count.



Another fun part of swim lessons was going down the slide.


Here is Kelly with her swim teacher, Rachel.

Slingshot Buddies

A while back Tom brought a slingshot home from the swap meet for Kelly. Last night they went and bought ammo. Kelly decided she would call Tom and herself "slingshot buddies". Tonight they had some father-daughter bonding time shooting them.


Here are the "slingshot buddies".


Kelly did pretty well shooting after a few practice rounds.


Tom takes a shot.


Here is the target they shot at. Kelly made it all by herself.

Our New Juicer

After months of waiting and watching we finally found the juicer we wanted. Tom and Kelly rode their bikes to Henry's and brought home lots of fruit and veggies. For our first try we made a "Cocktail Alert", which was half a pineapple, an apple, a celery stalk and a carrot. Our second concoction was pineapple and strawberries. Both turned out yummy. In addition to the great taste, we had lots of fun making them.



Tom and Kelly put the fruits and veggies down the hopper.


The pulp comes out the side and the juice flows out the bottom.


Mandi tests the finished product-it was delicious!


Kelly even likes it-yum!

Our Last Night

On our last night together we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner then headed to the pier to catch the sunset.


This was our last walk on the pier.


A beautiful sunset topped off the night.

San Elijo Tidepools

Today we drove down Pacific Coast Highway 101 to San Elijo State Beach to visit the tidepools.


This rock was the perfect spot to dip your feet. It had a small pool about 3 feet deep.


The kids looked at small crabs that flitted all over the beach.


Annie holds up a dead lobster that had washed up on the beach.


Kelly holds one of the tiny crabs she found.


The kids climbed up this cool rock.

After we came back from our walk down the beach we had lunch on the rocks and let the kids play.


Annie checks out what's on the bottom.


Kelly enjoys jumping off the rocks.



The kids have fun swimming in the ocean

Kelly had her ears pierced!

Since Kelly found two pearls that were about the same size, we had them made into earrings. That brought on a conversation about Kelly getting her ears pierced. Her cousin Annie, who is visiting had hers done last year, so Kelly finally decided to have hers done too. We took her to Claire's and she chose her earrings. She was nervous as the girl prepared everything, and afterward she said it hurt, but she didn't cry. The excitement was almost unbearable, as if our little girl was getting ready for her first date. She sure is growing up (sniff)!


Here she is getting her ears cleaned and marked.


Before...


During...


After!

Fun at the Fair

We visited the San Diego County Fair on Saturday and enjoyed the food and sights. While we were there each of the kids picked an oyster to find a pearl. Cousin Annie went first and she found 3! Kelly went next and there were 2! Jonathan chose two oysters and found 2 black pearls. The kids were really happy with their choices.


Here they are waiting to see how many pearls are in Annie's oyster.


Annie had 3!!! The jeweler cleans and polishes the pearls in regular table salt.


And here's Kelly picking her oyster.

The parrot rescue people let the kids hold the parrot.

We had fun walking around the animal buildings. We saw all types of goats, sheep and cows.

Kelly and Annie had front row seats at the pig races.

The potbellied pigs were the funniest to watch.

We All Scream for Ice Cream!

The other night the kiddos watched and waited patiently for the ice cream truck to drive by. It finally came and they enjoyed the yummy treat!

Beach Day

This morning we visited the Oceanside Farmers Market then headed to the beach. It was pretty crowded considering school just let out, but everyone had a good time.

Kelly and her buddy, Annie were eager to hit the waves.

The girls had fun frolicking in the water.

Even Jonathan enjoyed jumping the waves.

Point Loma Tidepools

We visited the Point Loma Tidepools on Wednesday. The kids had a blast playing on the rocks and by the water. The tide wasn't low enough to look in the tidepools, but everyone had fun anyway.

Cabrillo National Monument Junior Park Rangers

While we were visiting Cabrillo National Monument Kelly and Annie took part in the Junior Ranger program. They completed 5 or more activities in their booklets and turned them in to the park ranger.


Here they are taking the oath.


Our official junior park rangers!

Visitors!!!

Tom's Mom, brother, Jonathan and cousin Annie came out to sunny CA to visit us. Tonight we went out to dinner at Ruby's at the end of the pier.