Willows

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In an adventurous mood, I decided to drive the kids and me up to northern California to visit my dad and other relatives there. Scott had to work, so sadly he didn’t get to come. We had fun visiting and generally just hanging out doing fun summer activities. The weather was amazing and there were no bugs. Normally, Willows has a ton and a half of mosquitoes (which my dad insists bite us so much, because they prefer southern California blood) and is really hot, but while we were there it was in the 70s and you could go outside in the evening without being eaten alive.

Last year my grandma had fallen and broken her pelvic bone the day before we were to drive up there, so we only got to see her at the hospital. It wasn’t easy at all trying to keep three little kids happy in a small room, where they were not allowed to touch anything. Her break healed up pretty well though, and she walks with a cane, but is much more active again. It was really nice for her to see the kids playing at her house and just being themselves, and it was much less depressing for me to have her up and doing well than in a hospital and not able to interact with us much due to the pain killers.

Before our trip to Willows that point in the summer, I had been having a bit of a hard time keeping the kids entertained all day and had been getting frustrated with them while in our little apartment with few toys. I think I was also getting spoiled with having Scott or our relatives around to help with the kids. When I was home alone with them, I was wishing someone else was there with me. It was good for me to go on a trip with them by myself, since I knew I was the one who had to take care of them all the time. They are such sweet little kids. Once I got used to planning a little in advance to help them not get too tired or bored or hungry, we were able to have a lot of fun.

In our spare time

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Throughout the summer we had to work pretty hard to keep the kids entertained. That led to a whole bunch of really fun family activities and the occasional desperate trip to Target to play with the toys there. We found an awesome park in Irvine that neither of us had ever heard about: Irvine Regional Park. It had a little train to ride around on, a little zoo that was practically free and bikes and paddle boats to rent. The picture above is when we rented a bike that Scott and I could peddle and the kids sat three-across on the back bench. We took them for a little tour of the park, which had horse and hiking trails, playgrounds and volleyball courts and horseshoe pits. It’s the perfect place to play at and have a barbecue on Memorial Day…except when we actually went on Memorial Day and the whole place filled up and we almost didn’t get in, but it turned out fun in the end.

We also tried really hard to eat enough In N Out cheeseburgers, which is our favorite fast food ever. It’s probably the only burger place that never makes me feel gross after eating. I actually end up thinking, “that was really fresh and actually fairly healthy.” A popular burger chain in from the east coast, Five Guys, is making a play for the west coast market and some new restaurants opened up in Irvine. It gets a lot of hype, but we thought it was really just okay. So don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, In N Out has the best burgers anywhere.

 

Boating and Surfing

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I love how pictures from the beach and lake always turn out really well. These aren’t really the best example of it, but my favorite pictures of our family always seem to be at the beach. So I’m a little bit jealous of Scott this year. Last summer, I wanted to take surf lessons, but never did, because we really wanted to hang out together on Saturdays. This year, Scott’s firm paid for all the summer associates to take a surf lesson, and then some enjoyed it so much that they bought surf boards and meet up several times a week. I guess I could have gone early in the mornings last year like Scott has been, but I didn’t really realize it was an option. Anyway, so Scott’s been surfing a bunch and next year (if we get a job in California, *fingers crossed*, I hope, I hope) I’ll have to go. The wife of one of the other associates wants to learn too, so maybe she and I can be surfing buddies.

When Scott and I were dating I went to the beach with him and his family a couple of times, and was introduced to a tradition of theirs. Every time they go to the beach, they dig a big hole with a wall in front. Not too close to the waves, but close enough that as the tide comes in (after you’ve been working on your hole for over an hour) the waves will start to come in and eventually will destroy even the best-built walls. When we were dating it seemed funny that Scott, his dad and his teenage brothers were working so hard on a hole, but I learned to enjoy it and now the kids are really liking it. They work so hard to make the perfect “swimming pool.”

Catalina Island

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This post should be filed under travel advisory posts. One of the social activities that Scott’s firm was doing was a day trip to Catalina Island. It was the only one that you could bring kids to, so at the beginning of the summer we signed up to go. Just a few days before the trip we found out that it would require a 3-hour yacht trip there and back. We questioned our sanity, but decided to go for it.

All in all it was a fun day. Everyone was tired, but the kids were excited to go on a huge boat and behaved really well on board. We only had a couple of hours on Catalina Island, so we really just walked around a bit, ate our lunch at a playground and then let the kids play on the beach for a while. No one got sea sick either, so that was a plus. And I bought salt water taffy from the same candy shop I did on our honeymoon, which was semi-romantic, and good salt water taffy is really hard to come by.

However, I decided a quick day trip is not really the way to enjoy Catalina. So the rest of this post is for those planning on going to Catalina sometime. Scott and I have actually been twice. The first time it was a stop on the cruise we took for our honeymoon. We didn’t know about planning activities ahead of time, plus who really wants to go snorkeling or kayaking in December anyway. So, we just walked around the island and shopped and bought a milkshake and some salt water taffy. After that we were bored, so we went back to the cruise ship early to umm, play board games.

So after this second quick trip to Catalina, we decided that to really enjoy Catalina, you have to stay a couple of days. It could be a really relaxing getaway vacation if you could do a couple of activities each day mixed in with some lounging at the beach, some eating out, and some touristy shopping. Also, it’s not really the place to take little kids. Our kids had fun, but most of the activities are more for adults in that they require swimming or hiking or are boring for kids like shopping.