One of the benefits of being in the car taking kids to and from activities and sports is enjoying the sky at different times of the day. I find myself pointing out the window, telling the kids to look at the sky. It all changes so quickly. A few San Diego skies of late...

The kitchen is still not finished, but there has been plenty of baking going on...

Love these two girls:)

Beach

I finallly downloaded random beach pictures from over the last few months. The sea air is simply therapeutic. Here are some lovelys in no particular order...

Blue skies

Ry with his uke

Del Mar

Torrey Pines

The girls both learned to surf this day with Gavin McEwan. They are still talking about it and both have added wet suits to their Christmas lists this year.

These pictures were taken in Oceanside.

They found sand dollars this day and have been asking to go back ever since to the "sand dollar beach". This is where Al had his iron man race and the kids found a couple of them on his last race day, so maybe the dollars tend to send their fortune to these shores. The kids seem to think so anyway.

Padre Game

Justin spent some of his time documenting players and their numbers and making tally marks next to the ones that got really good hits. That is, when he wasn't eating. We all ate our fair share. Great night with great seats:)

Front row. Sweet surprised look Ry.

Cousins

A day at Legoland with Bri, Danielle, Kris, Jan, and kids.

So fun to be together...

A visit with Cousins. At Mimi's house...

and at Ours! Hooray!!

Justin and Carter went to a Padre game tonight with Al and Shane.

These little guys have a big love of the game.

Yosemite

Yosemite National Park. We were truly amazed by the beauty of the Majestic Sequoia Trees. A fun fact: These gigantic trees start with the seed the size of a flake of oatmeal.

So pretty.

I got stuck posing with this cool hollowed out tree trunk, because no one else would. Dang it.

The roots of a Sequoia on it's side. What you cannot see is all of the miniature chipmunks popping in and out of the huge wooden maze. It was fun to watch. The kids wanted to stay and watch the show, but we needed to move on...

As we hiked up through the forest, the kids were excited to see the trees get bigger and bigger. We were also able to see three deer and lots more chipmunks. I think we had a following. It could have been the peanuts:0

The start of a lower trail

Off roading. Alie inside a split tree

Inside a hollowed out tree from a lightning storm

Our Tree hugger

The meadow was worth the extra hike. It was breathtaking. And so quiet. Alie and I were here alone for a few minutes, as we were a bit behind from admiring rather large pinecones. As far as I could see, there was green. No people, no tour buses, no sound. Just us with the canopy of trees above us and the meadow all around. The feeling was piercing and pure, and then I felt scared. We had just seen deer a couple of miles back. My dreamy state ended with the thought of bears and I picked up my pace. We started jogging up the hill. Alan had taken Lindsay on another steeper path to see some sort of huge fallen tree, and Ryan had taken Justin back down the mountain with Nana and Hoho. It was just Alie and I. We came across a little one room cabin that had an older woman in it. It was like a little museum, I guess. It had a few animal heads, pictures, and among other things large pinecones. We stayed there, glad to have some company, until we saw Alan and Lindsay coming down a nearby trail. The woman told Alie that she could not take her pinecone home, but that she could put it in the "museum" for others to look at. She thought that was pretty cool. She said it felt like she was in a fairy tale.

Back down near the entrance

The tunnel tree.