Boogie boarding

Kyle and Emily had a very formative California experience at Coronado beach - they both boogie boarded for the first time and loved it! 

Kyle boogie boarding

Emily boogie boarding

Punta Cana

These are old pictures from Karen's wedding in Punta Cana that my mom just sent. As you can see, the kids are a whole lot younger in this. It was December 2009 so they were 3.5.

Kyle and Emily would take their afternoon nap curled up on a beach chair out by the water. They legitimately slept for at least an hour or two like that. That was glorious!

Driving range

Driving range held double meaning for us today... you have to improvise with a baby who wants to do everything his big brother and big sister are doing! 

Aaron reading

Don't let this picture fool you... Aaron rarely sits still long enough to make it through 3 pages of a book. But he sure looked super cute sitting in Emily's doll's chair reading. 

Boomers

The kids and I went to Boomers today for their annual free birthday pass to play there. They worked all the rides they could that their height would allow. The main one they could not do was the go-karts, which is the one they wanted to do the most. Heck, that's the one I want to do the most. Alas, they have another foot to grow before they meet the height requirement of 58". Instead they did a lot of bumper boats, mini golf and the little carnival rides. 

I love this picture of Emily on the ferris wheel. The cute little vintage dress she was wearing makes it seem like it's out of a classic movie with the girl on the ferris wheel taking it all in. 

Aaron loved mini golf. He tried using the putter a bit, but resorted to mostly just throwing the ball while carrying the putter everywhere. 

This is what golf with Aaron looks like

Em had some solid swings and even hit a hole in one with a sweet putt.

Kyle and Emily loved riding the bumper water boats. Aaron so desperately wanted to get in the water and "splash, splash, splash". 

On the way home, we picked up sunglasses for the kids after Emily made a comment about seeing white spots falling on her. Poor sensitive blue eyes. 

Fishing

Jeff took Kyle and Emily fishing with his friend Brian and his four kids. They were having a great time fishing and wading around in the shallow water until when they got out and were walking on the rocks they noticed their feet were bleeding. Apparently, there were a lot of oyster shells in the shallow water and all the kids cut up the bottoms of their feet. Near the parking lot, there was a fellow military man who had a first aid kit. So Brian with his Seal medic training fixed up all the cut up feet. I love how the first aid kit was very military. I rode up with Aaron who had just woken up from his nap to find Brian, Jeff and the kids in their mini-triage unit in the parking lot. Funny thing is that the kids weren't even upset or crying about their cut up feet. They were having too much fun to even care. 

Sunset Cliffs

Today we took Jeff over to Sunset Cliffs for a late afternoon hike. It was as pretty this time as it was a few weeks ago. Kyle and Emily had a blast running around and climbing up hills and getting as dirty as you can possibly imagine. This time, Aaron spent more of his time in the backpack to keep him contained. It's a beautiful hike, but for a little wanderer like Aaron, it is too dangerous to give him free reign - especially on the path we took today. He did, however, get to run free on the parts away from ledges and steep terrain. He made the most of those times, happily bouncing along, basketball included. 

Who doesn't need a basketball when you hike?!

We found our way down to the beach through a rocky and steep pathway. The surfers were out since it was high tide so the beach area we 'landed' on was very tiny. The water came almost right up to the rocks - about 6 feed from them. 

Our little mountain goats loved running up the cliffs. And down them. And back up again. And down again. Over and over as we wandered around making our way back. 

Backyard games

Today we rode over to the Clif Kids Backyard Game finals for a little fun in the morning. Featured at the festival were the 6 finalists' games created by kids in a contest for best backyard game. Kyle and Emily had a blast trying out these new games. While playing one of the games, Dragon Frzz Ball - a sort of bowling meets frisbee meets football - Tony Hawk joined their game. He was one of the judges for the event. Emily had a great defensive play against him, blocking his shot! My kids not being skaters really had no clue who he was. Kyle did recall that his last bike helmet said Tony Hawk on it though. Anyhow, it was pretty cool to see a celebrity just being a kid himself and mixing it up with a bunch of kids. 

That's Tony Hawk left of center with the frisbee in Dragon Frzz Ball with the kids. Emily defending the goal behind the boy in the yellow shirt. 

While watching the kids play, Aaron wandered away from us. Jeff and I both looked at each other, realizing our lapse and asked each other "Where's the baby?" We turned around, looking, and slightly panicked and there he was just chilling in the chairs behind us taking it all in. 

Soccer Around the World

Air museum

Aaron and I hit up Free Tuesday at Balboa Park and visited the Air & Space Museum. He was pretty thrilled to see all the airplanes, but was even more thrilled to roam around not in the stroller. He did find a fun Aaron sized plane to fly. 

Poor lil' bear

Poor little bear was sick. All of a sudden at dinner, he started getting really upset and crying. It wasn't a normal kind of upset. He needed attention right that second. I picked him up and he put his head down on my shoulder and proceeded to pass out within 30 seconds. He took a nap on me for the next hour. Aaron does give me some great snuggles otherwise, but he rarely falls asleep on me and certainly not that fast. He's more of the put-me-in-my-crib-to-sleep kind of kid or if he has to sleep on me (i.e., on an airplane, he fights it for some time before falling asleep). He had a pretty decent fever that lasted for 2 days. In between feeling super tired, he was a happy kid and doing what he normally does. But then he would very suddenly decide he was not feeling well and need some serious snuggles and a nap. Thankfully, he ate a little bit, drank very well and had some good playtime so he seemed to recover fairly quickly. And it was just a high fever. Nothing else. I'm convinced it has to do with the dTap shot he got 10 days prior, but I've been told that it's too late for any sort of reaction. Even Dr. Internet  and Dr. Google don't support my theory though I remember something similar happening with Kyle with this shot. But it doesn't matter. He is fine now. 

Sleepers