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

Em dance camp

Emily went to dance camp this past week for a some fun with tap, ballet, jazz and other things. She had a blast dancing her heart out for the week. On Friday, they put on a little performance of the things they had learned. We saw her rhythm stick dance, their modeling show and another creative sort of dance that I don't know how to categorize. 

Lined up ready to perform

Aaron: what in the world?!

Emily modeling pajamas

Whipped cream

When I was young, my sisters and brother and I loved whipped cream from the can. We'd all stand in a line in the kitchen and my dad would give us each a mouthful of whipped cream from the can. Kyle and Emily have had it before, though I rarely buy the whipped cream in a can, instead opting to make  it myself from just cream and sugar and no added stuff. Well this week in Trader Joe's, the whipped cream caught Kyle's eye and in a moment of weakness, he convinced me to buy it. And so it is. The kids have been loving whipped cream from a can. Aaron got his first shot of it too. As my sister Kimmy said, welcome to the kid club! 

Kyle whipped cream

Aaron's first try of whipped cream. Love his reaction!

Baby giggles

Who doesn't love baby giggles?

Aaron vacuums

Aaron loves the orange vacuum. He has now figured out how to turn it off and on. Vacuum away my son! 

Kyle & Emily birthday party

Kyle and Emily celebrated their 7th birthday with their friends at a trampoline park. They had a great time bouncing, playing dodgeball and eating cake with their friends. I took a bunch of pictures, but most are just blurs of the kids bouncing. Needless to say, they all had fun bouncing to their hearts content. 

Kyle dodging a ball

Kyle in action!

Emily on the rope swing

Cake time!

Aaron loved hanging out with Claudia. He was especially happy that she was feeding him cake!

Aaron going into the foam pit to Claudia

Emily with Devyn and Haiden

Kyle and Olivia

Nonstop Kyle

Sometimes you just can't take off your rollerblades, elbowpads, kneepads, and helmet to eat lunch. 

Science museum

Today we ventured back to the science museum because it had rained last night so the ground was too wet for outside activities, the kids didn't get enough of the place last week when we went, and we needed to get out. So it worked. And we had Simon with us so it was even more fun for the kids to run around and explore together. 

Destructo human takes on destructo nature

Aaron discovered his shadow a few weeks ago and it was cool to see him see his rainbow colored shadow here. 

A bicycle built for 3

Goldilocks giant chair for 3

Kyleisms

Kyle sure kept us entertained tonight with the things he said. It never ceases to amaze me the things that kids come up with. Here are a few things from Kyle tonight:

Jeff and Kyle were putting some tabasco on their meatloaf. Kyle, reading the label, asks, "why do restaurants sometimes say 'no tabasco beyond this point?'" He just couldn't understand why there was a limit to where you could have tabasco! It was quite hilarious. It was a bummer to explain to him that it didn't say tabasco at restaurants, but tobacco. Now Kyle can read and he can read very well, but he is a speed reader and a whole reader so it's just so automatic that he sees what he thinks he sees in the first half a second. 

We were discussing how I didn't use the 99% fat free ground turkey in the meatloaf because that would be too dry and that we need some fat in our diet and it's okay to have some fat in your diet, if not important. Kyle says, "Yes, it is important. You need it for your hips." Oh the innocence! 

Brotherly love

This is how boys play. Kyle sure loves his baby brother. And Aaron sure loves his big brother. Kyle will do whatever it takes to get Aaron to laugh. He sure will be a great dad someday. He is so patient with Aaron and so loving. 

And some big hugs.

Olympic Training Center

Today I took the kids out to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. There are only 3 in the US - Lake Placid and Colorado Springs being the other two. It's pretty cool that there is one right in our backyard! In the words of Kyle, it was super, crazy hot out. While there wasn't too much for the kids to actually interact with, they were excited to see the BMX bikers out practicing on their course. They have the Beijing and London courses replicated there for practice courses. We also saw the women's rugby team out practicing and a men's team (either soccer or rugby) on their way for a workout. 

New bikes

Happy (early) 7th Birthday Kyle and Emily! They got their new bikes today for their birthday. They had outgrown their other bikes and it was time for new ones. They got ones with hand brakes only and gears! Pretty exciting! It was a bit frustrating for the first few hours adjusting to just hand brakes and trying to shift, but they have done great and love their new bikes!

Fourth of July

Our 4th of July was pretty fun. While we don't have the crazy, busy 4ths that many others do, ours was busy for us. We started the day trying to get to the beach in the morning with the rest of Point Loma. But by the time we were ready to bike over to the beach, Aaron was breaking down for a nap. We thought we could push it since he woke up late, but figured it was in our best interested to let the boy sleep and go to the beach after nap. So he napped, very short, but he napped, and then we biked over to the beach. It was very crowded, but it felt so much less crowded since we didn't have to deal with car parking. It's amazing what a difference that makes. We set up our 'camp' and got to our beach afternoon. We saw plenty of people we knew there and had some fun in the water and the sand. Aaron showed he was a true California boy, with the surfer blonde hair and all, loving the water and even riding on someone's boogie board in the water. Emily made some friends with a handful of girls her age and spent time out in the water on a giant raft with them. Kyle stuck close and played a lot of catch with us and saw some of his friends from school too. It was the perfect time at the beach. 

I loved showing up on a bike, carefree and spending the time that we wanted without the worries of parking and such. Thank goodness Aaron has a bike seat and we could use the bike trailer to haul the beach stuff. Oh and Aaron was soo very tired on the way home that he completely passed out in his seat. I had to hold his head up to prevent it from flopping about. See picture below. 

After dinner, we took in the fireworks from the neighborhood with about 5,000 other people who found it a great place to watch as well. Kyle and Emily watched with Simon and Aaron walked around watching the fireworks with the wide eyes of a toddler, loving it. 

Sunset Cliffs

So we just discovered that Sunset Cliffs is crazy close to us and is awesome! I've read about it countless times about how great it is and whatnot, but we've continued to go to Cabrillo or Torrey Pines for our hiking adventures. Well, Sunset Cliffs is pretty spectacular and is literally in our backyard! So the kids and I ventured out there in the morning to check it out and see what it was all about. We were not disappointed. Despite Aaron eating the ground mutiple times, he still enjoyed being able to (somewhat) roam around and climb and hike. Emily and Kyle loved being gem miners in the dust and watching the surfers below. I can't wait to take them back there and bring Jeff too.