June summer fun

This is the tri-ward activity at Lake Perris that Jeff and I organized. We had food, games and swimming at the lake. 

Even with vacations and people gone there were enough youth to make for a fun night.

When the water-balloon toss was done she made sure Jeff got to be a part of it by getting him wet. 

The next week Ashley and I drove out to Oceanside to meet up with Virginia and her family and go to the beach. 

We walked out to the pier and had lunch... 

met some new friends...

then went back to swim in Virginia's pool to wait out the traffic back home. It's really nice to have the Oleson's closer so we can do fun stuff with them. 

Here's my crazy kids taking my phone at a family dinner. 

A DI assignment that Saturday. 

Our job was pulling clothes off the rack that had been on there too long. Ashley couldn't reach the rack so we would hand her the clothes so she could take them off the hanger. I'm sure she felt it was never-ending, ha ha. 

These kids were great about coming and working with a good attitude. 

This is the result of a summer sleep over on the trampoline with Ashley and Jacob....they lasted until about midnight then they ended up back in their beds. Sounded like a good idea but I knew that they probably wouldn't make it through the night. 

We went to watch Kelzey do her final dance recital and solo performance. She did a great job...

and she won dancer of the year. She was so excited. We were happy for her.

We had a beach day with the Cowden family on Kristen's day off. 

Ashley and Cassidy wore their matching bathing suits. 

Its fun to have friends where all the kids get along.

We did a mini-vacation this month in La Jolla and met up with the Oleson's.

We stayed in a hotel in town and as always booked one with free breakfast.

The highlight of our trip was kayaking the sea caves in La Jolla.

After having a lot of clear, warm days we happened to be out on a colder, drizzly day. 

The coldest part of the day was sitting on the beach waiting to leave. Once we got rowing it wasn't too bad. 

We rowed and then stopped to hear from our guide. 

Ashley got to ride in the middle of the kayak while Jeff and I did the work. 

I ended up putting her in charge of pictures so I could row. 

We heard stories about the sea caves and their history...

and the tide was right so we could go in one of the caves. 

Our guide had to walk us in because it was so narrow.

Fun excursion. I would recommend it. 

While we were kayaking we saw people looking out at us from one of the caves. Our guide told us about a man who built a store above a sea cave and then spent 2 years digging under his living room floor to get access to it. 

He charged money for people to be able to access to it and during the prohibition he ran alcohol from Mexico from it. Now it's back to a tourist attraction so we went over to check it out. 

It's called the Cave Store. 

We went into the gift shop, paid our fee and sure enough right in the back was the entrance to the cave...

Watch your step, Jacob ended up slipping on wet stairs.

At the bottom we had a great view looking out to the water. If you look at the silhouette it looks like a man's face turned towards the left.  

Here's a view from the cave we kayaked in from the outside.

The kids climbed down on top of it and hiked around. 

There's a baby seal right behind them.

You can tell that people are not the only ones who like the sea cliffs. 

Virginia and I waited at the top for everyone. 

Our last stop that night after dinner was at the Dr. Sues art gallery. I guess he was a "midnight painter" but didn't want his paintings to be on display until after he died. You could see the influence of them in his books. 

Soli came in town for a quick visit. She came over with friends on their way to their sleep over and then ended up talking and giggling until late before they left.  

We also ended up selling our van this month. 

It was 8 years old and had passed the 100,000 mile mark. 

Originally Jeff thought we might go to a smaller car since the kids are getting older. 

Nope, I wanted a van one more time and got the same make and model, just a different color. 

So far I've filled it to the brim with teens more than once and I'm glad I kept a bigger car ;)

We ended up selling our old one to a private party. He actually met us at the dealership, gave us cash and then we gave the cash to buy the new one. 

That week the odometer matched the temperature outside (that won't happen again ;)