Inland Empire

While most of the California Finlay's were in Ireland celebrating James' grandparents 60th wedding anniversary, we went to stay with some cousins in Highland (their parent's were on the trip).  I had 3 extra kids for 12 days.  We had a lot of fun together during the weekends and at night when they were not in school.  During the days I took my kids to explore a new environment.
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The first weekend we went out the the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and Beach.  Brielle was scared to climb but wanted to be with Nicholas and John.  They were so good to help and play with the kids all week.

The Nature Center

My sister Cori and her husband Jared came out for a visit as well.  We went with them to the Bracken Bird Farm, there were so many beautiful kinds of birds there, but also a lot of different animals.

We also went with them to the San Bernardino Asistencia.  Brielle was interested in grinding her own flour.  I'm hoping I can find a mortal and pestle to have at home and keep her busy as long as she was there!

 We met up with Aunt Megan and cousins Gavin and Elise at the Chino Youth Museum.  The kids loved that everything was their size so they could pretend play.

Brielle was so proud of the fact that she could do these monkey bars all by herself!

 It was a HOT week, so the kids did what they could to beat the heat.  The sprinklers coming on were a big attraction.

 As were the dogs water dishes.  Talk about a teeny tiny kid pool!  Ethan loved climbing in them.

Digging for fossils at the San Bernardino County Museum

This polar bear is HUGE!

And so is the tree this slab came from.

We went to the local library that had an amazing story time as well as an entire wall of live animals to explore.  We also went to the local parks every night for walks and to picnic, we went to the nature center and took all the kids swimming during the weekend.  We also had time to play games and hangout together.