Camp Rim Road

We have been meaning to go camping several times this summer and between many other trips and outings we jut have not had time.  We decided it was time to let the kids enjoy the great outdoors... and Grandma and Grandpa's place.  They do live across the street from the Angeles National Forest and we had 4 deer wander through the yard so we will count it!

We roasted hot dogs for dinner with all the fixin's along with some fruits and veggies.  After that we broke out the marshmallows for some good ol' smores.  The older kids were so excited to be doing their own cooking that night.  

Smores themselves are a balanced meal right Dad?

Ok, so this part was not so "camping-like", but we did it anyway.  We set up the screen outside with the HD projector and watched an animated flick.  The kids enjoyed buckets (and buckets and buckets) of popcorn.  The adults enjoyed not having to worry about the kids making a mess all over the ground.

The two Megans read stories to the kids before they crashed in the tent.  They each had their own flashlight.  The tent looked like a disco ball until they finally tired themselves out and fell asleep.  The adults stayed up later and watched the second feature film at the "drive-in".  It was fun to sit around the fire, eat popcorn and watch a movie (A-Team).

James and Megster slept in the tent with the kids.  We all got enough sleep, but a nap was still needed the next day.

Don't know what it is about a tent that the kids find so intriguing, but they loved playing in there.  Here is Ethan "helping" to deflate the mattress that James and Megster slept on.

The next morning the kids (minus Gavin in this picture) helped to cook a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, carmel biscuits and fruit.  We will have to do Camp Rim Road again!

No Labor Required

James was able to take off this weekend, so we headed up to our favorite place. Morro Bay of course! Brielle wants to live there forever and never come home. I don't blame her. We spent Labor Day weekend relaxing and playing.

No trip is complete without plenty of time at the beach. Even in the foggy weather, it is still fun to play in the sand.

And go for walks

We went to the sand dunes for happy hour. We had pita chips and hummus. Ethan ate sand. Gross.

The sun came out. It was such a nice day to watch the waves!

Morro Rock is in the background, covered in fog...but it is there.

Hearst Castle

This time we went up to Hearst Castle. I've never been and James hasn't been there in a really long time.

Here we are in front of the Neptune pool. It was hot and sunny and the pool was very inviting. If you work or volunteer there you can actually swim there!

It was fascinating to learn more about the history of William Randolph Hearst and the Hearst Family.

While we toured the castle, Brielle and Ethan spent quality time with their Grandma and Papa Finlay. Brielle was NOT excited when we came back. She had so much fun she wanted to keep playing with them.

La Purisima Mission

Right when we got to the La Purisima Mission, James found a horned toad which the kids were really interested in.

We also got to see the other animals that live on the mission. Sheep, goats, horses, pigs, chickens and turkeys.

We decided we wouldn't want to live in a straw hut, but it was a nice place to sit and relax in the shade.

This mission has many, many rooms with displays of what it was like to live in the 1820s.

While there we met a man that worked on the reconstruction project of this mission. He is currently 91 years old. He had very old pictures of what it looked like when he helped build it when he was 16 years old!

Solvang

We stopped and walked around the Danish village of Solvang. It is such a fun tourist city with lots of fun shops to look in. We went in a clock shop and a candle making store.

We also couldn't resist sharing a hot fudge sunday at the ice-cream parlor. Yum.

I still can't figure out why in the world Ethan likes to eat sand. The texture is so gross to me. Obviously though, he likes it. Hopefully the phrase about '...dirt don't hurt' is true!

At first Ethan thought it was funny that we were running with him away from the waves. And then he was frustrated. He really, really wanted to jump in and swim.

Letters f and g

James figured out a good way to have our pictures sink between our computer as well as with our backups.  This means that I may be able to upload pictures without messing with his system on his computer.  I may be more motivated to capture our preschool activities and post so I can remember them, since it will be easier for me to upload rather than waiting for James to do it.

Anyway, all that aside, here are just a few pictures of some preschool activities for the past two weeks:

 For one of our letter 'f' days we talked about fish.  We made felt fish, which the kids could change the patterns on the fish for what they wanted them to look like.

We read some of our favorite fish books.  "Ten Little Fish" by Audrey Wood and "Hooray for Fish" by Lucy Cousins 

And we ate tuna-cheese melts shaped like fish.

To complete our letter 'g' week, we read 'Gingerbread Friends" by Jan Brett, and "The Gingerbread Man" by Eric Kimmel

Jan Brett's book has a recipe for gingerbread in the book.  We followed along the recipe as we re-read the book.  It happened to be the best gingerbread I've ever tasted.  Brielle thought her gingerbread man would be able to get up and run away so we could chase it.  It didn't this time.  

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.
.

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.

Road Trip!

Last week the kids and I joined some of James' family for a Finlay Road trip party to the San Francisco Bay area. James had to stay home and work.

We stayed at a hostel in the Marin Headlands National Park located just across the bridge from the city. It was amazing at how quiet and empty the area was compared to the city life that was not far away. The building you see behind the kids is the hostel. It was built originally to be World War 2 officer housing. With the fog and older building we felt like we were in a ghost town.

The big kids were SO excited to be able to sleep on the top bunks at the hostel. We had the two moms and four kids all sharing a room, but we did surprisingly enough get some sleep.

These are our road trip companions. The cousins got along really well on the 7 hour drive each direction. Of course after adding planned potty stops, emergency side-of-the road potty stops and wiggle breaks the 7 hours took much longer, but we made it.

The whole traveling crew

We took a short hike to see the lighthouse at Point Reyes. We'll have to go back again though because it was closed the day we went so we couldn't tour the inside. Ethan was trying hard to tear down the fence so we could walk the 300+ steps down to the lighthouse, but he wasn't quite strong enough.

The visitors center museum had some fantastic hands-on exhibits for the kids. (well I admit, the hands-on stuff is still fun for me too)

This great climbing tree had a perfect hole in the center that acted as a play pen to keep the kids contained for a few minutes.

We stopped at the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento where our cousin Erin works. The kids were very impressed with the dragon.

We taste tested the icecream at Ghirardelli and here at Fentons Icecream Parlor in Vacaville to see which was better. Ethan was hoping he didn't have to share.

Outside Fentons is a great play area for the kids. Ethan loved pretending to drive. Brielle was old enough to realize that the cars moved for other kids (who's parents put the money in) but not for us. I just told her we were spending our money on the ice cream instead. She was fine with that idea.

We went on some beautiful hiking trails.

And we all had a whole lot of fun!