Shower Cleaning

I hired a company to come and clean and seal our upstairs showers.

A Visit to Amy

Kevin and Candace were visiting Jonathan at BYU and made a stop to say hi to Amy on Sunday afternoon.

Family Pictures by the Beach

I arranged to have family photos taken while we were in San Diego for Spring Break. I thought it would be fun to do something different.

I think all of my girls and Chris have said how much they enjoyed the experience and love the photos.

Family Pics

Chris and Jo

Girls and Mom

Girls and Dad

Girls

Amy

Misha

Kristen

These are just a few of the many great photos to choose from.

New Blooms on My Lemon Tree

Perhaps no one else thinks it exciting that my lemon tree blossoms regularly now. This time, there are so many new blooms that I am going to have to remove some of them. One branch can't support 15 full-size lemons.

And the smell? Heavenly.

Freezing at a Soccer Game

Amy and a friend attended a soccer game on Saturday night. She texted us a picture and then commented, "At a Real soccer game tonight. It’s very cold."

I think we are all ready for Spring and warmer weather!

Spring Break 2023 - Day 7

We checked out of the rental today at 10 am, but our flight wasn't until 6:30 pm.

We didn't have a concrete plan for where to go and what to do. We drove pasts Belmont Adventure park, stopped and walked along Mission Beach, drove to Imperial Beach, had lunch at the pizza place that served pizza with at least a pound of mozzarella on top of it, and then found a nice spot to hang out on Coronado Island.

Nothing too exciting.

We stayed at the park for a couple of hours enjoying the sunshine and I borrowed Chris' laptop to get a jumpstart on blogging.

I left my iPad at home accidentally and have missed having it for sure.

Kristen's Hair Cut

Kristen has been wanting "wispy bangs" for awhile.

She had an appointment after we got home from Spring Break in San Diego. Amazing how they make such a difference to her look. She looks awesome.

Spring Break 2023 - Day 6

Rain rain and more rain. Today we were dumped on all morning long with the "atmospheric river" moving through California. It was windy so we decided just to hang around the rental for the morning. We did find that the sliding door was leaking and called the owner to let them know. 

Just before lunch, they brought over a bucket and towels in case the leak got really out of control.

The nice thing? They refunded our cleaning deposit to cover the hassle of the leak. Bonus.

The rain stopped around noon. Misha found a place for lunch—The Fish Shop—where we enjoyed salads, fish tacos and fish and chips.

During our afternoon rain stoppage, we bought another Urban Adventure Quest scavenger hunt downtown and headed off to the Waterfront District in Embarcadero. The hunt took us walking a lot further this time—almost 3 miles. We walked through Little Italy, found the old firehouse museum, the Bob Hope Memorial, and the kissing statue.

It was a fun way to pass the time.

We ended up in Sea Port Village and looked through a few shops. The girls were happy to see a Wetzel's Pretzels shop. We stopped to eat the snack and watch some kite flyers.

As we were sitting there, a guy bent down in front of Chris and picked up a handful of sand and just let the sand run through his fingers. He said, "I didn't mean to weird you all out. I just got out of prison and have never been to the beach before." I thought his childlike enthusiasm was endearing.

At this point, the weather was beginning to change and rain would be coming again soon.

We took off driving in the mountains through Cuyamaca Rancho State Park and National Forest and along lots of winding roads. Misha may have been getting a little car sick in the back seat. We drove through Julian and Romana and stopped at the Chick fil A in Poway for dinner.

The rain was coming down pretty heavily for our remaining 45 minutes back to San Diego.

Spring Break 2023 - Day 5

Amy was sad today. She had to fly home after lunch and really didn't want to go.

Before she left, we spent time exploring in Old Town San Diego... in the rain. 

The rain wasn't so much fun. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant before leaving, and I kept wondering if our food was going to arrive in time for us to eat it and make it to the airport on time. 

Fortunately, the airport was only ten minutes away, but the restaurant was really slow.

We dropped Amy off at the airport about 45 minutes before her flight. She had pre-check and was able to move through security pretty quickly. She didn't have any luggage to check.

Unfortunately, she texted us a little while later from her middle seat on the plane saying, "I'm the middle of a fat man sandwich!" Sadly, it wasn't a very fun flight home for her.

After dropping Amy off, the four us drove to Cabrillo National Monument. Even though the day was a little overcast, we still had great views of the Pacific Ocean, Mexico, and all of downtown San Diego.

Chris and I walked up to the Lighthouse, while Kristen and Misha went to the car to have a nap. Since we had toured the lighthouse a couple of years ago, we just walked around the outside. Chris enjoyed having the Naval Air Station North Island close by and watched as helicopters and boats and ospreys flew by.

We all had fun exploring the tide pools. I was hoping to see some star fish, but no such luck. We saw lots of itty bitty crabs, a few shells, and walked along lots of slippery rocks. We helped each other as we moved from rock to rock.

From Cabrillo we drove to Coronado and spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the island. Our favorite find? All of the cool sand dollars that were visible at low tide. We may have picked up a few.

We wandered along the beach, meandered through some of the shops, and made a quick stop at a grocery store for chips and salsa for dinner back at the rental. We had beef tacos for dinner

Spring Break 2023 - Day 4

We had a slower morning today. Drove to Balboa Park in the afternoon where we ate a picnic lunch. We were pretty close to the airport, so every time an airplane took off, Amy and Chris would watch it soar across the sky.

We had an Urban Adventure Quest scavenger hunt planned for the afternoon through Balboa Park. It took us to the Fleet Science Center Children's Museum where we watched a guy blowing giant bubbles, to the Casa del Prado Theatre, the Giant Moreton Bay Fig Tree, the Spanish Village Art Center, the San Diego Museum of Art, Spreckel's Organ Pavilion, Old Globe Theater, and the Little Village.

They also had a Japanese Garden (which was free on Sunday) and a lot of museums. We stayed for a little bit of the free organ recital and then decided to move on.

We walked around La Jolla Cove during a brief respite from a rain shower, tried to see the temple but it was closed and finally went to pick up an old family friend of Chris' family for dinner.

Chris pushed Joanie in her wheelchair to Hob Knob Hill restaurant. It was about a ten minute walk or so. Joanie is 93, has MS, has macular degeneration, and has the best attitude about life. My girls have only met her a couple of times but have become attached to her.

Unfortunately it was raining again when we left the restaurant and Chris and Joanie walked back in the rain. Fortunately Joanie had brought an umbrella that kept her covered. 

Our girls watched as we waited in the car and he sat with Joanie before saying goodbye.

Spring Break 2023 - Day 3

The weather today was forecast to be the nicest weather of our trip. California has been having some massive rain storms over the past couple of months. Looking at the forecast, we were going to experience one of their "atmospheric river" moments over the course of the weekend.

We had to take full advantage of the weather today.

We started our first day looking for parking in Little Italy to go to the Farmer's Market. It was BUSY! After driving around and around, we finally decided to park in one of the pay lots. As we entered, a lady motioned for us to roll down our windows. "Here, it is to expensive here." She handed us her parking ticket which was good for the whole day. That just saved us $25!

We walked a couple of blocks north from the lot and began to meander through the market. The market was held in the center of the street that had been blocked off over 4 to 5 blocks.

We saw lots of fresh produce, flowers, Mexican food, candle shops and some clothing spots. The girls bought a baguette and some drinks, but mostly we just browsed.

It was close to lunch time so we stopped at the Little Italy Food Hall. It had a bunch of vendors, so we had a little bit of fried chicken, pizza, salad and tacos.

We stopped for more groceries at Ralph's. From there, we dropped the girls off at the beach, and Chris and I took the groceries back to the rental. We found a great parking spot and suggested the girls bring the beach chairs closer to the parking spot. Chris went to find them once he and I dropped stuff at the beach.

The beach was packed with people. That's what I often hear about the drawbacks to living in California. Once you decide on a cool place to visit, it will be packed with hundreds of people—locals and tourists—by the time you get there. If you find a parking spot, grab it.

We hung out at the beach for a couple of hours and soaked up the sun. Misha and Kristen even braved the chilly ocean waters.

Since we had a family photo shoot scheduled for 6:30 pm, we left the beach around 4 pm to go get ready. We had to drive up to Solana Beach about 40 minutes away to meet up with a photographer that had been recommended by a friend who used to live in California.

We met our photographer, Christy Odom, at Cardiff State Beach by Lifeguard Tower #10. We even arrived early which was perfect since it was a cloudy evening and Christy could start a little earlier. Even though we only signed up for a half hour time slot, she spent well over an hour with us.

She was very great at telling us how to pose, fixing our hair or clothing if it was out of place. Even Chris said he enjoyed the experience much more than our previous family photo shoots.

We should have pictures back within a week or so. Looking forward to some fun looks for us.

It was dark when we left Cardiff Beach. We found some dinner at Rubio's Mexican Grill.

Again, Amy and Kristen stayed up to watch tv. Misha, Chris, and I went to bed.