Oceanside Beach

Not that many posts ago, I said it would be interesting to compare Long Island beach to Oceanside:

A week in Florida does not really compare to a day in Oceanside, but we still had a really fun time.  Alison was even able to come down for a little bit before work.

The boys boogie boarding.  I have zero idea how they are in the water.  I couldn't even put my feet in.

Digging and finding rocks and then pretending those rocks are in a war.

Playing football:

 

USS Midway

The White's have had a vacation to their favorite spot in Florida planned for a year and Laurel has been counting down the days.  This has been the hottest summer in Yuma in forever; hasn't been below 100 since May!  Sadly, Hurricane Milton cancelled all their plans at the last minute.  I was so sad for them, but selfishly happy for us...they changed plans to come to San Diego for a few days.  

Colin and I met up with them at the Midway.  Colin and Tolson talk almost every day and it's usually about aircrafts and the military, so to say they were in heaven would be an understatement.

We had to pry them away from this spot.  They were pretending to be in charge of an attack and I am confident would have stayed there all day if we had let them.

Colin didn't remember going to the Midway a couple of years ago, so he gained a whole new perspective of what it was like for his dad to live on a ship during his deployment.

 

Pumpkin Carving

Wanna hear something cool?  My friend Laurel connected me with a friend who also just moved her from Yuma!  Turns out, we have a LOT in common.  They only live 10 minutes away, have kids about my kids age, have also lived in Michigan, Virginia and Arizona and homeschool the same way we do, which is a unicorn to find.  We've hung out twice already and this week they came over to carve pumpkins.  Coming from Yuma, it's been a hot minute since they've done this and they were happy to do anything that was outside.  I remember those days well.

Alison's pumpkin

 

Catching up

Stopping by the beach is a theme in our life now and I couldn't love it more.

After a busy day, we went out to dinner and stopped by to watch the sunset.  I just have to say how much I love this picture of my kids but hate how giant my hoodie makes me look...but that's not what's in important.

I also love that eating outside is a regular occurrence.  Especially Colin will take his breakfast out to the patio to eat.

We found the library!  We pulled up and the boys said, "THIS is our library?!?!"

They have an entire manga section and have regular teen anime events, which made Eli very happy.

The library is right in the downtown area so we walked around afterwards and found the 'Top Gun' house.  

We have some really nice neighbors!  Neighbors on both sides of us have come over to say hello, have brought us food and have said they are here if we need anything (they put 2 and 2 together that I am here by myself for the time being).  It's been so long since we've had friendliness like this, I just had to document it:

One Friday night, we went to get tacos and stopped by the beach.  There was a skateboarding competition that we watched for awhile and then tried to snap some pictures.

Colin refused to have his picture taken, but we still love him!

We are still missing a lamp (but have the shade) and coffee grinder.  The packers put things in such weird places that I had to go through ALL of our garage stuff.  Not a job I really wanted to tackle.  However, it made me go through a giant tub we had of old bedding that clearly needed to be cleared out.  You know you've moved too many times when this is in your garage: Alison's bedding from Virginia, Arizona, Camarillo and New York.

 

Fishing in Canada

Eli got to go fishing with Ben and Grandpa in Canada!  This was his first time out of the country and I believe they had a really fun time.  I know it will be a trip that Eli will always remember.

 

Venture to Yuma

Believe it our not, we trekked over to Yuma for the day.  The boys have Facetimed each other almost daily in the years that we've been in New York and they have been begging to see each other in real life.  What better time to do that than when you're just sitting in an empty house.  They picked up right where they left off and it was like no time apart ever happened.  It was amazing to see them play together all day and I was not complaining about a day with Laurel.

We went to Get Air for a few hours.

Colin has definitely had a growth spurt!

Then they jumped on the trampoline with a hose.  Laurel said this has been the hottest summer since the 70's and this is literally the first time they've been outside since May.  It was a cool 106...

We had Chili Peppers for dinner and the boys kept on playing.

It's exciting that day trips to see each other can be in our life!