Catching up July

The neighbors invited us to go swimming.  That in itself doesn't sound all that exciting, but in 2020 it is.  Pretty much all pools are closed, but they belong to a swim club and were able to reserve a 2 hour time slot one afternoon.  Ben is still on tight restrictions, so just the kids and I were able to go and there were only a few other people there during our allotted time.  The kids had a great time and Colin started jumping off the diving board!

We invited the Kenyon's over for 4th of July.  Brandon and Ben had been hiking quite a bit together, but we haven't seen the rest of the family in a really long time.  Ben smoked some meat and we had a wonderful evening out on the patio.  Alison helped me decorate the shortcake for dessert.

Eli moved his desk into his room and set up a gaming station.  He may be watching a little too much Zebra Gamer...

He also has become very particular about his room being spic and span.  If Colin leaves anything on the floor, he will throw it into the hallway.

Ben can go to the Mugu beach, so we have been there at least once a week.  Like everyone else in California, we are doing all that we can to make the most of these weird days and have added some things to our beach life.  Hello wet suits, paddle boards, life jackets, an adult boogie board and the best sunscreen around. 

I will always love how little boys don't need any toys at the beach.  They just need a stick or a shovel and they are happy for hours.

 

The Ventura harbor has become a new favorite spot.   The kids and I have met Erin and her girls there a couple of times for a walk.  It's fun to look at all the boats and my kids make sure Lindsey doesn't fall in the water...without touching her.  Colin has become pretty good about playing 'following the leader' with her so she stays behind him, safely away from the edge.  There's a fun little ice cream shop along the walk that was calling our name.  

 This is what getting ready for a new school year looks like:

The garage looked about the same for a few days.  We're almost ready for 8th, 5th and 3rd grade!

Ben and Brandon hiked Mt. Whitney!

This was from their hike a few days before to acclimate.

They had an amazing time and everything went smoothly for them.  The only unfortunate thing that happened was a bear attacked Ben's truck while they were hiking (apparently thinking Brandon's tackle box in the back had fish in it) and damaged the soft top and left a few scratches on the side.  I'm just thankful they were not in the truck when it happened!

Whenever Ben is gone, the kids and I have breakfast for dinner.  The pandemic has also brought sourdough and a wheat mill into our life, but these waffles confirmed that that was a great decision.

It's hard to stop hiking once you start, so we went on a family hike on the Ray Miller trail.

My little girl becomes a teenager tomorrow!

We stopped at the bottom and ate some fresh fruit by the ocean.

Ben and I decided that we needed to really get a hang of our paddle boards before taking the kids out on them, so we went on a date to the harbor.  Ben can't be on a public beach, but he can be on the ocean.

Workout #1: air up the boards.

We have an electric pump, but right now it only attaches to one board, so we took turns pumping up the second one.

Workout #2: get the boards to the water.  

I was laughing so hard as I carried the board the water.  It was a pretty windy night (the weather app lied to us) and it was just plain comical watching me try to maneuver a giant board in the wind.  I did eventually make it and we have a better plan for next time.  And all the more reason why we wanted to do it solo the first time.

Workout #3: paddling to a calmer cove.

I had quite the adventure...Ben was fine...and keep in mind that it was windy and we were on the ocean.  Most normal people would start on a lake.  I started paddling out and all of the sudden, this older gentleman jumps on a wind surfer thing and starts zooming all around me, almost running me over 3 times and his wake keeps pushing me back to shore.  I was very irritated at said wind surfer.  He finally crashed and I was able to paddle past him, across the channel and into a calmer cover.  BUT that channel is where boats come in and out so we had to paddle fast.  AND the wind surfer tried to chit chat with Ben about the details of our paddle boards as we passed...all I could think was, "We do not have time to talk to you about how long it takes to air up our boards!  We have to get the stink away from your annoying waves!".  Once we were in the cove, we were able to enjoy ourselves and it was a really lovely evening.  There was a band playing on shore at a little restaurant and people fishing and kayaking and even a line of sailboats going around, I'm assuming for a sailing class.  We had mountains behind us and the ocean in front of us.  I'm looking forward to many more evenings on the water.

Afterwards, we picked up some famous fish and chips (Ben got scallops and chips) from Andrias.