NJ Friends' Surprise Visit to CA

A few weeks prior, Sandy had texted me that they wanted to buy plane tickets for her, Carly, & Beatrice to come visit us for a long weekend. We decided to keep it as a complete surprise for the kids. I headed down to LA on Saturday morning to "run errands" and pick them up from the airport. When we returned, the kids ran out to the driveway to greet me and were shocked to see their NJ friends in person. There were both screams and speechlessness. It was awesome. 

Spending the evening catching up with jet lagged friends. They talked and talked about books and activities and adventures.

Snail hunting on Sunday morning - after the rains, there were SO many! Beatrice and Amelia share a love of birds and creatures.

We drove to the Carpenteria Nature Trail to go see the harbor seals nesting beaches.

 

It was an overcast day, but the bluffs were still amazing.

Harbor seals and their pups

Geocaching of course

Picnic lunch at West Beach

Ice cream treat after walking Stearn's Wharf

These buds have such a unique connection - She always wanted a younger brother. He respects her so much - She carries a pocket knife and builds real wooden forts. They dream big construction dreams. The write each other letters with plans for forts and adventures in the woods.

Sandy wearing Patrick's orange hat just to make us laugh. (She hates orange and immediately donated their 6K for water shirts after the walk. Patrick wears orange around her just to make her roll her eyes. It is now an inside joke among us.)

Tidepooling at Hendry's.

 

 

Monday was drizzly so we spent the morning hanging out together inside.

Visiting the Santa Barbara Courthouse

 

Slipping into the law library for the first time.

They are looking up the longest word in the English language in the old, large dictionary.

 

Showing them our favorite plaza and its red phone booth.

We tried hanging out at our favorite beach for debris/building things, but the tar was problematic this evening. It really was everywhere and hampered their playing. But Colleen really enjoyed this swing that someone had engineered right on the tideline.

This was while the tar was still novel and interesting.

Pedicures in the middle of the hallway of course.

 

Still dreaming before bedtime.

It was so soul filling to have these few days with a family who loves our kids for who they are and all their idiosyncrasies!

 

Unique Sea Center Experience + Dad Home!

One of the best days we have had at the Sea Center - The kids found all kinds of organisms in what they pulled out of the wet lab.

 

While we were there, the wet lab naturalists showed us these By-the-Wind-Sailors which they had pulled up. They have slight neurotoxins like jellyfish. Just the next days we discovered thousands of them piled up on our local beaches.

The naturalist showed the kids how to measure the salinity of the seawater.

She pulled up a crab!

Look at all the By-the-Wind-Sailors at the beach when we took Patrick after he returned from Japan!

 

Working hard at putting in our garden

 

Colleen's 8th Birthday + COVID

Birthday girl with her tiramisu.

Enjoying her birthday gifts

 

Unfortunately Mom started flu-like symptoms as I was traveling home from Cincinnati on Colleen's birthday. I made it through her birthday celebration, but by Monday afternoon, I was pretty sick. Patrick had to leave for Japan so he took me in to get tested. Instead of the flu like we thought, I tested positive for COVID. So he quarantined me for 36hours to try to recover as fast as I could before he had to leave the country.

Fancy food while in quarantine.

Once he left, the kids and I hunkered down for many days, Austin and Colleen eventually were symptomatic and rested and recovered also. Our days were full of audiobooks, movies, puzzles and games. 

 

We went ahead and worked on our art projects for the month.

Amelia did a lot of food prep under instruction; she made this caramel corn treat for the kids.

While we were convalescing, Colleen lost another tooth!

On the first day that we felt up to it, we soaked up sun at the beach.

We love the lizards in our yard.

One evening we made homemade poptarts. A sure sign we were all feeling so much better.

 

 

Easter & Homeschool Conference

Patrick was inspired to make Hot Cross Buns for Easter.

 

We were invited to an Easter potluck with families from church. The kids did an Easter Egg hunt in between drizzle.

I left on Wednesday night for a homeschool conference in Cincinnati. Patrick rocked single parenting and taking the kids into his office with him. 

On Saturday, he and Colleen also made her birthday treat - tiramisu- together.

Homeschool Mom's dream! I discovered so many awesome resources.

I've been listening to Sarah Mackenzie's podcast, Read Aloud Revival, since it first started many years ago. Our group definitely stood in line for a long time to be fan girls and get a photo with her after her concluding talk.

Out for dinner on our last evening. Time with these ladies was so food for my soul. We spent hours discussing all things homeschool, parenting, families, and Jesus. They are raising the next world-changers.