Per-go-lahhh

So, we put up a pergola this past week. We are now OFFICIALLY working on making our front yard look nice. My folks came down this past Monday and we started working on it on Tuesday and finished it up on Wednesday. Okay, admittedly my DAD and husband did the majority of the work, it didn't take too much muscle power on my part. It looks really nice, though! I am starting to get pretty excited about it...

And our house still is pretty ghetto. I will post pictures over the next couple of months of "the transformation" and we'll see how pretty we can make it look! Next week we will work on the sprinklers, then the fence. After that we will begin painting the house... we all know how enthusiastic I can get about colors! I think Jeremy has finally learned that it's okay to be a little afraid at first, but that it always seems to turn out kind of pretty in the end. He is finally learning to trust my eclectic sense of color enhancement. Awesome. It should be fun! Oh, and after all that comes the planting, but that probably shouldn't start until the weather cools down. Maybe October.

pedalmamas

Just wanted to point out that our good friend set up a collaborative blog for us mamas biking around San Diego. The link is on the left, so check it out to hear about our biking ventures around town!

Catalina vacation

June 8th - 16th of this year. We had so much fun! These aren't really in order of our trip, but I'll tell a bit about each one. The first three are from Two Harbors. The top one is our campsite at the campground in Two Harbors - BEAUTIFUL. I think this was my favorite spot. It was truly a pain in the ass to hike up and down from the town to the site, but just the fact that the town (and therefore hot showers, food, kayak rentals, etc.) is hikeable gives it a big boost for me. The spot truly is beautiful and you have a really nice beach right at the bottom of the sites. That's where the following two pictures are taken. The beach isn't really sandy, more like teeny tiny rocks - maybe the step right before they turn to sand. Not to rocky to be uncomfortable. Also, you can take the boat right into Two Harbors so it saves the hassle of having to take the bus to the other sites.
The next 4 pictures are from our first campsite in Little Harbor. Don't get me wrong - super beautiful, too! Not really hiking friendly for the kids, I wouldn't recommend going here unless you really want to do NOTHING but lay on the beach all day. There are two coves right next to each other and you can easily go between them both and pick where you want to hang out. Virtually no one else there, with the exception of the few other campers. This would be the perfect spot to take a group of playgroup kids for a few days. The beach is really sheltered, no big waves and just nice sand for the kids to play. The one of me standing with the girls is at our camp spot and literally right to my right about 50 yards is the beach. There is also a nice little stream that flows and you can hear the frogs when dusk hits - that's why the girls are wearing headlamps! We took them to look for frogs when it got dark. Super fun, didn't find any frogs, though. Lots of bats! Not easy to get to - I wouldn't recommend going here with the kids if you were just going to stay one night. Minimum 2 nights just to make it worth lugging all of the junk. You have to take the bus once you get off the boat.
The last picture is from Avalon. Avalon can get old pretty fast, it's just a very typical tourist town. The great thing there, though, is that there are tons of fun and touristy things to do. This picture is from the semi-submergible boat ride that we went on. Very cool! They feed the fish as well. I know, not very eco-friendly but the kids got a kick out of seeing all the fish swarming the boat! Catalina is pretty good about all of the eco-stuff in general. The whole island is a conservancy with the exception of Avalon, which is the only incorporated town. No one else is allowed to own property anywhere, so the entire island is pretty barren which is what makes it so beautiful. Buffalo herds are still prevalent (we got to see some) and a deer walked right up to our campsite. Fish are everywhere. All in all, a nice little place to visit. Ooh, we also had a blast kayaking here with the girls and we took them on a flying fish boat ride. Look at how well we are all sleeping in our first bed in 6 nights!

The kids totally didn't even fuss about sleeping on sleeping mats for that long, either. They were happy as clams to be dirty and un-showered and curled up in the tent. It was great and we all really had a lot of fun. If we were to do it again, I would do three nights in Little Harbor, 3 nights in Two Harbors and 2 nights in Avalon. This time we did 3 in avalon and 2 in two harbors.

It's been a long, long time

And I miss you! So much stuff has happened since last Halloween. It's almost Estelle's birthday (again) and I can't believe my baby is going to be 3. Life just flies by entirely too fast. Rylie is no longer with us here in San Diego, her family decided it was time to move closer to their own family and so they up and left to Boston sometime last September. We miss them so much! She was such a sister to Camille and Estelle, it's something that makes my heart hurt a little every time I think about her.
More recent news - Sarah (Jeremy's cousin) is about to get married this weekend! She's kind of been MIA since they started dating and after they get married they will be relocating to Utah. We will miss them and it will be sad that the girls won't really get to grow up with their cousin Trinity.
My aunt Debbie is in the hospital, something about an infected diverticulii (ughh) so we are just praying for a safe a speedy recovery for her.
We just got back from an AWESOME vacation in Catalina where we spent 8 nights there and 2 nights in Redlands on either end of the trip, so we were gone from out home for 10 nights! Camping in Catalina is awesome, I think next time we should mainly camp the whole time and steer clear of Avalon. I will post pictures and a more detailed blog on that once I upload them. Just trying to catch up!
I have a new job - well, one I started in March. Actually, back up. I worked at Barnes and Noble from sometime in November until the end of February and then I "went seasonal" to take this job. It's with the Faith and Work Ministry at my church and I love it! It allows me to work from home and be flexible and it's wonderful because I feel that through my work I am now contributing to serving God in a way that I haven't before. I feel that life is so busy that I don't get the time to put all of my energy into my church and my community, but this way I can at least surround myself and make my work my faith.
On the topic of church, we have been going to Harbor for a little while now and it's such a wonderful group of people with amazing hearts for helping each other and our community. It's just been truly a blessing to see it grow and to fall into such a wonderful community of people. We have been doing our bible study regularly, though it's manifested into something totally different than it was 5 years ago. The Wilcoxes (mike and joan) will come to visit us next week which will be very cool. I know Camille and Estelle will love to see them.
So, this is rambling and I was going to delete some of it, but then I thought the reason that I am doing this is for something to look back on and something for my girls to look back on. This seems like just random goings-on in my life, but really all of it pertains very much to them. They know these people, they know my jobs, my current life is also what they live every day. It will be a good log for them to be able to look back on one day! Next post will be more kid-centric, I promise.