glass bottom boat, sorta

so we thought the glass bottom boat was what we would do but we ended up choosing the sub ride, it was sooooo fun, a real highlight of the trip

 

 

food on the dock while we waited to board the sub








much better than the sub ride at disneyland






it usually takes every cent we have to go on these vacations, so rarely do we splurge on all the adventures most people go on without a thought...(remember our hawaii trip when we literally ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the whole time and spent all our money on the rental car only seeing free things) well, this was a pleasant splurge and i have to say i really enjoyed myself. seeing fish swarming around you while underwater was just a fantastic thing and i am inspired to snorkel and dive now (we'll see about that!!) i also learned that sharks don't like kelp because they can get caught up in it, good to know!


unfortunately chris' grandmother passed away this weekend so i have had moments of mixed feelings. she has not been in very good health for some time now so i have worried she was suffering. her passing makes me reflect on my own life a bit, knowing our time here is so short. bittersweet at times, this trip.

valentines day on the enchanted isle

collecting valentines from the beach

 

 

catalina tile is everywhere, so gorgeous


i love how the casino reflects into the water in this photo, the sun is setting behind it


we have been checking out all the cool houses here, i have learned a lot about the history of avalon from a book i purchased at one of the museums. i never knew the wrigley family owned the island or that most of it is protected (awesome!) from development. the only problem with that is that house prices are crazy here, a decent house is in the millions, a tiny cottage runs about 600,000... pretty neat old places but i am sure they all need lots of work to keep them up. i wonder how the people who work in the restaurants and small shops can afford to live here? hmmmm...


a fixer upper for me


there is a mix of craftsman style houses/bungalows (my favorite), victorian and simple beach shacks (love these as well). i am happy to see older houses restored into hotels and apartments rather than being torn down for boring modern buildings. there is also a spanish hacienda style here which is lovely.




artists seem to flock here (no doubt its a wonderful place to paint and create)




yes i love it all....stay tuned for a few of our adventures...coming up!

avalon

 
photo heavy post because really, what can i say that is better than this?






just a sneak peek..more to come!

island valentine

 
so we are off to catalina island this weekend, we leave tomorrow. chris and i went there on one of our first dates ever and we haven't been back since. thats like 15 years or something! growing up i had a good friend who would take me with her on the family sailboat several times during the summer. as a parent now, it freaks me out a bit but we were all really good swimmers. we would row the dinghy around avalon bay all by ourselves for hours and hours. i don't know how we managed to never get in trouble or collide with any large boats. i am so glad i reconnected with that friend recently and she had a couple photos posted from our trips back then. such fond memories!


the girls have only seen catalina this way, from the shore and we have even seen it from the mountains on clear days. can't wait for them to have their first real boat ride (hope all goes well with lizzies stomach!!) it looks like the weather will be amazing! i will take lots of photos! happy valentines day everyone! i am super proud of both my girls who hand made all of their valentines over the course of several weeknights, with only a few complaints that it was harder than buying from the store, but they did it anyways. feels good! see you when we return!

"secret" beach

so i learned a valuable lesson last week, when after several months of communication with a blogger i loved, i found out the hard way that you just can't predict how people will react. when someone has a blog that has picture after picture and post after post about the beach, their flickr pages littered with wonderful trips to the beach... you would think if you inquired where the beach they loved might be that they would just tell you... well you would be wrong. instead you would get a response about how what makes a beach attractive is unique to an individual (?????) and that this very special beach is their very special secret so you better "google" up a beach for yourself. ok, i live on the west coast, this person lives on the east coast. i am not hopping on a plane anytime soon and taking over their special beach... so i decided to go to a beach near me today and just relax a little.

 

 

wouldn't you know there are colored rocks here on the west coast too? amazing! emily loved the beach glass




the girls had fun making a color wheel with their rocks and since there is a "no collecting" rule here, we left our design for the tides to take back out


lots of people made nice comments about our rock collection and design, it was a fun winter day here after the rain, laguna canyon was green, skies were blue and the air surprisingly warm






and one more shot of a super cool pad with a super cool view


if anyone is curious, i was at LAGUNA BEACH today, probably the most gorgeous beach in southern california and public, so please enjoy.

candy overload

so we are rounding up our candy sales this weekend, it has been tough selling for two kids, but we have managed to get down to the last of it

 

this is the reality, i can only manage to keep liz interested for a few moments at a time and then she is goofing off


letting her draw pictures for the customers is the best way to keep her focused


(dont look at the pinned on patches on the back, needing to be sewn on)


i love the chunkiness of her drawings


i wish i could keep them all, but these were all given away except for that girl picture. i think she would make a neat doll so i "bought" it for myself.

sweet gvl

 
we got some snow at the cabin during the last big storm. i don't know if anyone who lives in a snowy area actually reads my blog (other than family in colorado) but living in southern california where it is 70 degrees most every day, going up to the snow is such a big deal. i have only had a few experiences of going to sleep with no snow and waking up to lots of snow, that magical experience. it's on my wish list of future places to live someday, seasons that include snow in the winter. i am really thankful we can enjoy snow every winter at the cabin, especially with the kids.


we are wearing lots of hats around here now, i think the girls realized they can get out of brushing their hair by putting a hat on... i should crack down on that but i LOVE these hats!


our cabin is on a hill so snow piles down below, we just climb up through it to get in. this is our neighbors house (they have a house by us in both places) and their cabin is down below the road so they get snow piled on their stairs leading down to the door. it looked like a ski ramp when we were there, it must take hours to shovel those stairs just to get in the house... or a matter of seconds if they just sled down them! the girls love that idea.


after the slide fire, the ski resort burned down but the ski runs remain. this is a favorite sledding spot for us and usually no one is around. last weekend though, it was crowded with people coming up for the day. we still had plenty of room to do our thing.


our weekend guests, leslie and her son kareem (he is ducking his head in back).





being on facebook has sure changed our lives, chris and i are on it more than we probably should be but we really like it. when we returned from this last trip, we found out one of chris' childhood friends (from his cub scout troop) had owned our cabin for 30 years and he recognized it in a photo chris had posted on facebook. we have had a whirlwind week chatting with him and his wife, lots of memories and emotions and exclamations of "wow!" and "can't believe it!" and "amazing!" we are so looking forward to getting them up there to give us a tour from their perspective. of all the cabins we could have bought, just how many different decisions led us to that moment when his friend contacted us. i just love stuff like that.