Monday Monday

For Shawn's birthday, we, along with his parents, got him an intro to rock climbing class through REI.  It was at a place called Stoney Point, which is about 35 minutes from here.  He had a great time!

This week we started getting serious about our chores.  Everyday, except Sunday, they have a few things to do before we head out the door.  They will get $5 a week, but cannot spend it until the end of the month (or choose to save it for something bigger - Caleb wants to save for an XBox -Wow!).  

I should have started this earlier!

Yesterday, we started swim lessons….which means 30 minutes to myself. 

On the way home, we were able to see a smoke plume from the Sand wildfire, which is near Santa Clarita - around 50 minutes from us.  It just looks like a giant storm cloud, except that they don't have storms here and the news last night said they don't expect rain for another few months!  As of 45 minutes ago, there have been 37, 473 acres burned and only 25% containment.  

This is from our backyard.  We are also finding ash on our chairs and shade awning.  

Just Keep Swimming

We are pretty much living at the pool.  The base is about 25 minutes away, so we've been making it worth our while and staying for a few hours each day.  The kids are exhausted and I still don't think they're caught up on sleep.  The last couple of days have been hot - 90s (60's at night) and the heated pool has actually felt good.  The lifeguards sit in the shade, some with their long sleeves on (because once you get in the shade here, it actually gets cold).

Friday was Caleb's last day of Level 1 swim lessons.  They called it Fun Friday and played the entire time.  Caleb tried not to wear a life vest, but they made them.

 Hanging on for dear life.

 How many kids can you get to stand on a paddle board at once...

…the whole class...

…until the instructor makes you fall off.

 It was also movie night at the movies.  They play movies at this pool once or twice a month and the Mugu base does sunset movies at the beach (which is too late for us).  We want to try it one night though, because it says they have a campfire and make s'mores.

They only wanted to watch a little bit of the movie…because the pool was right next to them and how can you not swim when you're at the pool.

Amelia has made huge progress just by swimming with me this week.  She can wear real goggles and blow bubbles out of her nose.  She can swim to me, in the middle of the pool, from the side, she can doggy paddle and float.  She said she wants to do lessons now, so I signed her up for Level 1 and Caleb up for Level 2, which starts tomorrow……….which means we'll be at the pool everyday for the next two weeks.  Again.  I guess there's worse things we could be doing other than relaxing by the pool everyday.

 Relaxing with Wrigley after a day of swimming.

And, because everyone should be as lucky as us, here is a sunrise and sunset from this weekend.

Our Week

Our picnic table legs arrived at the first of the week and we wasted no time in putting it together.

 Shawn had some good helpers!

 We think the shade we bought for it, is going to be perfect.  We had hoped to turn the table the other direction, but the sun can still come in the end.  This way, everyone who sits at it, has a mountain view:o)

 The rest of our week has looked a lot like this...

 Caleb has swim lessons everyday for 2 weeks.  Amelia didn't want to do them, so while he's learning how to swim, we are sunbathing (aka…getting warm, because the heated outdoor pool is freezing!) or playing in the water.

 We celebrated Shawn's birthday by going to the Wood Ranch Grill, which after only eating there 2 times,  has become one of our favorite places to eat!

Friday night, we went to one of Shawn's coworkers for dinner and met a few other couples.  We had a really great night!

Yesterday, we went out to breakfast, then to the farmer's market and then to the outlet mall.  We had only planned on going to one store, but that turned into about 10.  We came home and rested for about an hour, then headed back out for a quick hike.  

This is at the Santa Monica Mountain Recreation Area.  

 We had hoped to live in the neighborhood you see there behind the horses, but nothing was available at the time.  You can literally walk across the street, hop on your horse, and take a ride.  We are thinking we might try to do a family horseback trail ride soon.

 The hills are killing us.  We need to get our legs used to walking uphill again. 

 Amelia was crying as soon as we started, so Shawn would make her walk the downhills and he'd carry her uphill.

 Looking at Thousand Oaks.

 Driving back to Camarillo.  There is farmland all around us here.

 A peaceful sunset to end our Saturday.  

We are headed to church this morning and then to dinner at our next door neighbors house tonight.

SoCal Weekend

Our good friend Heather's dad called Southern California, La La Land, meaning, this place is fake and not real and that you realize it when you don't live there.  And it's true.  We realize we live in La La Land and we love it!  

This is the children's section at the Camarillo Library.  It's like stepping into another world and the kids love it. 

 We have picnic table legs on the way, so we purchased the wood for it and Shawn stained it this weekend.  It did a little of this...

 Sunday after church, we decided to take a little drive to Malibu.  It's about 30 miles away and depending on traffic, it will take you anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on here you are trying to get to.  

 I was mad I forgot my good camera and these photos do not do it justice.  The coastline is beautiful!

 Just a vintage Mercedes (and BMW M1 behind it) passing us in town.

 We went to Pepperdine again to show the kids the view from the Heroes Garden at the top.  After that, we went down to the Malibu Bluffs Park.  There are baseball diamonds, playgrounds and a whale watching station.  We didn't see any whales that time.

 The view from the park.

 On the drive, we were trying to tell the kids what all the hype about Malibu is, that there are lots of famous people who have houses there.  We were trying to list people they might have heard of (and we're not even sure these people have houses there), Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift.  They kids were reciting a line from Hotel Transylvania where Drac says, "I don't say, blah, blah, blah", so Shawn says, the guy who does his voice, Adam Sandler, lives in the house right there."  The kids were like, nuu uhhh.  And that was that.  We continued our drive to Pepperdine, then the park.  About that time, we pulled out of the park to see this car…..you know, a daily driver around here.

We drove about a mile down the road to the Malibu Yogurt and Ice Cream Shop.  It's a small little shop and it was crowded.  We headed to the counter to see what they had.  Shawn ordered his, then the kids took forever and he says, Did you see Adam Sandler?  Haha, yah right.  He says, No really, was at the back of the store and then walked out the back door.  So, I asked the girl who was helping us if that was him and she said yep and that they come in there all the time on their bikes!

We seriously couldn't have made that story up if we wanted to!!  

Only in So Cal!