Summer Vacation 2011

 

We had 1 week this summer to have an official vacation and we spent it in California.  We’re so lucky that California has so much to offer for us.  The tricky part is narrowing down our options.  So we whittled it down to Lake Arrowhead, Lakewood and San Diego.  Not a bad lineup, if you ask me.

Lake Arrowhead is such a beautiful little spot high up in the San Bernardino mountains.  I’d say it seems like a nice little secret, but they’ve managed to cram a crazy amount of cabins on the cliff side down to the lake.  Still, for the amount of traffic on the smallish lake, there’s impressive boating etiquette and it always surprises me how UN-crowded it feels out there.

This year I wasn’t a big participant in the boating activities, but I couldn’t have been happier to stay on the dock and get a little sun(burn) while enjoying the fabulous temperature and watching my family thoroughly enjoy themselves.

 

I’ve never actually seen Bob waterski, although he claims he has done it.  I think, but I could be wrong, it’s because he’s a typical male driver and prefers to do the driving himself.  Luckily he was a good sport this year and somehow someone got him out on the kneeboard.  This is the first time I’ve ever seen him behind the boat!

 

Bob helped the little boys try kneeboarding this year too.  Once they found the little hook at the tip of the board for the rope they thought it was pretty easy-peasy stuff and even attempted their cousin Sammy’s no-hands trick several times.

 

 

Quintin picked up wakeboarding this year and really improved in the 2 days we were at the lake.  Luckily he didn’t have much competition for time in the water besides his Aunt Sara, who also happened to be a fantastic example and was loads of encouragement to him out there.

 

We headed down the mountain to visit Grandma and Grandpa Ward for 2 days while Bob offered computer support and we tried really hard not to get Grandma sick.  Turns out Grandma broke all the doctor’s rules anyway and came outside to visit us AND give us all hugs and kisses.  She even let us feel her perfect, bald head.  Seriously, it was so cute I wanted to kiss it! (which I did, but I probably should have asked her permission first)  Thankfully NONE of us had any cooties that made her sick!  Even still, we did try hard to stay outside of the house and play in the backyard and the pool with Grandpa.  Plus, the kids thought it was pretty cool to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner outside on the patio.

 

 

 

For the last leg of our journey we drove down to San Diego and met up with Amy and her girls at Sea World.  (Note to self: Amy is a fabulous tour guide!)  Thanks to Amy’s planning and familiarity with the park we were able to hit everything in record time and have an amazing experience in just half a day!

 

Somewhere in here are Brynnly and cousins Lindsay June and Kensington:

A little classic Shamu action:

This is a sorry attempt at documenting that Brynnly really was with us during this trip, but I can’t blame her for wanting to hang out with her awesome cousins most of the time.

We spent the night at Amy and Spencer’s new house (but I’m lame and have NO pictures) and got to hang out for a leisurely morning before heading back to Utah.  Brynnly and Kensington played waitresses (and restaurant) and served us all waffles for Brunch, but not before taking individual orders including toppings and drinks – such service!

We weren’t back a week before I was ready to go right back.  I’m not the only one though, Braxton told me today he wanted to go back to the cabin and California AND Washington.  It could happen…