Cameron does a little swim lesson with Chloe while they’re waiting for their lessons. Cameron is trying to get Chloe to do her “fast form”, but then she just gives up. Love these girls.
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biking Seymour to Wilder – 08/30/2015
It was another exceedingly hot day in town, but down by the shore, there was a breeze so cool, I actually got cold! Tom fixed the flat tires on the Yuba Mundo and met us there where Chloe was sooo happy to ride on the back!
Prior to his arrival, she was enjoying the wonderful ocean breeze!
And, here she is so excited to be on the bike!
Aside from camping, this was really Cameron’s first time riding on dirt trails. This is a great place to practice, too. It isn’t too crowded and it’s also pretty flat.
The big kids quickly tired of doing such a short loop (about 1 mile-ish) so I took them on the bike trail to Wilder. We looped around the stables and then came back.
There are a couple of steep hills on the trail, so Cameron didn’t join us; she went back and did the loop with Tom and Chloe. The big kids, however, just raced down those hills with no thought at all! I was a bit worried at first (about them falling or crashing into pedestrians or other bikers), but after a couple of hills, I realized they’ve got good control of their bikes these days. The kids are growing up!
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camping Little Basin – 08/16-08/19
We arrived home from LA at 3am on Saturday and we had just enough time to unload from LA and re-load for camping…and we made it to the kids’ swim class, too. Apparently, the high heat followed us home. It was in the 90s on our first afternoon/evening in Little Basin!
We went with H. and the girls as well as H’s parents (A. stayed home due to back pain) and got a great set of campsites (#18 and #19). They wouldn’t have been great if we weren’t together (too close together for 2 separate parties), but for 3 families spread across the two sites, it was fantastic!
We were also there during the week so few people were around us and we were able to cut through an unoccupied camp to get to the bathroom (which was about 2-3 minutes walking distance away)!
Why is Chloe always in this dress, you might wonder…Well, she does have more clothes, but she has decided that this is her “minnie mouse” dress and she “loves” minnie. Plus, she suddenly sprang this, “if I wear shorts, I’ll look like a boy” thing on me. Whoa. Where’d that come from???
The kids have a Pavlovian response to evening campfires–“can we make s’mores”???
The biggest kids — Dylan and Taliana — took orders for marshmallows: “golden”, “plain”, “burnt”…you name it, you got it. Then, they kindly did roasting duties. Chloe asked for one plain and one roasted…and then she snuck one in on her own (except I caught her!! And when I started to say something, she crammed the whole thing in her pie-hole!).
You might also wonder why Dylan looks like he’s part of the zombie apocalpyse with that white face! That’s zinc sunscreen.
This was yummy!
We also made ice-cream this year–the first time in several years that we’ve dragged the ice cream ball to camp!
We made an entire quart of coconut vanilla-almond chocolate chip ice cream and mmm it was good!
We probably would have been content to skip the ice cream save for Chloe’s requests. And, since she couldn’t ride her balance bike to keep up with the big kids, I felt a little obligated to let her have her way on something
But all of the kids seemed to be having fun helping mix ingredients, too.
We didn’t just have desserts on this trip, though! The kids did a whole lot of biking–the big kids found all of the shortcuts back to our camp site!
We also went on a pretty steep 2-mile hike that had 500 feet of elevation gain! The kids did pretty well! K. got tired so Cameron is showing her how to get more energy for going up hill.
The kids also set up a fort and a base among the tree stumps….
and climbed trees.
and played games!
It was another fun camping trip, despite heat, mosquitos (though we managed to dodge a significant number of bites–poor T. and K. were eaten alive!)!.
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bday and visit with grandma sharon and papa willard
Cameron’s celebrations continued over at Grandma Sharon’s and Papa Willard’s. The kids loveseeing family here! This time, Sam and Liam were around, too, and despite the searing heat (ranging from no less than 100F-108F!), the kids actually played outside!
Cameron and I spent a significant amount of time playing “hide the balls” in the backyard the day before. She really liked that game so she and Sam continued that game during his visit!
Liam didn’t so much join the hide and seek part of the game, but he did like throwing the collected balls!
Even though it was very hot, the kids still really liked eating outside (as did I, actually!).
Oh, I forgot, we played soccer, too! Running…hot!
The kids showed off their tripods…Chloe, obviously, can’t do that yet, but she has been e-inspired to do forward rolls!
And, of course, we were so glad we could see Eli and Rocky who, luckily, had just gotten back from summer camp in Michigan!
The kids spend a lot of time back home asking when they can see their cousins again and they are never disappointed. This is a very sweet group of kids.
Before we left, we had to get at least one photo with gramma…still as beautiful and youthful as ever! We’re already looking forward to our return trip.
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Cameron is 6!
We celebrated this spirited little thang’s 6th birthday at Disneyland. She had long back asked if we could go back there on her birthday and she stuck fast to that choice when asked again if she’d prefer that over a local party. It was a good year to go back to Disneyland, too, as we’d splurged on season passes last fall (since Chloe didn’t need one and we registered for 2 fall Disney races!) and they are set to expire at the end of this month!
We got to spend 3 days there. It’s also Disney’s 60th (Diamond) celebration, so the whole park was done up in blue and white banners and such. I felt compelled to take a picture of the kids with the castle in the background.
On our first day there, we tried to “save money” by just bringing breakfast foods from home (Honey Nut Cheerios and soy milk, bananas, nuts, dried fruit). That worked for the first day, but Cameron wanted some of those gooey-in-the-middle (i.e., mediocre) vegan Mickey waffles from Carnation Cafe. So, for the next couple of days, we made reservations for breakfast there.
We rode the favorites, but also rode the newly revamped Peter Pan.
Chloe was a little reluctant. Not only because she was “pretty sho” it would be dark inside the ride, but also because some wicked animatronic step mom kept opening the curtains from the Snow White ride!
She was clearly much happier on the carousel!
We also try to squeeze in a new ride or two on every visit. This time, since it was searingly hot and Cameron is now tall enough (!), Splash Mountain was the clear New Ride of the Visit choice!
You may be wondering if Dylan was on the ride! He was, but he ducked, so he is not in this photo! We did return to this ride so that Tom could also have a turn so somewhere, we have a better picture of Dylan’s first time on Splash Mountain as well!
The kids also rode Space Mountain (while Chloe and I rode Dumbo or something). Dylan was very sweet. It’s not his favorite ride, but since he knew Cameron really likes it, he said he would go with her for her bday!
Cameron’s actual bday was only a partial day at Disneyland. The folks at Carnation Cafe sang happy bday to her, we picked up her souvenir Happy Bday button from the General Store, rode more favorites and then headed out of the park and over to Grandma Sharon’s and Papa Willard’s.
Cameron has matured so much in just these past few months! Not quite sure what exactly was the trigger, but I think theater really helped (being with a very, very sweet and supportive group of kids who were basically encouraged to just be themselves and where their creativity and individuality were honored and respected by all). Anyway, we are truly very delighted by this now-6-year old of our’s. She is spirited, bright, strong, and very hard-working!
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hip hop camp
Cameron was able to do hip hop camp with Dylan even though she isn’t quite 6 yet…and it was seriously great. They loved going to camp together and it was so much fun to see them perform together (although it was hard to watch both of them at the same time!). It was fun to see them get stronger in the course of just 4 days, too. Dylan started out not quite being able to do the “coffee grinder” (jumping over his own leg) but he was able to do the tripod (balancing his knees on his elbows while on his head) and Cameron was the opposite–she could do the coffee grinder but couldn’t quite do the tripod.
By the end of the week, both kids could do both things! Cameron has been practicing her tripods and head stands ever since. Now, she can raise her legs up in the air. It’s pretty impressive! It all started here:
the show MUST go on…
Performances at home continue to be a “thing” and “Little Mermaid” is still fresh in their minds!!! Here’s Dylan dressed all in black as the “stage manager.” I love what they’ve done with the bunk bed!
Of course, this little diva has to be Ariel.
I love how Cameron is willing to be Prince Eric!
I have videos of so many of their little shows…it’s just a matter of sorting through them to upload them!
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silliness as stress-reduction
This one got very upset when her feelings were hurt by Chloe (again, she wanted to play with Chloe and Chloe was interested in doing something else). She went upstairs and had a good cry and some alone time then suddenly came downstairs looking like this and giggling like mad!
full regalia
In
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.
In
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.
In the whole get-up: shimmery knight cape, bike helmet, pumpkin basket, and Dylan’s flannel shirt (which Cameron currently uses as a Prince Eric costume!). I love it. The silliness is the best form of therapy!
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dining al fresco
Evenings have been perfect for dining outdoors. We always enjoy eating out back, but this year, we started late! The kids have been loving it (despite the pensive look in Dylan’s expression and Cameron’s pout!).
For the record, Cameron was very sad because Chloe did not want to play with her.
Chloe was too busy trying to blow bubbles! She was eventually persuaded to join Cameron.
One of the best thing about eating outside is that we do super simple–veggie burgers, corn, fruit, tots….
The kids have fun racing plasma cars across the patio! The “Judge” sits at the top of the plastic slide and determines the winner. From my observations, the results seem rigged (weighted towards the girls!), but luckily, Dylan is such a sweet brother, he just goes along with it!
We love summer (except the busy Tom parts of it!)!
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more biking pictures from 7/31
There’s a little lag between getting photos online and posting to the blog, so here are a few more pictures from biking last week.
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