Big Bear ~ Part 3/Last day (Jul 29)

I actually messed up our departure date from Big Bear.  For whatever reason I thought Charlie's birthday was on the 30th so I figured we would get home in time for it.  Well, his birthday is actually the 31st, so... we are letting him open up one birthday present at Big Bear as he really wanted to celebrate his birthday there.

By the way, here is the best security system when we travel :-)

Oh, Graham lost a tooth on this trip! It was his bottom left first premolar.  Looks like it is right on shedule! 

Charlie is so excited about his new Lego set!  It was a gift from some friends back in PV.  They are so thoughtful.  They even gave Charlie a nice "Ang-pow" or red packet with money in it!

The timing of this present couldn't be any better as it kept both the boys busy as Mommy packed and cleaned up the cabin:

All set for the car.  I told you it looked like we were packed for 2 weeks away.  Ha ha!

There's some sort of rule here where visitors need to throw out their own trash.  Daddy do!

It's been so tricky trying to get lunch around here.  Our new favorite restaurant ran out of food last night and then they are not open this afternoon. Booo hoooo...!!!

As Mommy is trying to find the next place to eat, Daddy is (maybe) busy working or at least just looking like he is busy working :-P

While Daddy is taking a call in the car, the boys and I wander off to the side of a lake.  Graham and Charlie just loves throwing rocks.  It's too bad we couldn't go kayaking or paddle boarding this time:

Even the dog is getting onto the kayak!

We were determined to buy one of these "Big Bears"... ok, maybe not this big:

The guy was carving one while we were roaming around the store.  These wooden bears are not cheap so we left empty handed, this time at least:

We finally found a restaurant that was open.  As per usual, we would order the food from the car, wait for the order, and then eat in the car.  Hmm... not sure what exactly happened to my sandwich here. Seems to always happen when I'm having lunch with Bobby:

We are finally off!  Charlie still loves his blankie.  He has had that since Day 1 when he was born! He has his finger by his mouth as his one tooth is also trying to make its way out:

We decided to take a different route home this time - via CA-38 instead. And what a great surprise! There were so many cars parked along side this river bank.  We thought we'd check it out as well:

We are just on the edge of San Bernandino.  It's so dry and yellow and HOT around here.  I think it was about 95F when we stopped:

Yes, we are throwing rocks again!  It's shallow where we were, but we saw some kids in certain areas where the water was chest high!

The sound of the water was very refreshing :-)

We didn't stay for very long since we weren't really prepared to, so back up the hill we go.  It's amazing what can grow around this heat and these rocks:

We are making a detour so we can stop over at Dairy Queen. Graham and Charlie keep insisting on it as they keep seeing the advertisement on TV.  Looks like that would be an A+ for their marketing department!

Check out these vivid green bicycle lanes.  I wish we had these in our city!

Daddy missed our turn to DQ so we had to make a U-turn.  Check out this drive-thru little grocery store.  How cute!

Hooray for yummy Blizzards!!!

Needless to say, everyone was very quiet the rest of the way home.  I have to say, it was definitely nice to be back in our own home again (as messy as it is!).  And of course, in our own bed!  What a fun little trip though.  I think we all needed it :-)