Strolling at Founders Park

The area by Founders Park is just spectacular!  We normally bring our kites to this spot because there is almost always a good breeze at this point.  

This was about 2.5 weeks ago, just as we got the car back from the service center, and the AC contractors were still installing the new minisplit units.  We decided to split! :-D  And no, no need to adjust your computer, it was super foggy at 4pm!

Graham and Charlie love going along this wall, next to the putting green.  This park is right within the Trump National Golf Course, hence the putting green.  Bobby and I have not played here yet:

Onward! ... or downward to the ocean!

A little rock jumping along the way through a puddle, which is strange because it has been so dry around here:

The adventure continues as we approach a bend with a boulder.  Graham is giving Charlie climbing instructions :-)

Next, is a Geology (not Geography :-P) lesson by Graham:

We have finally reached the tide pools!  It is low tide today. Yay!

Graham is constantly trying to test himself - trying to not get his shoes wet when the waves come in:

Somehow, I am now carrying the water bottle AND the emergency radio:

We are all just having fun watching the hermit crabs.  This big one has taken another hostage (the white one) upside-down! What a bully!!!

Random photo of a seagull taking flight when the waves crashes in:

Amazing rock formations:

Always a fun day by the tide pools:

On the way back up the hill, I noticed lots of snails on the dead stalks of foliage:

Here's a look on the other side of the snail.  I'm guessing no one is home!

The marine layer is still so thick!  It's amazing how the sky is so blue above the layer:

This reminded me of Abu Dhabi a little bit, where you can look up into the sun during sandstorm.  This one is looking into the sun when the marine layer rolls in:

One last photo of the boys.  I think it's so funny how Charlie does the "peace sign" with his fingers while taking photos now:

Another peace sign from Charlie - see what I mean? :-)

It's crazy to think that probably over half of our photos this year will be with our masks on!
Nonetheless, always a fun outing at any tide pool! :-)

Bike Time

I think I have time for one more post today.  Seems like Mondays is a good blogging day somehow :-)

The boys and I went for a bike ride along the beach the week before last.  They had Friday off and Graham actually wanted to go body-boarding, but I figured it would be too busy.  But actually, the beach was a lot less crowded than I had expected.  Maybe because it was a bit cooler?

I actually stopped by this other path first to bike on.  I really should have walked up there to see how the conditions were before unloading all 3 bikes. After all that effort, we came to realize that the path was too sandy!  We couldn't even get started on our bikes. Ha ha!

Okay, at the beach and ready to go for a little walk on the sand and go on to the rock pier:

So many people playing sand volleyball... and looks like only the coaches are wearing masks :-/

More like run to the rocks!  As usual, I am always lagging behind these two monkeys:

We actually didn't get very far on the rocks.  Charlie was freaking out a bit as you can see the water from beneath the rocks:

Graham was a bit more courageous:

Once we got back to our starting point, the boys wanted to go play on the sand.  Of course, should I be expecting anything less than that while we're at the beach???

I decided to just hang out with the bikes as we didn't really have a spot to lock it up (although I didn't look very hard):

At least my new pants are working out nicely.  Love how they are also UPF 50! :-D

Look, Mama... dirty hands and feet!

So you've seen Mommy's time with the boys and their bikes.  Here is Daddy's time with the boys' bike time.  Ha ha!  

Such cheeky monkeys!

Yes, we are spoiled for choices here.  Although having to pay the price when it comes to home prices!

Crane and cement mixer

 As per usual, I'm constantly looking for items on the neighborhood App.  And then, a couple of weeks ago, I saw the same crane that Graham had to give up when we were moving away from Abu Dhabi!  This family was also selling their son's cement mixer too.  Bonus for Graham!  He was so excited when he saw it:

It didn't take long for Graham to actually start mixing "cement":

And didn't take him long to actually start fixing all the cracks on our stoop onto the back garden area.  Look at all the dirt!

Here's a closer look at the "job site":

And there's this too.  The stoop obviously needs a lot of work!

And somehow he needed to use a water bottle too??!

Play time with the crane is less messy, thankfully:

I am eventually going to have to mix some real cement to fix up those steps in the garden and also our stone wall for the flower bed.  I've still been procrastinating as I also have to do some outdoor painting.  Good news is the weather/temperature is really nice these days! Yay for that :-)

Happy Halloween

I just realized that I had a whole bunch of postings that I didn't write out in time for October.  It's already November!!!

Here are some things that we did before Halloween itself.  This year we only carved a couple of little baby pumpkins.  I let Graham do his own carving this year.  I'm so afraid of those carving knives I had him wear gloves:

Graham even gave his pumpkin a little nose :-)

We also bought a cookie kit from a local restaurant.  The boys really enjoyed doing this:

Here is my cat.  Yummy!

Bobby had a good time too decorating his cookie.  We gave him the biggest cookie - a pumpkin:

Speaking of pumpkin, I had another art project with Graham's class - Pumpkin Symmetry.  This white board is getting some good use:

Smoky last week - effects from a fire in Irvine 6 days ago.  More than 90,000 people had to evacuate.  Yikes!!!

This year for Halloween we went for a drive-by at school.  The line to school was so long! Glad lots of parents/students participated:

Look at the smog/smoke though in the photo above in downtown LA.  YIKES!

Here's the view on the way down the hill to the school's district office.  We were on our way to pick up a swag bag for donating to the Skecher's Walk.  The marine layer has already rolled in at 1:30pm:

The lady at the district office was so nice - we got 2 swag bags instead of just the one, as well as extra t-shirts!  I guess there were so many bags and shirts leftover.

We decorated our minivan too for the drive by.  I'll have to do a better job with that blue tape next time.  The car is suppose to be a cat :-) Charlie is an astronaut (that was Graham's costume from last year) and Graham bought a new Ironman hoodie:

Over the weekend for Halloween itself, we went over to a friend's house. No passing out candy this year or trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.   This family is the only family right now within our Covid "bubble" so to speak.  We've been really lucky to have them as they also have a pool!  The mom was very creative in getting the kids to find their candy - hiding them in bushes and around the pool, and also fishing the candy out of the pool! :-D

And as it got dark, the dad dumped a whole bunch of dry-ice into the pool.  So super cool!!!

Needless to say, the boys had a really good time!!!  

There's already lots of Christmas stuff that's out in the stores.  Seems like Thanksgiving will again be another afterthought this year.  Maybe we should just set up our Christmas tree now??! Although, I just moved the exercise bike into the corner where my TV-watching chair is. And my TV-watching chair is in the corner where the Christmas tree would be.  Hmm... so, would it be exercise bike in the garage or the TV-watching chair???! Oh boy... a tough choice to make! :-P