Another Return to School!

The girls were definitely due for haircuts - they both had slight trims at the end of summer, well over six months ago.

That's better!

We finally returned to church, for the first time since Christmas Eve and the second time since the world shifted last March. L.A. County's Covid numbers are low enough that the sanctuary reopened in March. We chose to sit outside, far enough from other people that we could take off our masks.

It filled my heart to look over and see Violet snuggled into her sister's lap. If you know Cora, you know she's not a snuggly kid, but she didn't push her sister away. Seriously, these two hardly ever fight anymore. I love their relationship!

On Monday, Cora made her long-awaited return to her junior high campus. All year, the district has had a block schedule for junior high and high school, with three longer classes per day. She starts at 8 and ends at 12:15 - and now, on Mondays and Tuesdays, she goes in-person. (Everyone is online only on Wednesdays, and the second half of the alphabet is allowed to attend Thursdays/Fridays.)

It's not anything like last year - no brunch or lunch to hang out, her good friends aren't there the days she's there, and you're supposed to keep your distance and wear a mask all day. But, considering we feared she wouldn't make it back to her junior high at all before promoting in June, we'll take it!

She said it's definitely a better learning environment to be in the classroom, with fewer distractions. But she does miss her friends. I'm hoping hard that the district will relax a bit, and allow the students who want to attend in person, to attend every day instead of two days per week. 

We received the wonderful news that Violet's district will return to a normal, full-day schedule on April 19!

Violet has been creative again, lately. Here is her painting of a dragon's eye, surrounded by scales, and a seawing dragon, in the ocean. 

Family and the Zoo

We chose this mid-March weekend so we could celebrate the birthdays of both Melanie and Grandpa. 

With the recent passing of Dodger legend Tommy Lasorda, Mom, Melanie and I all went in together to get this official Lasorda jersey as a gift for Dad.

The group!

Violet's one goal of our weekend away was to play Telestrations with the family. It was a lot of fun, with lots of laughs.

Violet made a birthday cake, which we enjoyed Saturday night (and Sunday morning before we left).
 

Beautiful Big Bear Lake

On Sunday, after packing up and leaving Sugarloaf, we went to the Big Bear Alpine Zoo. Lots of neat animals, including foxes, bears, coyotes, wolves, snow leopards and mountain lions.

After the zoo, we said goodbye to the family, and went into cute Big Bear Village for a walk around the shops before heading home. It was a great weekend away!

Fun on the Slopes

We got up and out bright and early Saturday for Stace and the girls to have a skiing adventure at Big Bear Snow Summit. Stace hadn't skiied in decades, so he signed up for an adult lesson with Cora, while Violet took part in a kids lesson.
 

Following Friday evening's storm, it was a gorgeous day, and we overheard experienced skiiers say these were the best conditions they'd ever seen at Big Bear. 

Cora loved it all, while Stace enjoyed the skiing, but was in physical pain during the lesson from trying to follow the instructor's directions. Apparently his hips and knees aren't designed to point THAT way anymore.

Who's that masked gal?

We were incredibly blessed with good friends lending us skiing gear - pants, coats, helmets, gloves, etc. Cora here is sporting my friend Jen's vintage Burton coat.

Two thumb's up from the girl who wasn't sure she wanted to ski at all!

Stace absolutely loved this day of creating memories with his girls. He thanked me over and over for arranging it. So happy he (and the girls) had such a fun time together.

Oh, I was there, too! I read in the car for a while, and then came out to watch as Stace decided he was done with his lesson a little early. We had lunch together - pretty darn good food, too - and then they went down the hill a few more times before we went back to the cabin to rest.

SNOW!!!

A year ago, we had plans for a Big Bear weekend with my parents, and the Stay-at-Home order forced us to cancel them.

Fast forward a year, and we finally made our snowy cabin vacation happen. 

We could not have been more fortunate with the weather - it's been a fairly dry winter, but we got rain Wednesday through Friday, which meant snow in the mountains.

It even meant snow while we drove, necessitating putting on chains on our two-week drive car. Never done that before! There was a big, wide pullout area with Caltrans workers directing traffic, as everyone without all-wheel drive was forced to chain up.

Here was our approach to the town of Sugarloaf, a neighborhood near Big Bear.

Our rental house was lovely and spacious, and the girls rushed out on the balcony to play in the fresh snow. They'd never seen snow falling before, so we really enjoyed ourselves.

We decided to take a walk several blocks to the little corner general store we'd seen as we drove into town, as an excuse to be out in the snow.

(The forecast called for clearing skies overnight, so we knew this would be our only shot at being actually out while it was snowing.)

The girls were marveling at the icicles, and Violet found this giant one, perfect for a pretend light saber.

We bought a few snacks in the store, and it was snowing harder when we left.
 

Ha! For a SoCal family like us, this was a very memorable evening. Look at Violet's glasses!

Week in Review

We had Jeff, Jenn and the boys over for dinner Saturday, which gave us a great opportunity to thoroughly tidy the house. Woohoo! 

We ended our night introducing them to Jackbox, which is always fun with a crowd.

The next morning, I took Cora, Zach and Trevor to airsoft. I love it when Cora gets a full day of fresh air and running around!  Violet, no surprise, has no interest in trying it out. Getting shot with pellets doesn't sound good to her (or me).

Violet needed her labwork this week for her appointment with her endocrinologist next week. As usual, I rewarded her for the extra poke with a boba drink. I noticed a Tuesday special price on the Thai tea, so I tried it out. Very colorful! I prefer coffee, obviously, but Cora was happy to finish it for me.

Oh, Seb. We love you so. All 20 pounds of you. I'm nervous to take him in for his checkup because I don't want to be lectured about his weight... 

 As part of my big cleanup, we went through the old kiddy toy bins, and took it out of the house, and then went through the toy box Stace made for Cora's first birthday. In that process, we rediscovered this labyrinth marble game and found most of the marbles. Violet's been playing it daily, and now she can beat it regularly.

Back to School!!

 Nearly a year after our lives were upended by Covid-19, Violet finally returned to school on Monday. 

She's going Monday through Thursday, 12:30-3, with half her class. The other half is attending 8-10:30. They do math and English with their teacher, sitting six feet apart, wearing masks. The students continue to do art, P.E., social studies and science at home.

Day One! Mrs. Dallaire was so excited to see her students in person finally - here, she's taking a selfie with them as they're lined up to go inside.

Violet was nervous about the change, and her stomach hurt. But after school, she seemed happy, and asked if we could walk to Starbucks with Melanie and Christina. 

Great idea! And we're so happy that she and Melanie are in the same class, and the same afternoon cohort. They don't get to chat or play together during the school time, but at least we can more easily plan playtime after school.

When we were in Carpinteria, Jenn and I went in this little shop that sold goods made by high school students. I found a catnip-filled felt pizza toy for the cats, since they recently had their 10th birthday. 

It was a hit!

We played another new board game this week: Ticket to Ride, Europe. It was fun! And Cora didn't win! 

JT brought up her kids Thursday afternoon, as they had a short day for teacher conferences. Callie had fun playing with Jade...

...and Cora led them all in a D&D quest. They were having such a good time, we even let them keep the table and eat dinner there while they played.

And JT and I enjoyed a lovely long walk through the canyon, ending up at Starbucks. Good times.
 

Return to Paradise

Our friends Jeff and Jenn had actually booked Carpinteria two weekends in a row, and invited us to come back with them. Stace and Violet had things to do in SClarita, but Cora and I were more than game.

I mean, really, an invite to your friends' beachfront vacation? How could we say no?

The tide was extremely low Saturday - most of this is normally under water.

The bottom half of these rocks is covered with sea life - mussels, anemones, barnacles, crabs.

It was challenging to find places to put your foot! So very cool.

Somehow, I've never noticed this strange and interesting sea creature in all my years exploring tide pools. Jenn did some internet research - they're called gooseneck barnacles, because the stalky thing looks like a gooseneck, or an elephant trunk. When you touch it, it shrinks down/back. Very strange!

We went up Thursday afternoon, and the kids did school Friday from the trailer. 

Jenn and I rode our bikes into Carp, and got to enjoy nosing around the little shops with no kids whining about how soon we'd be finished. We also enjoyed a lovely lunch and beer in the outside patio at Rincon Brewery. Oh, it was fabulous!

A short bike ride from the campground is the seal beach, where harbor seals come in the winter to give birth. They're so sweet to watch.

Wearing wetsuits and life jackets, the kids played around with a blowup boat. Many adventures were had, and after so much alone time because of the lack of school and normal life, it was great watching them work together.

Exhausted, they all collapsed on the beach for naptime. Wylie took advantage of the opportunity, and built an impressive rock stack on Cora's back. (And, yes, it WAS warm enough on this February afternoon to lie out on the beach in a bathing suit! The water was cold, but the air temp and sun were perfect.)

General frolicking, with frisbees and cartwheels.

The kids watched the two It horror movies on Friday and Saturday nights - Cora had an amazing weekend, that's for sure! She'd been asking to watch those two for months.

Just look at this camp site! Perfection.
 

Cora taught Zach and his brothers how to play Top Trumps.

Sublime sunsets...

Is any trip complete without a little mishap?

Our drive home was very windy, which is nerve-racking when towing a trailer. Around the Piru exit off the 126, a passerby honked and waved, alerting us to trouble with our ride.

We pulled over - thankfully there was plenty of space on the side of the road. Imagine our surprise to find the awning extended, the fabric flapping in the wind, already separated from the apparatus.

Cora had a chance to be a hero - her pocket knives were needed! She and Zach climbed onto the roof, and each used a knife to slice off the fabric, meeting in the middle.

Then, we had to think through how to disassemble the metal awning arms, and secure what was left to the trailer.

Cora needed to stand on a bucket to attain the needed leverage to hold her side tight again the trailer.

Jeff had straps for one side, and - voila! - zip ties for the other (one of Stace's favorite all-purpose tools).

Done! Nothing like a little excitement on the trip home.

But, all together, it was an amazing weekend of fun, sand and laughs.