Cora's swim class

Here's Cora with her Meadows Park Pool swim teacher, during her two-week swim class. Cora attended 35-minute classes four days a week for the two weeks, and eagerly took to the water.

 She learned to float on her front and back and got much better at using her "big arms" while swimming. The class was great for her, with just a few kids per teacher and a lot of personal attention from Julian, an enthusiastic college-aged instructor.

Cora raised her hand to be first at everything, and she really got better at swimming. She asked Julian about the breast stroke, and he showed them how to do the frog-legged kick. Then, Cora gave it a try and did really good, considering it was her first time. 

 Here, Cora gets her certificate showing that she passed Level 2 and can advance to the Level 3 class. Unfortunately, with school starting, she won't be able to do any more lessons until next summer. But, she is so confident in the water now, and can safely swim the width and the length of our pool. Mission accomplished!

Nan and Pop took Cora to her lessons each morning, and Pop helped her in the evenings, too. Cora gave them her certificate to show her thanks to them for their help.

Paint a Fish

During Nan and Pop's first week with us, we went to the mall for the girls to participate in a toddler storytime activity at Paint a Dream.

It was packed out with about two dozen children and their assorted family members, but very well-organized by the staff.

After a store worker read the book "Rainbow Fish," it was time to paint plates.

The plates had chalk lines drawn on them to designate space for the sand and sky.

Cora has long loved art projects, so she eagerly took the task. Violet, also, concentrated fully on her painting, and was very neat with her brush. Only the tiniest bit went in her hair.








Then, the employees went around and painted the children's hands with rainbow colors...

...and pressed them down sideways onto the plate.

A week later, Nan and Pop picked up the finished product, with details added by Paint A Dream. Very cute, no?

Kayaking in Ventura

On Sunday, we took our kayak to Ventura for the first time since Violet was born, and met up with Bill and Patty (and their kayaks) for a fantastic beach day.

 It was just a great day all around. The girls were well-behaved and had a great time, doing beachy things like making sand castles, eating snacks and sitting in beach chairs.

Violet, um, really liked having her own Ariel chair, and rearranged it many times to get it just so. She also went back and forth between the cracker box and the chair, after filling her pockets with snacks.

 For the last year, we've been telling Cora that when she learns to swim, she'd be able to ride in the kayak (or the ship, as she called it).

Sunday was the day! Her first day kayaking, and she absolutely loved it.

 Gord also really loved kayaking. Here, he's in one of Bill and Patty's on the left, and Stace and I are on the right. We had a nice time exploring the Ventura Keys waterways, near where Bill and Patty are hoping to buy a house soon.










Ahhhh, the lazy days...
The weather was perfect, warm but not hot. We followed up the beach with fish 'n chips and fish tacos at Harbor Village.

This was a day we'll all remember!

Thanks, Aunt Patty, for these great photos!

Camping

 On Friday, we grilled foil packets of homegrown squash (from Stace's boss) and sausage coins, and enjoyed dinner al fresco.

Over dinner we decided it would be the best night for Nan and Pop to camp with their granddaughters in the back yard.

 Violet had a lot of friends she needed to bring with her. Pillow, seahorse, three lambies and a doggy.

The happy crew, around 8 p.m.

Once they were settled, Stace and I took advantage of the night and went out for dessert.

Gord and Cora had a good night, sleeping pretty well. Violet was brought in before 11 p.m. because she wasn't sleeping.

Violet preferred the night she joined Nan and Pop in their bed after she awoke early in the morning.

Family, friends

One of the joys of having Sue and Gord here is sharing them with our California friends and family. 

It's a joy, because we all get along so well together. My parents had us all over for dinner Tuesday night, and since Bill and Patty live nearby now, they came too. Plus, they could visit Dewey (in Patty's lap), whom my parents are watching until they move out of their apartment and into their new house.

Look at those great smiles! We stayed late enough to warrant changing the girls into their jammies before we drove home.

 Auntie Mel made Cora a flower crown, which she had to share with Pop.

 Crafty Auntie Mel started making her wreaths when she was preparing for her role in Hair in June.

 On Wednesday, we had the Roberts over for dinner, which is always a pleasure. Between the Roberts and our other neighbors - one of whom recently brought over a basket of beautiful surplus homegrown veggies - we live on the best street!

There wasn't quite room at the table for all of us. No bother. There was plenty of room on the dining kayak.

Long Beach Aquarium

 On Sunday, we made our first family trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. What a great day out! And it was all the better because we woke up less than 20 minutes away in Torrance, so we started out relaxed and well-rested.

Cora was tickled when a beautiful Lorikeet came up to her nectar cup for a drink.

 

Violet liked the seahorses; her favorite nighttime stuffed animal is her glowing seahorse.













She loved hanging out with the penguin statues, too.

Nemo! Lots of Nemos! And Dories! 

 We were really impressed with the aquarium. We were there for over four hours and saw so many interesting fish, turtles, sea birds and more.










There were several touch tanks, like this one, where Cora is touching (harmless) moon jellies.

What with seeing all the sealife, we worked up a good appetite for shrimp. Thankfully, Bubba Gump's was right next door.

Stace and I shared the huge shrimp meal, and after dinner we all shared the dessert trio. Yum!

Beach and Boats

 We picked up Sue and Gord on Friday night, and instead of crawling north with thousands of our closest friends on the 405, we went a few miles south to a hotel in Torrance.

It was great to wake up by the beach, and after having breakfast with the lovely Massei family, we spent some time in the waves.

Well, Gord, Stace and Cora did. It was just a bit too cold for the rest of us. Cora had her first real boogie-boarding adventures, with some great rides up the sand (and a good washing-machine experience, too).

It was nerve-wracking to be the mom on the beach, knowing she was under a big wave, but Stace was right next to her and all ended well. Cora is so brave in these experiences, not even flustered!

Soaking up the sun...

 Later, Violet and I went back to the hotel for naps, and Sue, Gord, Stace and Cora met up with my parents at the USS Iowa.

The battleship, which saw action from WWII through Afghanistan, last month was recommissioned as a floating museum in San Pedro Harbor.

 We knew from when we first heard about it that it would be a perfect thing to do together with our dads.

Cora also loved the experience, and asked lots of questions of the docents. She learned, among other things, that the Iowa is the only U.S. battleship with a bathtub.

Fun week

We've had some fun this week, our last "normal" week of summer. Nan and Pop are coming in Friday night, and they leave days before school starts.

On Monday, we went to the Hollywood Bowl for Summer Sounds, a series of children's productions that focus on the musical traditions of various countries.

The focus was the Philippines, and both girls enjoyed the show. Violet sat quietly next to Cora (center of group) and our friend Jordyn the whole 45-minute show (adults aren't allowed on the green carpet).

Next was craft time. Cora chose to make a treasure box, and she was very enthusiastic about her mermaid artwork.

Violet, on the other hand, found another way to use her box. Funny kid, and she did it to be funny (and then played it very cool before posing with a big smile). Cora was literally "rolling on the floor laughing her bum off."

When the children finished creating, they were invited to tell about them into the microphone to the other children. Cora finished last, so her speech went to a very small audience. She recreated the moment that evening, setting up chairs for the three of us while she very formally described what she made.

Our Tuesday was full, full of fun. We had a Mom2Mom pool playdate at our pool, and in the early afternoon, went to Hurricane Harbor with Grandpa and Grandma, and her free tickets. 

Wednesday, we did some house-cleaning and errands with a cranky Violet, who was overtired from Tuesday's excitement.

On Thursday, we visited with Elissa and Harvey, after a long two-year's separation while they lived in Florida and Texas. They moved back to SoCal last month to a beautiful home in Camarillo; we soaked up the cool breezes from their lovely new back yard and enjoyed brownies made by Cora and Harvey.

 Here, the children are dragging each other with the parachute on the wood floors; Harvey is protecting 

Violet's head from the door frames. Cora and Harvey got along very well, though they both needed some reminding about who the other was!

After our visit, according to Elissa, Harvey was talking about Cora and forgot her name, so he referred to her as his "very first girlfriend."

Car Show with Bill and Patty

 

After 20 years in Washington State, my Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty have returned to Southern California. Bill got a job as a junior high principal near Ventura, where they are now making their home. They made the big drive last week, and Stace was able to take Friday off to help unload the giant moving truck into an apartment and a storage unit. It was a long day of hard work - made a bit longer when the men decided the unit Patty had rented was far too big, and a much smaller one would be just fine.  

  On Saturday, we cleaned out our garage and played in the pool in the evening. On Sunday, we headed out to a British Classic Car Show in Oxnard, just 10 minutes from Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty's place. Bill and Stace share a love of cars, so it was a lot of fun to go together. Here, they look over a Triumph TR3. Stace is spending a lot of his free time researching the various classic British sports cars he's interested in acquiring "some day."

This car is similar to the Hillman Imp Stace's parents had when he was a baby.

Violet had fun walking around the cars, and kept saying she wanted to get inside one. She'd go up close, almost touching them, and then scrunch up her nose, breathe deeply and say she was smelling them. Then, she smelled her stroller. It smelled like a stroller, she said.

 Cora, meanwhile, got lunch and produce at the adjacent Farmer's Market with Aunt Patty. Patty's seen her share of car shows over her decades with Uncle Bill.

It's great having them close enough to visit for a few hours now, instead of having to travel 1,000 miles. And, if we could have picked the perfect place for them to move, it would have been to Ventura. It will be fun to do some beach-town house-hunting with them!

Stace took Cora back into the car show for a few minutes to show her his favorites, including this Mini, owned by his work mate, Jimmy.