After our harrowing adventure at the Very Windy Beach, we made our way to the best pirate style playground ever. It was huge! It had sea monsters, and caves, and steering wheels, and bells to ring. It had cannons, and whirly-twirls, and see-saws...

It really was incredible. We stayed here for an hour or so...what fun!

We went to the beach on Monday, after lunch. It was so windy that it felt as though someone was taking a sandblaster to us. We enjoyed it as much as we could, but it really was pretty painful.

In between the blast, we did beachy things.

Jack had strawberries for breakfast....

The kids, after about 25 minutes, wanted to go home. They were tired of hiding behind us, and still feeling the stink of the sand. My mother had told us about a recently redone play area nearby, so we made tracks.

Later, Lucy and I would come back at low tide to looks for sea glass. The wind had died down, and the tide had receded and left a "stream" of cold, but calm water for Lucy to wade in. It was wonderful.

We decided to celebrate Josh's 31st birthday at the beach. My mother was there, and we took advantage of the best babysitter we could find and went out to eat Saturday night at El Torito. Sunday morning we woke up and we made Josh a celebratory steak and eggs. After breakfast we loaded up the chickens in the wagon and trekked to Seabridge.
After a birthday nap and a delicious meal at Joe's Crabshack, we came home so Josh could have his cake and open his presents. The kids had been looking forward to the cake all day.

I had found the perfect gift at the Temecula Mall. It was the kind of gift that made all of the other little gifts I bought better. I made Josh open it last.

He has this weird thing about the "Sham-WOW!" guy.

I bought him two Sham-WOW! sets. I knew his face would be priceless.

Everyone enjoyed the cake- we fabricated it more than made it...cake mixes feel a little like a lie.

My mother, again a provider of happiness and comfort, had to leave that night. The only thing that CAN be bad about the beach house is how big it is and how much time it takes to clean...but we had decided to do it in spurts on Monday, so it wasn't bad at all.

New Year's Day was spent playing with the kittnens, who had been warming to the kids.

Jacky even got in the action, although he was beginning not to feel well.

Josh held Jack, watched footbsll, and ate a potpie.

The cat stayed like this for a good ten minutes, and Lucy enjoyed the company.

We rang in the New Year with some delicious eggs, some leftover dates, and fresh-made biscuits. The boys loved the meal. The girl was distraught.

The most delicious part? The homemade persimmon jam the Whites gifted to us...mmm....

You guys made our year. At least the first breakfast of it.

We kept some of our old New Year's Eve traditions. We made some new ones.
I had said that I wanted to do, "something fun," for New Year's Eve- last year everyone fell asleep on me, and I cheered in the New Year alone- but the parties and doings didn't seem right this year, so we went down to Hemet for dinner and shopping.
On the way back up the hill I made five clues for the chickens, and we had a treasure hunt with a dozen Kinder Eggs that a friend of ours from Germany sent. The kinders themselves have never seen such a thing, so the hunt was a success and the treasure was treasured. We also had some left over holiday crackers from LAST Christmas in there...small toys for all.
Jack was asleep already, and was starting to feel badly, so he did not get to enjoy the festivities, and neither did he miss them.


Treasure!

Treasure encased in chocolate!

After the hunt we had our traditional banana splits- we told the kids that they could stay up until midnight, but shortly after banana splits, Lucy said she was tired and went to sleep.

Bowden played with the kittens.

He made it until 10:30pm, and then conked out on the couch. We took him to bed, and were awake midnight to kiss...then we rolled over and went to sleep.

The day after Temecula, and the day before Mom left for home, we went to the Wild Animal Park. It was very fun, but I was in a horrible mood that my mother had to put up with. Only a mother would. Bowden was especially cranky, too, which didn't help my mood. He's usually great on these outings, but he was coming down with the flu and a cold at once, but we didn't yet know it. Bad mood or no, I always love the Wild Animal Park. Jack loved the flamingos.

A shoebill stork, one of my favorite animals.

Looking at the stork.

More 'Mingos.

Jack likes birds best, so far.

Posing near the lions.

Near the lion's exhibit is the water play area...it may have been too cold for this, but I had extra pants in the stroller.

And the chirruns loved it.

Jack started out fairly careful...

...but he just got wetter...

...and wetter...

...and wetter. I thought that he was done, but no.

He went back for more.

Lucy was more interested in peeping through the posts than peering at the California Condors.

Grumpy Bowden.

Condor faces.

Pretending to be giant frogs.

It was one of the last nights for the Festival of Lights, so as the sky got darker, the lights came on in strange and fantastic pictures.

We ate dinner near another play area, and then made our way out of the Park.

At the entrance/exit of the Park they had fake snow coming down. My children thought it was the most wonderful invention; "It's not cold!"

One picture and my batteries died. Thanks, Nanny, again, for a wonderful trip!