deep sea fishing

the guys took a half day trip on a fishing excursion. fun for eli to have his dad and both grandpas aboard. 

eli with his catch

papa won the pot with this nice halibut

zoo-balboa park-natural history museum-fleet science center

i love the zoo

prehistoric tiger riding

my very favorite, the skifari

the museum of natural history was pretty fun

i have so many memories of homeschool trips here. balboa is so beautiful.

i'm pretty sure this is the same bowl they had when i was a kid...

lots o family

celebrating grandpas 88th birthday

juniper is pretty excited about food, she laughs when you put a bowl in from of her. it's halarious.

the cruz and jennings kiddos 

aunt cathy entertaining june and ezra while emily was in the hospital to get her gallbladder out

oh, my goodness, june is such a cutie

more eating, haha

playing in the water...

hello? 

dog walking with grandpa

grandpa has two favorite things...

number one

number two

la jolla

we had a beautiful day at la jolla

grandpa scott and the kiddos built quite the castles...

kylee and jett

jett

jett is the happiest baby i have ever seen. he smiles whenever he is spoken to and only cries when he is hungry or wet. it was so fun getting to meet him

the kiddos, brelynn didn't want to be in the picture, haha

the sherman library

my parents took us to the sherman library, which is actually an amazingly beautiful garden.

checking the map...always checking the map...

trying to capture the pretty flowers:) 

aunt helen

we went to visit aunt helen at her house. she has lived there for 48 years, imagine that. 48 years in one spot, not many people do that these days. she lost her short term memory a while ago, but now her long term memory is gone, too. it is so sad to see. but she is still her chipper self, smiling and energetic.  sally came over for our visit,  it was good to see them both.

the cabrillo aquarium

this is such a sweet little aquarium. small and not crowded with so many cool tanks.

sitting on a blue whale jaw bone...crazy big

haha, the monkeys in the background...

we made a quick pit stop at the port fountains...

mehlbergs

the mehlbergs hosted us for a beautiful dinner

lyla, being lyla

thank you, pat and tom, for such a fun evening!

hermosa pier

we went to hermosa pier to see the sights and shop a little. shane wasn't feeling well, so it was a trio trip

the camps

we love our papa

the gardens, abalone cove and celebrating

we went to south coast botanical gardens at just the perfect time. everything was in bloom after so-cal got a ton of rain this winter. it was beautiful!

the fam

you would never know you were in aos angeles here. there is quite the wilderness trail.

the living wall was pretty cool...

lyla and hailey inspecting the spike tree

after the gardens we went to one of my favorite places, abalone cove.

eli found this cool sea slug... he was only 2" long and its colors were beautiful!

brittlestar

we celebrated hailey's birthday a little early, her last year as a kid! happy 12th hailey!