Home for the Week

We are home for a few days before the next trip, so it's time to check things off our Summer Wish List...

Namely, the Ronald Reagan Library.  

 It is fabulous and a real treat.  If you ever go, plan to spend a good 2-3 hours at least.  Plus, it's expensive enough that you'll want to get your money's worth.

There is so much to see and do; it is really a well-planned museum, and beautiful.

Just about to board Air Force One

Going horseback riding with the Gipper on his ranch.

There is a temporary Disney exhibit right now that is great (even if it did increase the admission prices) that the kids loved.  Ashlyn especially loved all the princess dresses.

 The kids loved all the cool Iron Man stuff, and especially Pirates of the Caribbean.

There was a huge special effects Black Pearl

The costumes were fabulous.

With a piece of the Berlin Wall.  

 During the museum tour, one of my kids said, "We need another Reagan."  

Well said.  And yes, we do. 

The kids decided they wanted to practice skating.  Our driveway is steep and our street is too steep for beginners, so it has never been inviting for the kids to learn to skate.  Instead we took it down to the church parking lot where there are wide, smooth, and flat! sidewalks.

 The funny thing is that the girls were using mine and John's roller blades.  They fit in mine, but stuffed paper towels in John's.  Ingenious.

 Christian  was happy just trying out his new bike.

The missionaries were having lunch and p-day so they let us in and the kids got to experience what a real roller rink feels like.  Fun times skating!  Now we need to see if there are any real-live roller rinks out there.  I used to love going.  I used to skate all the time, even in kindergarten.  I can't believe my kids don't really know how.  We might have to ask Santa for skates this Christmas, ones without paper towels stuffed in the toes.

We finally have summer weather this week and it was perfect at the beach. 

So perfect in fact that we stayed at Silver Strand until about 4:30, then headed up to Carpinteria for the rest of the day/night.  

Christian got to see his cousins and dig a giant hole with Kyle and Jacob.

The night was so warm and the sunset so gorgeous!

It's so rare to have warm nights; we felt so lucky to be able to experience it.

We also made the traditional walk up to Fosters for ice cream.  Our friend Monroe (my 5th child) got to experience it all for the first time. 

After enjoying the campfire with Matt and Cyndi, and the kids playing a round of German Spotlight on the beach, we had to leave and got home at 11:30 p.m.

But that did not deter us from going back to the beach the next day.  

 This time with the Gates at Malibu.  

Ashlyn just coming in from getting totally pummeled.  Check out that hair!

Three beaches in two days and it was perfect.  We could have stayed all night.

That ends the week of being home . . . next up:  Hawaii!!