{J} my oldies kid

Unlike K, who refers to music from the 90's as "oldies" (ouch!!!) J is truly my oldies DJ who has fallen in love with music from the 60's and 70's and is always turning on classic rock to listen to.  

I love it!

He may be the only 12 year old who chooses "adult hits" as his preferred radio station.

{K} officially "from Utah"

K will be attending USU in the fall and part of the $$$ plan is for her to gain Utah residency status during this first year so that she can pay in-state tuition.  One of the requirements for residency is to live in Utah for 12 months straight, so eight days after graduation she moved in with my parents and three days later she began a new job as a swim instructor at the Bingham Swim School.

She has told me that she already considered Utah home because she lived the first 9 years of her life in Vegas and the second 9 years in Portland, but visits to family in Utah has been her constant throughout her life.  She has been having an amazing summer filled with friends and family and far too busy to even think about (much less miss) Oregon.

One of the great things about Utah is that so many of our friends have family there, so when the Worths had a family reunion in Utah K wound up with an invitation to join them for the day at Lagoon.

Living at my parents means that K is right down the road from my brother's house and K has LOVED adopting her younger cousins as little sisters for the summer.  They have hiked, run together, gone to movies, washed cars and just plain hung out.

We should have warned K about Utah mosquitos...she counted over 100 bites after doing a late night movie outside at her cousin's birthday party.

For the week of the 4th of July she didn't have to work so she spent the week at Rich's parents home and with Dougall cousins.  Jane (from Seattle) visited and she and K became quick friends.

Sneak peak at San Juan Hall room 204...K and three of her college roomates for this fall got together for the first time to watch fireworks the night before the 4th.  She is reporting that they are going to have the best apartment!

K's work wasn't far from my other brother's house so she spent time with his girls as well....running with them as they biked, dressing up as cows for free food at Chick Fil-A and getting to attend Mallory's baptism.

And of course, she has loved reconnecting with all her WHS friends that graduated last year and have since all made Utah their home away from home.

{T} Francisco the Sloth

T's souvenir of choice is generally a soft stuffed animal wearing a t-shirt from the city we visit.  

This trip was no different....meet Francisco the Sloth....T's California souvenir.

Not only is Francisco a good bedtime cuddler, it turns out Francisco is a big fan of road tripping :)

{CA} San Francisco

We did very little driving today because I wanted to show the boys San Francisco.  You really can't do the city in one day but I was determined to fill the day with enough iconic San Fran that they had fun while trying not to do so much that they end up hating me or the city.

We got to the city around 10:00 and felt very lucky to find parking at the North Shore Marina.  That put us in perfect proximity to hike up Lombard Street and climb down the steps of the crookedest street in the city.

Next we walked along the Embarcadero and saw the iconic sites of Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, complete with street performers and sea lions.  The area has really grown and become much more touristy since the last time I visited (which was probably when I was pregnant with K).

When we got to the Ferry Building we headed toward China Town where we grabbed some authentic Chinese food (so authentic that it was in Chinese and I have no idea what we ate) and we walked through a Fortune Cookie factory to see how the cookies are made.  We walked back to the Emarcadero and we rode a streetcar to take us back to Fisherman's Wharf to grab lunch of Clam Chowder and Calamari.

We'd put in nearly eight miles on foot at this point and I knew we were reaching that sweet point of just enough without tipping the balance to too much.  We put our feet in the ocean on the north shore, walked through Ghiradelli Square and then made our way back to our car.

As we left the city we headed north over the Golden Gate Bridge.  It had been too foggy to see the bridge when we'd arrived in the morning but I'd assured the boys that the fog would burn off.  I was wrong.  We drove to Crissy Field in hopes to get some views of the bridge but the fog was still too thick.  J did get this shot out the back window once we crossed the bridge but I found the next photo online (here) and am posting it to commemorate our day in San Fran.

{CA} Huntington Beach

The boys and I spent three days driving to and three days driving home from our SoCal reunion...so basically we spent more days driving than actually at the reunion.  The boys were great road trip buddies and were open to daily adventures along the way which hopefully made for fun memories for everyone.

As we left Newport we headed north to Huntington Beach with plans to do a Puzzling Adventure...a type of interactive Scavenger Hunt that would help us explore Huntington Beach.  We did the first 9 or 10 clues but tired of it before we completed it.  We didn't realize it but the US Open of Surfing was happening that weekend so the beach was pretty crowded and there were lots of surfers so we actually spent more time just watching the surfing.  Amazing!

Our time in Huntington was pretty short, as we had a long drive ahead of us to get to Redwood City for the night, but the boys enjoyed seeing the area and expressed willingness to come back anytime!

Good Night...getting ready for San Francisco tomorrow!

{CA} Newport Beach

The Dougall Reunion was five glorious days in Southern California at the Marriott Newport Coast Villas (THANK YOU John and Marilyn!!!).  And the fact that K was able to join us was this mama's happiest reunion of the week.

We all arrived on Monday, spent Tues & Thurs together at the beach at Crystal Cove, Wednesday was a "free" day (our gang went to Raging Waters in L.A.), all the adults went to dinner on Thursday night and we all checked out on Friday.

Between all of that we did dinner as a group a couple of nights with gathering games, the teens had lots of late movie nights and game nights, you could always find someone at one of the resorts multiple pools, the kids enjoyed the basketball courts and we did a fun game of sand volleyball.  

My three boys also had a four day game of hide and seek anytime that we were in the condo that had a losers consequence that I don't want to forget but refuse to actually document.

So many fun memories!!!  

Sand and water is so magical!!!

The waves were HUGE on the second day we were there which made for some fun body surfing but ultimately we all had to get out of the water before someone got seriously hurt.