North Beach (San Clemente)

Tyler is off of school for fall break and we are still trying to beat the heat.  Today we decided to head to a beach.  We thought it would be fun to try a new one.  After getting there, we found it was pretty rocky, but the kids still loved it and want to go again.  I think they loved being able to watch Tyler skip rocks.  They scoured the beach looking for perfect rocks for him to skip.  It was probably 80 degrees weather wise but the water was in the high 60s, which is pretty cold, but they loved it anyway.  It's not Hawaii, but we'll take it.

A Shadow of Myself

Lately I have been feeling like a shadow of the old me.  I used to be fun and do fun things.  Now I am old and boring.  And I am sick of it.  I was talking to Tyler about it the other night.  About how boring I am now and how I don't want to be.  I want to do fun things like I used to.  I think we've kind of been stuck in a rut.  

It's also been super hot here.  Like ridiculously hot and we decided to kill two birds with one stone; escape the heat and not be boring.  We live right by the San Bernardino National Forrest and it's about time we started acting like it.  Tyler got online and researched some hikes our kids could handle and off we went.

Calvin was ready to go.  
He got a few looks and comments on the trail since he was wearing this awesome hat.

Hadlee's hat was a little more normal. :)

And yes, I told them to hold hand for these pictures. :)

Their smiles felt a little forced.  So I told them to try a 'far-off look.'

There was a lake at the top of the hike. (Jenks Lake)

Calvin likes the far-off-look I guess.

I have a hard time keeping my kids away from water in any form.

There were people fishing in the lake and Calvin ended up with a hook stuck to his rear. (He sat on someone discarded hook.)

They had to put their feet in the water.

Then we were on our way home.

We had a random guy take our picture on the way down.  He was having a hard time working my phone.  This was the best we got out of about 4 tries.  Bless his heart.

Hadlee had to bring back a pine cone.

This was the temperature when we started down the mountain in our car.

And this was the temperature when we got to the bottom and back into town. 

Now you know why we were trying to escape the heat. :)

Silly Hadlee and Calvin

My kids are obsessed with making videos on the computer.  They think they are pretty hilarious.  They have watched this one 3 zillion times.

Off To The Races

So it looks like we have come full circle.  

Actually full oval, in honor of today's post.  

We have come full "oval" because this is Tyler making this post and I was the original author of this blog until Amanda took over.  Unfortunately Amanda has abandoned us in favor of her food blogs. Boooooo.  So now it is back to me.

Today I took Calvin to our first NASCAR race.  It was the Nationwide Series race at the track here in Fontana.  It is only about 15 minutes from our place and it has been on my radar since we found out we would be living in California.  Amanda and I have previously attended a race way back in the day.  While I was going to Tech school for the Air Force we lived in Texas.  So we went to a race there back in 2001.  I remember being blown away by how fast the cars are actually going.  I had a blast then and I was excited to go again, this time with my buddy Calvin.

The first thing we did was walk around all the vendors and check things out.  

There were plenty of photo ops for Calvin.

He didn't want to get out of this one.

I figured I would get in on the pictures too.

  

Wow, that mustache fits in nicely with the NASCAR theme.

Then we got to watch the motocross stunt guys do some amazing tricks on their bikes.  You really get a sense of how dangerous it is when you are actually there.  These guys are crazy.

When we got hungry we walked right into this gem. 

 It is a diesel that converts to a giant grill.  When you come up on something like that you can't not eat there.  I got a giant cheeseburger and Calvin got a huge Turkey leg.

Finally we went in to watch the race.  I knew coming in that the noise was going to be an issue for Calvin.  He has very sensitive ears.  Problem solved.

The race was exciting.  Those cars are as cool as I remember them.  The best part is during the start of the race and all of the restarts after a caution flag.  When all 40 cars floor it at once and get going 170mph, it is awesome.  We didn't make it the whole race.  Just past halfway actually.  Calvin was tired and I was ok leaving early because we had a really fun day and seeing who won the race wasn't even half as important as hanging with my buddy at the races.  I hope we can do it many more times.  I've actually been thinking that he should be a race car driver some day.  (Pending Amanda's approval).