On July 15 – 22, 2017, TT went to a mountain biking camp with his friend Chase again for a week in Canada at Whistler.  The following is the one photo I snapped of him going off into the airport – we were also so happy this year he is no longer considered an unaccompanied minor and we skip all the folderol accompanied with that headache!  He once again thought it was the bomb and even spotted a few bears and I was very grateful it was from the ski lift!

July 20-24, 2017

While TT was gone, I decided we all needed a little fun in our summer so I planned a very quick spontaneous trip to So Cal for me, Master D, Lelu and Ari.  We left B home to be here to pick up TT from the airport.  Aub just happened to be in San Diego at the time and drove up to Laguna Beach to meet up with us for a day.  Our first stop was Disneyland.  Yes, I did something i swore I would never do – I went to Disneyland in the summer.  It wasn’t as crowded as it could have been and it wasn’t quite as hot either.  Phew!

This is my favorite photo – as you can see Lelu is in the front seat of Splash Mountain.  She did not want to get her hair wet because it curls up into little ringlets so she took the shower cap from the hotel.  Master D told her she’d get the least wet in the front and SHE BELIEVED him.  Why do the Taylor women always fall for the teasing/lies told by the Taylor men??(Honestly, I don’t believe anything anymore, but the legacy has been passed down)  She got soaked but her shower-cap-covered-hair survived.

After Disneyland, we went down to Laguna Beach.  My plan is to just try staying once in all the little beach towns in Southern CA and see which one we like best.   We ended up going back up to Huntington beach for boogie boarding since Laguna was COVERED in seaweed!  And then the waves at Huntington were huge and unforgiving and therefore, bashed the crap out of the kids, especially Lelu.  It wasn’t quite the same fun experience she had in Mexico.  

Aub drove up and met us in Laguna.  I loved the shopping area and restaurants and the scenery but if the beach is always covered with seaweed, I’ll keep moving down the coast. There’s a Peace Tree cafe right across the street from the hotel we were staying in so I enjoyed a couple of my favorite chai drinks in the morning.