we went....

...on a hike.

If I'm going to go through all the trouble of putting on uncomfortably tight workout clothes and schlepping myself around for 45-60 minutes and getting all tired, I at least want it to be worth it.  And the best way to make that worth it, to me, is to do it at Torrey Pines.

I decided I wanted to hike Torrey Pines at sunset.  Or at least as close to sunset as you can get, because the mountain closes at sunset.  It was a sunny day, perfect for a sunset.  So we got all dressed and drove all the way out there.

Except my beloved marine layer had come in just enough to a) cover the coast with clouds so that no sunset was visible and b) make it really windy and cold.

But we were there (3 of us...Arissa was sick), so we hiked.

 

A sunset wold have been nice, but we did get to see some spotlights on the ocean, which was beautiful just the same.

 

4th of july

4th of July was lovely as usual.  The weather was perfect, the food was good, and the festivities were fun.  Couldn't ask for more than that.


















I like taking pictures of food, don't know why.


Extreme close-up pictures of food.














Chatting away....









Playing games.....



















Cheese.....

















These pictures were SO unbelievably typical....they cracked me up.




Mariah is being a smart-ass cause I told her to smile bigger, and Mallory is annoyed that I had to take a second picture because Nana wasn't looking at the camera.








Then Mariah started crying because Arissa yelled at her.











Then I asked Jesse to take the camera so I could get in the picture too.  And this is what happened.









Then FINALLY, he got it together and everyone looked at the camera and smiled and all was good.









Then we went to Nina's to watch fireworks.....it was sooooo cold!  Much colder (in July, mind you) than it is now (October).  Weird.

Arissa turned 12

Even though I thought for SURE that mallory & mariah were too old for pin the ___ on the __ type games at their parties, and then they told me afterward how disappointed they were that they didn't get to play them, I figured for REALLY sure that Arissa and her friends had out-grown my little parties so we threw a big girl one instead.






She picked a couple friends and we went to Belmont Park.













This ride was her favorite:

























Arissa couldn't wait to get on this ride:










Then changed her mind at the last second:










So Olivia took her place:











And while they did that, Arissa did more of this:











Then we dined:










She'd already had two other cakes so I didn't buy a cake for this outing, but she HAD to blow out a candle...........so we made do with a GIGANTIC sno-cone.
















And the only proper way to end the night would be.....




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