Where's Walla: August 2014

Rock Climbing Indoors

I'm not the biggest fan of rock climbing gyms. In many ways I believe it is a whole other entity apart from actual climbing. One thing I will give them though....they have the capacity to make a person exceedingly strong which translates well to climbing outside. Now that the kids are bigger, Jon has been urging me to take more and more "mommy breaks". Lately I have spent these breaks at the climbing gym. I can only imagine that all my recent field trips to this place was the impetus that urged Eden to want to come with me so badly. All it took was one time and she was hooked. I am blown away by how much fun she has here and how hard she actually tries. It occurs to me that climbing does not come altogether naturally to Eden - especially not climbing in the gym (God knows it does to come naturally to me there either), but I am absolutely astounded to see how hard she tries. By our second trip she was able to get up a 5.7 - which she was no where near getting up on her first trip. She was using her feet and being thoughtful about foot placement. I could go on and on. Obviously it thrills me to see her show interest in this. I know very well that this is likely a fleeting moment/a childish whim. All the more reason for me to soak it all in.

Zi on the other hand could never go back and be perfectly happy about it.

Good thing he has no problem making friends.

Reptile Love

It seems that every kid just loves reptiles. I remember loving lizards as a kid, and there is one specific afternoon I remember spending hours trying to trap one particular lizard. Eventually I caught him and my mom and dad let me keep him - buying me a lamp and container for him and everything! I was thrilled! Eden's idea of a perfect "date day" is to stop by the reptile store. The other day I took her and Zion as a reward. Eden was thrilled to share this special place with Zi. When we left she told me (pertaining to the store owner) "Mommy - I just love that man so much!" And if you know Eden, you know that she does not hand out her love to just anybody.

EZ's 5th & 3rd Birthday Party at SanO

We got to celebrate Eden and Zion's bday with their friends down at San Onofre last week. It was a fun little gathering of kids and parents. The tide was low enough to play in the tide pools (for the first time all summer for us) which was such a special gift to the kids cause they all love to search for treasures in those pools. The only caveat to that was that it spread everyone out so much that it was hard for me to keep up (both as host and as photographer) but I was able to get some shots of everyone (I think) and it seemed like everyone was having plenty of fun.

Zi receiving a hug from his favorite friend of Eden's.

Eden really wanted a sea glass cake. After several attempts and a whole bag of sugar we finally perfected the recipe and she was thrilled with the outcome.