The great outdoors

I am pleased to report that we've survived another Summa family camping adventure! This year we decided to go to a place a little closer to home. We love Big Bear, but the 2+ hour drive into the mountains makes it just far enough to be a pain on a Friday night. Instead we went to Mount Laguna in the Cleveland National Forest which is a blissful 1 hour from our house. We camped with nine other families, which made the experience really fun! The kids got to ride bikes and scooters and hang out with all their best buddies while the parents sat around, chatted and drank a lot of beer. Perfect!

The amazing thing about Mount Laguna is that you have two completely different climate zones right next to each other. We went on a hike one morning that started in the middle of a pine tree forest and ended a few miles away in the desert!

Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail - gorgeous!

All our little campers on the trail! 

 Searching for treasure on a nature scavenger hunt

No camping trip is complete without an obscene amount of s'mores!

One of the other fun things about this trip is that there was a little amphitheater right next to our campground. As you can imagine, the kids were really excited about putting on "shows" for us. Mac appointed himself director/producer/boss man and Paige made herself the choreographer. It was hilarious. 

I don't know that we're cut out to be hard core campers, but getting out in the wilderness once in a while is good for the soul. We had a great time and are looking forward to making this an annual tradition!

Fourth of July fun

For me the 4th will always be a Midwest holiday - BBQ's, sparklers, lounging by the lake, fireworks that are questionably legal. But we're heading to Chicago at the end of the month, so decided to stay local again this year. Fortunately we had a ton of activities planned that made for a really fun long weekend.

My dear college friend, Jenny, always comes to town for the holiday. She lives up in San Jose so this is the only time I get to see her. It's so fun having known each other back in the crazy days of college and now getting to spend time together with our spouses, kids and extended family!

 A rousing game of paddle ball

 Pool time!

 Water guns are a 4th of July must!

Anderson loves cowgirl boots as much as Paige, which means they're destined to be besties

 Friends for 15+ years

Movie time! 

We also made it to our neighborhood 4th of July block party this year, which was really fun. They had all kinds of carnival games for the kids, Italian ice, face painting, bouncy houses, etc.

 I love this pic

 Mac playing the "get the ping pong ball in the glass fish jar" game that my Dad used to spend a million dollars on for me when I was a kid

Strong girl! 

We also managed to fit in a hike on Sunday to the flag at the top of the mountain near our house. This is one of our favorite hikes because it's close and we can see our house and neighborhood from the top! Plus, it felt sort of patriotic.

We never did make it to a fireworks show this year (they were cancelled in our neighborhood) so hoping we can catch a few when we get back to the Midwest!

School's out for the summer

The last day of Kindergarten and Pre-K is here! How is this happening that I have a 1st grader and my baby is headed to Kindergarten?!? I must confess I'm super excited to have them in the same school next year. One schedule is going to be amazing! Summer fun, here we come!

Dancing through the ages

On Friday Paige had her final dance performance for KHM at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla. Every year they do a show at the museum and it's such a treat. This year Paige's class had the 1920's and did a dance to the Charleston. It was adorable - especially the costumes! We're so sad to be leaving behind our sweet little Montessori community next year. It's been such an amazing experience for us and for the kids!

 Girlfriends

 Showtime!

The Thyme class with their beloved Miss Owen

Memorial Day recap

 Handing out poppies with Dad

The weather was on and off overcast and rainy, but that didn't stop us from fully enjoying our long weekend. Dan and I decided to tackle a bunch of projects around the house including painting. Well...I didn't actually paint. I just picked out paint colors. Dan did all the work!

The one major bummer from last weekend was that I had to drop out of my marathon. I hurt my heel a week ago and have been limping pretty badly around the house. I made the call Friday night to skip the race, which I'm not going to lie was pretty devastating. A quick trip to the doc today and I've scored myself a lovely air boot (sigh...)

Don't be jealous. I know, it's stunning

Here are a few fun pics from our other adventures!

 Celebrating Phillip's birthday with silly faces

 Hanging out with this cutie

 Enjoying some sunshine with friends at the neighborhood Memorial Day celebration. 

Saturday was a beautiful day!

Taking advantage of some sales with this one

That's a wrap

Another season of t-ball and soccer has come to an end. Every year we have more and more fun watching the kids play with their friends and getting to meet so many great people. It was especially fun having Dan coach Mac's t-ball team this season. I think we're going to volunteer to coach soccer this fall now that we've (sort of) got the hang of things!

These girls are too much - Pink Lightning Power!!!

 One last run around the bases

Trophy party with Coach Dan (because we all get trophies...hooray!)

Little tooth lost

Big news at the Summa house...Paige officially lost her first tooth! It's been loose for at least two weeks and I've been saying a silent prayer every day that it would fall out on its own. I do the ER, stitches, boo-boos, barf, etc. but I do not/will not/cannot do teeth! Fortunately, the tooth popped out last night while she was sleeping and landed right next to her pillow. She's over the moon and I am, too!

Pre-tooth loss. As you can hear, I am not a fan of the wiggling!