It was very hard to leave Yosemite, but it certainly made it easier to know that our next destination was sunny southern California where we were going to hang out with some very good friends. Callie and Reese wasted little time jumping into their swim suits and joining Kate, Ashlyn, and Zoe on the beautiful sands of Manhattan Beach.
The next morning John took JP on his offer to run along the Strand, which brought back a lot of great memories. It also highlighted why John looked forward to running every day when he used to live here. Sarah and Lauren took the girls to downtown Manhattan Beach and did their traditional Noah's Bagel and Coffee Bean routine while the girls played in the fountain. Downtown Manhattan Beach has changed quite a bit since Sarah and Lauren first started doing it in their mid-20s.
No trip to LA is complete without catching up with Auntie D. She was there every step of the way so she could make time for both the little girls and the big girls. For dessert one night we had s'mores and nothing says safety like Auntie D teaching five little girls how to toast marshmallows over an open flame. The only thing that made this event more exciting is the fact that she was doing it while juggling her wine glass.
The girls loved Auntie D's lessons, but also couldn't get enough of Auntie D's dog, Joy. Joy is the perfect size, especially in comparison to Colby, Lauren and JP's dog. And Joy was more than happy to have the attention of so many people. All the girls seemed to get along well together, especially when Zoe introduced the slo-mo video function on her mom's iPhone.
Although we would have loved to have more time, schedules only allowed us to get together with Josh and Auntie Gret for breakfast one morning. Josh is officially in middle school, getting taller every year, and is still one sweet kid. It was great to hear about everything he has been up to and it was good to catch up with Gretchen. Hopefully we will be able to spend more time with both of them in the not too distant future.
Another must-visit took us out of the South Bay and into Pasadena where we got a chance to see the hunky Tyler Leshney and his family. They had a pool at their house and we were all excited to get in the water. You can tell from this picture who has put in a few more hours both at the gym and in the sunshine.
Grammy's pool accessories continued to prove useful as the swimmies made Reese extra comfortable taking big leaps into the pool. She wasn't quite up to Clare's standards - Clare and Tyler had a routine that included a running jump, a basketball, a dunk, and a huge splashdown. We have a video of this that we hope to play when she takes her athletic talents to the ESPYs.
Nora and Callie had a great time playing in the pool as well. It was fun to see, especially because we hadn't all gotten together in a couple of years. Nora and Clare are a little more than a year younger than Callie, but they all got along swimmingly. Paige is then a year younger than the twins and a year older than Reese.
In short, the whole crew fits together quite well. And if you had told Tyler and John fifteen years ago that in the summer of 2015 they would be hanging out in a pool in Pasadena draped in girls they would have loved the idea. And the fact is that reality is so much sweeter. This is a scene that just doesn't happen often enough, but it is great to make it happen whenever we can.
One of the best action pics we captured while we were there took a couple of tries, but the subjects of the shoot didn't seem to mind having to jump in the pool over and over. Unfortunately we only had the afternoon there, but we certainly made the most of it.
As many of you know, the East Coast and West Coast tend to be a little ahead of the rest of the country in some things, and their family friendly outdoor bar scene is one of those. Not only did our party include six kids, but also one dog. We had a great dinner while the kids played, ate a little, and made slo-motion videos.
One surprise of the visit to Manhattan Beach was that it included Jen Dean and her daughter Zoe. When they found out that we were spending a couple of days in the South Bay they bought tickets to fly down from northern California and join the party. These efforts constantly remind us how lucky we are to have the friends we do.
Another highlight of our visit was getting time with Auntie Pi and Bradley. These two couldn't be more adorable. It is a blast to see Alicia as a mom, and Bradley is not only hip in terms of style but also extremely well mannered. He also is a ladies' man, and that helps when you are the only boy in the gang of little ones.
After a number of incredible experiences, the time had come to say our good-byes to California until our next visit. And because we had a late morning flight we could go downtown, grab a coffee, and look at the ocean. It was unintentional, but you would think from this picture that John purposely exposed his UCLA t-shirt to show people that he belonged and wasn't just a tourist.
The Manhattan Beach pier is just a cool place to be. We even have a big photo of it in our dining room that Sarah bought John as a graduation present back in 2004. It is fun to go back and see it in person - for both John and Sarah it is a bit of a time machine that reminds us of a really fun and important part of our lives. John and Reese enjoyed standing along the railing and watching the surfers catch waves. But it was time to get back to life in Lexington.
This is not Lexington. This is an Orange Line train that runs from Midway Airport to downtown Chicago. This picture was taken at approximately 12:30am, or about two hours after we finally got to Chicago following numerous delays and other travel fiascos. The biggest fiasco being that we couldn't make the last leg of our trip and would not get on another flight until 7:30pm the following day. We managed to find a hotel room, but it was in downtown Chicago and slightly expensive. So that led to our late night train ride and a walk to the hotel that had us telling the girls to just look straight ahead and don't stare.
We made it to the hotel, but our bags stayed with the plane, so our free day in Chicago started off with a momentous event. In our household you have to reach the age of 5 to have chewing gum. Reese was still about six months shy of her fifth birthday, but without any toothpaste or toothbrushes in sight, we broke that rule. Needless to say she was more than happy to partake. And we headed out into the hot Chicago sun with our carry-on luggage and the same clothes we had on the day before.
Again John gets to demonstrate why Facebook is not a waste of his time. He posted about our issue and got some great advice and information from friends in the area. For instance, a short bus ride took us to the Lincoln Park Zoo, which is free. So now we had a great activity to take up our day. One stop on our visit included a tiger who was extremely active and vocal while we stood there watching. Our first thought about a free zoo was that while it would be inexpensive it would not be of high quality. We are happy to say that we were wrong and it gives us one more reason to love Chicago.
While our hotel was expensive, it did have a free breakfast, and Sarah expertly planned ahead and raided the breakfast options to pull together a picnic lunch. We pulled up a patch of grass, sat down, and talked about we had seen thus far. We also tried to figure out what we would do for the rest of the afternoon, which included more public transportation and more Chicago treats.
One treat was a quick walk through the American Girl store. We saw it from the bus and simply had to revisit the site of Callie's 6th birthday celebration. Fortunately our circumstances made it easy to say that we could not buy anything on this trip. The Lego store is right next to the American Girls store and we participated in a scavenger hunt that rewarded us with a couple of Lego passports and we rewarded the store by buying a couple of very small sets. Oh, and we also went into a very large candy store where we showed the girls how much we appreciated the great attitudes they had displayed throughout this entire adventure.
That is perhaps one of the biggest parts of the story that we need to tell. The flight delays, the hours spent on the tarmac in Indianapolis, the midnight train ride, the no clean clothes, and everything else tested us all and the girls showed their true colors by enjoying the ride. It didn't hurt that our free day was spent in a great city. And as you can see in this picture, we helped our cause by getting some popcorn from Garrett's. Crazy as it may seem, we still had the entire summer ahead of us.
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