Birthdays in a Week

Mat and I have birthdays 6 days apart. It's a very strange month for us. Both of us have bad memories and experiences for the month of June. One of his brothers passed away years ago on my birthday date. And then his last brother passed a few weeks ago so for him, June is not always exciting. For me, my birthday hasn't been special for over a decade and I never celebrate anyway but it also was my old anniversary which was never celebrated and so put that on my birthday and it was never a special occasion. Thank goodness I'm not a girly girl who likes to celebrate holidays and needs special things or I'd be a disaster. 

We decided to do a family day trip and drive up north the day before my bday. Drove with no specific plans with possibility of staying a night somewhere if we wanted. We wanted to drive up to San Simeon or further towards Carmel but it wasn't sure since it was so far up north.  We headed to San Luis Obsipo and stopped along the way in between.  Pismo beach was a nice halfway point which had sand dunes and we were so excited to see all the atvs and people camping. We plan on setting up camp day next time if we plan ahead. 

We continued on to Morrow Bay which was about 4 hours north of us. If was crazy how cold and grey it was. It was beautiful but we hope to catch it on a nice sunny day next time. We were tired and decided to drive back home. Not realizing we were only a few hours away from San Francisco. We wanted to head to Carmel and Monterey but we will plan another trip soon.  The kids kept asking where we were going and when we would get where and we kept saying no plans. Sometimes we can't set plans and just go somewhere without reason. We decided that we needed to keep doing these day trips without plans so they get used to life of adventure. 

Two of my coworkers pulled me on the side and told me they planned a little fun few hours for the kids on my bday so that I could have time on my own. It was the sweetest thing and I cried when they told me. They said they had it all planned out and wanted to let the kids have a good time as well. Normally I wouldn't take anyone up on it but Mat said we should and let the kids experience some new things too. They had the best time with aunty Emily and Mackenzie. They didn't want them to go home!  They brought me the sweetest card and flowers too. Love them!

With all the chaos that has been going on, I never realized I forgot to sign up z for week 1 of summer camp and when we got there on the first day he wasn't signed up!  Boy was the stressful knowing we all work. But luckily mat had a good early schedule this week and was able to be home with him. We planned lots of days outside exploring with him before I went to work so he wasn't sitting home and got some quality time without rocket to enjoy with us. It was really nice for all of us. 

Del Cerro

Abalone cove learning to skip rocks

For mats bday we made a day trip to lake arrowhead and big bear lake. It was a nice drive but exhausting and hot like a desert.  We need to plan to go fishing at big bear or hike because we just took a drive out without really knowing what was there. We did find an awesome alpine slide sled at big bear and was super excited to try it out. Kids loved it =). Can't wait to plan more day trips everywhere and teach the kids what it means to explore new adventures and be outside. 

Lake arrowhead

Big bear mountain overlooking the lake

Alpine slide