The holiday gave us lots of chances to hang out with friends. Some, like Cole and Frankie, we see all the time...
And some, like Mom's friend Brenda from high school, not very often.
We went to lunch with her kids Josie and Charlie, and brought Kyle too.
We also hung out with Mom's friend Danielle, who was in town from Austin...
And more of Mom's Semester at Sea friends, Georgie...
And Danielle! Georgie lives in New Zealand, and the last time Mom saw her was when she was in London and living there. (Yes, that's Tommy giving Mom bunny ears in this picture too)
We did some drawing with their kids, and ate dinner while the adults gabbed. So lucky to see so many friends over the holiday season!
We took Kelli and her girls on a Whale Watching boat. First we checked out the gift shop before setting sail...
Tommy liked the salty taste from the waves splashing up on us.
Mom and Kelli were happy to be back on a boat together again. However, we didn't have any luck seeing whales or dolphins. Kelli said it should have been a "whale searching" instead or watching trip, and she's not wrong.
Good thing the seagulls flying next to us were pretty cool. But not as cool as whales. *Sigh*
The next day we did some guided painting with the whole Semester at Sea crew. Avery, Luci, and I took it seriously...
Mom and Kelli, not so much.
But we had fun and all ended up doing a pretty good job!
Even Alin's arm got some artistic sparkle from Hilary.
It was fun...
And I liked adding my own touches on mine.
Here's a little view of the class and Mom's goofy friends.
Mine turned out pretty, and I even hung it in my room.
Mom had a reunion of a bunch of her Semester at Sea friends at Alin's house about 30 minutes from us. They had to make a cardboard cut-out of Kristine's head so she could be there in spirit.
Kids got to play with them too, and we went on a hike near Alin's house.
Mom was glad she didn't have to carry me, but thought Marc was sweet to carry Keilah.
It wasn't so bad going down...
But was no good going back up. Yup, that's her house way up there on the hill!
Her house was fun and had a lot of cool technology in it, like this iPad in the wall that kept us entertained.
That night the grown-ups ditched us with a babysitter and had dinner on their own.
The next day we took Mom's SAS roommate Kelli and her daughters Avery and Luci (who stayed with us) to the pier.
I played around with the big building blocks and made myself a massage station while the girls shopped.
We had fun with all the SAS kids.
Back row L to R: Avery, Kat, Keilah, Jacob, Ren Front Row: Luci, Jack, Ellie, Elise
And the adults had fun giggling with each other.
L to R: Jorge, Marisa, Audrey, Kelli, Marc, Nathan, Sue, Hilary, Alin, Darci, David, Jen, Gretchen
We've been busy little Scouts this month. Tommy and I decided to practice our whittling in the backyard one day...
And Dad and I made garlic scout knots.
They were yummy, but hard to tie!
Then my Troop hiked the El Morro Trail for 5 miles in Laguna Beach. Mom came with...
And we had some fun!
We worked on our orienteering and map reading...
And since the tide was in we had to take our shoes off to cross through this tunnel. Always an adventure!
But it was worth it to get to the beach.
We took some time to poke around at the sea anemones in the tide pools...
And climb on the rocks.
Fun hike with a fun group!
The next day Tommy's den came to our house to work on their woodworking projects. They made secret boxes that look like books on a bookshelf. Good job, Bears!
