Strawberry pickin’.

Look at these two ‘lil farmers.

The dads make sure we filled up ‘dem buckets!

The sweetest strawberries we’ve tasted… :)

Also got some of their jam… Of course Mommy just adores the tag, haha.

Berries for daysss.

Private little Easter hunt for the 2nd year in a row. :)) Our ‘hood hosted an outdoor hunt but we couldn’t make it.

And some friends sent us some goodies from Santa Barbara.

Spread the love with a few health-ified Easter baskets. ;-P

Biked from home to a new-ish park.

Tree of artsy birdhouses.

After school naps, lol.

Flower fields.

Plus blueberry pickin’.

This patch had like 4-5 different varieties of berries? And they encouraged us to taste them all.

The view they are seeing from this vantage point is out to the crystal clear ocean…

Why go for the seat when you have the chair arms? :P

Spring Break didn’t suck quite as bad this year, haha…

We took a day trip to a smaller resort we usually wouldn’t have gone to with our season passes. We ended up not scanning them this year and deferring to next season. Guess we’ll just have to get some extra days to make up for lost time on the slopes this season. ;-P

Spring conditions and very warm but good enough for E to practice.

Racing Daddy!

Picked up Chinese takeout and dimsum from Riverside on the way back. Piggie buns for E.

Legoland reopened its doors and invited season passholders back for some preview days. Of course, this one was more than ready to be back. The park was pretty quiet with zero lines for the select rides that were open. Also, we are excited for the new Lego Movie World land coming soon that was supposed to open last Spring but got postponed due to you know what.

Hard to believe but this is his first time on this ride! First he wasn’t tall enough but wanted to go so badly then he got a little scared when he WAS tall enough… and now has fully come to terms with it. ;P

We felt Legoland had put some pretty good precautions and protocols in place… including an insane amount of sanitizer on the bricks — see the layer of film on the mat?

A metaphor for the world this past year? Lol.

And then… In-person school started back up! They of course gave the option of staying virtual but after some deliberation, we just knew that it’d be better for E to be back. From the initial meetings, it sounded like it’d be a logistical nightmare but with a superb new principal and the village of teachers/staff/supportive parents, it really has been going amazingly well. We can tell that it has been SO good for E beyond academics — physically, mentally… Being the extrovert that he is, he really is incredibly happy to be with his friends and interacting with students and teachers. TBH, the first few days felt eerily quiet without E at home and hearing his teachers and classmates on Zoom in the background.

Virtual Science Night! The PTA has been doing a great job helping us all stay connected and in community.

These past months have instilled in him a deep love for reading… You can find him with a book (iPad) much of his free time at home. :) Sometimes with some odd yoga movements mixed in… :D (Remember down dog with ball scratch? Lol and sigh — ages ago it seems like!)

The world shut down shortly after his 7th b-day and here we are, a year later! Thank goodness this boy is easy to please — ice cream, Ramune soda, Lego’s and Pokeballs.

Have to say that we feel grateful and blessed for the immense amount of time that we’ve been able to spend with him these past months… And how proud we are of him for being so adaptable and resilient through crazy times. And yes, we still owe you a stay at Legoland!

Quite some boxes showed up on our doorstep that day and we cannot thank our friends, family from near and far for being so kind and making this boy’s day with plenty of unexpected surprises!

Neighbor A dropped by in the evening to hand deliver a Pokemon haul. Of course they couldn’t help but want to start playing, lol.

Hopefully, your 8th year won’t be spent in quarantine but who knows what will happen… One day at a time. :) Keep up the positivity, joie de vie that we love about you. And thanks for still finding your parents cool enough to want to hang with us. (Think we’ve still got a few years.) :P

Check: last peak in the 5-Peak challenge! Pyles was def the longest one as we had to go up Cowles first, descend a bit and then ascend.

When these two are together though, the miles just click on by. J went with us all the way to the peak while his parents headed down shortly after Cowles.

Birthday haul meant his Lego collection got yet bigger…

Typical Sunday afternoon “recess”. :)

Bring us back to the sheer excitement of a stick!

We helped Daddy move out of his “optional” office in downtown. They are 100% remote indefinitely. We could technically live anywhere but for the time being we might just still pick SD. :) Apparently we aren’t the only ones. Housing market is insane here!

Last chance to take advantage of chess and ping pong perks…

The hills are alive! Can’t take the post Spring showers green for granted as soon they will turn brown come summer.

Haven’t had a coffee shop drink in who knows how long so we treated ourselves with some to-go refreshments en route to Julian for a longer hike over a long weekend.

Vamos a Volcan.

We could see all the way to the Salton Sea.

Provisions at the top! The boys had planned on getting the famous Julian apple pie while in the area but a quick check told us the store closed earlier than we thought. It was a literal sprint to the bottom, making it to the shop 5 mins before closing!

Some chicken sightings after securing the pies. :)

Eyes on the prize, lol.

And Daddy insisted on picking up i.c. on the way back for a la mode. ;p