Suzanne and Zihla came down for the weekend to visit, so we enjoyed strolling around down town SLO (including some shopping), going out for drinks at Cielo, Sunday brunch at Novo, Sycamore Hot Springs, and Avila Valley Barn. We also tested the range on Zihlas car… there is, in fact, at least 3 miles of gas left after the car reads empty 😳
Fun 5 day visit with the grandparents, Uncle Dee, and Cousin Nolan. Daily outings included an indoor playground, Little Tykes rope course at Natural Bridge Caverns (no cave tour), Yanaguana Gardens playground, LegoLand Discovery at the mall, and the Doseum Children’s Museum. Cato was determined to enjoy the pool, but it was a little too cold to stay in for long.
For this month’s project, Cato got to make a barn planter for some tomatoes!
Mom got to help with wrangling 21 preschoolers for an Easter egg hunt at school…quite the exercise in herding cats, lol. While the bunny was hiding eggs outside, Ms. Kimberly read themed stories inside (with curtains drawn).
Lovely morning outing to Bunny Wall on Bishops Peak with Clay and Sierra. Cato climbed higher than he’s ever been, but he and Sierra were more interested in climbing the tree than rock. Du and Clay put up 3 different routes for everyone to play on.
What an amazing trip! It was definitely an action packed, family adventure with Du, Breana, Cato, Grandma & Grandpa Dixon, and Uncle Colby. If nothing else, just the air travel between SLO and Fort Lauderdale (both directions) was an epic marathon (we ran into everything from thunder storm ground stops, missing crew, mechanical, missed connections, changed airports, and tarmac under construction…we seriously weren’t sure that we’d make it to the boat in time or what day we’d even get home).
Once we got on the boat, however, everything smoothed out pretty nicely. This was our first cruise with Royal Caribbean (Oasis of the Seas) and it was an interesting change from Princess…if nothing else, it was really fun being on a family-focused boat. Soooo many different fun activities: carousel rides, pirate parades, water & ice skating shows, watching a production of CATS, FlowRider boarding, rock climbing, hunting for ducks, sliding down The Abyss, and many, many iterations of water slides and mini-golf.
Ports of call included Aruba, Curacao, and CocoCay in The Bahamas. On Aruba, Dave & Barb did a bus tour in the morning while Colby & Du did a UTV tour (Cato & Breana relaxed on the boat for the morning). Then in the afternoon, Breana & Cato joined Du & Colby at the beach for some fun in the sun and sand followed by an amazing dinner on the jetty over the water. On Curacao, Colby & Breana did a lovely 2 tank shore dive at Tug Boat Beach (Du was supposed to join, but ended up quarantined for 24hrs due to an upset stomach). At the final stop on CocoCay, everyone got to hang out on the island for one final day in the sun and sand: Cato did laps on the water slides until he crashed hard and needed to go back to the boat with Mom for nap, Du & Colby did a 1 tank shore dive, and Dave & Barbara explored and snorkeled.
Wonderful outing for our first real family bike ride with Cato on his own pedal bike! As a group, we cruised out the 2.5 miles to Avila, and then Cato got to have fun at the playground with Dad while Mom biked back to pick up the car. Cato is really cruising now on his bike, but we do still need to learn how the breaks work (the was a bit of a flying superman incident when he got going too fast downhill and then launched off his bike, thankfully into relatively soft grass).
Fun outing up to Paso to check out a new section of riverbed and playground. Cato is cruising really well on the bike now, so I’m getting to run! The riverbed is flowing strong after last week’s storms, so we had a mandatory rock throwing stop. Jasper also enjoyed the morning outing.
For Breana’s birthday, Du and Cato stayed home while Breana and Colby set out for an epic snow weekend in Mammoth! There was a serious storm that came through the week prior so snow levels were high, fresh, and oh-so-fluffy. Saturday morning started off with an amazing sunrise view of Mt. Whittney! The weather was beautiful and sunny, however that did lead to some icing up on the skis (need more/better wax for on trail application). It was pretty fun being back on cross country skis after a couple decades on downhill/backcountry skis and staying at Tamerack Lodge by Twin Lakes was very cool (lodge was built in 1920’s and comes complete with uneven floors and tight stairwells). Colby even got in a little time up on the mountain while Breana took an afternoon nap. Dinner on Saturday was a fun experience at the tiki bar in The Village listening to live music and drinking fruity rum drinks…we’re getting ready for the next adventure! (a Caribbean cruise in 2 wks 😉
We’ve been having lots of fun with Ms. Savanah’s class through the Atown Rec Center on Wednesday mornings. The focus is on building things and using construction tools so “Civil Engineering at work!” Xavier is also in class with us.
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