SOOOO much closer than Lubbock!

Last week... actually a couple weeks ago (July 27-30), I decided I needed to get out of town one more time before school starts (Monday, BTW) and I'm stuck here forever. So, I hopped in my car on a Sunday afternoon and 5 short hours later, I was in San Diego where my brother Stuart just moved with his family. They've been out in Lubbock, TX for the past 5 years working on his PhD in Clinical Child Psychology at Texas Tech. They're now out in San Diego for his internship and I LOVE that they are SOOOO much closer than Lubbock. Unfortunately, Stuart had to work the majority of the time I was there, so I didn't get to see him as much. BUT, he's got a great wife and 3 super duper cute kids that kept me entertained.

On Monday, we went to the beach... oh, how I love the beach! I watched Summer do some boogie boarding.

She's a total natural at the California Girl bit!

I helped Spencer guard his food from his sandy little brother Nephi.

I had him come sit on his boogie board,

but the kid found that perhaps HE was his worst sandy enemy.
Check this out...

And what would a day at the beach be without some
"plumber in training" shots?

Tuesday we went to the San Diego Zoo. Stuart and Kathy have a season pass for their family and since I was the first extended family member to go with them, I got to use the free guest pass (that was Kathy's tactic for getting visitors out there... a free pass to the zoo is great, but 3 cute kids is greatER!)

Usually, watching these kinds of monkeys is my favorite.

But this trip to the zoo, THESE monkeys were my favorite!

Here's a nice little "family" shot...
I just noticed that Spencer is holding on to the baby gorilla's head.

All 3 kiddos LOVED singing along with Mrs. B (or whoever she was). Summer (especially) wasn't shy in the least to get up there and get down with her bad Spendlove self. We're a family of entertainers... what can I say?

Stuart was able to meet up with us that night for the cool acrobatic show. This was the only real family picture we got (real meaning no monkeys included).

I had to leave Wednesday afternoon to get back to Mesa for a Thursday appointment. But before I left, we went down to their complex swimming pool (...that's "complex" as in "apartment complex"... it wasn't some type of intricate obstacle course type swimming pool!). A couple years ago, I flew out to Lubbock over Spring Break to give Summer swimming lessons but I haven't worked with Spencer yet. So, after coaxing Spencer into taking off his Spiderman "flotation device", we had some swim lessons. After doing a few basic skills in the water, I could tell the kid was fearless and eager to learn. I had him jump off the side to me and I noticed that he was naturally kicking and pulling with his arms in the water. So I kept having him jump and I would gradually step further and further away from him, until he was finally jumping in and swimming across the small length of the pool ALL BY HIMSELF! Granted, he wasn't coming up for a breath, so he got tuckered out pretty quick. But, hey, he's got some more confidence in the pool now. I hope that's ok with Stuart and Kathy... sometimes confidence + fearlessness = a parenting nightmare!

That afternoon, I easily returned home in 5 hours on the dot. What an easy drive! I'll have to make it more often. And even though I didn't get to spend a lot of time with my primary blood relative (Stu-Boo-Baby), I did get some priceless footage of him playing with my MacBook and being a kid again. (For those of you who don't know, Macs come with an application called "Photo Booth" that has tons of different effects like coloring, lenses, etc. Its super fun to play with!) It feels like Stuart has been a full-fledged grown-up forever, and, even though I love watching him be a successful husband and father, I really enjoy times where he lets loose and is just that goofy little fat kid that I grew up with. I leave you on that note, with some of my "priceless" footage!