Beck & Ellery: 2014!

We started our 2014 out on the Pacific. We went whale watching for the second year in a row and saw 12 whales, a dozen or more dolphins and a few sea lions. As Beck put it "this so awesome!" Thank you Dave and Kathy for putting this wonderful experience together...

Seeing this grey whale breach was the highlight of my day. Zach was racing across the boat to snap the pic but missed most of it...

We were all encouraged to look onto the horizon and the first person to spot a whale was to shout out "thar she blows!" Well once I heard there was a prize, the hunt was on. (They didn't call me Bush Eye in S. Africa for nothin.) Happy to say I'm the proud owner of the First Whale Sighting Of The Day certificate. Okay, semi happy. A certificate? I also got to name the whale. I thought Wanda was fitting. Here's Beck in the captains chair...

Elle wanted to cruise on the California Princess behind us...

Then on to the shores of the Pacific. Tide pooling with Gram and Gramps...

How cool is this?!...

Happy Birthday Janice!...

Beck being Beck...

Could our weather be any nicer?...

Russell Rd Hair Salon...

Like Beck's tutu? From Nola's hip surgery 5 years ago...

Zoo day!...

Dinner and root beer floats with the neighbors...

Swinging with her bestie...

Mt Helix...

My sister had a time share she couldn't use and offered it to us - yes please! We spent 6 days at the Lawrence Welk Resort in Escondido. I was expecting it to be all blue hairs (which was the majority) but they had SO much for the little ones. Just one of the six pools on the property...

Janice, Bill and Sydney came up for the afternoon...

Also Rian and Bennett joined us one morning. Rian slipping down one of the slides...

Daddy getting technical on the putting green. Just love this picture...

Hot chocolate creations...

Play dough creations...

S'mores creations...

Their first time fishing and we caught nothin' - but had a great time trying!...

Kissing (and then spitting) on Mr. Welk...

Thank you again Salewsky's! We loved every minute of it...

Ellery was working hard on her Valentines...

One of her drawings of mommy and daddy from school. Awfully generous with my bust!...

The aphids are attacking our garden so we got defensive and bought 1500 ladybugs to combat the problem. Problem is, they all flew away within 3 days. Ugh...

Kindergarten enrollment!...

K, well she looks happy there but drop off at her preschool has been anything but. It varies from quiet sniffles to loud cries and clinging to my arms. I try to keep the drop off short and sweet and as long as her teacher, Ms Judy is there, the tears subside shortly thereafter. I guess there are times throughout the day where she just starts crying out of the blue and asks for me. All of this has me concerned to say the least and I just wonder what happened to my well adjusted little Elle? And it's not just school. Most everything I read states that this is just a phase but the timing sucks. With Kindergarten around the corner, I'm hoping this phase fizzles out soon. We bumped her up to 3 half days a week and enrolled her at our public school for the fall. Who know's, she may surprise all of us and adapt perfectly but we've been putting in applications at a number of charter schools throughout SD so we have options.

On the upside, she had no hesitation in joining Marla, Rian and Bennett at a Fresh Beat Band concert. Marla told me her and Rian were giggling about who was going to marry Twist. She had a great time and wore this shirt to bed and all of the next day. Thank You Auntie Mars!!...