Annual McMillan Family Reunion

This year we went to southern California.  My parents rented a big home in Anaheim.  It was pretty sweet because there was a pool with a lazy river and slide.  The kids occupied themselves for hours.  Sadly, I don't have any pictures of it.  All of my sibs and their kids went, so that was cool.

We spent the night in Anaheim at some 1.5 star hotel.  It was actually pretty good, especially since we got waffles at continental breakfast.  Then we went to the Huntington Beach parade, which is some huge 4th of July celebration.  We had to park in the garage at $27, and we thought that with a handicapped placard that we could get it for $8.  Well, I figured it was less stressful to just pay that fee than search around looking for the $8 garage when there were cars and pedestrians swarming around everywhere.  

The weather was overcast for a while and then when the sun came out, it warmed right up and we went to the beach. The water was 61 but felt like 68 and Adam and I boogie boarded for a few hours.

Sunday we went to church in San Clemente and I ran into one of my mission companions who was visiting from Chicago.  Small world!

Then we went to San Diego for the Mormon Battalion center.  It was like a visitors center with sister missionaries and couples missionaries giving tours.  The AV was pretty impressive.  Here, Tyler was selected to be a volunteer to dress up with his stripes and gun.

Outside there was a flume for panning for gold.  Apparently, the Mormons stumbled into a huge claim but left it behind to return to their families.  This is just iron pyrite.

On to the San Diego temple.  Scott liked that it was real white.

Monday we chilled at the lazy river and then went to Newport beach in the afternoon.  When we went last year, the water was warm and the waves were good.  This year, it was cold and the waves were few and far between.  They seemed to come in threes.  We still caught the waves and rode them in.

Scott or Tyler caught a crab and were pretty enamored by it.

On Tuesday we went to Legoland.  Heidi had talked to some people who were stoked about it, but I went in with low expectations based on what Seth had said.  I don't think we're going to go again because the rides are targeted to kids 4-5 years old and other than watch, there's not much for the parents to do.  The kids had a good time, though, even Scott, who said it was more for younger kids.

Lindsey made everyone Lego shirts that said on the back, "Everything is Awesome."

Admittedly, the lego cities were impressive.  Some of the buildings used 700,000 bricks.

On Wednesday, Heidi and Scott did a group surf lesson that she found through groupon.  I opted to not do it since I already know how to surf and someone had to watch the baby.  Well, Scott picked it right up and caught a couple of good waves.  He liked that the wetsuit kept him warm.






Since it was a group lesson, the students had to take turns with the instructors and Scott kept busy on the boogie board, which, ultimately, he liked more.






Heidi really enjoyed the wetsuit too.


Somehow she landed on the board as it contacted the ocean floor and believes she cracked a rib.  Maybe.  I can remember getting pounded against the floor in Monterey when I surfed with Seth.  The ocean is real powerful.



Action shot of Scott going down after a pretty sweet ride.



Twas cold for us on the shore.






On our way home we stopped at the Los Angeles temple and visitors center.  It was nice.  I haven't been there since 1998 when we flew in from the MTC to pick up our visas for Spain.

Scott took the above picture.  Check out the upset Tyler off to the right.

The kids were not exactly angels on the car ride home and Heidi and I both had headaches.  Still, we made it without any catastrophes.  Now it's back to the grind!

June update

We are happy that Parker can be awake without always crying.  He even smiles and laughs here and there.  Kira has been a great help to him but she struggled to be by herself at church and the gym.  She was real clingy and cried a lot, which made church and the gym difficult.  Then one day, she said, "I'm done crying."  Nice.  

The other day, Parker slept through the night.  It was amazing.  He still sleeps in the swing, and the batteries it came with have died, so I put on a Duratrax 3 Ah 7.2 volt NiMH battery pack with alligator clips.  I would like an AC adapter instead, but we don't have one of the correct voltage and I'm not willing to purchase one.

Scott had cub scout camp at the stake center all week.  He went from 4:45-8:10 and the theme this year was Knights of the Round Table.  He enjoyed shooting the BB guns the most.  On Thursday, he hosted a sleepover with some of his friends from scout camp.  I set up the tent in the backyard and we lit a fire in that little kettle and they roasted marshmallows and made lots of noise.  At ten, I told them it was time to come in due to quiet hour.

I went to bed an apparently, they were up until midnight.  The next morning, a little before six, they were jumping on the tramp and making lots of noise.  I had them come inside and play the Wii just so they wouldn't bother the neighbors.  I was afraid that due to their lack of sleep, the kids would be emotional disasters but they weren't too bad.

I was glad that Scott had over his friends.  I remember going to sleepovers but not hosting them.  Well, maybe one for my tenth birthday.

Blake is still having the hardest time with Parker's arrival.  Blake has been averaging at least one tantrum per day.  When he's with me, and discovers that Mommy isn't around, he'll go nuts and leave the house or gym to find her.

We are observing our drought restrictions.  If we don't cut our water consumption by 35%, they penalize us.  We are already below the 11000 gallon cap but I don't want my trees to die.  The grass is somewhat alive but mostly yellow.  Okay, that's all for now.

Borges Ranch

Danny has off on Tuesdays which is so wonderful for everyone.  We were going to go to Rock City in Mt. Diablo and last minute decided to go to Borges Ranch which is essentially an open space with some animals and historical buildings in Walnut Creek.  They have a little pond that the kids loved.  It is something you would look at as an adult and think that it is kind of gross, definitely want to stay out of and too small to really enjoy, but of course the kids LOVED it.  They explored, played with hundreds of baby toads, threw rocks and got to be kids.  I love watching my kids enjoy being kids.  The beginning of June means all the babies are out.  I love it.  We saw deer with two little babies, we have baby cats that were born in our neighbors yards that our kids love to watch and now baby toads. The kids played with the RC cars which was fun and said hi to the farm animals.  The sheep had some major wool that needed sheering.  Fun day for all!  So grateful we got to spend it together. Love making memories with the family and having Danny around for a day.

Saturday

Overnight our Saturdays have switched from baseball to swimming.  Scott is the only one swimming this season.   Kira is a good swimmer but is scared to swim with her little group or at meets so I am just going to teach her to swim this year and hope that next year she will want to swim on swim team when she matures a bit.  Tyler doesn't want to swim but asked to sign him up for the next meet, so we shall see.  We had the 9&Under Invitational which Scott did great at.  Danny was off which was so nice.  I got to see some swimmers I used to coach that are now swimmers and many familiar coaches and swimmers.  It is always fun to be in the east bay again.  Scott wasn't entered in the meet because they didn't get our entry addition.  They got him into some empty lanes and I was proud of him for racing.  Usually he swim slow if he doesn't have kids to race.  So that is an improvement.  He went a best time in his free 31.9 and was just a little bit off his other races which was great considering he was racing himself.  The best part was that he was happy no matter what.  He just missed a record he was going for by 3 hundreths and laughed.  The old Scott would have probably gotten upset.  Scott hates 50 fly, did a nice build up an was happy when he got a third in fly and is getting a little more comfortable swimming it each time he races.  Overall super proud of his maturity in having fun and not getting upset over what he places but how he swims.  

After swim we usually rush off to some activity whether it is a birthday party, get together, co-op or something.  Dedicating Sunday to church and family means saturday is usually fun filled.  We went to Jonathon and Christophers birthday party which is always a blast.  It is always for the whole family which is so nice and great to catch up with friends and see our kids play.  The backyard is a great place to play with the coolest hand built ship.  The kids had a blast playing in the water.  Parker is growing up so much!!  Love that little man and my big man so much!