From the Beach to the Lake to the Pool

Teaching 4th grade for many years made me really appreciate that California has 4 natural regions that we can enjoy. The coast, of course, which we are enjoying even more as we start of our summer. The mountains - how nice is it that we can drive 2 hours and be up hiking through the evergreens and water skiing on mountain lakes. The desert - where we can soak up the warm rays of the hot California sun while lounging by a pool or playing a round of golf. There's also the Central Valley, but that isn't part of this story...even though we ate lots of delicious California fruit while we were on our vacation!

We just got back from our first family vacation of the summer and we enjoyed both the mountains and the desert within the week. We vacationed along with the Mayer family - Chad, Valerie and their kids Eden and Beau. Chad and Val are one of the couples in our church small group. Lately we've been trading off date nights with them and our kids get along great.

We started off in Lake Arrowhead and stayed at Larry and Patti's house. We relaxed at the house, hung out in The Village, played in the kids' park, and fed the ducks. We went on a hike in the Children's Forest and climbed up to the top of a fire tower. We spent a day out on the boat and relaxed on our own little island beach. It was great!


After a few nights in the mountains we headed to the desert and spent the rest of the week at the Westin Mission Hills Villas, a fabulous spot where the kids enjoyed the pool, the dads golfed, the mom's shopped, and we were all worn out at the end of each day. The pool had a water slide that was pretty awesome. Nicholas went down with Chris on the first day and it was a little overwhelming. It took a lot of convincing to get him to go down one more time. Samantha on the other had went down a total of 7 times! That was even after her first ride got so crazy she hit her head on the side of the tube. She loved it!

Other than me coming down with strep throat, it was the perfect vacation! Luckily I didn't get the worst of it until we got home and then I spend the rest of the weekend in bed while Chris took care of the kids by himself on Father's Day...he's the best dad ever! Here's Samantha trying to pack herself in the suitcase after we got home. I think she wanted to go back on vacation!