July 2019

July 8, 2019:

Max, having the best Saturday morning of his life.  Chilling in his pj's, eating a brownie, lounging on the couch...

July 8, 2019:

4th of July neighborhood fireworks and potluck.  We love this neighborhood where everyone pitches in for food and fun!

July 8, 2019:

July 4th Adventure Run! Hot Pots to Sheeps Creek Rd—pretty amazing spring run off still flowing! The upper falls were fuller than I’ve ever seen, and there was water all the way up to the road, with another waterfall in a spot I’ve only ever seen a trickle of water at best. So green, and such tall grasses—wonderful to see everything growing back.

July 8, 2019:

Max spends 30-60 minutes, sometimes more, working himself up to have one bit of "Real Dinner".  I don't know what this kid's aversion is to dinner...I'm waiting for his teen years to kick in when he and Pace will eat us out of house and home...

July 15, 2019:

The Spanish Fork pyrotechnics musical show was amazing this year!  Choreographed to music, food trucks, friends, and this year--a laser show!!  So fun!

July 15, 2019:

Coombs family vacation Day 1!  Sand castle contest at Yuba Lake with the Andersons.  We spent the day in the sun, building our hearts out.  We had some pretty amazing crafters and architects on our teams!  The boys placed 1st in the kids category, and the Andersons placed 2nd, and the Coombs placed 4th in the adult group category.

A storm was blowing in just as we finished, and the boys wanted to destroy their sand creations before the rain did, haha.

July 15, 2019:

The very first night we arrived, we drove to Mission Beach to play in the ocean for a bit.  Pace loves, loves, loves the ocean.  Max kept a safe distance...

July 15, 2019:

Day 2: Sea World! We survived an amusement park! Best quotes of the day:

Max: Get me out of here! I want to leave now! Right now!
We sat in the soak zone for the show, and Max is NOT a fan of getting splashed. We got soaked, not just splashed. Those dolphins and orcas got us good. Each time we got splashed Max scream-cried and insisted we leave. They had a “How much do you know” quiz the audience participated in while waiting for the show to begin. Max loved this part, cheering for himself when he got a question right. He’s so awesome. 

David: Pace! You rode your very first roller coaster!
Pace: And my last. I’m never doing a roller coaster again!
We all bore down and hung on tight for the Atlantis. We were especially impressed with both boys for taking on this roller coaster! We pumped them up during the day, and then discovered it was closed for repairs. Pace was really disappointed he wouldn’t have a chance to conquer his fears. It opened against the end of the day, and we decided to hit it up. 

The rest of the day was full of “Would you rather” conversations: Would you rather ride Atlantis 50 times or the swing ride 100 times? Would you rather clean the whole house or ride Atlantis 10 times?

I was also particularly impressed with Max conquering his fear of the net climbing area. We all climbed through it the first time, cheering each other on by shouting out “Ultimate BeastMaster! Extra points! Stay focused!” The second time just the boys started up, but Max got scared and I had to go rescue him. He kept saying things like,”But what if the ropes come untied?” “But what if we fall through the net?” The last time, Max stayed focused, breathed through it, and climbed up the net all on his own. Then the boys were running laps around and around!

Finally, Pace played the Plinko game and won a rainbow orca on his first try!

We sat in the soak zone--there was no avoiding getting wet!

Braving Atlantis...

July 20, 2019:

Vacation Day 3: San Diego Zoo and Torrey Pines North Shore picnic.  San Diego Zoo. We rode the Bus to get a tour of the whole zoo, and saw a bunch of animals. We hopped off and walked around to find the specific animals we each wanted to see: penguins, Arctic Fox (he was asleep), lemurs, giraffes (baby giraffes, too!). We also put on a brace face again and rode the AirTram to traverse the zoo. Boy was it high! Every time Pace said “Don’t look!”, Max would peek out from David’s shoulder and say, “I did!”

Every morning was cool and foggy, and most evenings the cool breeze and clouds rolled in again.  So even though the day was sunny and warm, by the time we got to the beach for a picnic dinner, it was cold and windy!  Daddy and Pace had a great time trying out the boogie board, and Max played for a bit in the ocean and then came back to the beach tent to get bundled up and hang out with me.

July 20, 2019:

Vacation Day 4: The next day we went to the Midway Museum and then sea kayaking and exploring the tidal pools at low tide. 

David and Pace loved the kayaks and paddled all the way over to some sea caves in La Jolla, and saw some seals. Max was not a fan of the kayaks, and screamed the whole time he and I were out paddling around. We did see a seal playing in the surf on our way back in, but we were also over in the swimmer zone and the lifeguards got mad at us for coming in right there. Oh well. Screaming child + wind + waves = mommy getting to shore any way possible. When we got the kayak turned back in, I asked Max if he was sure he was robe, that maybe we could take it out again for a little bit. “Totally no.” He said, very emphatically. David and Pace came back all smiles!

July 20, 2019:

Vacation Day 5: Legoland!!! We saved this for last because the boys were most excited for this day. We did the boat ride (WAFFLE BRIDGE!), stood in line for rides (they had LEGO centers for kids to play on at every ride), saw amazing things built out of LEGOs, and kept things chill and fun. Pace said he wanted the day to “Not be scary, AT ALL”, so he refused to even entertain doing a scary ride. We all picked out our own LEGO sets at the end of the day—phew!

We also decided if we stayed in a hotel in the city instead of a Legoland hotel, we would save more money, and get the boys a few Lego sets they could put together during the whole vacation.

(The waffle bridge was the best!)

(Ninjago was definitely the favorite game!)

Watching your boys drive Lego cars around a mini Lego city is as cute as it sounds.

There were little Lego building centers for kids at every ride line, pretty cool.

July 20, 2019:

Our last day was a beach day! We spent all day at the beach and loved it all. The ocean/beach speaks Pace’s language. He loves the water, waves, surf, sand—he loves it all! Max liked to go for walks on the beach looking for shells and playing gotcha with the waves. Pace was brave enough to try out the boogie board again in low tide, and loved floating around on the board. I think David spent all day on the board out in the waves! We are all beach happy, and a little sunburned!

On the way home we found the best store on the planet!  All sorts of toys, old school lunch boxes, candies, snacks, homemade ice cream, pizza--it was so fun!

July 20, 2019:

I got a couple runs in on vacation, too! I loved the Torrey Pines area, small loop, but it was a trail and so it was soul-filling and fun. The other was a paved trail that went to the beach. I felt like I could run for days at sea level, I never got tired! And on those zero elevation flat paved trails, I threw in some stair climbs for good measure.

July 23, 2019:

Half price death trap carnival tickets?  Check.

July 23, 2019:

Some early morning trail gems :

July 23, 2019:

New things at the fair this year:
1. Pace was too tall to go on the little rides they’ve always done in the past.
2. Pace really wanted to do the obstacle House with Max, and offered to give Max one ticket he needed so they could go together.
3. Pace was patient and helped Max through the House, waiting for Max when he got scared and stopped for a minute. He was so kind and patient the lady standing next to us even commented how nice he was being with his brother.
4. Max ate cotton candy bigger than his head. We ended up sharing with friends.

July 24, 2019:

David had the week off work and got to take the boys to the Pioneer Day parade!

July 27, 2019:

I have been wanting to do Snell Canyon to the SF radio tower climb for at least three years, and today was the day I got to check it off my to-do list! With thestorm last night and rain this morning, our hike up was sloppy and wet, we were soaked through with wet socks and squelchy shoes a ½ mile in. By the time we got to the top of the clearing overlooking those amazing clouds below, we were pretty chilled. 

But the views!! At the halfway point and at the top!

The tower was a great spot to defrost, dry our wet wet wet clothes, and decide we weren’t going to head back down through Snell canyon and get wet again...we decided just to head down the tower service road. By then the sun was out and it was hot hot hot! Nice to hitch a ride from Kat’s friend back to our car.

 July 28, 2019:

Daddy's gems: shooting, riding in the back of the truck (so many flies!), happy homegrown blackberries, and cooking with mama.

July 28, 2019:

When we were in Legoland I picked up the new Voltron set. I can still remember how the original plastic toy from the 80’s went together. The nostalgia made thismy number 1 set to get next. The kids and I have spent the last week watching episodes and each building separate lions. Tonight was the night we got to form Voltron, Defender of the Universe!