Max had his preschool graduation last week. It was well planned and rehearsed, and lasted 18 minutes long. Then we went on to the cupcakes! I had worked very hard with my Mom on his ‘Blue Book’ – his book of memories, pictures and artwork from his preschool years. I’m SO glad for my Mom’s help – it’s a very classy book mostly due to her. 🙂

Our
fam with Max and the ‘Blue Book.’
Max and his best buddy Mac.

When he was much younger, Max went through a phase where he would poop in the bathtub nearly everytime he took a bath. Last night, a bit of payback was visited on him. While Max and Weezy were taking a bath, I hear a loud shout. Max is standing in the tub yelling that baby has pooped. His face was extrememly distressed, while baby looked very content to sit in the warm water and was happily cooing. I had to laugh even though Toby ran out the door to go to the gym nano-seconds after she heard Max. Sorry, no pictures of this one.

Secondly, I would not have thought that it would make such a difference, but being home has really improved baby’s sleeping habits. On vacation, she had such a hard time sleeping, even when she wasn’t sick. She was generally up and fussing between 5:45a – 6:15a although the room was very dark. She has slept past 7a every morning since we have been back, and the kids’ bedroom is much lighter in the mornings. Toby is really enjoying this.

Well – luckily for Matt, I drove at least 1/3 of the way home, though we both have bigger biceps to prove it. 🙂 We were able to do a lot of laundrey there at the resort, and it is lovely to come home with clean clothes to put away, not dirty! Though there still is sooo much to do after a trip – my goodness. It was a truly wonderful time, and we look forward to going back.

This
is June Lake from the road approaching the little town – just breathtaking! Max
and Bub eating cherries on our balcony. Here
we are next to a stream in a Mammoth park (baby was with my mom at the time). A
happy Baby Lou moment (after the roseola) at a park in Lone Pine. Max
jumping in the Mammoth trampoline/bungy cord thingy. Max
and Toby on our hike at Convict Lake. Gran
and GranDon and the kiddos (Max is approaching zombie tired status here, I guess).
Our little family – what a swell time we had!

The girls (Toby, Camille, Eloise) went shopping at Mammoth Friday morning. Max and I went to the park. Remember, this park is on the edge of June Lake, very near where we were fishing the other day. In contrast to that day, Friday was very calm. Barely a whisper of a breeze. The lake was so calm, that from our former fishing spot, I could see well enough into the lake that I was able to see 2 dozen fish over the course of an hour or so. Mostly in groups of 2 or 3, but one time I saw a school of at least 8.
Walking back home, we saw Toby returning from her shopping foray. She gave us a ride to the ice cream store. Max and I were walking into the ice cream store when I heard Toby honking at us. I returned to the van where she told me that she had heard a squeal and that she could no longer steer the van. I got in the van, and indeed, there was no power steering. I called our mechanic in Carpinteria, Tom Watts, and he confirmed that driving the van home in this condition would not be destructive to any other part of the van. So, since Toby cannot turn the steering wheel, I will have the sole pleasure of a bicep workout on our drive home.
Later that afternoon, Max and I went to a local day spa that offered drop-in swimming in their indoor pool. We practiced his swimming stuff since he is signed up for Level 2 swimming lessons next week. He did ok, considering that he hasn’t been swimming for many months. But it turns out his favorite thing there was the warm pool (hot tub). Once we did that, it was difficult convincing him to go back to the regular pool.
We ended the evening with a bit of preparatory packing up. So sad, vacation is over.

The goal today was an easy family hike to Rainbow Falls and then a gondola ride up to the top of Mammoth Mountain. In our excitement to get in the car and get to hiking on the trails, we forgot directions to get to the trailhead. But since Mammoth has a visitor’s center, we decided just to go there for directions. Toby went in and found out that like Tioga Pass to Yosemite and Devil’s Post Pile National Monument, the road to Rainbow Falls has not yet been cleared of snow, and is closed.
Toby got directions to another hike around Convict Lake. There is a trail that winds all along the edges of the lake that is considered an easy hike. So we drove there, lathered up with sunscreen and loaded Weezy into the baby backpack. We started hiking, but Max was not happy. The beginning of the trail was asphalted. He wanted to hike on a trail, not walk on a road. Finally, the asphalt ended and we were in dirt. Max was satisfied that we were now actually hiking.
It is about a 3 mile hike around the lake, but at about the 1/4 mark, baby started fussing and Max told me he was tired. We pressed on to just short of 1/2 way, and then took a snack break. Although I would have liked to make it all the way around, we decided that it would be better to turn around and head back the way we came.
After lunch, we headed up to the gondola. As we headed up Mammoth Mountain, we passed a couple of ski lifts that were still running. It is June and the ski lifts are still running! We got to the gondola station, but found out that because Mammoth is between seasons, the gondola only runs on weekends. We will try again on Saturday on the way home.
Since we were in snow country, we got out and Max played in the snow a bit. It a little dirty snow but he had a great time anyway.
Then, Max got to have a special treat. He spent the night in the motorhome with Gran and GranDon (and the cat, Essie). When he came home this morning for a pancake breakfast, he reported that Gran was a loud snorer.