Lily Sweet Sixteen

Lily doesn't like much fuss or being the center of attention so she couldn't decide what to do for her Sweet 16th birthday.  She finally decided on Sushi and Little Tokyo in LA.

We started the day with gifts and breakfast. Lucky it fell on a Saturday this year! She had cinnamon rolls and bacon. 

Of course she had her choice of cake for the big day. She wanted chocolate cake with salted caramel buttercream frosting. 

It was drippy and delicious. 

Two of her friends were able to join us and we picked everyone up and drove to Downtown LA. They did a little shopping around at the fun stores. Her two friends had never been before so they were so thrilled.

We ate at our favorite Kura Sushi conveyer belt restaurant. The friends were so excited and enjoyed every minute. 

Savannah, Agnes, and Lily!

There are so many cute and fun shops. The girls all like different anime shows so they loved finding their favorite characters in the stores.

After we had shopped till we dropped we returned home for cake. We had a cool candle that spins and lights up and plays happy birthday to celebrate her big day.

Lake Shasta with the Brady Fam

This is our do-over vacation from last summer when we had booked a trip to Shasta for the weekend and then Covid foiled our plans. We were happy to be able to go this summer and see our Seattle besties the Brady Family. 

We have come to love summers in Shasta, even if it is always scorching hot and filled with mosquitos at night. We got smart and rented a cabin with a pool and air conditioning this time! It was 105 on Saturday!

We spent the entire weekend in the pool and hot tub. With short breaks for naps and eating. 

The girls went inside for a break and ended up with Kat, Gemma, and Natalie asleep in one of the bottom bunk beds.

We also got to celebrate Danny's birthday on Sunday. Lily snuck in an early celebration too.

The Dad's did their job manning the grills. The house had a black stone grill so we gave it a try. It was great. We made hot dogs and burgers with grilled onion and grilled pineapple. 

Maybe the highlight was the evening smore's. Everyone has opinions on how best to toast the marshmallow.

You can smore and swim at the same time. 

Even though it was 100 degrees out the girls still managed to go in the hot tub amid the soaring trees. Too bad that was the mosquito feeding ground. 

We did venture out to Lake Shasta one morning. We had looked up an area to try to swim in the lake from the shore. It ended up being a bust. The shore line was just a steep dirt drop off and nowhere to easily get in and out of the water. We learned that Lake Shasta is more for boats than for shore activities. 

That's ok though because ends up we prefer our pool anyway. 

Lily and Kat ended up accidentally twinning in swim tops. They are BFF's from babies and forever!

We made cupcakes to celebrate our double birthdays and they got a solid vote of 10/10 from all. Cheers to cupcakes by the pool. 

We had cupcake round two after dinner and sang to Danny and Lily.

Ann was so smart to set up her phone and use her watch as a timer to take a big group photo. We mostly silly and a little serious. 

Now for the loooong drive home. We're already talking about Shasta 2025!

Trying to refuel with giant coffee from Dutch Bros.

Father's Day

Apparently Father's Day brings on all the laughs and giggles. Maybe it's the corny "Dad" jokes.

 

As you can see the spiffy new Vuori sporty outfit was his gift along with a glasses stand made by Gemma in wood shop. The girls were instructed to set alarms so they could wake up at a reasonable hour on Father's day and cook breakfast. They made bacon, eggs, and all the trimmings. 

Then we loaded up for the activity of the day. We decided on a beach day in Carp because we also needed to return Grampy's car to his garage. Lily has been practicing driving it, getting in her hours behind the wheel. 

It was a lovely day at the beach in Carp. Just enough sun and not too hot. 

Some people chose to read and some chose to boogie board. That is the norm around here.

We ended the day with dinner at Padaro Grill and a long drive home in traffic. 

Gemma & Liv Carp Weekend

If you do something more than once then it becomes a  "tradition" right?

Last year in May we went to Carpinteria with Liv and Kerri for a girls weekend. So Liv and Gemma requested a repeat. Thus a tradition is born. 

Carp has been in full "May Gray" and "June Gloom" since March I think. Lucky for us we brought the sunshine with us. We headed up Friday night of Memorial weekend. We woke up Saturday morning to blue skies.

Kerri and I got up to grab coffee and walk on the beach. We were happy to be joined by a big dolphin pod which is always our favorite thing. Shockingly the girls did not sleep until noon. We were up and about to the beach by mid morning. After breakfast at their choice of Brass Bird. Apparently since we did this last time we had to go again. 

It wasn't super warm at the beach but that didn't stop the teens from wearing bikinis to get a tan. They also played volleyball and swam in the ocean. There were a fair number of seals in the water which the girls were convinced were going to get them.

There was also a craft to be done. It is very TikTok popular to make a "bikini box" out of a crate to store your bikinis in your closet. So you paint and decorate this wood crate. 

They rode the beach cruisers all over town and even rode to the beach at sunset for a evening swim. 

My one request was a stop at the garden center to load up on succulents to take home! They have the best ones.