Hiking Big Bear

Before checking out of our hotel today we had a nice pancake breakfast in the rec room. Then, we stopped for a picture out front.

We went to the Discovery Center. They had a few nice hiking trails in the area. We ended up on a trail that we thought was less than 3 miles. We didn't quite make it to the end before we turned around and headed back. We found out later, the trail was about 5 miles round trip. There were some beautiful views though.

Snow Summit

Last night we drove up to Big Bear for the annual (our first) Cub Scout Ski Trip. We were very nervous about the trip because we aren't used to being in the snow and cold weather. In fact, the kids have never seen snow before (I think a few flurries in PA one year, but that's it). We spent the night at Lagonita Lodge (http://www.lagonitalodge.com) and drove to Snow Summit this morning.

Both kids were signed up for snow boarding lessons. Zachary had a blast, but Kailani refused to do the lessons.

After the lessons, we decided to check out some other outdoor things in the area. The Castle Rock Trail is supposed to be the best hiking trail in Big Bear, so we headed there first. We made it on the trail about 100 feet and decided to turn back because it was too icy. The kids were afraid and it was quite steep.

We ended up at Big Boulder Park, which had some great views of the lake. Some parts of the lake are still frozen.

We walked around the Village for a while before settling on a place for dinner. Big Bear Lake is a cute little town.

First Baseball Practice

Tonight Zachary had his first baseball practice. He was very excited. It looks like there are 11 or 12 boys on his time; all of varying abilities. They warmed up by throwing the ball back and forth with a partner. Then, they fielded some ground and fly balls. Finally, they each took a turn at bat. Zachy did a great job, but we now know what he needs to work on! I'm a little nervous that he is going to be playing in the minors, but we'll see how it goes.

After baseball practice, we started our 3-hour drive up to Big Bear.

Leap Year 2.29

Tonight I met up with Becky to run a virtual run...2.29 miles for leap year. It's the first virtual race I've participated in. We did one lap around Rohr Park for 3.1 miles, so we ended up with more than the 2.29.

Ragnar

This morning I had brunch with some of the girls on my Ragnar team. Ragnar is a unique relay race I will be participating in on April 1-2. Each Ragnar team is made up of 12 people. We have 2 teams (24 girls) who will be split up into 4 vans (6 girls in each). The relay race begins in Huntington Beach on April 1. We run relay-style (one girl at a time) almost 200 miles until we get to San Diego. Each of us will run 3 times, including one night-time run. We run straight through the night without stopping! I am excited, but nervous:)
https://www.ragnarrelay.com/race/southerncalifornia

Each of our medals can be put together like a puzzle!

Zachary had his jersey fitting for tball (or so we thought) today. All of the team jerseys were donated by the Padres. Each team has a different jersey from the Padres past seasons. Zachary got his jersey, hat, pants, belt, and cleats. What surprised us is that he was placed on the minor B team instead of the tball team. Apparently minor B is the 3rd level up and the boys actually do the pitching. I hope it all works out.

I wanted to sign Kailani up for another cookie booth to try to help her get to at least 200 boxes. Fortunately I found a booth at Sports Authority, which was the location of the jersey fitting for baseball. We thought it would be a good time to sell with all of the extra people there. The girls sold 47 boxes and Kailani reached the 200 mark!

Tijuana Clean Up

This morning we participated in a park clean up to clear trash out of the Tijuana River Valley. When we were at the Tijuana Estuary a few weeks ago, we saw a flyer posted for the event. We like to participate in community service events and they both need it for Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts. We arrived at Border Field State Park (which we had never been to before) and headed on a short walk to the river bed leading out to the ocean.

You can see the fence behind Kailani that separates CA from Mexico!

There was an unbelievable amount of trash.

We stayed for about 2 hours before we had to head out. In the 4 hours of the clean up, 140 volunteers picked up about 4 tons of trash! We have plans to go back to Border View State Park for a hike on some of the trails.

Kailani had another cookie booth sale this afternoon. She really wants to reach 250 boxes, but I think she'll probably get to 200.
Tonight I attended the SDYFC banquet to celebrate the season. The Board Members from each of the organizations in the conference attended. There was dinner, awards, and dancing. Unfortunately, Jason was not able to go because someone had to stay home with the kids.

Pirate's Cove

Tonight Zachary and I went to the Mother/Son dance. Zachary has been waiting for this for a few weeks now and was so excited to get all dressed up. I took a few pictures before the dance to show off the neat decorations. Zachary and I stayed for about an hour before we headed off to our next event.

 Really cool balloon arch (there were 2).

 Awesome stage decorations. Luckily most of the work was done before today. The dance chair person got sick and wasn't able to be there for the event.

We met up with Jason and Kailani at the Sports Arena for the Globetrotters game. Zachary's Cub Scout pack treated all of the boys to the game. After the 3rd quarter, the Cub Scouts went out on the court and danced to the song YMCA. They had a great time.