family: a bike ride, a temple and a lot of driving

This summer I have been combatting a hole in my heart.  It’s a little hole of worry about missing a child and how we have such limited time together before Max starts the trend of graduating from high school and things change. I don’t like to think about it, because oh how I love to have us all under one roof.  I worry that little hole in my heart that hurts a little when Max has been gone working and playing volleyball this summer will painfully gape open when he graduates in less than two years. TWO years! A little thing I’ve noticed: two years is not a long time when it comes to growing children. So as much as we adore all those great families we get to spend time with in California, sometimes Dave and I get greedy for a little solitude family time. We stayed a day after everyone else left. We hung on the beach. Max carried Claire around since it was the least he could do after breaking her toe. We borrowed bikes from some very sweet friends who live in Coronado in the summer and rode across to the other side of the island. It was such a gorgeous, picturesque ride. Lu doesn’t look too sure about that but luckily she had Rainbow Dash to keep her company. Our view as we waited for dinner:
Lu listened to the ocean in the shells for sale. We had a ginormous pizza for dinner and then watched fireworks from across the bay. And then we rode home, tired and happy. The next day we visited the San Diego temple. There’s this quote that I love:  “If you let your children touch the temple it will touch them.”  Love that. We met up with an awesome family visiting from Norway.  Lucy made quick friends with their Lucy. Such a neat family. We headed up to check out Newport area since we don’t generally venture out much from our normal stomping grounds in California. Then we started the long trek up to the Lake. We dropped Dave and Max off at the airport in Vegas on the way so they could get back to work. See what I mean about missing Max already?  ..and Dave too for that matter. I don’t like that hole in my heart one bit. Luckily I had the lake and all my family to mend it up for a few days until our boys came back up.