For the Memorial Day weekend we went to Grandpa Jerry's cabin in the SugarLoaf area of Big Bear to stay 2 days and 1 night at Tory's childhood cabin. The cabin was being sold in June, 2021, so the family went for the first/last time to see the place that had many of Tory's memories including where she learned how to ski with her mom at the Snow Summit slopes. Before this trip, Nathan went one time as a 1-year old and Tory and Steve went there while dating for a memorable ski fun trip where it snowed and they were forced to stay an extra day until the roads to leave the mountain were reopened! In the morning, everyone got up early and began the 3-hour drive to the cabin. We stopped by some sunflowers ... read more

As expected, it was a rough night of sleep as Steve slept in the back bed with Rosie and Nathan slept with Tory in the bunk bed above the driver. We were up by 6:30 and using the generator to run the coffee and put on a DVD for the kids as we threw all 3 of them on the top bunk to watch the movie "Despicable Me 3" with the minions in it. Vivian kept wanting to climb up and down the ladder but the others watched the movie and drank their milk. Breakfast was simple inside at the RV table with cereal, then we were all out at the beach by 8:00 playing in the sand. We went back and forth playing baseball on the beach and inside the RVt as the girls did ... read more

It makes sense to mention the first camping trip we made as a family first on April 2nd-April 4th to celebrate Nathan's 7th birthday weekend. This first camping experience was much different than the one we were about to take because we slept in tents at Sycamore Canyon instead of an RV. It was a perfect was to start Nathan's birthday with sprinkle pancakes and presents in the morning before school. Susie and George were staying with us and would be very helpful to take Vivian home on Friday and Saturday night to sleep in her crib rather than inside a tent. We picked up Nathan after school on Friday the 2nd and drove down to Sycamore Canyon. Susie and George helped with the kids and setup of the campsite and tent. We picked up dinner ... read more

The morning started nice with everyone sleeping until 7:30 and even a full night of no kids needing one of the parents to sleep with them. After the kids had milk we all got dressed and got into the van to go to a restaurant called "Ernie's," which was at the public clubhouse of the PGA West country club. This place had special memories of 20 years of Susie and George owning a house and being members, including many family trips when Steve and his brothers were younger. Some of the best times were when Steve was in college and would get to leave the snow of New England to come to 80 degrees and golfing weather for a week during Thanksgiving and Christmas break. Views from the patio at "Ernie's" included a huge PGA West ... read more

The past 8 months have been very different in this country as the COVID pandemic has made everyone wear masks and change work and school arrangements. We've made the most of this time while Steve has been able to work remotely allowing us to go 5 different times and spending 6 weeks up at Susie and George's lake house from May to September and having a very special time for the kids to play at the lake and be with Nana and Grandpa. While we also just got back 1 month ago from visiting Mike, Jenn, Ellie, and Grayson in Tennessee, this was going to be a vacation just for us and the kids. We already celebrated a Thanksgiving Day meal the Sunday before with Tory's Mom and Dad at our house so that we could ... read more