Tour de the Cure 2019

Tio, Fafa, and Dada yet again decided to raise money to help find a cure for Diabetes via riding their bikes 60 plus miles. They chose the San Diego route again this year since it's relatively flat, good weather, and we have lots of friends there. Similarly to the past years, they raised tons of money and were the second highest non-corporate team! They did an awesome job and we're proud of all of them!

We headed down Thursday after work managed to get to the Crutchfield's in a reasonable amount of time (if we could jump over LA it would be a much nicer trip). The next morning, we headed to the Wild Animal Park with Nicolette, Perrin, and Evan. The kids had a blast, and the adults enjoyed ourselves too! Dada and I hadn't been there since we were in college and it had changed quite a bit. Clara's highlight was watching the cheetah run. They set up a course and it runs so fast you blink and it's over. She had been learning about zoo animals in school and had just done a report and diorama on cheetahs so she was super excited to see it! Emmett pretty much loved all of the animals and was excited about everything. He was exhausted by the end and of course fell asleep in the car and had to be woken up several hours later after being transferred to bed!

Saturday the Crutchfields, the kids, and I went for a nice hike in a slot canyon by the beach. The kids had a great time and the little canyon was amazing! I had no idea there was anything like that in San Diego! The hike was pretty easy and there was even a huge tree for the kids to climb and play on. We got some ice cream after the hike and called it lunch. We even managed to see the guys riding when they passed by the ice cream place! The kids and I followed them for a little while and then headed to the beach. It was chilly, but they insisted on getting wet. I did not have towels so we had to improvise with shirts we found in Dada's car! We picked Dada up when he finished and headed back to the Crutchfield's to relax/nap/play. 

The kids had so much fun playing with Bennett, Perrin, and Evan. Bennett and Clara are a little less than a year apart and their personalities compliment each other perfectly. Emmett and Perrin are about six months apart and are both rough and tumble. I think she intimidated him, but he had fun and it was hilarious when she told him to get in her room because he was sleeping with her! Nicolette and I started out as random roommates our freshman year of college and have been friends ever since. It is so fun to watch our kids play together! Nicolette and Jeremy spoiled us with delicious food and we had a great time catching up!

Sunday, we headed out early to meet Mikaela and Dylan for breakfast. Clara was so sad to leave Bennett and kept talking about how sad she was. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast and it is always great to catch up with them. Our trips never seem long enough!

What we look like trying to take a picture!

Somehow we managed to get a good one!

We went home through Carrizo Plain to see the wildflowers, and it did not disappoint. I had no idea what was in store and wasn't excited about adding several hours to our already long trip. However, once I saw the flowers, I realized it was definitely worth it! They looked like seas of yellow, purple, and orange and it was amazing! We went on one of the small dirt roads and had absolutely gorgeous views! The kids had fun running through the flowers and climbing hills. The only problem happened when Clara refused to listen to me (surprise surprise) and insisted on walking out onto a mud flat. Of course she sank, and one of her shoes actually came off and got stuck under the mud. I was just going to leave it but Dada saved the day (and the shoe) and got a very muddy Clara unstuck. It was impossible to clean her off as the mud was so sticky and there was no water around. After close to an hour, we finally found a sketchy convenient store with an even sketchier bathroom to clean her off. It was actually pretty funny and I hope it taught her that she should listen to me (not likely). We got home super late but had a wonderful time!