A Whale of a Three-Hour Tour

(Cue the Gilligan’s Island theme.) Just sit right down, and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a whale-watching trip that started from this Cali port aboard a tiny ship. . . .

For Eliza’s birthday, we went on a (closer to four-hour) tour off Channel Islands Harbor with Channel Islands Whale Watching. We had some other fun adventures too.

On Monday, Eliza learned how to climb the trunk of a tree all on her own. Created quite the stir among the kids walking home from Landon’s school. Apparently they’ve never seen something like that before. This little one can do what she sets her mind to. We can’t wait to see what her future holds.

She might even be a doctor when she grows up. . . .

Later in the week, Eliza and Mom made some Red’s BBQ chicken salad. The one part of Hallie’s new lifestyle that she has a hard time with is getting enough vegetables in to her diet. This salad did the trick. Eliza was eating the lettuce before it even made it into the salad, and she even asked for the salad for lunch and dinner the next day. Love a girl who will try new things and who eats healthy food.

Landon received a valentine from a cute little girl in his class. Someone wanted to make sure she got to him early!

As mentioned above, our whale watching trip on Friday served as a highlight of the week. We saw eight gray whales and some 2000 (yes, you read that right. 2000) common dolphins (not that we saw all of them). Photos don’t do the trip justice. We were too busy watching with our eyes to catch the whales with our lenses. No whales breached, but we did see them all surface, and a couple waved their tails at us. The dolphins did leap out of the water on occasion, but they mostly entertained us by bow riding and surfing in the boat’s wake. The kids didn’t know what to expect, and Landon wasn’t sure he wanted to miss school knowing he would have to make up the work the coming week. After the trip, however, he said it was worth missing school, and they both had a fabulous time.

The shots the pro took are pretty awesome: 

Eliza had her first pre-team class in the afternoon. 

Mike had class on Saturday, and Hallie, Carly, and the four kids drove up to the Santa Barbara Zoo. The kids had so much fun running in the warm California air and seeing all that the zoo had to offer. The great thing is that we didn’t even see it all, which gives us a reason to go back. Aunt Carly treated the kids to feeding a giraffe and a train ride! What an experience it was so to be so up close and personal to Michael the Giraffe.

After the zoo, Eliza decided to get into some monkey business of her own.

Landon earned himself an iPod mini. Here's what we'll expect to see on his ears for the next few years.

On Sunday, we celebrated Eliza’s birthday with a bit of fun in Primary and a special Cinderella princess cake in the evening.