SoCal Day 5: 9 Swims with The Artist

Note: when my posts pop up with an insane amount of italics, it means I discovered a mistake and the only way to edit was on my Treo. Not sure why, but the last two times I’ve edited on my Treo, it puts the post in italics. Sorry. The post is fixed now. I could not let that grammatically incorrect title linger.

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Today was a restful day for us. We didn’t do much running around, except to the bookstore where I picked up Tera Lyn Child’s Oh. My. Gods. and Alyson Noel’s Cruel Summer. Also picked up the fourth book in the Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins for 9 to read.

We did make the 11 a.m. showing of Speed Racer, after which we had lunch. It was a choose-your-own lunch. I had my pitas and artichoke hummus. Mom was brave and tried to the hummus, even though the thought of eating something with chickpeas in it gave her the squinchy face. But it was spicy and the artichoke hearts gave it a nice undertone, in my opinion. I love artichokes and the hearts are the best.

Then 9 and I headed to the pool for a quick swim. We planned to just do a fast dip and then hang out at the condo until my brother-in-law, The Artist, arrived at 4 for more swimming and tom-foolery. In case you forgot, The Artist is the one who took 9 kayaking earlier in the week.

Luckily, Mom’s air mattress pump was readily available in the garage, so we could blow up Isaac, the alligator. You may remember Isaac from his trampoline adventures and your concern over how 9 would land when doing a backflip with Isaac.

Turns out, the alligator’s also a great swimmer.

Which is good. Because 9 has really been enjoying the pool.

And the hot tub, of course.

Today, he and Isaac enjoyed the hot tub together.

After this, the plan was to head back to the condo, but Mom called to let us know The Artist was on his way. He showed up five minutes later! So an entire afternoon of swimming fun.

This is The Artist approaching the pool.

He’s really a kid at heart in many ways. Can’t you tell?

9 and his uncle had much fun in the water. First, there was the alligator toss.

Then, there was the human toss.

This vacationing is hard work, you know, so 9 took a little rest before returning to the condo for dinner.

We did not make it to Octopus last night. Sister doesn’t care for seafood and we were all exhausted, so we had super yummy Mexican food from a local take out place. I had taquitos. Two orders. With a creamier guacamole than Pepe’s, but still good. And their fries are just as good as Pepe’s. I’m going to have to go home soon or I will be as big as a house. I commit every sin in the healthy living book of food when I’m on vacation.

Totally worth it.

We ended the evening with a round of Whoonu, a game put out by the Cranium folks. Then it was a quick pack and off to Sister’s house for our field trip in the morning.

Husband texted to let me know the weather at home has been abysmal. Even though it’s not as warm here as I expected, I’m soooo glad I’m not home in the rain.