How has this girl finished 4 years of college already!
She graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Biology, emphasis in Ecology.
She's worked hard, possibly played even harder, and learned so much. It's been fun seeing her grow more and more independent these past years.
We might miss the days of having toddlers and everyone living under one roof, but getting to see these kids figure out what they love and how to make their own way in the world is pretty incredible. We've loved getting a glimpse into her world in San Diego.
We really maximized our Thanksgiving travels this year--starting off with a quick overnight stop with friends! They're always so gracious offering us a place to stay as we drive down to San Diego, but it's been a few years since we were able to take them up on the offer.
And staying overnight meant we got to enjoy a slow morning together--with good breakfast, a walk around their neighborhood, and then lots of outdoor play time.
The older boys worked on their golf swings while B gardened and S and I talked on the porch. It was such a fun start to our week. There's just something special about people who have known you since before you were grown up and seen you at some of your worst, but still like you, haha. I'm grateful that I still have a few close friends from middle school and even earlier.
And then, we drove down to San Diego to catch Bean's late afternoon water polo game. Traffic was horrendous (there was an officer involved shooting that had closed the freeway down for hours earlier in the day and it was STILL a mess), so the whole thing took almost as long as the drive the day before from home to north LA. But we eneded up with a few minutes to stop for the sunset on our way down.
It was too pretty to pass up.
And then we got to watch our girlie do her thing.
It's fun that they have a tournament the weekend before Thanksgiving, so the couple of years that we've spent the week in Oceanside, we've been able to come see her play. They didn't win, but it was a good game and it's still just fun to see her in the pool after all these years.
She had two more games the next day so after church in one of the single's congregations that she attends, we went back to the pool.
They beat UW 17-5 (which she rubbed in Bug's face when she talked to him later) and Bean scored a beautiful corner shot.
We had time to grab lunch and take a walk around UCSD before she had to warm up for game two.
And then the rest of us went down to La Jolla Shores to catch sunset #2. Colors weren't quite as deep, but it was still so beautiful.
We hung out for awhile,
while Daddy-o got into a deep discussion with an old friend.
And then it was time to go watch one more water polo game where they lost to UCSD in overtime, but played such a good game. After her game, we said goodbye for a couple days. Bean still had classes until Tuesday afternoon, and we were finally ready to meet up with our friends in Oceanside.
Bean was only home for a day before we had to get her down to San Diego for the spring semester which had already started the week before. She and I drove down Sunday, and hit pretty terrible weather on the Grapevine.
It snowed!
But we made it down to Bean's new house for the semester--a house about 1/2 a mile down the hill from campus where she has her own room and lives with 3 other water polo friends. We got her sort of unpacked and went grocery shopping so she would be ready for the class the next day.
Monday morning, I met up with a friend at Torrey Pines State Park for a hike.
And once again, we hit crazy weather, with wind and rain, in a place that is usually so nice.
And right after we finished the 3 mile hike, the sun came out and the beach was lovely.
As I drove back down the coast, I stopped at La Jolla Shores.
I wanted to check out the tidepools.
Found a few snails.
And then made a quick stop at The Bahia to visit the seals.
And found this California Aglaja (a predatory sea slug) on the sand.
I helped him back into the water and then I had to run a few errands for Bean and join a virtual meeting before I met up with her to see her for a bit before she had to head to water polo practice.
And the next morning, I said goodbye to this girl as she headed out to her second day of classes. We walked to campus together where I could take the trolley/shuttle combo to the airport for my flight home, and she could try to get back into US college life.
First day of school--driving himself. No seminary for day 1, luckily--it's nice for them to have a couple days to get back in the swing of things.
And while he was at school, Peanut and I went to a museum with friends for our "first" day.
It was kind of a random assortment of exhibits.
A bunch of classic cars in one room,
Asian art in another.
The staircase going down to the natural history section was pretty cool.
This area really blew me away. It would be worth getting a membership to be able to come back once a month to study the different habitats and animals represented here.
They really did a great job!
And the other two first day of school pictures--which were actually both taken on Tuesday. Bean's classes were all online the first day because they had concerns about the hurricane (which ended up being completely unfounded, but they had to plan ahead).
And Peanut and I just didn't get a picture between field tripping and lessons and errands. But here he is--start of 7th grade!
Hard to believe the summer is over, but we made the quick trip down to SD to drop Bean off for year 2 at SDSU (and then get back in time for Bug to start school the next day.)
Her new place has this gorgeous pool that feels very San Diego. She's still on campus because SDSU requires two years of on campus housing, but now she's in a suite where she has her own room, but has 8 other roommates who share the living room/"kitchen" (only a fridge, microwave, and small sink with almost no counter space) and two bathrooms. It's a great change from the dorms! (More pictures to come when she's done getting settled in.)
We moved her in Thursday afternoon and did a little shopping so we could spend Friday and Saturday playing. First up--the SD zoo!
It had been a few years since we'd been, and Bean has a pass right now, so we wanted to help her use it.
I love the botanical garden feel of the zoo as much as all the animals. It's just such a beautiful place to walk around. (Can you find the crocodile?)
The aviaries are a favorite--so many different birds. I tried using my identification app (Merlin) but since you have to download bird packs for different parts of the world, it didn't have much luck finding most of the birds we saw.
It's a long day walking around the zoo--we rode the tour bus in the morning, but then walked all around the middle part which we'd rushed through last time, and then rode the skyfari back across the zoo and walked back through another section.
Love when the animals are having fun.
And when they're just hanging around.
Glad we've raised 3 kids who love animals and are game for some long, tiring days.
We left a couple hours before it closed, which was a challenge for the die-hards, but the friends we were staying with had planned dinner.
And of course I got no pictures of our friends, just their gorgeous backyard.
The sunset was pretty and the weather was perfect for dinner outside.
The next morning, my friend Ruth and I went for a walk at the beach. We used to walk or run together when Bean and her son, John, were toddlers, so it was fun to fit this in.
Low tide at Torrey Pines meant a few minutes to explore the tidepools.
Lots of snails in this area.
And some beautiful anemones,
and on the walk back we saw a fisherman who was about to release the leopard shark he caught!
It took a few minutes to get oriented and swim the right way. So cool to see!
I love being able to walk at the beach--our neighborhood at home is fine and all, but this would be my pick if I could every day.
Then, we had another beach trip with another set of friends. We only had a couple hours because we had more errands to do with Bean, but they were nice enough to meet up with us at La Jolla Shores which was the beach we always went to when we lived nearby.
It was funny because we were getting texts from both the grandmas worrying about the hurricane on the way and we were headed to the beach where it was mostly sunny and the waves were pretty small. Hard to believe there was a storm on the way.
And according to the old sailor's addage, "Red at night, sailor's delight", we had nothing to worry about. We picked up Bean's cubbies, took her grocery shopping, and then said goodbye--and drove back to University City to find this gorgeous sunset.
This goodbye was easier than last year--Bean's living situation seemed great and we all felt a little more sure of what to expect. Of course we'll miss her but we know we'll be chatting regularly and see her in a few weeks.
And then, Sunday morning, we woke to rain--the start of Hurricane-turned-tropical storm Hillary. We had been watching the weather on Saturday and decided we needed to get through LA before 11 a.m. when the rain was supposed to get a lot harder, so we took off at 7:30.
And I'm so glad we did! It drizzled and rained the whole way through to the north side of the grapevine. It wasn't hard most of the time, but the roads were wet and we did hydroplane for 1/2 a second a few times. The plus side of the storm was that the freeway in LA was the emptiest I've ever seen it.
On the other end of our drive, we found blue skies!
We beat the worst of it--from pictures and stories we heard from people who left a couple hours later, the roads got a lot worse--muddy water flowing down the freeway on the grapevine and really hard rain. It wouldn't have been fun driving, for sure. And Bean survived the storm in SD just fine--they actually only had hard rain for a few minutes, but it was a weird way to start the school year.
