Sea Life at Low Tide

Our family spent almost every weekend day during the pandemic (our Sabbath Sands) out at the various local beaches, including our favorites in Trinidad.   We hadn't gone in some time, though (life now fills up!), and, this Saturday morning, we headed to Baker Beach (which apparently is an official nudist beach, although it was too cold for any local nudists today) to spend some outdoors nature time, which we always prioritize, especially in the summer months.

We were surprised but at least a dozen ochre sea stars on the beach at low tide. They are so lovely in color and we admired them, close up. 

Niall collected them into a circle. (He also buried one which, alas, we couldn't find later despite many attempts with a kiddie shovel!). 

Iver took it upon himself to "rescue" the beached creatures by flinging them back into the ocean.

Lots (along with mussels and sea anemones) were stick stuck to the tidal rocks.

Kelvin and the kids then went "tidepooling" and tried to capture some sea creatures to study them.

Crabs!

Kelvin spent 20 minutes trying to catch a fish in the butterfly net (he was successful).

Despite the kids' request to bring back another creature as a pet (an idea we shot down very quickly!), we released all the creatures back into the ocean promptly. The kids had a blast at being so close up with such unexpected sea life at low tide!  

Solstice Half-Birthday

 

The kids (mainly Niall who is into stuff and desserts) have been asking if we can celebrate their half-birthdays (in addition to their regular birthday, of course). I rarely have half-birthdays on my radar, but Iver (the winter solstice baby) has his half-birthday on the summer solstice. We had SO MUCH LIGHT and he had a great day going out to a local fair with friends and staying out until 10 p.m. (!). He is the kid that sleeps the least, and it seems like he should have been born on the longest day of the year (with the shortest night) and not the other way around! But he's now eight and a half! (Thanks to my mother-in-law for the collage pic).

Father's Day 2023

 

Happy Father's Day to the most-fun parent, who will play random field games and do painful origami projects!  He might need ibuprofen after our long hike yesterday! 

 Donuts with dad at PreK

Lots of card-making!

(My Dad asked me when we FaceTimed whether Iver hand-made the sperm card. The answer is no, it's commercially bought!)

side by side cat rings!

Sent to grandpa

We enjoyed another lovely sunny coastal day. 

Yogurt banana split

Canyon Creek (& a Trinity Tradition)

We have had some lovely summer (up to 74 degrees on Friday!) weather on the coast and, with no birthday parties or events to attend and no call, we had a free weekend as a family. The Trinity Alps (2-3 hours away east of us) is one of my favorite places in the world and we have made at least one trip there the last few years for stunning, remote hiking (in 2021, our trip also coincided with Father's Day weekend, and in 2022 we hiked with the Spellmeyers). We have wanted to hike the Canyon Creek Lakes Trail for some time, and although the whole hike to the upper lakes was too much to do with kids (and as a day trip; many people backpack and camp at least one night), but we still wanted a taste of the trail. 

We left our house early and got to the trailhead after a couple of hours on Hwy 299. Unlike many Trinity Alps trails, this one, the most popular one, was very well marked and accessible. 

The weather was perfect for hiking and despite some (expected but still annoying) hiking (and smiling-for-pictures) reluctance from Niall, we enjoyed the trail and got some nice family photos. A ranger at the trailhead gave us an overview of the trail and didn't think we'd "make it that far" (he obviously doesn't know the energy and grit level of our family!).

Niall did walk for some short distances on the very nicely maintained trail, collecting sticks, rocks, and berries. 

There were a couple tricky crossing places-- Canyon Creek was very full due to the very impressive snow NorCal received this past winter.

We even came across a huge mountain of snow by another riverbed crossing! 

We spotted some wildlife-- Niall saw a (probable) king snake slither away,  as well as lots of lizards, bees, birds, and butterflies. Bears are very common to spot (and disrupt/destroy camps) in this area, but we didn't see any on this trip.

Iver was a fantastic hiker, carrying his own water and not complaining at all. 

Close to four miles in, we started to get more spectacular views of the (still snow-dusted) granite peaks characteristic of the Alps.

The wildflowers were lovely! 

I don't think we made it quite to Lower Falls (by our mileage tracker, we kept thinking it, at approximately 4 miles, was just around the corner) but, after packed lunch, turned around to make our way back. My phone slid out of my pocket at one point after photographing a butterfly, but thankfully I realized it about five minutes down the trail later, and found it right away when I back-tracked.

Niall walked a bit but (despite the aid of gravity!) got carried most of the way down and loved taking pictures without his brother :).

This is my new phone lock screen wallpaper.

We had a lovely eight-mile family hike! I really want to go back and go further on the trail to get to the lakes (it's about 18 miles round-trip) but we think we'll leave the little one at home...