Whew, it's been toasty!

California is a great place to live almost all year round. But September is by far my least favorite month to live here. Yeah, summers are hot but you expect that. Unfortunately, while the rest of the country welcomes fall and my brother calls to tell me about leaves changing colors in Provo, we are still very much stuck in summer! In fact, we were hotter than Phoenix at least three days this week! So when it is over 100 outside (and pretty close to it in your apartment) you find little escapes. Monday's escape... the beach.

Crew and I hit up the beach for a few hours with some friends. He and his buddy Lila were in the ocean the entire 2 1/2 hours we were there. They were in heaven!

Wednesday's escape was Santa Monica. Jenny and I walked as fast as we could to try and keep up with this kid on his bike. He loved riding on the bike path and it was a fantastic day because of the dense fog!

We parked our bike for a little break to walk the pier.

Crew and Jenny. This kid loves Jenny and has been enamored with her since the first time they met. He is always asking about her if she is not around and loves being with her.

He kind of likes having me around too I think

Then it was back on the bike


I wasn't planning on Crew swimming in the water so I didn't bring his suit. That didn't really stop him. He was soaked but that is being a kid. We left foggy Santa Monica and it was 76 degrees. When we pulled up at home, 104! Thank goodness we had a few great hours of relief.

Friday's escape was the California Science Center. Matt was done at noon and the museum is free so we headed downtown to check it out.

The museum claims physics made it possible for Crew and I do this...But honestly, we are pretty strong so I think it was sheer muscle that was lifting this truck!

The museum was really fun. Crew is a little young for a lot of it, but just the right age for a lot too. One of his favorite things was this tunnel to talk in. I'm pretty sure he could have done this for hours.

He and Matt also put on a fantastic puppet show (he doesn't quite get the part where he hides behind the curtain).

By far the highlight of the day for Crew was driving this helicopter. It really was pretty cool.

Outside the air and space museum

Matt of course was a sucker for a Popsicle from one of the many ice cream carts. All in all it was a fun little adventure!

Our Saturday escape was Huntington Beach. We got there about 11:30 and again it was just a dense fog! The first two hours were so foggy! I had to keep reminding myself goosebumps were a pleasant change from sweat! It was still beautiful and fun.

The sun did finally show himself. Here is Crew easing his way into boogie boarding. He loves the water but isn't too sure if he can trust the boogie board yet. We are making progress.

We survived the week and today is suppose to be the last day of the heat wave so hopefully the forecast is right! Thanks goodness for fun, free and cool escapes. Hopefully we will be baking pumpkin bread and busting out the long sleeves soon!

Just a side note: Remember number three on my list of things to accomplish before little brother comes? I think we somehow did it! Matt commented today he that he doesn't remember the last time he saw Crew sucking his thumb. Hopefully it sticks!