Price House Tour

This is the Price House. It's a ranch, so that makes it tough to photograph to its fullest potential for me, sorry. It is very pretty in person. The house is long and curvy and wide in the middle. Sorta like a snake that swallowed a mouse. The mouse would be their living and dining room set parallel to a sun room on the back of the house. The avocado grove and a stand of banana trees hug their house from behind. With that said, the bamboo and lechee nuts kiss it's backside. It was a very relaxing space to spend time in.

The front of the house and down to the road is full of grapefruit, orange, tangerine, and lemon trees. We just learned that the lemons will be in season all year! Hip, Hip, Hurray for Lemonade!

Millie took this shot of the bamboo blowing in the wind.

Lucas Tate being a sweetie picking flowers for his Mom.

Along with the bananas, some plantains have been planted.
Trent wants to cook these up for us!

Lychee nut - one of my favorites!
My girlfriend Annabelle introduced me to these years ago while I was living in Baltimore, Maryland.

Hugo and Emry had a real problem leaving the fruit alone. They wanted to pick and pick. The trouble with preschoolish aged fruit pickers is that they don't realize, or listen, to the fact that the branches need to remain with the tree. Leaves too. They were a little too enthusiastic.

Here Millie is receiving a lesson from the grove manager Salvador regarding what was in season and where and how to pick. He took us on a little hike around down and through the trees. Something interesting that we learned is that the grove boasts a few trees which produce large, beautiful avocados. The interesting part is that these trees are scheduled to be uprooted and removed to be replaced by the smaller fruit producing kind. Seems that we Americans prefer our avocados on the petite side. Salvador had marked a few of these trees and invited us to take as much of the fruit as possible. Millie has been sharing with her friends and Trent has been taking bags of their fruit spoils into the hospital to share.

View of pretty horse stables to the left of the grove.

Many of the fields around them are nurseries full of palms, cacti, succulents and other beautiful plants to landscape yards and commercial sites with.

The crop in the lower field was strawberries. Fresh strawberries! They were already coloring up beautifully. I wanted to hop out of our car and gorge myself on their freshness. Millie locked the doors and sped up.

This white box up in the tree top is an owl house. Salvador told us that owls only live in it while they mate and raise their young. This tree is next to the garage and Millie was dive bombed by an owl as she came home late last night. She wants to set up her camera nearby and hope for something National Geographic like to happen. Good luck!

Another tractor for Hugo to admire away from home.

Chilies - we aren't sure if these belong to the grove or Salvador or Trent's tummy...

The front porch.

Passion fruit grows up a property dividing fence near the garage. This is another trouble spot for Miss Emry. She loves to pick passion fruit. She also likes to tell us how delicious they are. She also like to hand out advice on how to enjoy them, "All you do is cut the top off and then suck out the juice!"

Hope you enjoyed the house tour!

Pacific View

Millie drove us to the beach her family frequents the most at Camp Pendelton in Oceanside, CA. Very odd experience. Beautiful nonetheless. She just moved off base to a new home which is set up on a hillside surrounded by an avocado grove. More photos and talk of her home to come. We gathered up the kids and headed for the beach today. The only problem was that Millie wasn't sure of the new route to the water. Plus there was a lot of traffic. The kids were antsy but Millie was prepared and popped a movie in. About 40 minutes later we found the beach. Cesar will be proud of me because I used my iPhone for directions, I remembered how Hon!

We had the beach to ourselves. It was late in the day but still beautiful and only a little chilly when the wind blew. The kids were sad that we forgot the kites at home. We also drove off without their treasure bags and sand toys. In seconds their disappointment with us vanished as they began to run this way and that. Hugo took one look at the dunes and water before us and said, "Wow, cool!" and took off running after Emry.

Millie said that the Marines patrol the beach with loaded guns. Hmmmm - I thought. I wasn't quite sure how I felt about that. We didn't see any gun toting and patrolling Marines. Millie also told me that she has been driving to the beach while Marines were hiding behind the scrub brush bushes using her van full of kiddies as pretend target practice. That would take some getting used to. I did like all the saluting that happened to our car because of Trent's officer status. That was kinda fun!

Millie shot this photo of Hugo and I playing in the water. This was Hugo's first time visiting the Pacific Ocean. He has so many firsts ahead of him yet. Sometimes it is hard to remember that being out of the baby stage, where so many firsts are so clearly marked and watched for, he does still have much to experience. What a wonderful gift it is to be a parent and have this opportunity to see and experience life though fresh eyes and with new excitement. Hugo has been to 14 states and Canada and counting! His Poppa has an old globe on his bedside table with pins stuck into the locations of his travels. I wonder if Hugo will inherit that globe and its promise of travel, wonder, knowledge and greater understanding of the world and its people with it.

Miss Carly - aka CC (Cranky Carly) had been a little snuggly dream. I think Millie lies and Trent is just plain mean. She loves to cuddle and carry around Emry's Polly Pockets. Tonight Millie and Trent ran to Costco alone and I put the kids down. Hugo, Emry and Lucas were all little pills and would not listen. I heard all the excuses and a few new ones which I hope Hugo didn't catch onto. Carly was perfect though. Lucas, Emry and Carly are all sharing a room since Hugo and I have taken over Luke's room. As I opened their door the first time ready to hear the excuses before I requested silence, I spied Miss Carley sitting up in her bed. Now, Millie had put her to bed before she left, what was she doing awake? and how hard would she be to put back to sleep?? Carly took one look at me and *flump!* she was down flat on her tummy in .5 seconds flat! Wow, good girl Carly! And so it went. I was in and out of the sibling room and Luke's for what seemed forever. I stood bedtime sentry in the middle of the hall, not fun. Each time I entered the siblings room all I had to say was, "Lay down Carly!" and *flump* it really did sound like that! *flump*, she was down flat. Best one out of the whole lot she was. Millie had a sneaking feeling of what might be up while she was out running childless with her hubby. She entered the living room Toblerone first, good sister.

This slide at the beach was a major hit. They went down on their bums. They went down on their tummies. The boots were ditched and the climbing up backwards began. But climbing up backwards was too slow for those who decided instead to run around to the steps and climbed up to the top. 1, 2, 3, 4 who loves the slide more?

This pic reminds me of a photo I took of Cesar years ago while he stood in front of a magical quilt in the City. It was made of all little pieces of different shades of colors but mainly blues and greens. Cesar had this same happy, wide eyed face and out stretched hands spread over two orbs of colored patchwork. My boys.









Luke was Hugo's idol on the swings. Hugo couldn't get enough of him. Big smiles all the way.


Luke has been very sweet and patient sharing his toys. Emry and Carly are very lucky to have a big brother like Lukas.

Time to return to the van and head home.
Hugo doesn't mind
that playtime at the beach is done.
His wish has been granted
he gets to travel by van,
with kids,
for the next two weeks!