This year, the coming of spring was ushered in by bursts of blooming flowers, rapidly growing children, and the beginning of a very intense work/school/travel schedule that will last the entire season. When unexpected rain forced us to cancel a Santa Cruz beach camping trip, we decided to spend the weekend amongst friends. More like family than friends, we took it easy around the neighborhood, ate, putzed, and talked. While the dads had a rock climbing man-date we all saw the new Beauty and the Beast movie.
We decided to extend the weekend in Monterey to take advantage of our membership to the aquarium. We booked a last minute reservation to our favorite motel and hopped straight into the jacuzzi. The boys rarely stay in hotels so they delighted in the TV in the bedroom and the in-room hot cocoa.
The advantage of a membership is that we can get in early and leave as soon as everyone else's annoying kids overrun the place. Our first stop is always the Open Sea to see the sardine tank and our favorite animal, the hammerhead shark.
Our family can't just walk past a beach like all the other tourists, so here we are getting our feet wet. If my car is full of sand I can rest assured my kids are having a fun childhood.
The following weekend we jetted off to South Lake Tahoe for a Mangosing family trip. It was our first time to the lake in many years, and it was for a momentous occasion: my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. A big highlight was watching my boys play poker and bet M&Ms against my dad. Not one to go easy on kids in competition, Lolo cleaned house leaving the kids begging for another chance to win back their loot.
March also brought on a new job for me, and the start of an 18 month-long test preparation period that's looking like a marathon that ends in an intense sprint. As the days and weeks fly by filled with the busy work of raising kids and building my career, I find it even more important to break the routine and infuse my life with fun, even if it makes more work.
