California Dreaming: February Fun

Feb 1st was a wonderful day…..Shane and Nikelle came to stay for a week. My cousins Tim and Andrea ( from WI) came for the weekend after being in Vegas for work. Then Nikelle's parents, Randy & Brenda( from CO) joined us for an extended weekend. Finally, Nikelle's sister Summer & Mike (hubby) joined us from N. CA.
Saturday we went on a whale watching trip out of Dana Point. It was a slow day for whale viewing but a few made their appearance at the end of the trip. Overcast day but fun with family!
I guess if you live in S. Cali long enough you will run into celebrities. I probably have seen some without recognizing them! Summer was the star stalker of this trip…. that man in the photo below is Joel David Moore- he is a character in the TV series "Bones". He seemed to be too busy romancing the girl to watch for whales!

Andrea and Tim

Family bonding on the ocean:)

Saturday supper on the patio. Apparently once you have lived here long enough you no longer eat outside on chilly nights…. wimps! We fired up the 2 patio heaters and the fire pit and partied!

Nikelle, Shane, Mike, Summer, Randy&Brenda

The Garners minus 1. Missed you Tristan!

Cousins

Poor Dave had to work so I took the kids to the zoo. We rushed to the panda exhibit first since Mom and 6 month old baby were on display only form 9-12. Well as you can see they were snoozing!

This polar bear was very entertaining. He was trying to kill and drown this barrel- after multiple attempts he gave up.

Nikelle and I rushed back to the panda exhibit for one last look. We got to see this little guy try to climb down the tree and fall off the branch! He does this a lot and was unfazed. Then he hung out in the flowers. He is the 6th cub from that 1 panda mom. The most successful breeding program ever. Kind of tricky since mama is only fertile 1-3 days per YEAR.

Post lunch napping. I love the close up of the hand. At first I wondered why they were so close to the glass… well there are heat lamps only by the viewing area. Very clever!

Madelyn was cute too. There are 21 Galapagos turtles at that zoo. Many of them were brought there in 1928. They figure they are between 100-150 years old. They move verrrrrry slowly. You would move slowly also if your heart only beats 6 times per minute!

Taking the cheetah for a stroll. What a pretty kitty!

No this is not a zebra. This is Shane trying to stay warm in our cold CA house. Those tile floors on the slab are chilly.

Shane at the beach. Please pardon these photos- they are out of order and I don't feel like messing with them!

The hike near our house. the back side of the mountain had a view of lavender fields. We smelled them before we saw them. At first, Nikelle thought she smelled french fries- what! Must have been wishful thinking ;)