Lake Arrowhead! Days 1 and 2

I WILL get a post out today!!!  I tell ya, this week has been crazy!  And to make things more difficult, I'm having trouble getting my photos off my phone to the computer...actually I'm having trouble doing a lot of things with my phone...my poor phone...it's seen better days.  

So yeah, we squeezed in a last minute trip to Lake Arrowhead last week.

 Road Trip!!

We were motivated to make this trip happen because my brother bought a house in Big Bear (about 25 miles away from Lake Arrowhead) this summer and I've been super anxious to see his new place!  He's starting a new job as the high school art teacher in Big Bear this year...we are all super excited for him!!  He's been teaching art in Lynwood  for the past several years but everything about this guy says mountains...he hunts, he hikes, he skis, he mountain bikes...he's pretty much in his element in the mountains.  And his new house is perfect for him!!  I just love it!!

So of course on our first day (which happened to be Haley's birthday!) we drove to Big Bear and spent the day there.

Andrew and his dog Levi in front of his new house.

 We decided to take the kids to Big Bear Lake to swim for the afternoon.

 Morgan had been DYING to go fishing for months, so Andrew and my other brother, Matt, took her out on the canoe (oh yeah, Andrew has a canoe too...see what I mean...Big Bear is his town!)  Unfortunately, she wasn't able to catch anything but she still had fun.

We went back to Andrew's house to celebrate Haley's 11th birthday!

BBQ, cake and presents...perfect!

By the way, I can't believe she's 11...she's growing up...and I'm getting old...sniff, sniff.

 The next day my mom, Ryan and I took the girls to the Lake Arrowhead village.  I think it's about 2 mile hike to get there...maybe...I'm not really sure.  But I have fond memories of my brothers and I hiking to the village when we were kids.  It's pretty much a given that you have to hike to the village at least once during a Lake Arrowhead visit.

And of course nothing is complete without a picture of Rory napping somewhere weird.

Apparently, the hike was a little much for her...on the way back she hit the wall.

Hopefully, I can get the rest of the trip documented in due time.

School starts next week and I feel like I'm scrambling to get everything ready and squeeze in last minute summer outings with the kids.

Happy Wednesday ya'll!!