A Glimpse at Balboa

We headed down to the Balboa House again this year.  But as the children have become busier with their own lives, it has become more difficult to go as a family down to the house.  So this year, it was a short, but very sweet trip.
The whole family headed down on Saturday afternoon.  We arrived just in time for Maddie and Patrick to go around the island on the kayaks before darkness set in.  Maddie always likes to go around the island, so it was very important that she went!
Sunday we tried to do as many things possible.  We played games in the morning.  Patrick introduced us to scrabble.  Allie really enjoyed playing it and continued playing by herself for the remainder of our time down there.  She had some very interesting words during her own games!
We went to church.  That was one of the biggest sacrament meetings that I have ever attended.  We arrived were barely able to snag some seats in the back.  More people poured in and they continued setting up chairs until the entire cultural hall was filled!  After church, we took a quick look at the temple.

We went for our traditional Sunday afternoon walk around the island, although this year we walked all the way around the island, we usually skip the west side of the island since it is crowded with shops.
After dinner we walked down to the beach to eat ice cream.  That is our new Balboa tradition.  Since we seem to be there on Sunday's, buying ice cream on Saturday, then eating on the beach is a better tradition for us.  Then it was time for Jeff, Maddie, Patrick and Jayd to head home.  It was a quick little family day, but with work and other activities, that was all that we were able to do.
Allie, Gabe and I spent another two days at the house.  We had a very relaxing time.  We went to the beach, swam in the harbor, went on the kayaks, rode bikes around the island, built sand castles, and played lots of video games!  It was very nice to just do things as they came without a schedule.