Lake Arrowhead

 I do my most impulsive spending when I'm mad at Joel, as if I'm going to teach him a lesson by spending all our money.  I'm always too practical to do too much damage though.  A week before we went to Lake Arrowhead Joel was in Philadelphia for business and he had just told me that he was at the Museum that had the steps that Rocky ran up in the Rocky movies ... and he didn't even run up the steps!!  I just felt like he didn't appreciate where he was.  So I got angry and booked us a two night stay in Lake Arrowhead at an airbnb condo-type place.  Also we haven't taken many trips since we've been married and we, especially me, needed to GET AWAY.  It wasn't too expensive and it put us up in the San Bernardino Mountains where we could have some space to ourselves and some fresh air.

Oskar loved our "new house" and keeps asking to go back there.  It had two queen beds, one in a bedroom and one in a loft, a kitchen, and a TV with Netflix.  It was nice enough for what we paid for it.  The biggest problem was in my haste to leave I forgot to bring any toys so Oskar, who already has hyperactive tendencies, was so excited and had nothing to play with except the furniture, kitchen appliances, balcony, fireplace, and everything else that was not a toy.  Around this point in our "vacation" we learned that traveling with kids will never be a vacation. 

The view from the balcony.

Our first morning we went on a hike to Heart Rock.  Oskar likes to draw in the dirt like Jesus did.

At the end of the hike was a small waterfall and a heart carved into the rocks.  We did a lot of climbing around on the rocks and it was mostly fun with a bit of danger.  Oskar loved playing in the water and throwing rocks and climbing around.

Communing with nature

The place we were staying also had a swimming pool and a hot tub.  I couldn't wait to get Ivy in her swimsuit, SO CUTE.

The second day we forgot the camera and my phone died so we didn't get any more pictures but we went on another hike and explored the Lake Arrowhead Village before we left.  They were having as sale at the leather store so Joel got a nice new jacket.  The Village was fun and the lake was very pretty but there were so many people I didn't really enjoy it as much as I could have.  And the lake was private so only the people who had houses on the lake could use it.  SO DUMB.  It was really nice to get away and it made me realize once again that I really want to live in a small place so I can do whatever I want, my kids can go wherever they want, and other people won't bother us or tell us we can't swim in the lake!