It is summer and the kids are out of school. We need to build activity into their days or it is too easy to settle in to a lazy summer and watch too much TV and play more video games than is good for them. We have Tennis Tuesday every week, and go swimming at…
Having grown up in Southern California, I fell in love with snorkeling when I was a kid. I probably snorkeled for the first time in Hawaii, but I didn’t fall in love with it until later when I was older and we went snorkeling at La Jolla Cove in San Diego. La Jolla Cove is…
The summer started out a bit difficult because I didn’t have a job set yet, so I was unsure what my schedule would be. It is hard to plan when you don’t know. Then we went on vacation to Yosemite, and we all got sick. That took us down for a week or two. I…
Well since this blog is called Smart Mommy Solutions, I thought that maybe I might post a solution that I just implemented. When my son leaves the bathroom after taking a shower, the bath mat is soaked, and the bathroom floor is really wet. He can’t seem to keep the water from getting past the…
We went for a great camping trip in the desert over the weekend. We went to the Anza Borrego State Park, and went for a hike up Palm Canyon to an oasis that is up the canyon. The oasis is really cool because you start the hike in dry desert where you can’t imagine there…
I have been trying for a while to get a good dragonfly picture, but those little guys are fast. Most of the shots I get are blurry or they are too fast and are out of the shot before I get a chance to take the picture. I finally got a chance to get my…
My birthday is next week, and I found an awesome deal on a zoom lens for my camera. I found it at Target for only $99. It is a Canon EF 75-300mm zoom lens. Today I had my first chance to see how well it works. We were outside, and my daughter pointed out a…
We live in Southern California, and it is a rare treat to go on a hike to a waterfall. The start of this hike is at Lyttle Creek, near the 15/215 interchange, north of the 10. You have to cross the creek, and then cross over the rocks of the dry river bed. Then we…
Our annual trip to Yosemite Valley started out with me stressed from work. I was overwhelmed at work, and had to bring work with me on the long weekend trip, so I was not feeling the fun, rest and relaxation that I had hoped I would feel. The weather was beautiful and I did eventually…
I love animals and I really love getting to see animals that you don’t get to see every day. I was inspired by some pictures that I saw last summer, and made a goal to find and get pictures of a nesting bird of prey. Mind you, I never said that they had to be…
I have been trying to get a good picture of a spider web for a while. When I was out for a morning walk, I ran into this web. It was not easy to capture. I had to go back to the house and get a step stool and a water squirt bottle in order…