Family time with the grandsons in the OC

May 23-26, 2013
Orange, California
Orangeland RV Park



Our annual trip westward takes us to Southern California to spend time with Vic’s son and daughter and our five grandkids. First stop is in Orange County to visit his daughter’s family with three grandsons, ages 9, 6, and 4. Challenge number one is finding a decent RV park close to their home in Yorba Linda.  Last year, we stayed at a park about eight miles from their home, Canyon RV Park, which was once a county park but is now privately run. It is in quite a lovely setting with one major exception: many of the sites are almost directly under the freeway. Noise doesn’t usually bother us, but this was one exception. So, this year we chose to stay a little further away at the Orangeland RV Park, a private park that used to be an orange grove a hundred years ago. The cool thing is they kept many citrus trees throughout the park and campers are invited to pick to their heart’s content. If you don’t like picking, the office keeps full bins of fruit available for guests to take.  We are about ten minutes further from the kids, but this park has better amenities for us all to enjoy: miniature golf, shuffleboard, heated pool and spa, and two dog parks all for about the same price.





After a three to four hour drive from Barstow, California, we arrived before noon and checked into the very full park due to the Memorial Day weekend.  After getting settled, let the games begin. Our oldest grandson, age 9, was in a baseball playoff game at 5 p.m. We were thrilled to be able to watch one of his games before the season ended. Of course, the other two boys wore their baseball team outfits and played around in the park while their brother was playing.  Meet the boys:

Playing third baseman, Luke looks to the outfield for a throw to get the runner out on third.

At bat, Luke gets a solid hit but it was a fly ball that was caught.

Nate goofs around with a plastic bat and soft baseball that they brought along to play with in the park.

 

Four-year-old Tyler runs the pinecone bases he set up for his own game on the sidelines.

The Red Sox lost the game 7:6 with an exciting last inning. The good news is that they were ranked higher than the other team, so both teams earned a spot in the city tournament next week.  Meanwhile, summer basketball season for the two older boys starts next week as well. With three athletic boys, my step-daughter is in her early stages of carting kids to practice and cheering on the boys in their various sports teams.




On Friday, Grandma and Grandpa took advantage of a day to take it easy around the motorhome while the boys were in school. After school, it was pool time at their house before having burgers on the grill. 





On Saturday, my step-daughter, Mindy, flew to New York for a five-day vacation in New York City with her best friend from high school. We offered to be here during this time to help out with the kids so she could enjoy her first break in nine years. We brought the boys to the RV Park for the day where they could swim and, most importantly, help Grandpa pick oranges and make fresh-squeezed juice for our picnic lunchtime together.






It has been nearly a year since we have been together—much too long a time to not be more a part of their lives. We have high hopes of getting the family to Florida next winter (Mindy, are you reading this?) or we may just take a flight back to California for the holidays. Such are the challenges of choreographing a full-time RVing lifestyle. The good news is we have the rest of this week here, another week later in June, and another week at a lovely campground in Oregon in July with the boys and their parents.