Our Week in Carlsbad

One week has already passed since we were in Carlsbad, CA.  I am pretty sure the week we spent there was much shorter than an average week.  I think Vacation Time is unfairly faster than Real Life Time.  Maybe 15 seconds per minute instead of the usual 60.

We had a great time.  The weather was not what I was looking forward to, but the kids didn't mind.  It was pretty chilly and overcast almost the whole time.  Sunday was beautiful.  In the morning we went to church and experienced the strangest Fast and Testimony meeting I had ever been to.  I asked the couple sitting next to me if they were visiting or if they were in the ward.  They said they were in the ward and that they had never seen that either.  The wife's dad is the bishop, but he was out of town.  The husband said that he texted his father -in-law to let him know that his Sacrament meeting had been hijacked.  After we checked out of our hotel, we had some time to kill before we could check into the camp ground.  We set up camp and enjoyed our friends.  Monday was drizzly and cold, and the kids and Steve went boogie boarding.  I sat on a beach chair wearing all of my clothes and a jacket, holding Amelia to keep warm.  Yes, I don't like to be cold.  Yes, I was using my baby as a heater.  Tuesday was the same.  Wednesday we decided to take a break from the beach.  We  went to the Birch Aquarium at UCSD.  It was so much fun.  I loved seeing the kids reactions to the different types of animals.  Michael fell in love with the octopus.  We saw a few cast members from Finding Nemo, and we saw some sharks.  The kids were able to go to the touch touch tank and feel starfish, sea cucumbers, anemone and other things that I can't remember.  After that, we had lunch at Chili's.  The waitress was so nice, she gave us all four kid's meals for free.  We went back to the campground and organized our things to take to the fireworks show.  We went to the show and listened to some fun music.  The town we went to,Vista, has a teen princess each year.  She and her court are so nice.  They are so kind to all the little girls there.  Amy was so excited to dance with a "real" princess.  The fireworks were touching.  I always tear up a little.  I am so grateful to live in this country.  Thursday, I went in the water once.  I was a little nervous because there was a shark sighting 20 miles down the beach, and there were a lot of jellyfish lurking around.  A lot of people were stung, and a lot of jellyfish were caught.  Friday, the weather finally cleared up.  In the evening I went boogie boarding, finally.  I had so much fun the whole week.  I told Tommy that I have fun by watching them have fun.  He didn't believe me, but it is true.   I enjoy watching my kids being kids.  Saturday we were blessed with a dead car battery while we were packing up to come home.  I am so grateful that we had the problem before we left town so that we could take care of it before we were in El Centro or some other hot, and terrible place.  We didn't pulled in the drive at 7:30pm.  We were exhausted and the house was a disaster.  Honestly, I'm still catching up on the house work and unpacking.

Here are a lot of pictures from the trip.